Touchdown Mania
from Manta Blog
Anemone overdose at Kranji
from wild shores of singapore
Rambling at Mandai
from Urban Forest
Beyond the murky waters of Changi
from wonderful creation
A wet junket
from The annotated budak
Marina grey
from The annotated budak
Black-collared Starling picks up earthworms
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Anglers break rules and go fishing at Lake View Promenade
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales
Monday Morgue: 6th July 2009
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales
Deirdre Moss looks back on the challenges she has had in the last 25 years defending animals
john lui, Straits Times 6 Jul 09;
Ms Deirdre Moss does not have any pets at home. As executive officer of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), she walks the talk.
She lives alone in a Bukit Timah condominium and, keeping true to one of the organisation's tenets, does not think it would be fair to have a pet when she is hardly at home.
'It's a huge responsibility and you have to be there for them a certain amount of time,' she says.
As the operational head of Singapore's largest and oldest animal charity for a quarter of a century, her name has become synonymous with all things fourfooted, feathered and furry, especially when they become public issues.
�That is when her letters, with their characteristically cool, dispassionate tone, appear in The Straits Times Forum pages. Over the years, she has written dozens of missives. She has spoken out against the killing of a mouse to advertise the dangers of nicotine, the abuse of dogs slaughtered for meat and a restaurant's use of a lobster-grabbing machine for sport, among other topics.
�And the Australian-born Singapore permanent resident has given her views in dozens of interviews. Recently, she has welcomed the scrapping of plans for a whale shark exhibit at Resorts World at Sentosa and spoken out on the cat poisonings in Bayshore Park.
�The tone of her letters is deliberate, she says. 'How are you going to sway people if you sound extreme to them?' she asks.
The interview takes place at her office in a building in Mount Vernon Road that has seen better days. Though clean and well-maintained, the furniture in the lobby and her office look to be of 1980s vintage.
Various SPCA posters are tacked on the walls of her small, neat office on the ground floor of the two-storey administration building. She has large, expressive eyes and some grey in her honey-streaked hair.
�In contrast to the official tone she adopts in print, an edge creeps into her Australian-accented voice when she talks about the callousness of animal abusers or about the cavalier attitude of those in the pet trade.
And when the questions stray to her personal life, she is visibly and audibly uncomfortable, but in an instant, she turns charmingly and effusively apologetic. She would rather talk about the work in the organisation, she says.
�Large swathes of her life are off-limits: Much of her childhood in Australia, her marriage in Singapore and subsequent divorce and whether she is seeing someone.
Those who know her speak of her as a private person who can appear reserved until she feels they have earned her trust.�
The field of animal activism has changed in the last decade. Partly in reaction to the SPCA and Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore's (AVA) policy of putting down their unwanted charges, small non-profit groups have formed to find other solutions to the problem of strays and unwanted pets. Advocacy, sterilisation and permanent rehousing are their preferred methods.
On the Internet, the SPCA and AVA in general, and sometimes Ms Moss in particular, have come under fire for using euthanasia. A former SPCA volunteer, who declined to be named, joined a 'no-kill' group, saying she left the SPCA because she felt the organisation was not doing enough to house and feed animals during their natural lifespan.
She has in the past welcomed the rise of these welfare groups, but she sounds upset and also weary when the accusations are put to her, such as the one that the SPCA conducts a stray animal elimination service.
'I want to make it clear that it is not the SPCA's job to round up strays,' she says. It will go out to rescue animals in distress, but not hunt down healthy strays, she adds. The group also counsels those surrendering animals to make sure they know the consequences of turning them in and asks if they have exhausted all alternatives.
She also points out that the shelter takes in between 600 and 1,000 animals a month, with only between 10 and 20 per cent being adopted by new owners.
If it were to permanently house the rest of the animals, it would have to start turning others away.
'If we were to say, 'We're full up, we don't have space', a lot of animals will probably get dumped in the streets,' she says.
Today, the SPCA's shelter houses up to 170 animals at a time, comprising mainly dogs, cats and small animals such as guinea pigs, hamsters and rabbits.
She adds that putting resources into life-time animal housing sends the wrong message that the SPCA is the first resort for those who want to be rid of their pets, rather than the last.
But the issue which draws much of her ire is that of Singaporeans who buy, then dump pets. There is a clear exasperation in her voice when she talks about those who breed and sell pets indiscriminately, and those who buy them, only to give them up afterwards.
�'More pet shops have sprouted up and there is more commercial breeding. For a small island, we have tons of pet shops and breeders. Pets are too easy to buy. That's why they are consumer items, like furniture.'
Out of over 100 dogs surrendered or taken in by SPCA last month, only 31 were adopted. Those not adopted had to be put down to make way for fresh intake.
It is a dispiriting task - taking in unwanted animals and putting them down. It would be easy for Ms Moss to feel sorry for herself. 'But I have to cope because if I don't do it, who else will?'
A friend, Ms Deborah Barker, a lawyer in her 50s, says that her job is 'stressful'.
'The SPCA makes the practical decision to put down some animals. Then they are exposed to extreme animal rights groups who condemn them on the Internet,' she says.
Ms Barker's sister, Carla, is vice-chairman of the SPCA's management committee.
As the public face of the organisation in Singapore, Ms Moss is easily the target of criticism, but she rolls with the punches, adds Ms Barker.
'She has strong feeling about it, but I don't think she lets it overwhelm her. She could not carry on if she did.'
Ms Mary Soo, 62, chairman of the SPCA, has known Ms Moss for 25 years and is aware of how resourceful she can be when championing the cause of animals. Recently, Ms Soo was told that a small cat was trapped in a locked, abandoned house in a zone slated for redevelopment. The cat lovers who found it had turned to the authorities, but nothing could be done as the home was private property and no one knew who the owners were.
When Ms Moss was told of the situation, she tracked down the contractor even though it was a weekend and got him to free the cat.
�'The cat's feeders were so happy that it was freed,' says Ms Soo.
There are now 14 members of staff at the shelter arm. Ms Moss imagines that if government policy and responsible pet owning behaviour were to suddenly be in place to reduce the burden on the shelter, the SPCA could re-allocate staff and resources to its core mission of promoting kindness through education and reducing suffering through sterilisation, investigation and rescues.
'What a dream that would be,' she says, smiling.
When she is not working, she unwinds with friends over dinner and also swims and watches videos. The Catholic goes to mass on Sundays and sometimes on weekdays.
There was little in her early life to indicate that she would turn out to be an articulate defender of animals and an organisation's leader.
She was born to Johannah O'Neill, who had migrated to Australia from Ireland, and Eurasian-Singaporean Denis D'Cotta. Mr Justice D'Cotta, one of the more prominent members of Singapore's Eurasian community, rose to the post of High Court judge in 1970 and retired in 1981. He died in 1983 in Melbourne, where he had been living since retirement. Her mother, a psychiatric nurse, died in 1999.
Ms Moss has one brother, Denis Jr, who is a year older, living in Brisbane where he is a ship chartering manager for a major grain trading house in Australia.
She attended several schools around Australia before doing her A levels in English, French, music and Bible studies at a boarding school for girls, Presentation Convent, in Melbourne. She got married, came to Singapore and worked at various jobs before volunteering at the SPCA in 1983, driven by her love of animals.
'I liked it. I had a real purpose in life,' she says.
�She found her niche and was soon volunteering almost every day as a receptionist at the veterinary clinic.
Her dedication was noticed and she was offered a spot on the management committee. After the former head left for England, she was offered the top job in 1984.
In her first year, there were 10 full-time employees. Today there are 34. Its 11-person management committee used to be dominated by expatriates but now the team is overwhelmingly Singaporean. The society is a registered charity and raised $2.36 million last year, mainly from public donations.
The lease on its roughly 0.37ha plot in Mount Vernon Road, allocated by the government at a nominal rent when the organisation moved out of its Orchard Road premises in 1984, will expire in 2012. The group is looking for a new site and would have to pay for the construction cost and lease.
The costs, which will run into the millions, will use up much of the reserves which the group has been setting aside for the purpose.
After being with the SPCA for more than 20 years, Ms Moss admits she has not given much thought to what she will do after retirement. She still holds Australian citizenship. She may move back to Australia or remain here if she finds a new job.
'I love Asia. I think my heart is more here than anywhere else.'
The time is drawing near for a new executive officer, she acknowledges. While she is happy that the organisation is satisfied enough with her performance to have kept her on as an employee for such a long period, she would be pleased if her successor was found before the move to the new building.
'The days are flying by,' she says. No successor has yet been named, but the group is actively looking.
'It would be time, it would definitely be time,' she says of the leadership change.
'Some might say 25 years is too long already and she should be out of there. And I would not argue with that. I would not argue with that at all,' she says with a laugh.
Lin Yan Qin, TODAY Channelnews Asia 6 Jul 09;
SINGAPORE: More of Singapore's youths would volunteer, if their friends did so as well.
A survey by the National University of Singapore's NUS Volunteer Network and the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy found that more than seven in 10 of the 3,143 undergraduates surveyed would take part in volunteering opportunities in NUS if more friends took part too.
Most volunteers also usually volunteer with friends, or with fellow volunteers they meet through the activity.
According to the survey, the "findings reveal the social dimension of volunteering and the important role that it plays in volunteerism. Many undergraduates want to volunteer but there is an initial inertia due to unfamiliarity, which can be overcome if they had the support of friends and family".
The findings also showed that three in 10 NUS undergraduates currently volunteer – a rate that is almost double the national average of 16.9 per cent.
As for the top three factors that made volunteering unsatisfying, they include a lack of organisation in the activities, inadequate training, and feeling of boredom and loss of interest in their volunteer work.
And while four in 10 supported the Community Involvement Programme in schools, a similar number (40.1 per cent) also felt the activities students engage in lacked the essence of community service.
The inaugural survey was conducted in May, and included Singapore citizens, Permanent Residents and foreign students - except those who were here on exchange programmes.
NUS Undergraduate Volunteerism and Social Giving Survey
Lin Yan Qin Today Online 6 Jul 09;
- 3 in 10 undergraduates volunteered at least once in the past 12 months
- 4 in 10 have volunteered before (excluding compulsory Community Involvement Programme)
- 6 in 10 were aware of the various volunteering opportunities in NUS
- Nearly half felt community service was best left to personal interest, rather than made a compulsory part of university curriculum
- Slightly over half (51.0 per cent) would consider working in the non-profit sector
- More than 9 in 10 are open to volunteering after graduation
Joshua Ho, Straits Times 6 Jul 09;
GLOBAL warming due to greenhouse gas accumulations, if expected to be severe worldwide, will be even more keenly felt in the Arctic regions.
The warming predicted by the climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the Arctic over the next 50 years is more than twice the global average and the Arctic will be where the most rapid and dramatic changes will occur during the 21st century.
Already observations confirm that the air temperature has increased at double the rate of the global average over the last 100 years, with the total ice extent decreasing at a rate of 3 per cent to 5 percent per decade.
The Northern Sea Route has never been ice-free, even during the summer months, to allow for significant maritime transportation.
However, the maritime activities along the Northern Sea Route have increased over the last two years. Previously, no non-Russian ships traversed the Northern Sea Route along the Siberian coast.
Now merchant, research and expedition vessels have journeyed through the Northern Sea Route during the summer seasons since 2004 and this volume is set to increase.
The activities seem to indicate that the trans-Arctic passage may open up much quicker than expected. For example, last year, the Arctic Ocean experienced for the first time ever an ice-free and navigable Northern Sea Route along the Siberian coast and suggests that future ice-free passages during the summer months along the Siberian coast is highly likely. Satellite photos seem to also highlight this possibility.
Despite this evidence, current estimates are conservative and tend to vary as to when the Arctic is likely to be ice free during the summer.
For example, the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment assesses that transit traffic in the Northern Sea Route may be more regular from around 2025 and that regular trans-polar summer transport (four months) may not occur until towards the middle of this century, that is, from 2040 onward.
The National Snow and Ice Data Centre in the United States is even more conservative in suggesting a seasonally ice-free Arctic by 2060.
Despite this prognosis, some Norwegian shipping companies have already embarked on studies which are expected to be completed soon this year on the business cases for trans-Artic shipping.
The size of ships being examined include 100,000 tonne LNG carriers and up to 5,000 TEU container ships for deployment by 2015. The Japanese have also examined ports that can serve as possible hub ports in northern Japan.
Both seem to indicate an earlier ice-free passage via the Northern Sea Route. The US National Intelligence Council, in its study on Global Trends 2025, has suggested that the date for a seasonally ice-free Arctic could even be as soon as 2013.
If this is so, tremendous shipping benefits would accrue as transiting the Northern Sea Route above Russia between the North Atlantic and the North Pacific would trim about 5,000 nautical miles and a week's sailing time compared with the use of the Suez Canal and through the Malacca Strait.
This may have an adverse impact on existing regional hub ports like Singapore which sits astride the main east-west transportation thoroughfare and is a major regional transshipment port.
If container ships use the Northern Sea Route, it would make more sense to stop at new or existing ports in Northeast Asia and use these ports as transshipment centres to the South-east Asian region, instead of the port of Singapore.
Some possible ports that could be used in such a manner in North-east Asia may include Hong Kong, Shanghai, or a Japanese port. If this were to occur, the container volumes handled by the port of Singapore may decrease for four months of the year.
Despite the fact that a 'blue' Arctic Ocean is predicted in summertime (four months) to occur from the middle of this century, current rates of warming indicate that this may occur much earlier.
However, even before trans-polar navigation is realised, routes along the coast of Siberia will be navigable much earlier. Already there are plans to build trans-Arctic ships and plans for hub port development in North-east Asia that will take advantage of this ice-free passage.
Such plans indicate that the Northern Sea Route may be opened up for ice-free passage as early as 2013, given current accelerated rates of global warming.
The opening up of the Northern Sea Route will have an adverse impact on the operations of current regional hub ports.
It will also have an impact on the profitability of the current liners operating between Europe and Asia. Both liner and terminal operators, including those in South-east Asia, will have to factor the early opening of the Northern Sea Route into their plans if they are not to be caught off guard.
The writer is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, and coordinator of the Maritime Security Programme. He has 22 years of service in the Republic of Singapore Navy.
Straits Times Forum 6 Jul 09;
I REFER to Mr David Boey's letter last Thursday, 'Technology still costlier'. Mr Boey noted, quite correctly, that obtaining potable water from waste water or sea water is more costly than importing rainwater from across the Causeway.
He suggested that 'it probably makes more economic and environmental sense for both countries if we buy such surplus water from Malaysia'. He added that 'the price can be much lower if the quantity offered to us is not fixed over an extended period, but is allowed to vary from time to time, so it is really water that is surplus to Johor's needs'.
His proposal assumes many things: that Malaysia will always have a surplus of water; that the definition of surplus will never be open to interpretation; that Singapore can easily find alternative overseas supplies at the drop of a hat (or the fall of a droplet).
Furthermore, by Mr Boey's own logic of cold economic rationality, a seller would charge as much as the buyer can bear. The price of surplus water would be far higher than he claims.
Economics aside, some politicians in Malaysia have opposed selling water to us, even when rainfall in Johor is plentiful. Others have used water to apply political pressure on us. Protracted bilateral negotiations from 1998 to 2002 failed to achieve a package deal on water and other issues.
Consequently, the membrane technology breakthrough that led to cost-effective Newater and desalination was of profound importance. It gave us self-sufficiency. We need not fear dying of thirst, regardless of the political climate in Malaysia.
Water technology will also be a strategic industry and beneficial to Singapore's economy in the coming decades: Water scarcity is likely to feature in the 21st century world, just as oil scarcity shaped the later part of the 20th century.
While recent progress in bilateral relations has been welcome, there may come a day when water is in profound shortage and a Malaysian leader has no surplus water to export. Singapore's self-sufficiency ensures that scarcity will not strain the bonds of bilateral friendship. It is also a bulwark against those who would use water to threaten or intimidate us in the future.
This insurance policy is worth buy-ing.
Dr Tan Wu Meng
Technology still costlier
Straits Times Forum 2 Jul 09;
I REFER to the report on Tuesday, 'Singapore firms score big with water tech deals'.
We may be pleased with the progress we have made - and continue to make - with waste-water reclamation and desalination, which enable us to reduce if not eliminate our dependence on rainfall and imported water. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that obtaining potable water from waste water or sea water is more costly than by conventional means, because of the extensive use of membranes and the energy intensity of the purification processes.
However, we need not incur this higher cost, at least for part of our water consumption. As long as the reservoirs in Johor collect more than enough water to satisfy Johor's own needs, and with our entitlement under existing water agreements, it probably makes more economic and environmental sense for both countries if we buy such surplus water from Malaysia. This will be particularly so when the 1961 water agreement expires in 2011, freeing 86 million gallons per day that Malaysia is obliged to supply to us until then.
Of course, both parties must be willing and the price must be right. The price needs to be lower than the lowest variable cost of producing our own water to a comparable level of purity by reclamation or desalination.
The price can be much lower if the quantity offered to us is not fixed over an extended period, but is allowed to vary from time to time, so it is really water that is surplus to Johor's needs.
We benefit from a lower cost of water and Malaysia benefits from realising some monetary value for a commodity it cannot harvest at the moment. It will not affect our overall trade balance, but it will improve Malaysia's. It will also reduce the impact on the environment.
This does not mean we should revert to being dependent, even partially, on imported water. We should, and must, continue to develop the infrastructure to reclaim and/or desalinate water, but we may want to use these facilities only to the extent that we cannot get imported water at a meaningfully lower cost than the variable cost of doing so ourselves.
David Boey
Make Singapore the water tech capital of the world
Straits Times Forum 7 Jul 09;
I REFER to Dr Tan Wu Meng's letter yesterday ('Technology is an insurance policy') and agree that investing in water technology is worthwhile over the long term, for both strategic and security reasons. One should also bear in mind that, observing global trends, investing in water technology has tremendous economic potential.
In the last century, globally, the rate of increase in water usage was about six times the rate of population growth. Currently, only 0.5 per cent of the earth's water is available for use by more than 6.7 billion people, and growing. (About 97 per cent is sea water, and 2.5 per cent is fresh water frozen in Antarctica, the Arctic and glaciers.)
Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation in countries like China, India, Russia and Brazil, and droughts or low rainfall in Africa and Australia, have increased the value of water so much and so quickly, some experts call it the 'new oil' of the 21st century.
Like building oil rigs and producing pharmaceuticals, water technology can become one of Singapore's niche areas of expertise.
If it develops the know-how to convert massive volumes of sea water to fresh water rapidly and cheaply, so unlocking access to the 97 per cent sea water, such technology can be exported worldwide to benefit mankind and enrich Singapore.
Transforming Singapore into the 'water capital' of the world could be quintessential in demonstrating how innovation can bring about prosperity.
Tay Xiong Sheng
The Jakarta Post 5 Jul 09;
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKB) predicted Sunday that the haze currently blanketing Riau province would likely move to nearby Singapore and Malaysia.
Rahmad Tauladani, an analyst at the agency's Riau office, noted that the wind was now changing direction and blowing the haze to the direction of Singapore and Malaysia.
"In near future, the haze from Riau will go to neighboring countries because the wind blows it to the east," Rahmad was quoted by Antara as saying.
He said the haze currently blanketing Pekanbaru, the provincial capital of Riau, came from Riau province itself, and some likely coming from other areas such as Jambi and South Sumatra.
Based on satellite images, the number of hotspots on Sumatra island -- an indication of forest fires -- dropped from 277 hotspots on Saturday to only 60 hotspots on Sunday.
The BMKG spotted eight hotspots in Riau province on Sunday, spreading in three regencies, i.e. Indragiri Hilir, Pelalawan and Indragiri Hulu.
Rahmad predicted that forest fires would continue to beset Riau because of low intensity of rains.
Smog Putting Airport in Riau at Risk
Jakarta Globe 5 Jul 09;
Authorities at the Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru, Riau, expressed concern that a smog caused by forest fires near the area would hamper day-to-day operations.
Ibnu Hasan, duty manager of the airport, said the haze began to affect visibility along the runway on Sunday morning. Visibility was reduced from 2,500 meters when the airport opened at 6 a.m. to merely 1,000 meters two hours later.
“If the haze continues to become thicker and the visibility drops below 1,000 meters, then based on aviation regulations, we have to shut down airport operations,” he said on Sunday.
That appeared to be the case in the afternoon when the airport closed the runway for two hours beginning at 1 p.m., forcing flights from Jakarta to divert to either Padang, West Sumatra or Medan in North Sumatra.
But despite the prevailing conditions, airport officials reopened operations after 3 p.m, allowing four flights to depart the airport and come in from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, according to Hasan.
Pekanbaru’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency, said that the smoky haze could be attributed to incidents of forest fire in Riau.
According to agency representative Ardhitama, the latest information provided via satellite showed 161 hot spots have spread throughout Riau.
“Those 161 hot spots were coming from nine areas in Riau,” Ardhitama said.
Most of the hotspots were located in Bengkalis district with 39, followed by Rokan Hulu district at 33, Pelalawan at 22, Siak at 20, Kampar at 13, Indragiri Hilir with 13, Rokan Hilir at 12, Indragiri Hulu at five and Dumai with four.
The agency estimated that the haze would remain because of the relative absence of wind.
Antara
Rasidah HAB Brunei Direct 6 Jul 09;
Bandar Seri Begawan - It is important that an environmental impact assessment be made into law to deal with projects that are likely to have a substantial effect on the environment, said an ecologist.
"This would ensure that development projects can be designed to realise their full benefits, whilst at the same time avoiding costly mistakes," said Dr Jonathan Davies, lead project executant of the Rehabilitation of Peat Swamp Forest project under the Heart of Borneo (HoB) initiative.
The HoB is an inter-government project supported by WWF (Worldwide Fund) which was officially launched in April 2006. With the sum port from the three Bornean governments - Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia - the initiative aims to preserve one of the most important centres of biological diversity in the world. It includes some 220,000 sq hats of equatorial forests and numerous wildlife species.
Dr Davies told The Brand Times that an important action for the conservation of high value ecosystems in Brunei would be to establish a more extensive network of protected areas.
"Although there have been many sensible recommendations for protected areas, only a few areas have been gazetted at present," he said in an email inter view," Likewise, the HoB supports the gazettement of the Belait Peat Swamp Forest Reserve, which would help ensure that the largest area of peatlands in Brunei would be conserved for the valuable services it provides and that sustainable forestry practices on the intact peatlands could benefit the nation he added.
He said the Rehabilitation Peat Swamp Forest project is concerned with rehabilitating degraded peat lands and conserving intact peatlands.
"The main reason for this it to reduce the risk of fire and haze during dry periods, reduce carbon emissions from degraded peatlands and to maintain the carbon-sequestering ability of the in tact peat lands," he added.
He said that this was seen as a first phase of a long-term project, which amen to create awareness on the importance and economic value of Brunei's peatlands and recognise the need for rehabilitation and conservation.
He further added that the first phase of the project is aimed to increase the capacity for peatlands management among relevant, agencies and to garner support for the rehabilitation of peatlands.
"We hope to get support and implement hydrological restoration and re-vegetation before the end of this project in September 2010," he said, adding that the important agency in this next phase of implementation will be Wetlands International-Indonesia, which rhas extensive practical experience in peatland rehabilitation in Central Kalimantan.
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They will also be working with agencies of other HoB countries file Malaysia and Indonesia. "We will be cooperating with agencies in Sarawak on the management of peatlands shared between Brunei and Miri and Limbang divisions of Sarawak, Malaysia," he added. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times
The Jakarta Post 6 Jul 09;
The development of the Thousand Islands’ tourist sector should focus on promoting its marine potential and personalized tourism experiences, a discussion recently concluded.
The discussion said the community should be put at the forefront of the development, which should include protecting the islands’ marine ecosystem.
Joko Prihatno, head of the Thousand Islands Marine Park, said the community-based ecosystem preservation would help residents reap consistent benefits from the islands.
“The commercial strength of this regency relies on its ecosystem. So, it is very important to continue urging people to stop exploiting the islands’ resources and involve them in the tourism services.”
Joko cited the park’s successful efforts in facilitating the establishment of dozens of reef plantations in Pulau Panggang subdistrict as an example. The effort, first initiated in 2002, has significantly reduced the exploitation of coral reefs in the area and successfully attracted hundreds of visitors who wanted to learn about reef planting every week.
“The plantations have also helped local fishermen increase their monthly earning almost threefold.”
The director of tourism products at the cultural and tourism ministry, Akhyaruddin, agreed with Joko’s views on the importance of intensifying interactions between the local people and the tourists, saying it would give the latter a memorable visiting experience.
“It will make tourists consider returning.”
The Thousand Islands, located 45 kilometers off the Jakarta coast, boasts a unique sea ecosystem, offering visitors various marine tourist activities, like diving, snorkeling, or staying in beach resorts.
Of the 110 islets in the area, 78 are currently under the conservation of the Thousand Islands Marine Park, which is responsible for protecting the coral reef ecosystems and endangered species, like hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) and bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), in the area.
Among the most famous islets are Pramuka for its raptors and Bidadari for family vacations or corporate meetings and getaways. These places can be reached by boat from Marina Ancol or Muara Angke Ports.
In the 1980s, the islands ranked third on a list of the world’s best islands.
However, since 1998, when the economic crisis hit the country, the number of tourists has dropped by more than 50 percent.
Of nine resorts on 45 islands, only five are still in business, while the remainder are dying, following declining occupancy rates.
In 2008, the regency contributed Rp 200 billion, or 13 percent, to Jakarta’s annual revenue from tourism sector, which was Rp 1.5 trillion.
Sahat Sitorus, head of the culture and tourism office in the regency, said the lack of infrastructure and transportation access as barriers for developing the area.
“The transportation to the regency is rare and expensive. With such conditions, most tourists, even those who live in Greater Jakarta, won’t prioritize visiting the islands.”
He also said a government policy that tourism industry in the regency had to consume non-subsidized fuel was another obstacle in attracting new investors. (hwa)
Thousand Island Park to launch research tourism
Jakarta Post 6 Jul 09;
JAKARTA: As a way to attract more tourists to the Thousand Islands Marine Park, the park operator plans to open a conserved islet to the public by next year.
The park head Djoko Prihatno said the opening of the islet, Penjaliran Timur, would give tourists, especially those who wanted to research ecosystems, more site options when visiting the islands.
"Some main islands, like Pramuka and Pulau Panggang, have been overpopulated and are difficult to develop further. So we have to offer a new place to visit for our tourists."
Djoko said the park will first build a research center facility and a port to facilitate the tourists who came to the islet.
The islet, located in the northern part of the 108,000-hectare park, is used to breed hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), one of the islands' endangered species.
To enter the islet, Djoko said the tourists had to obtain permission first from the park management.
"It will be one-day service, so they won't wait too long." - JP
Lenita Sulthani, Reuters 6 Jul 09;
JAKARTA (Reuters Life!) - In many areas of Jakarta, the air pollution is choking, what little green spaces there are wilting and garbage festers on street corners. And then there's Banjarsari, a green oasis on the outskirts of city.
The neighborhood was once yet another dirty, polluted suburb of Indonesia's congested capital.
But thanks to decades of work by environmental activist Harini Bambang Wahono, who promised herself to make Banjarsari clean and green when she moved there in 1983, recycling and tree-planting are now second-nature to most residents.
"What encouraged me to do this is my poor farming family background," Wahono, who hails from Central Java, told Reuters.
"I have been taught since I was young about the environment, recycling and loving the plants by my farmer father. So when I first moved here, I started an effort to make the area green. I just wanted to have an environment as green as my hometown."
The 3.3 sq km (1.27 sq mile) neighborhood, with more than 1,000 residents, boasts green swathes which provide shade in the summer heat.
All the households, even the smallest, have made room to grow flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs, which is fertilized using organic waste from the kitchen.
Other, non-organic garbage is recycled with paper turned back into paper while plastic is used to weave mats and bags.
Wahono's efforts made the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) select Banjarsari as a pilot project for community waste management in 1996.
And years later, Banjarsari remains committed to the environment, holding regular training classes for the community on recycling and reusing organic waste.
"I think this training is useful, now I know that separating plastic from organic garbage is a must, because plastic does not decompose," said Audia, a student who took part a recent one-day course, which is free of charge.
"Greening the area does not necessarily require expensive plants or trees," added homemaker Ella.
Wahono, 78, recalls how many families in the middle-income neighbourhood rebuffed her efforts in the beginning.
Now, she travels throughout Indonesia and to several Asian countries to conduct waste management training courses based on her experiences in Banjarsari.
Community leader Wardi, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, says the neighborhood doesn't suffer from floods like most other areas in Jakarta, where drains and rivers around are choked with garbage.
"Here we have a clean environment, litter-free," he said.
Government statistics shows that Jakarta and its neighboring towns generate more than 27,000 cubic meters (953,500 cu ft) of garbage a day, of which 17 percent is dumped into rivers.
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
The baking summer has raised a bumper plankton crop for the harmless giants that feed in our waters. Now wildlife conservationists want the hotspots protected
Lisa Bachelor, The Observer The Guardian 5 Jul 09;
Record numbers of basking sharks have been spotted off the coast of Britain and Ireland after the recent hot weather boosted levels of their favourite food: zooplankton.
Last year there were only 26 sightings of the 11-metre sharks in two and a half months off the most southerly headland of Cornwall. This year more than 900 sightings have been recorded since the beginning of June.
"Last year we had a really poor year because of the weather. But even though temperatures have obviously picked up, we never expected to see the sharks in such large numbers," said Tom Hardy of Cornwall Wildlife Trust, who is co-ordinating the south-west basking shark project.
The trust uses 40 volunteers working in half-hour shifts for 10 weeks to record sightings. The volunteers have also recorded sharks breaching the surface of the water five or six times. "That is very rare," said Hardy.
Off the coast of Ireland, a record number of sightings was also recorded in June, with 248 basking sharks counted last month by the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group.
Conservationists believe one of the reasons for the high numbers could be unseasonably warm weather increasing the amount of zooplankton. Basking sharks - the world's second largest fish - use highly developed senses and will travel hundreds of miles to seek out the densest patches.
Simon Berrow, of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, is carrying out a pioneering tagging project to find out more about the elusive sharks and has been taken aback by the numbers.
"In a three-day period we tagged more than 100 sharks in just one bay in north Donegal," he said. "You only ever see five or six of these creatures on the surface, which doesn't reflect what's going on under the water."
Around the coast of the Isle of Man, another basking shark hotspot, 400 sightings have been recorded since the beginning of May.
'"We saw a lot more in May than is usual and after a couple of quiet weeks sightings are picking up again," said Fiona Gell, marine wildlife officer for the Isle of Man government.
Basking sharks can weigh up to seven tonnes, but despite this they have tiny teeth and pose no threat to humans.
They have also been turning up in unexpected places this year. A rare sighting off the coast of Felixstowe caused a flood of wildlife watchers to head for the Suffolk coast last weekend. Extremely little is known about the species, and their seasonal and annual movements are a mystery to biologists. The high number of sightings is encouraging news for basking shark specialists who will meet at a conference over three days next month.
The 47 local wildlife trusts across the UK, the Isle of Man and Alderney are working to identify basking shark hotspots and hope that this summer's bumper crop of sightings will strengthen their call for further protection of the species.
The trusts would like to see some of these areas turned into marine conservation zones, a new type of protected area being introduced through the Marine and Coastal Access Bill currently going through parliament. This could result, for example, in speed restrictions being imposed on boats in the area.
"One of our principal aims is to ensure there is no loss in the population size of these magnificent creatures," said the the wildlife trusts' marine policy officer, Lissa Goodwin.
"The fantastic number of sightings we have seen this summer show how crucial it is to protect these basking shark hotspots in the future."
Seaside guests
Jellyfish
The moon jellyfish has appeared in larger than usual numbers around the British and Irish coasts in the past few weeks, sometimes in blooms over 500 strong. The bigger barrel jellyfish, which can reach a metre in diameter and weigh up to 40kg, has also been seen in unusually high numbers. Both species are harmless to humans.
Leatherback turtles
Leatherbacks feed on jellyfish and so have been seen in higher numbers than usual. The turtles, which nest in the Caribbean, were seen off west Wales.
Dolphins
A "superpod" of about 1,500 dolphins was seen last week off Pembrokeshire, as holidaymakers at Whitby had a rare sight of bottlenose dolphins.
Shafiq Alam Yahoo News 4 Jul 09;
DHAKA (AFP) – When forest officials in southeastern Bangladesh heard that two tigers had strayed out of the forest and into a remote village they knew they had to act quickly.
Though villagers in the area were worried about their own lives, the authorities were racing to save the big cats after a wave of similar incidents in recent years have ended with the endangered animals being beaten to death.
In this instance, the tigers were already dead by the time the officials arrived.
"Tigers go in and out of villages in the night but if they go in during the day, they never survive. The villagers beat them to death," said Aboni Bhusan Thakur, the government's chief conservation officer for the Sundarbans mangrove forest.
One of the tigers, a five-year-old male, had apparently got lost and hid in a shack, where he was attacked by villagers wielding sticks, spears and machetes, Thakur said.
An 18-year-old tigress was also attacked and killed.
Police have arrested one man accused of being the ringleader.
The story is not a new one in Bangladesh. There have been 14 registered cases of tigers being killed in similar circumstances since 2000. Newspaper reports suggest the real figure is closer to 30 while conservationists say it is even higher.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List, there are fewer than 2,500 Bengal tigers left in the world with as few as 200 of those in Bangladesh -- the single largest population in the wild.
A government census in 2004 put the number at around 440.
A leading tiger expert in Bangladesh said the beatings were alarming with the species already facing extinction.
"If this brutal tradition goes on, the Bengal tiger population in Bangladesh will vanish in decades," said Professor Monirul Khan, of Dhaka's Jahangirnagar University.
"Tigers were in every forest in the country even 50 years back, but now they are only confined to the Sundarbans."
He said a steep fall in the population of traditional tiger prey in the Sundarbans -- largely due to rapid mangrove deforestation -- such as deer and wild pigs, was forcing them to look elsewhere.
The Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage site, lies on the delta of the great Himalayan rivers -- the Ganges and the Brahmaputra.
Covering 10,000 square kilometres (3,860 square miles), it is the world's largest mangrove forest, straddling India and Bangladesh, and without the tigers Khan says the fragile ecosystem of the Sundarbans will collapse.
"The whole food chain will collapse. So many species of plant and animals are at risk," he said.
Wildlife expert Mohsinuzzaman Chowdhury said the tiger beatings were on the rise because incidences of the cats attacking humans were increasing as more people were living near the forest, once a no-go zone.
Eighteen people were killed by tigers in the first six months of the year and 21 were killed during the whole of 2008, but Chowdhury says are there many undocumented deaths.
"These villagers collect honey, timber and do fishing deep inside the forest. Many are killed by tigers, which make them hostile towards the endangered animal," Chowdhury, formerly with the IUCN, said.
Without the mangroves, Bangladesh would be more exposed to the cyclones that hit the southern coastline every year, he said.
Experts say Cyclone Sidr, which killed 3,500 people with wind speeds of 240 kilometres (150 miles) an hour in November 2007, would have been much more severe had it not been for the Sundarbans, which cushioned the blow.
Another cyclone struck the Sundarbans and neighbouring areas on May 26 this year, contaminating fresh water ponds that tigers drink from.
"The forest is still largely uninhabited because of fear of tigers," said IUCN Bangladesh chief Ainun Nishat.
"If the tigers are gone, the fear factor would go and it would take only years to clear out the world's largest mangrove forest. Not only that, there will be no natural saviour for this disaster-prone nation."
Edward Yau, news.gov.hk 5 Jul 09;
The environmental levy scheme on plastic shopping bags will commence on July 7, Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau says. He calls on shoppers to make Hong Kong green by bringing their own bags.
Officiating at the scheme's pre-commencement ceremony at East Point City, Tseung Kwan O today, he said the scheme provides a direct economic incentive to discourage the indiscriminate use of plastic shopping bags.
Under the scheme, registered retailers must charge customers a 50-cent environmental levy for providing a plastic shopping bag with handle. Prescribed retailers include major and chain supermarkets, convenience stores, personal health and beauty stores, and supermarkets inside department stores.
"More and more people in Hong Kong now bring their own shopping bags and use fewer plastic shopping bags as they know more about the importance of the environment to the future of Hong Kong," Mr Yau said.
Under Secretary for the Environment Dr Kitty Poon today also distributed magnets carrying publicity messages to foreign domestic helpers in Central.
The messages on the magnets are printed in Chinese, English, Tagalog, Indonesian and Thai to enable domestic helpers to understand the scheme will start shortly and to encourage them to bring their own shopping bags.
Thomas L. Friedman, Straits Times 6 Jul 09;
OVER the past decade, whenever I visited China and engaged the Chinese on their pollution and energy problems, inevitably some young Chinese would say: 'Hey, you Americans got to grow dirty for 150 years, using cheap coal and oil. Now it is our turn.' It's a hard argument to refute. Eventually, I decided that the only way to respond was with some variation of the following: 'You're right. It's your turn. Grow as dirty as you want. Take your time.
'Because I think America just needs five years to invent all the clean-power technologies you Chinese are going to need as you choke to death on pollution. Then we're going to come over here and sell them all to you, and we are going to clean your clock in the next great global industry: clean power technologies. So if you all want to give us a five-year lead, that would be great. I'd prefer 10. So take your time. Grow as dirty as you want.'
Whenever you frame it that way, Chinese are quizzical at first, and then they totally get it: Wow, this energy thing isn't just about global warming! In a world that is adding 1 billion people every 15 years or so, the demands for energy and natural resources are going to go through the roof. Therefore, E.T. - energy technologies that produce clean power and energy efficiency - is going to be the next great global industry, and China needs to be on board.
Well, China has got on board - big-time. Now I am worried that China will, dare I say, 'clean our clock' in E.T.
Yes, you might think that China is only interested in polluting its way to prosperity. That was once true, but it isn't anymore. China is increasingly finding that it has to go green out of necessity because in too many places, its people can't breathe, fish, swim, drive or even see because of pollution and climate change. Well, there is one thing we know about necessity: It is the mother of invention.
And that is what China is doing, innovating more and more energy efficiency and clean power systems. And when China starts to do that in a big way - when it starts to develop solar, wind, batteries, nuclear and energy efficiency technologies on its low-cost platform - watch out. You won't just be buying your toys from China. You'll be buying your energy future from China.
'China is moving,' says chief executive Hal Harvey of ClimateWorks, which shares clean energy ideas around the world. 'They want to be leaders in green technology. China has already adopted the most aggressive energy efficiency programme in the world. It is committed to reducing the energy intensity of its economy - energy used per dollar of goods produced - by 20 per cent in five years.
'They are doing this by implementing fuel efficiency standards for cars that far exceed our own and by going after their top thousand industries with very aggressive efficiency targets. And they have the most aggressive renewable energy deployment in the world, for wind, solar and nuclear, and are beating their targets.'
Here's the key point on energy from the draft report of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board: 'If the US fails to adopt an economy-wide carbon abatement programme, we will continue to cede leadership in new energy technology. The US is now home to only two of the 10 largest solar photovoltaic producers in the world, two of the top 10 wind turbine producers and one of the top 10 advanced battery manufacturers. That is, only one-sixth of the world's top renewable energy manufacturers are based in the United States.
'Sustainable technologies in solar, wind, electric vehicles, nuclear and other innovations will drive the future global economy. We can either invest in policies to build US leadership in these new industries and jobs today, or we can continue with business as usual and buy windmills from Europe, batteries from Japan and solar panels from Asia.'
Indeed, if you look at those top 10 lists, compiled by Lazard, the investment bank, Japanese companies have the most, then Europe, then China - then the US.
This is a major reason I favour the climate/energy Bill passed by the House. If we do not impose on ourselves the need to drive innovation in clean-technology - by imposing the right prices on carbon emissions and the right regulations to promote energy efficiency - we will be laggards in the next great global industry.
And this is why I disagree with President Obama when he signals that he has to focus on extending health care and put the energy/climate Bill - now in the Senate - on the back burner.
Health care and the energy/climate Bill go together. We need both now. Imagine how poor we would be if US firms did not dominate the top 10 Internet companies. Well, if we don't dominate the top 10 E.T. rankings, there is no way we are going to be able to afford decent health care for every American. No way.
NEW YORK TIMES
Luc Andre Yahoo News 4 Jul 09;
GUESSING, Austria (AFP) – After 20 years investing in renewable energy, the small Austrian town of Guessing, a model of energy self-sufficiency, is spreading its pioneering technology far and wide.
A town of 4,300 inhabitants near the Hungarian border, Guessing launched into renewable energy in the early 1990s and now produces more than it can consume.
The latest project, opened last week, is a one-megawatt plant capable of producing gas from wood chips.
According to its backers, this gas can be used in normal gas networks, urban heating systems, and cars or power stations that work on gas.
The technology, developed jointly with Switzerland, has already attracted attention from major energy companies.
"Vattenfall (from Sweden), EDF (France) and E.ON (Germany) are all interested in the plant," Guessing's mayor Peter Vadasz noted proudly.
A similar plant to the one in Guessing -- which can heat 150 homes on a cold winter's day -- but 25 times more powerful is already in the works in Goeteborg, Sweden.
About 20 years ago, Guessing was still a sleepy town in the eastern Austrian province of Burgenland, but its foray into renewable energy soon turned it into a pioneer.
Located in a region of crop fields and forests, Guessing used its assets -- biomass and sunshine -- to pull itself out of its economic stagnation. Since 1996, this project has been coordinated by the European Centre for Renewable Energy (EEE) and co-financed by the European Union.
After discarding wind power for lack of breezes, researchers developed a number of techniques to produce heat, electricity and agrofuel using maize, rapeseed, agricultural waste, wood or sunshine.
-- The town now produces more energy than it can use --
Guessing now covers all its heating and electricity needs thanks to a network of small units with a total capacity of six megawatts. And since 2005, the small town has been producing more energy than it can use.
"We produce 120 million kilowatt-hours of heating every year, and 45 million kilowatt-hours of electricity," said EEE director Reinhard Koch.
Sales of electricity also brought in 6.7 million euros (9.4 million dollars) last year.
"A total 1,100 jobs have been created in the last 12 years," added Vadasz, who has won every re-election since 1992.
"Since the price of heating is determined by the town, we've been able to incite companies financially to settle down here. We have re-invested to renew the town," he said.
Guessing's model, which is partly based on its ability to export its innovative technologies, has not been spared by the global economic crisis: one company specialised in photovoltaics -- solar cells -- is due to sack half its employees due to a drop in demand.
But the small town's ideas have nevertheless spread in the surrounding area.
The surrounding country, whose total population is 28,000, hopes to become energy self-sufficient by the end of 2010 with the development of several dozen more small power plants if the government passes a law proposal providing incentives, noted Koch.
That would cut CO2 emissions in the district by 85 percent, he added.
Guessing's model has also raised interest farther afield and in early May, Vadasz presented his town's model to the United Nations in Vienna.
"Sri Lanka's environment minister is coming to visit us," the mayor added proudly.
Researchers, meanwhile, are already looking for new energy sources. After gas, they now hope to produce diesel and petrol from wood.
The aim is to create an agrofuel that will not endanger food production. First experiments will be held in a few months time.
Chris Kahn, Associated Press Yahoo News 5 Jul 09;
NEW YORK – When owners of the Empire State Building decided to blanket its towering facade this year with thousands of insulating windows, they were only partly interested in saving energy. They also needed tenants.
After 78 years, Manhattan's signature office building had lost its sheen as one of the city's most desirable places to work. To get it back, the owners did what an increasing number of property owners have done — they went green, shelling out $120 million on a variety of environmental improvements, a move would have been considered a huge gamble a few years ago.
Buildings that define city skylines across the country, some national icons, are catching up to the sleek, new structures designed with efficiency in mind, as property owners and managers become convinced that a greener building now makes financial sense.
That's because in recent years environmental retrofits have begun to pay off for owners and tenants alike. Higher-profile companies are seeking out more efficient office space, and new technology at older buildings has started to translate into higher property values, leases and occupancy rates.
"In a good market, we're going to get the best rents for the best tenants," said Anthony E. Malkin, who leads a real estate group that owns the Empire State Building. "In a bad market like we have now, we're going to get tenants when other buildings won't."
Renovation specialists around the country have been plugging porous walls in numerous old buildings, adding high tech water systems and using recycled material in carpets and tile.
One of them is the Christman Building in Lansing, Mich., an 81-year-old Elizabethan Revival office that's listed on the National Register of Historic Places. While repairing the limestone exterior and preserving unique details like the mica light fixtures, the building owners spent $8.5 million to add water-efficient plumbing and increased the amount of natural light. They also capped the building with a reflective "cool" roof.
Chicago's Sears Tower announced late last month that it will embark on a five-year, $350 million green renovation. The 110-story, staggered skyscraper, which turned 36 this year, will crown its rooftops with solar panels, wind turbines and up to 35,000 square feet of sunlight-absorbing gardens.
When complete, the improvements will cut the tower's annual electricity use by 80 percent and save 24 million gallons of water, property managers say.
Building owners trumpet their environmental commitment when extensive modifications are made, yet in many cases those changes are being pushed by tenants.
Many high-profile tenants won't even consider moving into a property without the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, said Allan Skodowski with Transwestern management group. They may not even know what the certification means, he said, but they demand it nonetheless.
"They say 'We want LEED,'" Skodowski said, "and that's it."
Nine of Transwestern's properties received certification this year. A combination of energy efficient light bulbs and other green equipment helped those buildings slash energy consumption. On average, they've seen a 2 percent drop in energy costs, even as electricity rates jumped between 10 percent and 40 percent, Skodowski said.
Leasing rates have not risen as a result of the changes, Skodowski said, yet at the same time occupancy rates have not fallen. That's a victory for an industry hit hard by the recession. Vacancy rates at office buildings nationwide have gone from 10.9 percent at the end of 2007 to 12.4 percent in the first quarter of this year.
"If one extra tenant comes and looks at the building, if the owner gets an extra penny or so a foot, then at the end of the day it's paying for itself," Skodowski said.
A recent analysis by real estate researcher CoStar Group, Inc. found that green-certified buildings had fewer vacancies than other buildings with similar age, size and location.
The CoStar study, which included about 3,000 green-certified offices, found that buildings with the council's certification enjoyed higher occupancy rates (90.3 percent) than their peers (84.7 percent) in the first three months of 2009.
Certified buildings have fetched higher lease rates for several years. The CoStar report said the buildings rented at an average of $38.86 per square foot in the first quarter of 2009 compared with $29.80 per square foot for their peers.
"This isn't just a 'We are doing the right thing' movement," said Marc Heisterkamp, U.S. Green Building Council's director of commercial real estate. "In the end, the numbers pencil out."
At the Empire State Building, Malkin proposed a top-to-bottom renovation that included a $13.2 million investment in new green technologies. The goal was to sufficiently reduce greenhouse gases without spending more than he could justify to his investors.
What the owners settled on was a series of upgrades that include retrofitting all 6,500 windows. Under every window, radiators will be padded with extra insulation. The building's lighting, cold water and ventilation systems also will be upgraded.
The renovation should take 18 months. Afterward, the owners expect an annual energy savings of $4.4 million, enough to pay off the new technologies in about three years.
Already, the renovation has lured upscale, energy-conscious companies like Swedish construction firm Skanska, said Ray Quartararo with Jones Lang Lasalle, which is managing the renovation.
Skanska wanted its U.S. headquarters to have a LEED "platinum" certification — reserved for only the most efficient of buildings — and it found a willing partner in the Empire State Building. Skanska officials said the building's management helped them install bike racks and add other energy-saving details on the 32nd floor.
"We had looked at several downtown spaces, but the Empire State Building made the most sense," a company spokeswoman said.
Jacques Catafago, an attorney who works 16 floors above Skanska's new office, is also happy with the changes. Catafago has fought the building management before on other fees, but he said he wouldn't mind paying more rent if it goes toward renovations that cut his electric bill.
Besides, Catafago said, he's already checked out the rent for similar buildings in the city and realizes he has a pretty good deal at the Empire State Building.
"We'd be paying twice as much" uptown, he said.
China floods displace 650,000 people
Heavy rains destroy homes, crops and cut power; 15 people dead
Straits Times 6 Jul 09;
BEIJING: Flooding and heavy rain in southern China have forced more than 650,000 people to evacuate their homes and have killed at least 15, Chinese state media reported yesterday.
At least five people were reported missing.
The heavy rains that have raged for four days across southern provinces have destroyed houses, flooded crops, cut power, damaged roads and caused rivers to overflow.
Worst hit was Guangxi, where at least 285,800 people were moved out of their homes. Parts of the region were experiencing the worst flooding since 1996.
Workers dug sluices to relieve pressure on the Kama reservoir dam in Guangxi's Luocheng county, where a 13.5m section gave way under the weight of the water on Saturday.
About 15,000 people who lived downstream from the dam were moved to safety and are now living in more than 1,000 tents, the national flood control office said in a statement on Saturday.
Mr Chen Zhangliang, vice-chairman of the Guangxi region, said the sluices should alleviate the danger from the dam in a few days.
Crops on 103,400ha of land were damaged and 3,600 homes had collapsed by 11.40am yesterday, with total damage in Guangxi estimated at 1.34billion yuan (S$285million), Xinhua news agency said, citing the regional civil affairs department.
The rain also flooded 62 schools in Guangxi. Some 300 students were trapped in Hemu Town Middle School after flood waters blocked its entrances and rendered nearby roads impassable, according to an official of Rongshui county, in which the school is situated. Flood control officials used boats to deliver food, water and other supplies on Saturday, including pumps to lower the water level.
By Friday, 80per cent of Rongshui was inundated, causing the Rongjiang river to overflow its banks and forcing the relocation of more than 70,000 people.
After four days of torrential downpours, the rain began to subside in some parts of Guangxi yesterday, but the local authorities warned of more flooding as river levels remained high.
In the central province of Hunan, floods have killed eight people and forced 140,000 to relocate.
Five people have died in south-eastern Fujian province, two others were missing, and 22,000 people have been evacuated, Xinhua said on Saturday.
In Jiangxi, two people were killed and three others were missing. About 210,000 people had to flee their homes.
While rainstorms ravaged the southern parts of China, a serious drought has hit north-west China's Gansu province. It has led to a shortage of drinking water for some 230,000 people, Xinhua reported last week.
REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Floods wreak havoc in Vietnam and India too
Straits Times 6 Jul 09;
HANOI: Heavy rains triggering floods and landslides in mountainous northern regions of Vietnam have killed at least 15 people, destroyed houses and damaged roads, the government and state-run radio said yesterday.
Landslides killed 13 people in Bac Kan province and another 11 were missing as of early yesterday, Voice of Vietnam radio said.
Landslides and floods cut off roads, telecommunications and power supplies to a district in Bac Kan after heavy rains fell on Friday night, the government said in a disaster report.
Floods killed two people in the neighbouring provinces of Cao Bang and Ha Giang, while three others, including two children, were carried away and remain missing, the report said.
About 300 people were forced to leave homes destroyed in landslides, provincial roads were eroded, and small fields of rice, corn and cassava in the three provinces were damaged, the report said, adding that more rains were forecast.
Vietnam is often struck by floods and storms between July and October.
Meanwhile in India, an overflowing river swollen by heavy monsoon rains washed away five villages in India's remote north-east, forcing nearly 4,000 residents to flee to makeshift relief camps, an official said yesterday.
Nearly 300,000 people in Assam state have seen their homes flooded in several days of non-stop monsoon rains, including nearly 100,000 people marooned on an island in the Brahmaputra River.
There were no reports of casualties.
REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Frank Nyakairu, Reuters 5 Jul 09;
NASSAPIR, Uganda (Reuters) - The rainmakers were convinced the god was angry.
Holding a sheep on its hind legs, a young man sank a spear into its neck. Those present drank its blood and splashed the rest around the local water catchment area in the hope of appeasing Ekipe, the rain god.
But rituals like this in Nassapir village, in northeastern Uganda's semi-arid and under-developed Karamoja region, no longer seem to pay off.
"We don't know why the god is no longer answering our requests," said Laurien Lokwareng, an elder of the Jie ethnic group. "For years, we used to ask the god for rain and we got it in abundance, but we have had four years without enough rain now, and this is very strange."
In a new report, global aid agency Oxfam says impoverished communities like Nassapir are already being hit hard by the effects of global warming, including increased drought.
Without international funding to help them cope and tough targets for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, the food, water, health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of the world's poorest people will be put at even greater risk.
Oxfam says interviews it carried out with farmers in 15 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America show that seasons are shrinking in number and variety.
This is destroying harvests, pushing farmers to abandon traditional crops and causing widespread hunger -- which, the agency predicts, will likely be "climate change's most savage impact on humanity in the near future."
Rainfall is reported to be more erratic, shorter and more violent. Unusual weather events -- including storms, drier spells and fluctuating temperatures -- are happening more often. And farmers say winds and storms have got stronger.
"We think that 'changing seasonality' may be one of the most significant impacts of climate change for poor farmers, and that is happening now," said Oxfam program researcher John Magrath in the report.
INCREASED HUNGER
Savio Carvalho, Oxfam's climate change adviser for the developing world, told Reuters global warming was already affecting people across Africa, and would wipe out efforts to tackle poverty without urgent action like massive tree planting.
"In sub-Saharan Africa, (yields of) maize, which is a staple crop, will decrease by 15 percent by 2020 and that is a big number," he said.
"Drought is now happening on a yearly basis, and there is increased hunger and starvation because of declining food stocks, as we see here in Karamoja," added Carvalho.
Uganda's Health Ministry says the malnutrition rate in the region -- which has experienced 14 droughts in 25 years -- is 19 percent. The U.N. World Food Program provides food aid to at least 970,000 of Karamoja's 1.1 million people.
Oxfam also warns that in places like Karamoja -- already plagued by high levels of violence due to armed cattle raids between ethnic groups -- failure to improve access to water is likely to exacerbate conflict.
The report says the worst effects of climate change on hunger and poverty can be avoided if communities and governments start adapting now.
The agency is taking practical steps, building a dam in Nassapir to capture any rain that does fall for people and animals.
Oxfam's Carvalho also recommended developing drought-tolerant maize seeds, and experimenting with alternative sources of energy in poor rural areas, where most people rely on cutting down trees for firewood and construction.
He said there were several possibilities in Kotido, the district that includes Nassapir.
"Poverty is compounded when people don't have access to energy, and people in places like Kotido could start exploring bio-gas from cow dung and solar energy from the abundant sunshine, with a bit of investment," Carvalho said.
(Additional reporting by Megan Rowling in London)
Climate change shifting seasons is causing widespread hunger
Millions of people could starve because climate change shifts the timing of the seasons, according to a leading international aid agency.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 6 Jul 09;
The regular arrival of the rains or a dry period to harvest staple crops ensures the majority of people around the world can grow enough food to eat.
But a new report by Oxfam has found that poor farmers in developing countries are increasingly finding the growing season is changing as a consequence of climate change.
The rains are coming too early or not at all and unexpected periods of drought or downpours are wiping out crops, leaving millions more people suffering hunger, the research said.
In a separate report, entitled Technology for a Low Carbon Future, Tony Blair, the former prime minister, said the technological solutions to global warming were "well within our grasp" and required only the political will to implement them.
Mr Blair said that a series of crunch meetings this year - including the Major Economies Forum in Italy this week and the Copenhagen climate change summit in December - should see the fight against global warming move from the campaigning stage to "practical policy making".
The Oxfam report interviewed poor farmers in 15 countries, from Bangladesh to Siberia, about how the weather has changed over the years.
The results found a general trend in people reporting that transitional seasons like spring have shrunk or disappeared altogether and been replaced by long periods of heat with shorter warmer winters. The rain is more erratic, coming at unexpected times in and out of season and dry periods have increased in length and frequency.
For example, in Siberia it was reported spring is coming earlier and is much wetter while the summer has become much hotter and longer. In Bangladesh people report generally drier winters and more intense but less predictable monsoons.
The report found that people are already suffering the consequences of the changing seasons. Maize yields are forecast to drop by 15 per cent or more by 2020 in much of sub-Saharan Africa and in most of India. Rice, another staple, is also expected to drop in yield in southern countries because of unexpected weather patterns.
A recent report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, a think-tank led by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, estimated 300,000 people already die each year as a consequence of climate change and 300 million people are affected.
Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam, said: "Climate change is happening here and now and the world's poorest people are being hit the hardest."
Oxfam is calling for the developed countries to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 and commit £70 billion on helping poorer countries to adapt as part of any deal on climate change.
Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, is due to launch a new action plan to help millions of the world's poor fight climate change this week.
Poor face more hunger as climate change leads to crop failure, says Oxfam
• Seasons appear to have shrunk in variety
• Storms and heavier rains more common
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 5 Jul 09;
Hunger may become the defining human tragedy of the century as the climate changes and hundreds of millions of farmers already struggling to grow enough food are forced to adapt to drought and different rainfall patterns, a report warns.
Oxfam International, in a comprehensive look at the expected effects on people of climate change, says some of the world's staple crops will be hit and the implications for millions could be disastrous .
"Climate change's most savage impact on humanity in the near future is likely to be in the increase in hunger … the countries with existing problems in feeding their people are those most at risk from climate change," the report warns.
"Millions of farmers will have to give up traditional crops as they experience changes in the seasons that they and their ancestors have depended on. Climate-related hunger [may become] the defining human tragedy of this century."
The report, published as world leaders prepare to meet for the G8 summit in Italy, says that farmers around the world are already seeing changes in weather patterns which are leading to increased ill-health, hunger and poverty. Oxfam staff in 15 countries collected records from communities and observed that:
• Seasons appear to have shrunk in number and variety.
• Rainfall is more unpredictable, tending to be shorter in duration.
• Winds and storms are felt to have increased in strength.
• Unseasonal events such as storms, dense fogs and heavier rains are more common.
"Once-distinct seasons are shifting and the rains are disappearing. Poor farmers from Bangladesh to Uganda and Nicaragua, no longer able to rely on centuries of farming experience, are facing failed harvest after failed harvest," it says.
The evidence of changing weather patterns is anecdotal but the results are striking because of the extraordinary consistency they show across the world, said Oxfam programme researcher John Magrath.
"Farmers are all saying very similar things: the seasons are changing. Moderate, temperate seasons are shrinking and vanishing. Seasons are becoming hotter and drier, rainy seasons shorter and more violent," said Magrath.
The report, released before the G8 meeting in Italy this week, where Barack Obama will chair a session on climate change, warns that without immediate action on climate all the development gains made in 50 years are under threat.
Rice and maize, two of the world's most important crops, on which hundreds of millions of people depend, face significant drops in yields. Maize yields are forecast to drop by 15% or more by 2020 in much of sub-Saharan Africa and in most of India.
The report also documents how rising temperatures are affecting productivity in factories, with manual workers needing longer siesta times and outdoor workers experiencing dehydration. Cities in the tropics are becoming some of the most dangerous places in the world as heat stress increases, it says.
The "heat island effect", where heat retention in concrete and air conditioning combines to raise night temperatures in tropical cities by as much as 10C, can devastate vulnerable populations.
"Projections suggest a sixfold increase in heat-related deaths in Lisbon by 2050, and a fivefold increase in Greater London, two to seven times more deaths in California and a 75% increase in deaths among old people in Australian cities."
In Delhi, mortality rates rise by up to 4% with every 1C of temperature rise. The figure is 6% in Bangkok.
It also says many diseases are already migrating as temperatures rise. Malaria, dengue fever, river blindness and yellow fever are all considered highly likely to increase their distribution, it says.
Michael Richardson, Straits Times 6 Jul 09;
WHEN US lawmakers recently approved legislation to limit America's emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, it was widely hailed as an important new step in confronting climate change.
Under the Bush administration, the United States refused to join other industrialised nations in capping emissions, arguing that to do so would add unfair costs to business and blunt the competitive edge of the world's biggest economy. But the applause for the Obama administration and the majority Democratic Party in pushing for a cap-and-trade law in Congress has since diminished as critics scrutinise the details. One provision that has caused concern was slipped in shortly before the House of Representatives passed the Bill on June 26.
It requires the US president, from 2020 onwards, to impose special import taxes on goods from countries that have not enacted and enforced similar cap- and-trade controls on their global warming emissions. Only Congress can authorise the president to waive the imposition of tariffs.
With economies around the world still weak, credit tight and international trade shrinking, the prospect of protectionism spreading in many different forms alarms Singapore and other trade- dependent Asian nations.
When heads of government of the Group of 20 (G-20) leading developed and developing economies met in Washington for the first time last November, they pledged not to introduce any new protectionist measures for at least 12 months and to restart stalled negotiations to liberalise world trade. They have failed dismally on both counts.
Since then, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have recorded dozens of breaches by G-20 countries of their promises not to shield their domestic industries from foreign competition or to subsidise exports.
Are we heading for yet another version of protectionism, one with 'green' tariffs? The US measure is not yet law. The cap-and-trade legislation, which enables companies to buy and sell pollution permits while they comply with progressively tighter limits on emissions, has yet to pass the Senate, where it is expected to face tough opposition.
President Barack Obama has indicated that he is concerned about the 'green' tariff proposal, but has not said whether he would veto the provision.
Supporters of a tariff say it is needed to shield US industries that use or produce lots of energy, and whose goods are traded globally. Otherwise such industries, which include steel, aluminium, cement, chemicals, coal, oil and natural gas, could be placed at a disadvantage compared with their counterparts in other countries without strict regulations to control emissions.
Similar arguments about the need for border adjustment taxes first emerged last year in the European Union, the world's second largest market after the US, during debate over the EU's emissions trading scheme.
To ensure that energy-intensive industries did not shift production to Asia or other regions with less stringent rules to protect the environment, the European Commission proposed that importers pay the same emission charges for non- European goods as domestic producers, in effect imposing hefty green tariffs on 'dirty' imports.
'We want industry to remain in Europe,' said EC president Jose Manuel Barroso. 'We don't want to export our jobs to other parts of the world.'
The US is now moving towards a similar system to price, cap and trade emissions with an inbuilt protectionist measure.
As in Europe, it may be part of the negotiating tactics used by industrialised powers to put pressure on developing countries to comply with any new international deal to limit global warming gases and prevent potentially catastrophic climate change.
The deal is supposed to be finalised by December. Under the existing Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, only industrialised economies are obliged to reduce emissions, even though developing countries are expected to become the dominant global warming gas producers in future as their growth continues to outstrip that of the West.
However, China, India and other big emerging Asian economies are refusing to put mandatory restrictions on their industries, fearing it will drive up costs and undermine growth. They point out that most emissions from burning fossil fuels since the industrial revolution started in Europe 200 years ago have come from the West, that per person emission levels are far higher in the West than in the developing world, and that many of the goods manufactured in developing countries are produced by Western investors for export to Western markets.
Developing countries are likely to retaliate against environmental protection measures imposed by the West and challenge them in the WTO, adding to the trade tensions and protectionist poison infecting international relations. Referring to the US provision, India's Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said last week that it was 'pernicious' to use climate change as a non-tariff barrier.
In the negotiations leading to the climate summit in Copenhagen in December, developing countries are being asked to draw up national action plans setting out how they will try to curb emissions and promote clean energy.
Probably the toughest challenge facing the negotiators is to craft a compromise deal that will synchronise the obligations of both developed and developing nations in a way that is seen to be fair and effective.
The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Developing countries are likely to retaliate against environmental protection measures imposed by the West, adding to the trade tensions and protectionist poison infecting international relations.
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