"The Wonders of Singapore's Mangroves Insect Fauna"
from wild shores of singapore
Nem check on Sentosa
from wild shores of singapore and the big picture and also from Singapore Nature
Spiderhunters and African tulip
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Quails in captivity
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Straits Times 11 Jul 09;
As global concern about climate change and environmental degradation grows, more groups have sprung up to spread the word on the importance of nature and conservation. Victoria Vaughan talks to some of the groups.
BIRDS are getting entangled in fishing lines, and an online group of bird enthusiasts hopes to save other avians from this fate.
This year, at least two herons, a mynah and a hornbill have fallen victim to abandoned lines, the Bird Ecology Study Group said.
It is publicising these incidents on its blog, which was set up four years ago and is approaching a million hits with about 400 visitors a day.
'The birds get caught in fishing lines left in the water or blown into the trees and they cannot escape, so they cannot feed themselves and they die,' said the group's founder, Mr Wee Yeow Chin, 72.
'We just post the details to make people aware of the issue and hope to persuade fishermen to be more careful about what they are doing,' added Mr Wee, former head of the Nature Society Singapore.
Angler Tan Tien Yun, who is setting up a group to tackle environmental issues involving fishing, said that rod-and-line fishermen should not just drop degraded line on the ground after cutting it.
'You should cut it up into small pieces, then put them in a Ziploc bag before throwing it in the rubbish bin,' the software developer said.
'Water that you fish in should be like a second home.
'If you abuse the environment, it will come back to you as there will be less fish to catch.'
The 'donkey work' behind the Bird Ecology Study Group, which comes under the Nature Society, is carried out by Mr Wee, a retired National University of Singapore botany teacher.
The blog interprets bird behaviour captured in photographs, going beyond traditional bird watchers' aims of noting the names of birds and admiring the plumage.
Through this, the group aims to encourage the study of birds and document issues relating to bird ecology such as breeding and feeding.
'This informal education through the site has an indirect conservation aspect, as we raise awareness about birds and their value,' Mr Wee said.
Related links
Killed by abandoned fishing line on the wild shores of singapore.
Grace Chua, Straits Times 11 Jul 09;
WHEN they score a goal, football players whoop, turn somersaults or rip off their shirts and run around the field.
In the wild, animals have their own versions of the victory dance.
For instance, when male face-banded crabs win a fight against other crabs, they scrape one claw against the other to make low-pitched rasping sounds.
By doing this, they're actually trying to show off their size and prowess to warn off potential challengers, a National University of Singapore (NUS) undergraduate found.
Face-banded crabs or Perisesarma eumolpe, named for the bright blue-green band across their fronts, live in mangrove swamps in Mandai and Sungei Buloh.
Each male protects a half-square-metre plot of territory, jealously guarding the best hiding places, which protect him and his mates from predators like birds and monitor lizards.
In his thesis research, biology student Paul Chan observed the males locking claws to gain territory, and the winners of each battle performing their victory displays.
They would prop the tip of one claw on the ground and scrape up and down with the other, as though playing the cello vertically, he said.
Mr Chan found that crabs always used their bigger claw as the 'bow' - as though to show off their claw size and strength to the loser and other bystanders.
When both claws were the same size, they used the two interchangeably.
Previously, scientists thought the crabs' scraping also produced audible sounds that could be heard by other crabs out of sight.
But Mr Chan found that the crabs transmitted their message at a frequency nearly too low to be heard. He surmised that they sent their signals as vibrations through the ground, and that the larger their claws, the lower the frequency of the vibrations.
To test the theory, Mr Chan hopes to conduct lab experiments where he keeps an 'observer' crab out of sight of a winner-loser pair - and watches its reactions. The victory display, he added, could have other functions, such as attracting passing female crabs.
For the project, Mr Chan combined high-tech acoustic analysis of the crabs' sounds with 'old-fashioned field work, staring at crabs in the mud and chasing after them', said his adviser, NUS biology Professor Peter Ng.
'Paul is smart...to join the two and use them to better understand a phenomenon mooted decades ago but never proven. And the work has also challenged conventions on what the sounds do and how crabs register sound,' Prof Ng said.
Mr Chan, who graduated this week, will be doing his PhD at NUS, also likely on face-banded crabs. 'By looking at animal behaviour, we can learn about ourselves' in areas such as communication, he said.
Straits Times 11 Jul 09;
A NIGHT trek on Pulau Ubin two years ago nearly saw the end of nature lover Ben Lee.
If not for a fellow hiker's yell of 'snake!', he would have trodden on a rare 1.8m-long banded krait - a snake 16 times more poisonous than a cobra.
To expose more people to such rare sightings and encourage them to appreciate nature, Mr Lee, 48, set up Nature Trekker Singapore in 2000.
The non-profit group organises nature walks, through which it educates its 2,968 members on the flora and fauna they see, and on the right behaviour in parks and nature reserves.
For example, trekkers are urged not to feed monkeys or release non-native animals into the wild, which can upset Singapore's bio-diversity.
The group also gives them practical advice on dealing with poachers' traps laid to catch boars, fish, birds and butterflies - that is, remove them if it is safe to do so, and inform the National Parks Board.
While on the treks, group members also photograph animals and insects and record details of sightings.
The group is managed by an eight- member committee headed by Mr Lee - nicknamed the 'octopus' for his powers of multi-tasking - and 28 volunteer leaders who help run activities. These take place on about three weekends each month and are publicised through e-mail.
Ms Vicky Khuan, 32, is one such volunteer guide who joined the group in 2007 because of her love of birds.
'I feel at home with Nature Trekker. It is teaching me how to lead bird-watching treks. Busy Singaporeans who come on my walks learn how to bird-watch and appreciate nature,' she said.
Mr Lee believes that people need to be more informed about nature to protect it.
'If the Government tries to reclaim the central catchment area for HDB flats, I hope people will stand up and speak for nature,' he said. 'I'm worried about development encroaching into nature areas. I hope that the Government will leave Pulau Ubin alone, and not build HDB flats or an MRT stop there.'
To find out more about Nature Trekker, visit www.naturetrekker.org
Straits Times Forum 11 Jul 09;
THE problem with current efforts to promote a 'green' culture is that they are often weak, isolated 'educational' attempts which pay mere lip service to environmental conservation. More targeted incentives are needed to influence people's behaviour in more substantial ways.
But saving Planet Earth should not be done in a vacuum: Environment-friendly behaviour need not be economically inefficient. One pertinent example lies in transport and urban planning.
Is public transport really the panacea to all our woes?
Two service quality indicators in public transport are journey time (compared to driving) and perceived comfort levels. According to the Land Transport Authority, we employ a 'hub and spoke' system where public feeder buses ferry commuters to transport hubs like MRT stations.
But to cover a short distance (say under 5km) to Pasir Ris MRT station, it makes no sense to spend up to 20 minutes (waiting time, journey, intermediate stops) on a bus ride to the train station, especially if the train journey to town takes only 20 minutes. It would be cheaper, faster, healthier and more comfortable if more people chose to cycle to train stations instead. SBS Transit can also save on running those bus routes. Buses have a carbon footprint too.
The problem is, we do not have a culture of cycling. In fact, cyclists are the nemesis of drivers on the roads (and vice versa) - it is extremely dangerous to cycle on the road in high traffic conditions. Staircases and overhead bridges are the bane of cyclists.
But these are not insurmountable infrastructural problems. Comprehensive bicycle lanes and bike grooves in staircases could be a solution.
In the Netherlands, bicycle lanes 'shadow' almost every road, and bicycle parking stands are found almost everywhere - they are a whole traffic system unto themselves.
My suggestion is more modest - perhaps we could build bicycle lanes along major roads which connect estates to their respective transport hubs, so the bus 'spokes' in our public transport system are replaced by their bicycle equivalents. We can then focus more on building transit capacity between transport hubs (more direct bus services to town and so on).
Building more roads and expressways stimulates and increases vehicular demand (but not necessarily reducing congestion). Similarly, building bicycle lanes would serve as a strong incentive for Singaporeans to bike and decrease vehicular traffic. Singaporeans love their cars - people drive even if the destination is a five-minute walk away. We have to make it as easy, if not easier, for Singaporeans to own, use and park bicycles.
We should also think in terms of improving the quality and liveability of our public spaces - a current theme among contemporary urban planners in the West. In addition to solving our transport problems, non-motorised transport modes allow pedestrians and cyclists to 'stop and smell the roses'. Together, this can help make Singapore a more liveable city.
Teo Yu Chou
Jessica Yeo, Channel NewsAsia 10 Jul 09;
SINGAPORE: Ten environmentally active individuals have received this year's EcoFriend Awards.
They were selected from over 280 nominations.
The awards - now in their third year - aim to recognise individuals who have contributed to environmental sustainability, and to encourage more to expand their efforts in promoting eco-friendliness.
The National Environment Agency said this year's awards also saw a significant rise in the number of youth nominees since the awards began.
Eighty-two youths were nominated this year, up from 46 in 2007.
- CNA/yb
Green team's chief gets EcoFriend award
CapitaLand initiatives help the environment and needy students too
Eisen Teo, Straits Times 11 Jul 09;
AS CHAIRMAN of property giant CapitaLand's Green Committee, Mr Wong Hooe Wai, 51, is no stranger to initiatives to save the environment.
One of the novel ideas his committee brought to fruition was an Environmental Tracking System in 2007 to monitor and regulate electricity and water usage of more than 150 CapitaLand properties worldwide, such as Raffles City in Singapore and in Chengdu, China.
But his work did not benefit only the environment. Over the past year, his Green For Hope programme encouraged 260,000 primary schoolchildren from 154 schools to recycle, helping Singapore's less fortunate in the process.
CapitaLand's Hope Foundation - its philanthropic arm - pledged $2 to school welfare funds for every 1kg of recyclable waste collected by students.
The foundation is still collating the amount earned.
Yesterday, Mr Wong's efforts were lauded as he received the National Environment Agency's (NEA) EcoFriend Award from Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim at Hort Park.
The honour was shared with nine other individuals - including Ms Tan Puay Hoon, president of the Singapore
Restroom Association, and Mr Alfred Tan, deputy director of the Building and Environment Division of the School of Engineering at Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
They were chosen from 282 nominees for initiatives in nurturing communities to care for the environment.
Honoured too was the future of local environmental conservation: Samuel Lim, 18, one of the two winners in the Youth and Student category.
The Raffles Junior College student already has five green projects under his belt, from promoting conservation awareness through fun walks, to organising an international environment conference.
He said his interest blossomed as a child: 'As I grew older, I realised that the ecology would be destroyed if we did not care for our planet.'
It is a concern shared by Mr Wong: 'It is important to promote a sustainable environment for future generations, and give back to the communities within which we operate.'
The nominees
Ong Dai Lin, Today Online 11 Jul 09;
282 nominations were received for the 2009 EcoFriend Awards, the highest number since the awards were launched in 2007.
These recognise those who have engaged the community significantly to care for and sustain the environment.
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Dr Yaacob Ibrahim presented the awards to 10 winners at a ceremony yesterday.
The winner in the public sector category is Mr Alfred Tan Chin Huat, a course manager from Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The other winners are:
1 Ms Tan Puay Hoon, president, Restroom Association (Singapore)
2 Mr Oliver Goh Koon Jeow, Member, National Youth Achievement Award Gold Award Holders Alumni
3 Mr Peter Lo Shui Sung, Chairman, Canberra Citizens' Consultative Committee Environment Committee
4 Mr Nagappan Garunaharan, Leader, Chua Chu Kang Constituency Sports Club
5 Ms Lee Wanli, Member, Ci Yuan Community Centre's Youth Executive Committee
6 Mr Samuel Lim Yong Peng, Chairperson, Raffles One Earth, Raffles Junior College
7 Mr Loke Chee Peng, Principal, Marsiling Secondary School
8 Mrs Yak-Foo Sheau Yang, Curriculum Head, Raffles Institution
Straits Times 11 Jul 09;
THE monsoon season has arrived in India, bringing rain and floods, but experts there are already warning of water shortages ahead.
Farmers in Australia and Asia are being told to brace themselves for dry spells and parched fields, a prospect that is making commodity traders jittery.
In Singapore, the National Environment Agency (NEA) says to expect drier, hotter days.
El Nino is back.
The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has confirmed the arrival of the dreaded weather phenomenon associated with warming Pacific Ocean waters.
The news on Thursday has had not just weathermen, but also traders and agricultural officials, on the alert because in the past, El Nino has wreaked meteorological havoc from Asia to America.
The last time it arrived in a big way, in 1998, it left more than 2,000 people dead and caused billions of dollars in damage to crops.
El Nino occurs on average every two to five years and typically lasts about 12 months.
Announcing its return, NOAA official Jane Lubchenco said the agency plans to provide frequent updates about El Nino-related weather conditions to industries, governments and emergency officials so that they can plan for ways to protect life, property and the economy.
The agency said the impact of El Nino is likely to strengthen over coming months before dissipating sometime early next year.
Dr Koh Tieh Yong, a climate expert at Nanyang Technological University, said the risk of forest fires in the region is increased with hotter temperatures, drier conditions and stronger winds. Haze in the region could also be a potential problem.
This El Nino is striking just as global economies are struggling to overcome the impact of the world's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression in 1929.
India is already feeling the effects. While the annual monsoon has arrived, it is weaker than usual.
Already the country's faltering sugar crop has helped drive world prices of the commodity to their highest in three years.
Rainfall has been 50 per cent below normal in the north-west from June 1 to July 8, the India Meteorological Department said this week.
In Mumbai, the authorities are considering cloud seeding to induce more rain to fill depleted reservoirs.
According to a US agricultural attache report, India may be hit by a severe drought and a poor harvest if the monsoon remains weak, with the planting season for its major crops like soya bean, rice and sugar expected to close by around mid-month.
Farther afield, an El Nino-spawned drought would pose a major risk to wheat production in Australia, affect palm oil output in major producers Malaysia and Indonesia, and hit rice production in the Philippines, the world's biggest importer of the staple.
An El Nino-induced dry spell in South America may also hit soya bean exports from Argentina and Brazil to China at a time when US soya bean stocks are at a 32-year low - less than two weeks of normal commercial supplies.
Adding to the prognosis of a rise in food prices, cocoa futures in New York on Thursday jumped more than 5 per cent amid jitters that El Nino could affect cocoa supply, much of which comes from Indonesia and West Africa.
Food output aside, a strong El Nino could also affect crude oil and natural gas markets, as the phenomenon usually means a warmer winter in the US, the world's largest oil consumer, and fewer hurricanes hitting the energy-rich US Gulf of Mexico.
Severe floods may disrupt mining operations in Chile, the world's biggest copper producer, and Peru, among others.
Peruvian fisherman originally used the term El Nino - a Spanish reference to the Christ child - to describe the warming of ocean currents off the South American coast around Christmas time.
El Nino's impact has varied according to a variety of factors, including the intensity and extent of ocean warming.
For now, weather watchers such as those at Australia's Bureau of Meteorology believe that the current one may not be as devastating as that of 1998.
'It doesn't look weak, but then again, it doesn't look like it will be at the levels of 1997/98 either,' said the bureau's Andrew Watkins in Sydney.
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG
Ong Dai Lin, Today Online 11 Jul 09;
FOR some 260,000 children in 154 primary schools all over Singapore, recycling is not only about saving the environment but also about raising money to help needy students.
In July last year, CapitaLand teamed up with the schools on a year-long project to donate $2 to each school's welfare fund for every kilogramme of recyclable waste collected.
The cash amount that each school can receive is capped at $10,000.
Until December last year, the students collected a total of 321,000 kgs of recyclable waste.
The top three schools which collected the most recyclable waste will receive an additional cash prize of $5,000, $3,000 and $2,000 respectively.
Sembawang Primary School is one participating school.
Every morning, members of its Green Club will be stationed at the school's recycling weighing corner to weigh the newspapers brought in by students for recycling.
Principal of Sembawang Primary, Mr Albert Alcantara, told Today the school has collected 6,030 kgs of recyclable waste from last July to December and has received $10,000 from CapitaLand.
He said: "Funds to help underprivileged students with basic education expenses is always a definite help ... The money is used to help students with transport cost, purchase of school uniform, PE attire and shoes, and meals over and above MOE's (Ministry for Education) breakfast scheme."
CapitaLand's Green for Hope project ended last month and the final amount of recyclable waste collected by the schools is still being tallied.
For driving the Green for Hope project and other green initiatives projects by CapitaLand, chairman of CapitaLand's Green Committee and senior vice president of CapitaLand's Design and Development Department, Mr Wong Hooe Wai, was awarded the 2009 EcoFriend Award by the National Environment Agency yesterday. This was in the private sector category.
The 51-year-old's "green" roots dates back to the mid-1980s when he was an architect, he went to York University in the United Kingdom to learn about the conservation of historic buildings. To him, the awareness on the need to conserve the environment, was another important takeaway.
Other green initiatives that he is working on in CapitaLand include placing customised recycling bins in CapitaLand's malls, offices and serviced residences.
On the Green for Hope project, Mr Wong said: "Response to the year-long project was very encouraging and the schools were very forthcoming and eager in their participation."
A vision of the future?
Esther Ng, Today Online 11 Jul 09;
IT MAY take till 2011 before mainstream manufacturers roll out their first vehicles, but the race to put electric cars on Singapore's roads is already heating up.
Having increased his fleet from one to five, The Green Car Company managing director Clarence Tan, 25, told Today he is moving onto to the next stage of test-bedding, months ahead of Nissan and Renault's plans to take part in the Energy Market Authority's $20-million test-bedding trial. The fund was launched in May.
And last week, Mitsubishi was the latest manufacturer to showcase its first electric car in Singapore. It also pledged to join the national trial.
Even as the electric vehicle scene revs up, it will not be as simple as putting more of these prototypes on the road, car companies added. "There's the charging infrastructure to consider - we need to build that (and) find which type of batteries perform best in our hot tropical weather and so on," said Mr Tan, who has been evaluating battery performance the past two years.
In the next part of his study, his Singapore-based company hopes to boost the current range of his NMG (No More Gas) car from 50km to 120km and to switch from lead acid batteries to lithium batteries so as to increase battery life from three years to six.
Another firm, Ample, has similar plans.
Founded by former Chartered Semiconductor employee Lim Kian Wee, it will be testing an electric Sports Utility Vehicle on the roads next month with Nanyang Polytechnic and National University of Singapore.
It is also looking at R&D for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, among other technology.
The company, based in Singapore and California, plans to mass-market plug-in vehicle technology from 2010.
Infrastructure, for which EMA's fund will be largely used, will be key, though.
"We need to work out the charging points, which technology to use, how do we improve battery charging times ... There are so many things to test-bed before electric vehicles become a norm," said NUS mechanical engineering associate professor Wong Yoke San, who is working with Ample.
But why have mainstream manufacturers not committed to a definite date for test-bedding their cars? An EMA spokesperson said, "It's not that car manufacturers are reluctant to take part, but they're not sure when the cars will come on line. A lot of these cars are prototype models."
Electricity generated from panels will meet part of terminal's lighting needs
Karamjit Kaur, Straits Times 11 Jul 09;
CHANGI Airport will plug into solar power to meet some of the Budget Terminal's electricity needs starting from next month.
The local arm of Germany-based Phoenix Solar beat 18 contenders to bag the $1.6 million contract to build photovoltaic (PV) panels on the terminal's rooftop. They will capture sunlight during the day, which will be converted into usable electricity.
When completed in the middle of next year, the project will cover an area of about 2,500 sq m - the size of nine tennis courts. The panels should generate in excess of 280,000 kilowatt-hours a year, a Phoenix Solar spokesman in Germany told The Straits Times. That is enough to power more than 40 five-room flats for a year.
A spokesman for Changi Airport Group said the electricity generated would meet part of the terminal's lighting needs. She did not specify how much.
This venture is the first time Phoenix Solar - which also has offices in Australia, Spain and Greece - is partnering an airport.
The work being done at Changi is part of a larger drive by Singapore to embark on viable green technologies.
Earlier this year, when the airport announced plans to embark on the solar energy project, there were questions raised about the cost-effectiveness of such an initiative.
Although Phoenix Solar would not reveal how much the PV panels cost, a panel that can produce a kilowatt of energy - or the power needed to boil a kettle of water - reportedly costs about $10,000.
Changi Airport has said that the project will not only save energy but also help lower the airport's carbon footprint through the use of clean energy.
The effort is supported by the Economic Development Board's (EDB) Clean Energy Research and Testbedding Programme.
Data gathered from the project will be used by the Singapore Polytechnic for further research on solar energy systems in Singapore.
In May, the EDB said it had given out $8 million in grants for public and private solar projects that will develop Singapore's expertise in the technology.
The Government has set aside a $68 million kitty to test-bed solar projects and to develop local skills in preparation for mass adoption of the technology when it becomes cheaper.
Joanna Seow, Straits Times 11 Jul 09;
THE shift towards green and clean energy sources will provide plenty of opportunities for investors, according to market observers.
Mr Francois Nguyen, director and senior policy adviser for electricity markets at the International Energy Agency (IEA), said concerns over climate change and energy security combined with technological advances are creating 'very significant potential for investment in renewables'.
He told the Nomura Asia Equity Forum this week that the financial crisis has caused some difficulty in financing renewable energy projects, but he sees this as a temporary setback.
'Over the long run, the total investment in renewables worldwide would total about US$3.3 trillion (S$4.8 trillion), and that would be higher than the investment in fossil fuel power plants,' he added.
Singapore-based investor Jim Rogers agreed that sources of alternative energy are 'going to have a fantastic future'.
He told the forum that demand for energy is increasing, especially in fast-growing countries such as China and India. Yet energy supply and productive capacity are in decline. These are two factors that will drive up prices.
'The IEA says that even after discoveries, oilfields around the world are declining at a rate of 6.7 per cent a year. So 20 to 25 years down the road, there'll be no oil at any price,' said Mr Rogers.
He added that in this period of 'huge forced liquidity', governments around the world are printing large amounts of money. Historically, this has always led to higher prices all round, so it is likely that energy prices will go up, which is why he is bullish on the market.
Mr Nguyen said the share of renewable and nuclear energy in the global power sector will grow from about one- third now to two-thirds by 2050.
He added that one of the advantages of investing in nuclear power is that the cost of generating it is less vulnerable to fluctuations in fuel costs.
He pointed to China, India and the United States as the major potential markets for nuclear reactors.
Mr Rogers, who founded a commodities index, added that 'commodities have been and will continue to be a better place to be, on a fundamental basis, than stocks'. He is also optimistic about agriculture, as products such as sugar, cotton and coffee are performing at 50 to 80 per cent below their all-time highs, and have plenty of room to rise.
This sector includes biofuels, which tie in with his bullish outlook on new energy sources. 'Whether we like it or not, the world is going to have to make huge investments in alternative energy,' he said.
The Jakarta Post 11 Jul 09;
In the process of day-to-day living, people produce waste. In ancient times, waste could have been animal bones, while today it could be plastic bags or any inorganic materials that take hundreds of years to decompose.
Waste has been a major problem for many countries around the globe, including Singapore. Singapore's waste has been increasing rapidly due to the massive development in the country over the last few decades.
According to the country's National Environment Agency, in 1970, a total of 460,000 tons of waste was disposed of, while in 2008, the number reached 2.62 million tons.
This growth in solid waste increases demands on the capacity of the waste management system, disposal facilities and the environment.
One of the ways of handling the waste was to build incineration plants at Ulu Pandan, Senoko, Tuas and Tuas South to treat thousands of tons of incinerable garbage.
For instance, the Tuas South Incineration Plant (TSIP), the biggest incineration plant located in an industrial area, burns up 3,000 tons of waste daily, says Poh Soon Hoong, the plant's general manager.
It uses an advanced combustion control system at a temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius to achieve a complete burnout of the waste.
The gas is later cleaned in a catalytic fabric filter system before being released through the two 150-meter-tall chimneys.
"We ensure the gas produced from the incineration process meets stringent emission standards, so it's safe," Poh says.
Although incineration can reduce the volume of incinerable waste, he goes on, the government still needs to build a landfill for non-incinerable waste and the ash resulting from the incineration process.
Due to a lack of land, the Singaporean government later decided to build the offshore Semakau Island sanitary landfill.
There is a widely held perception among the public that a landfill is dirty, smelly and cannot be categorized as an interesting place to visit, as it has mountains of waste.
But the Semakau landfill, located 8 kilometers south of Singapore, belies this image.
The place is clean, has green spaces and even offers interesting recreational spots.
"Years ago, we had a dirty and smelly landfill in Lorong Halus with mountains of garbage in it," says Ong Chong Peng, general manager of the Semakau landfill.
"We later decided to close the landfill, burying the waste under soil."
The landfill has been in operation since April 1, 1999, right after the closure of the Lorong Halus landfill. Semakau currently receives 1,500 tons of incineration ash and 500 tons of non-incinerable waste via the Tuas Marine Transfer Station on a daily basis, says Lim Cheng Choon, a senior engineer at the Environment Technology Office.
The facility is built offshore due to limited land and covers a total area of 350 hectares, with an incineration capacity of 63 million cubic meters.
It was built at a cost of S$610 million (US$419 million) and is expected to meet Singapore's solid waste disposal needs until 2040.
The city-state will eventually create an island made almost entirely from trash when the landfill has reached its full capacity.
Ash from incineration plants and non-incinerable waste, such as construction and renovation debris, are disposed of at the landfill, says Ong. The government also applies a trial use of the ash for road construction on the island.
A perimeter bund, lined with an impermeable membrane, marine clay and rock layers, has been erected around the landfill to contain any possible leachate (liquid that drains or leaches from landfill) within the landfill areas, so that surrounding waters are kept free of any pollutants.
"Water samples are collected every month from the monitoring wells along the perimeter bund and sent to an external laboratory for water analysis," says the Environment Technology Office's Lim.
"This will ensure water quality is in compliance with regulatory standards."
The landfill is also surrounded by mangrove thickets, which are home to a wide variety of plant and animal life.
Two mangrove stands covering 136,000 square meters, or more than 400,000 mangroves, were replanted to replace those affected during the landfill's construction.
In July 2005, the landfill was opened to the public in an effort to raise people's awareness about environmental protection and waste management.
Ong says some hobby groups often visit the landfill, including the Sport Fishing Association, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, and the Astronomical Society of Singapore.
From fishing and inter-tidal walking to bird watching, the place is an interesting one to spend time with the family.
Visitors can also enjoy night activities, like stargazing, barbecuing and camping on the island, since the landfill management installed "green" electricity through wind turbines and solar panels to light up the southern part of the area.
People can go to the landfill by taking boats from the Pasir Panjang or West Coast ferry terminals.
Besides using incineration and landfills to deal with waste, the government has also promoted recycling and waste reduction to cut down on the need for the aforementioned waste management system.
Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore's minister of environment and water resources, once said, "Don't call it waste. Call it resources, because you can always turn waste into energy.
"When people are able to recycle and look at waste as a potential energy, then we treat it differently."
- Triwik Kurniasari
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post 10 Jul 09;
The Tangerang administration is likely to collaborate in a garbage management system at the Ciangir waste processing plan with the Jakarta administration after the former administration conducts a comparative study in Singapore.
"Seeing is believing. We have to obtain enough information about garbage processing systems with zero waste that Singapore have been applying," Tangerang regent Ismet Iskandar said Thursday.
Therefore, the administration has sent a team to Singapore to conduct a comparative study of several waste processing plants in Singapore.
Ismet said the team comprising the head of Tangerang's Sanitation and Parks Agency, Herry Heryanto, the head of the development planning body, Benyamin Davnie, and several other officials departed for Singapore Thursday amid protests voiced by Ciangir residents.
According to Ismet, the team will see directly how the Singaporean government burns its rubbish with incinerators.
Ismet said the Tangerang regency is still considering a cooperative agreement with the Jakarta administration to jointly build an integrated waste processing plant in Ciangir village, Legok district.
"There are so many aspects that we need to consider carefully regarding the short and long term environmental impacts that may arise, before we enter a cooperative agreement with Jakarta," Ismet said.
Pollution will be inevitable, the health of residents living along the road near the plant may also be put at risk as garbage trucks always leave dust and putrid smells in their wake, not to mention road safety concerns for the locals with all the passing trucks.
Residents of Ciangir village said they opposed the plan.
"The administration should have involved the locals in the decision making on the planned integrated waste processing plant because the plant will directly affect their lives," Suherdi, head of the village said.
He said community members should have had the final say.
"The decision of whether or not the garbage processing plant can be built here should not be in the hands of the administration officials, regardless of whether they conduct a comparative study in Singapore. It *the decision* must be made by the residents," he emphasized.
Muhamad Parta, the chairman of the village representative body said the administration should also involve at least two of the village representatives in the comparative study.
"Why not? We need to know what waste management systems the administration intends to apply in Ciangir,"
The Jakarta Post 11 Jul 09;
The sixth century philosopher, Lao-Tzu said, "There is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things. For this reason, there is no substitute of it."
Leonardo da Vinci said that water was the driving force of nature.
These two people lived in different times, in places thousands of kilometers apart, but had similar thoughts about water, as an important natural resources on earth.
Singapore, which has limited sources of water, is trying to make the most of them. Not only it collects every drop of water but it also treats used water and turns it into drinking water through the Changi Water Reclamation Plant (CWRP).
The plant is part of the country's Deep Tunnel Sewerage System (DTSS) which was conceived to meet Singapore's needs for the collection, treatment and disposal of used water over the next 100 years.
CWRP can treat 800,000 cubic meters or about 320 Olympic size pools of used water daily, said Yong Wei Hin, assistant director of the CWRP of the Public Utilities Board.
DTSS he said, is a 50-kilometer sewerage system running 20 to 55 meters underneath Singapore that links an extensive network of sewers from homes and industries into centralized water reclamation plants.
"The system, which is being developed in two stages, will first convey used water from the northern and eastern parts of Singapore to the CWRP for treatment," said Yong.
The second phase, he added, which will take over 10 to 20 years to implement will then serve the used water needs of the western part of the island republic.
"Treated used water will later be discharged into the Singapore Straits through outfall pipes or channeled to the NEWater plant for further purification," said Yong. NEWater is Singapore's own brand of recycled water.
Yong said the treated used water from CRWP was a vital feedstock for large-scale production of NEWater.
"Singapore's fifth and largest NEWater plant is currently being built on the rooftop of the water reclamation plant, and together with existing plant, the country will have enough NEWater capacity to meet one-third of its water needs by 2010," he said.
By collecting every drop of used water to be treated and purified into NEWater, the DTSS hopes to ensure adequate water supply for Singaporeans for many years to come.
The CWRP plant include a deep pumping station, a sludge dryer and a covered plant with odor control.
Yong said CWRP used technologies ensuring that all processes were environmentally friendly.
Bio-gas produced from the water reclamation process is harvested as fuel to dry up the sludge, a semi-liquid residue from the treatment process. This minimizes the amount of waste produced by the plant.
Yong said there were about 50 local and overseas contractors and consultants, as well as 300 subcontractors and suppliers involved in the construction and engineering of the project.
- Triwik Kurniasari
The Jakarta Post 11 Jul 09;
Singapore hosted the Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) for the second time, June 28 to July 2. With the theme "Sustainable Cities -Infrastructure and Technologies for Water", the event invited various groups interested in achieving water sustainability, including municipal leaders and businesspeople. The event comprised of an expo, leaders' summit, conventions and business forums. To promote the event in Indonesia, the event committee invited The Jakarta Post's Triwik Kurniasari. This is what she learned.
Many problems persist in providing potable water in most country's in the Asia-Pacific region, as the development of water sources is not keeping pace with population growth and projected demand.
Strong economic growth in the region and population pressures, compounded by increased urbanization, have led to a sharp rise in the use of treated water. Pollution and climate change meanwhile pose ever present threats to the precious resource.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) reported that in 2004, 635 million people in the Asia-Pacific region did not have access to safe drinking water. These are some of the 1.86 billion people that currently do not have access to adequate sanitation.
The huge number of slum areas in the region complicates the problem.
According to the ADB's latest data, the Asia-Pacific region has 554 million slum dwellers: 64 percent of the global total. At least 40 percent of these people also lack access to piped water or sanitation services.
"This demographic requires investment and infrastructure and service deliverance in resource management," said Anthony Jude, director of energy and water division of ADB's Southeast Asia Department.
"From a regional perspective, I can tell you that urban and rural water supply and sanitation are priority areas for the ADB in Southeast Asia."
The forum was attended by delegations from a number of Southeast Asian nations including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR).
In Indonesia, the ADB works hand-in-hand with the government to develop metropolitan sanitation infrastructure and projects that will improve public health, reduce pollution and better the lives of the people. They also work to improve wastewater collection, sanitation services and treatment and solid waste management.
Mayor of Palembang Eddy Santana Putra, who represented Indonesia at the forum, said the capital of South Sumatra lacks the technical assistance and technology needed to improve water services.
"We currently provide 85 percent of our residents with clean water, but we need more trained experts to improve our water management," he said, adding that the administration hopes to increase supply to 95 percent of residents by 2012.
He said that during the SIWW, members of the Palembang administration received training from Singapore's Public Utilities Board on how to control water revenue and detect leaks.
The administration, Eddy said, is in the process of installing new water pipes to expand capacity and reach new areas.
"Although we have plenty of water, we are encouraging people to save more water, consume it wisely and efficiently, and keep water resources *rivers* clean, because we might face water scarcity in the next five or 10 years. We will never know," he said.
He said that he aimed to lessen the rate of water consumption, which stands at 200 liters per person, per day.
Meanwhile, sewage and sanitation systems remain a major problem, with septic tanks being the predominant method of waste management in Palembang.
"Palembang and other big cities in Indonesia, including Jakarta, are behind in sewage systems," said Eddy. "We should learn from other countries about how to manage the wastewater and treat it properly."
Cambodia, which has an area of more than 181,000 square kilometers, also struggles to supply water to its 13 million citizens.
Ek Son Chan, general director of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, said that as of 2005, 68 percent of Cambodia's urban population and 30 percent of its rural population had access to clean water.
"We have set a target of increasing the number to 74 percent in urban areas and 40 percent in rural areas by 2010," he said.
In a bid to achieve this goal, the Cambodian government has set aside US$70.4 million to achieve a production capacity of 10,000 cubic meters per day and lay 195 kilometers of pipes by the end of this year.
"In 2015, we will undergo the second project with a production capacity of 130,000 cubic meter per day and 195 kilometers of distribution networks," Ek said.
The Lao PDR is meanwhile aiming to provide clean water to its 5.8 million people.
As of 2008, Sommad Pholsena, the Minister of Communications, Transportation, Post and Construction, said the country supplied more than 83 million cubic meters of clean water to serve 825,500 citizens, or nearly 140,000 households in 54 towns and villages.
The country, he said, has 61 water treatment plants. In urban areas, 51 percent of the population is served.
"We target to increase the availability of safe and piped water to 80 percent of the urban population by 2020," Sommad said.
He said that the Lao government had plans to expand services, with a focus on poor areas, in cities across the country, including the capital of Vientiane, secondary towns like Pakse, Kaysone, Thakhek and Luangprabang, as well as small towns that do not have piped water.
Brunei Darussalam, which supplies safe, potable water to 100 percent of its 385,000 citizens, is nonetheless also building infrastructure including dams, treatment plants, reservoirs, pipe mains and storm drains and improving technology to cater for growing demand.
The ADB is working to assist governments in the Asia-Pacific region to provide clean water through the Water Financing Program 2006-2010, which is expected to provide more than 95.5 million people access to safe drinking water and improved sanitation.
ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda encouraged governments in Asia and the Pacific to continue to invest in water infrastructure in spite of the economic crisis lest they face fundamental threats to economic growth and social development.
Kuroda said economic recessions could present opportunities, noting that a shortage of public funding for water sector infrastructure could be filled by the private sector.
The Jakarta Globe 10 Jul 09;
Dumai, Riau. Thousands of Dumai residents are suffering from acute respiratory problems as a result of the thick haze that has blanketed the city for the last two months, a senior health official said on Friday.
Marjoko Santoso, the head of the Dumai health service’s environmental health and disease control unit, said the number of people suffering from respiratory problems had sharply increased due to the haze.
“From June to the first week of July, the local health service reported 2,663 Dumai residents suffering from acute respiratory problems,” he told state-run news agency Antara on Friday.
Marjoko said the haze, which has covered Dumai for the last two months, came from forest and plantation fires.
“The number of respiratory cases this year is significant, with around 500 patients a week, bringing the number to 2,663 people,” he said.
Marjoko said 2,028 people suffered from coughing and flu, 38 from pneumonia, 36 from asthma, 30 from eye irritations, 263 from skin irritations, and 68 from conjunctivitis.
Before the haze settled over the city, he said there were about 400 reported cases of respiratory problems each month, but that number had increased significantly, especially among children.
He encouraged residents to stay at home. “People should not go out if it is not urgent, but if you must go out please use face masks because the haze is extraordinarily thick,” Marjoko said.
Haze reduced visibility to just five meters on Friday morning. Pinang Kampi airport in Dumai was closed on Thursday because haze reduced visibility to less than 300 meters.
The haze was so thick in Riau this week that health officials distributed masks to residents in several districts.
According to data from Pekanbaru’s Meteorology and Geophysics Agency, there are at least 10 districts in Riau that have been affected by haze from forest fires this month. The 10 districts are Rokan Hilir, Pelalawan, Bengkalis, Indragiri Hulu, Rokan Hulu, Indragiri Hilir, Siak, Dumai, Kampar and Kuantan Singingi.
The State Ministry for the Environment has promised to conduct an investigation into the fires.
Antara
Riau city on highest level haze alert
The Jakarta Post 11 Jul 09;
Riau province's city of Dumai has declared a state of highest alert over thickening smog created by the annual burning of forest and land, Antara news agency has reported.
“We are also calling out the people to wear face-mask when outdoor and to be cautious of health problem related to the haze,” said Dumai deputy mayor Sunaryo on Saturday.
More than 2,600 Dumai residents are suffering from respiratory problem due to thicker haze in the area over the past one month.
Local health agency reported that the number of sufferers had increased significantly, especially among children.
The haze has reduced visibility to only 5 meters and forcing the closure if airports in Pekanbaru and Dumai. (dre)
Errol Oh feels that plantation industry should focus on raising ‘green’ palm oil production, not sales.
Errol Oh, The Star 11 Jul 09;
DOES business always have to be a tug of war between lucre and the greater good? We know the answer to that. It’s ridiculous to suggest that profits and altruism are mutually exclusive. We have seen time and time again that companies can be caring and competitive at the same time.
And there’s stark logic in the argument for sustainable business practices – if businesses continue gobbling up natural resources and harming the environment, there will eventually be nothing to sell or worse still, nobody to sell to.
This is the reality today. No industry can afford to ignore its social, economic and environmental impact. The palm oil industry recognises this. That’s why the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was set up in 2004. Says the organisation’s website, “RSPO is a not-for-profit association that unites stakeholders from seven sectors of the palm oil industry – oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and social or developmental NGOs – to develop and implement global standards for sustainable palm oil.”
Such an initiative cannot take off the ground without the support of the plantation companies. Fortunately, the Malaysian Palm Oil Association is a RSPO member and so are large local players such as Felda, Sime Darby Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd, IOI Corp Bhd and United Plantations Bhd.
Malaysian companies are among the first to be certified by independent bodies for conformance with RSPO’s principles and criteria, either on a company-wide basis or for parts of their operations.
These include United Plantations (the first, in August last year), Kulim (M) Bhd, Sime Darby, PPB Oil Palms Sdn Bhd and IOI Corp,
It has been a decent start for what is obviously a long journey towards the broad production and use of sustainable palm oil.
Yet, there has been some noise lately about the lukewarm market response to palm oil certified under RSPO’s audit programme, the so-called ‘green’ palm oil. The chief complaint is that the buyers in the West, who have clamoured for sustainable palm oil, are not willing to pay more for green palm oil.
When United Plantations shipped its first batch of green palm oil to Europe last November, the commodity was said to have been sold at a premium of US$50 per tonne. The premium has since narrowed to US$20. According to a WWF report in May, only 1% of the sustainable palm oil available on the market had been bought.
On Tuesday, Malaysian Palm Oil Council chief executive officer Tan Sri Yusof Basiron came out swinging in an interview on the subject.
“We have been led down the path of false hope in selling environmentally certified palm oil, and now the buyers are not keen on paying for the premium,” he told Reuters.
“It’s clear that all these demands from the NGOs to be environmentally sustainable, which we obviously have been for many years and decades, are just trade barriers in disguise.”
He had more fighting words to offer: “The market signal is very clear. We can supply at a premium but if buyers are clearly not interested, the palm oil suppliers will have to change tack. This is still a business, after all.”
He is right; palm oil cultivation is a business. But it’s also a business that’s accustomed to 25-year planting cycles. In other words, the industry should know a thing or two about adopting a long-term view.
It has been less than a year since green palm oil began flowing into the market. Isn’t it too soon to even think about giving up on the RSPO? Yes, the consumer goods manufacturers may be dragging their feet in backing up their commitment to sustainable palm oil, but at this point, what they do or don’t do is secondary.
This is a time for the plantation players to step up to the plate and keep their end of the bargain. The ability to sell palm oil at a premium is a nice carrot, but we should be focusing on the stick. The palm oil industry stands to lose the most if it prematurely abandons the RSPO certification systems.
Palm oil has been the whipping boy of NGOs because of allegations that the industry’s expansion contributes to global warming, the death of orangutans, dislocation of indigenous people and other ills. The protests and bad publicity threaten to turn into a political and consumer storm that will depress demand for the commodity.
The plantation industry has all along claimed that most of its players already employ sustainable practices, but that won’t fly when there’s a groundswell of scepticism. An independent certification mechanism is necessary and that’s precisely why the RSPO was formed.
Boosting green palm oil sales shouldn’t be an industry priority right now; it should be looking at increasing green palm oil production. The aim ought to be to have nothing but green palm oil in the market. Is that a sure-fire business strategy? Maybe not, but it’s unquestionably the right thing to do.
As cynical as he often is – it’s a job hazard – deputy business editor Errol Oh still believes that good things happen to those who do good things.
Peter Griffiths, Reuters 10 Jul 09;
LONDON (Reuters) - Deep in the world's tropical rainforests, workers are hammering thousands of barcodes into hardwood trees to help in the fight against illegal logging, corruption and global warming.
The plastic tags, like those on supermarket groceries, have been nailed to a million trees across Africa, southeast Asia and South America to help countries keep track of timber reserves.
Helveta, the British company behind the technology, says the barcodes will help firms comply with tough laws on importing sustainable timber into the United States and Europe.
They could also play a role in fighting deforestation, which accounts for about a fifth of global emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide. The issue will feature in global climate talks in Copenhagen in December.
"We bring transparency and visibility where historically that has probably been limited at best," Patrick Newton, Helveta's chief executive officer, told Reuters.
The company, which has just secured another 3 million pounds ($4.88 million) in funding from investors, has put barcodes on trees across the world, including in Bolivia, Ghana, Indonesia, Liberia, Malaysia and Peru.
The computerized system is less prone to fraud than traditional paper records, carries live data and can help governments to collect more timber taxes, Newton said.
While the barcodes can't prevent criminals from chopping down trees, the system makes it hard for them to process, sell or export the wood, Newton said.
Officials in remote forests use handheld computers to scan the tags from the moment a tree is felled to its processing and export, and the live data is put onto Helveta's secure database.
Every tree above a certain size in a plantation is given an individual barcode. When a tree is cut down, another barcode is attached to the stump and more tags are nailed to the processed wood to allow customs officials to audit exports at the docks.
Government officials and companies can track individual trees through the supply chain and view computerized maps of forests on the database. Timber leaving a forest or factory without tags will immediately be viewed as illegal, Newton said.
DOUBLE IMPACT
Illegal logging costs timber-producing countries 7 billion euros ($10 billion) a year in stolen wood, lost taxes and lower prices for legally-sourced products, the World Bank estimates.
It also takes an environmental toll. Damage to forests raises the risk of fires, flooding and damage to plants and trees that act as a "sink" to soak up carbon dioxide, Britain's Meteorological Office said in a report last year.
Helveta hopes its technology could help countries taking part in a proposed scheme to protect the world's forests as part of the fight against global warming. That is likely to form part of any global climate deal agreed in Copenhagen in December.
The scheme, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), aims to increase forest cover to soak up carbon dioxide emissions blamed for rising seas, extreme weather and melting glaciers.
It may include a market-based element where traders buy and sell REDD credits from forestry projects that lock away carbon.
However, trading based on the number of trees in a forest needs close auditing if the market is to work, Helveta says.
"The problem with forests is that it is very hard to validate what is truly out there," Newton said. "If you are trying to back that asset...you need to be able to make sure that what you think is securitized is really there."
(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Yahoo News 10 Jul 09;
DAKAR (AFP) – A four tonne sperm whale and eight dolphins have been washed up on Senegal beaches over the past month, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) said Friday.
The mammals were washed up a year after the mystery over 100 whales that were beached north of the Senegal capital Dakar. Forty-eight were rescued and put back to sea.
The dead sperm whale washed up on the beach at Ngasobil, in the Mbour region on Wednesday, WWF official Mamadou Diallo told AFP. It was probably killed in a collision with a boat, he added.
The eight dolphins washed up on a beach at Tivaouane Peulh, north of Dakar. The WWF believes they were killed by a red seaweed which has spread "at an extraordinary rate" on the coast, Diallo said.
"The seaweed contains a toxin that is deadly for fish and dolphins," he said.
Jason Dearen, Associated Press Yahoo News 11 Jul 09;
SAN FRANCISCO – A fast-growing kelp from the Far East has spread along the California coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay, worrying marine scientists and outpacing eradication efforts.
In May, scientists for the first time found the invasive seaweed called Undaria pinnatifida clinging to docks at a yacht harbor in San Francisco Bay, fouling boat hulls and pier pilings.
"I was walking in San Francisco Marina, and that's when I saw the kelp attached to a boat," said Chela Zabin, a biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Tiburon, Calif.
"It was 6-foot long, and there is nothing here in the bay that gets to that size," Zabin said. "I didn't want to believe what it was, it's depressing."
Before Zabin's discovery, ocean scientists believed the northward spread of the invasive kelp had been stopped at Monterey Bay. But last year, federal funding used to buy equipment for volunteer divers dried up, reducing the number of people working on eradication.
The seaweed — known as wakame by Japanese food lovers and used in miso soup — was first discovered in Los Angeles Harbor in 2000.
A year later, the kelp, which can grow an inch a day as it creates dense underwater forests, showed up at Catalina Island, off the Los Angeles coastline, and Monterey Bay.
Studies have concluded the kelp was likely introduced to California by accidental transport on shipments of oysters, vessel hulls and people who cultivated it in the region for cooking.
On Thursday, four divers spent hours at Pier 40 on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf peeling pieces of kelp off of the docks, yachts and pier pilings. But few believe the effort removed all traces of the seaweed. Scientists will be checking monthly for signs of further spread.
"On any invasion, the window of opportunity to successfully eradicate that species is usually narrow," said Steve Lonhart, one of the divers and a senior scientist with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
"You want to do it as soon as it becomes established. The longer you wait, the less chance for success," he said.
The seaweed concerns marine biologists because it can damage fragile ocean ecosystems by choking off the sunlight needed by native kelps. The native kelp forests provide key habitat for otters, fish and other marine life.
The seaweed spreads by releasing millions of spores that can be dispersed by currents in the open ocean, but in a protected marina lighter currents could slow its reach. While it is native to Japan, China and Korea, studies have found the kelp in the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Coast of Europe, New Zealand and Argentina.
"If it's restricted to two docks in the marinas in San Francisco Bay, we'll have a chance," Zabin said. "If it's spread beyond those places, it may be a lost cause."
Because of its wide range, it has been nominated as among 100 of the world's worst invaders, according to the Global Invasive Species Database.
Though Thursday's dive may remove the immediate threat to the bay, Lonhart believes they are fighting a losing battle against a persistent pest.
"In 10 years I'm guessing Undaria is going to be all over the place. It's not a problem getting smaller in scope, it's getting worse and worse," he said.
Scientists say the waters from Baja California to British Columbia are the perfect temperature for Undaria to spread even further up the Pacific Coast of the United States.
For about six years, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration had organized monthly volunteer diving efforts to yank the stubborn kelp out of Monterey harbor to help root out the kelp.
The program helped, but it failed to stop the kelp from entering San Francisco Bay, scientists say.
"This is not well studied enough, and we're really quite nervous about it getting out in the ecosystem," Zabin said. "It will attach to about anything."
Yahoo News 11 Jul 09;
PARIS (AFP) – The eastern lobe of the disaster-struck Aral Sea seems to have shrunk by four-fifths in just three years, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Friday.
It released an overlay of photographs taken by one of its Earth observation satellites, Envisat, on July 1 2006 and July 6 2009.
Once the world's fourth-largest inland body of water but now a byword for ecological calamity, the Aral Sea has been retreating over the last half-century after rivers that fed it were diverted for Soviet cotton irrigation projects.
Around two decades ago, it split into the Small Aral Sea in the north, located in Kazakhstan, and the Large Aral Sea, shared by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
The horseshoe-shaped Large Aral Sea began to split into eastern and western lobes, in 2000.
"The eastern lobe retreated substantially between 2006 and 2009," ESA said in a press release.
"It appears to have lost about 80 percent of its water since the 2006 (image) acquisition, at which time the eastern lobe had a length of about 150 kilometres (93 miles) and a width of about 70 kms (43 miles)."
The Large Aral Sea is expected to dry out completely by 2020, it added.
Efforts are under way to save the far smaller northern part, thanks to the Kok-Aral dike, a project of the World Bank and Kazakhstan government.
Since the barrier was completed in 2005, water level in the northern section has risen by four metres (13 feet).
The desiccation of the Aral Sea is considered by some experts to be the worst man-made ecological catastrophe ever, but one that also has had huge implications for human well-being.
Fishing and other shoreline industries that once thrived have been destroyed. Each year, tens of thousands of tons of salt-laced dust blow from the dried-up seabed, much of it contaminated by pesticides, affecting health.
Colin Barras, New Scientist 10 Jul 09;
A bout of gawky prototypes have taken to the water for the first time in recent weeks, signalling a new assault on a decades-old problem: how to generate power from the oceans.
While most wind turbines look much the same, the contest to tap that power is more like wacky races than Formula 1. A suite of varied designs are under development in an attempt to work out the most efficient way to generate juice in the harsh chemical and physical environment of the waves and tides.
Dedicated research into renewable energy at sea truly began during the oil crisis of the 1970s. But progress towards harnessing the estimated 1 million gigawatt-hours of globally available ocean power has been slow, according to the World Energy Council.
Pelamis, the world's first commercial wave "farm" utilises three 150-metre-long jointed steel structures that flex to drive hydraulic generators and produce 750 kilowatts of power each.
Perhaps surprisingly, this renewable-power milestone off the north coast of Portugal only began operations only last year. Now, though, a suite of rivals are hard on its tail.
Sea snake
One even looks similar. The AnacondaMovie Camera, designed by UK firm Checkmate Seaenergy, is a giant snake-like device made of rubber rather than steel.
Waves passing over the water-filled tube squeeze it and generate a "bulge wave" inside that spins a generator as it reaches the tail. The final design is intended to be 7 metres wide and 200 metres long; trials with a 1/25th-scale recently took place.
Anaconda's developers say a full-sized device could power 1000 average homes when operational. This should be around 2014, they say.
Pole dancing
Another class of wave-harvesters are based around an entirely different concept – floats.
"The easiest way to get power from waves is to use a float attached to pole that drives a linear generator," says Hugh-Peter Kelly of UK-based Trident Energy, who is sceptical that Pelamis-style joints and hydraulics can last long in a corrosive ocean environment.
But even this basic idea has been developed into a surprising range of final designs.
Kelly's firm uses float with a hydrofoil shape that produce lift and an extra boost of power as waves pass by.
"That helps us extract 50 per cent more energy than using a similar sized traditional float," Kelly says.
The buoys each contain a linear generator that moves magnets past one another to make electricity. Each Trident Energy rig could generate up to 1 megawatt, says Kelly, and a test installation will begin its first sea trial off the Suffolk coast, UK, this summer.
Dive for cover
Other buoys are designed to stay underwater, where they can avoid the roughest sea conditions.
A float system installed near Fremantle, in Western Australia last year, pumps seawater through pipes and to onshore hydroturbines where they are out of reach of the corrosive, damaging sea. The CETO system has performed well so far and the first commercial plant is planned for later in 2009. The company say a 5-hectare array of the buoys could generate 50 megawatts of power.
Back in the northern hemisphere Archimedes Waveswing is another underwater buoy, designed by UK firm AWS Ocean Energy.
Each stays at least 6 metres below the surface and has an upper section that can move up and down like a piston relative to the lower section. That compresses the gas inside the hollow buoy as a wave peak passes, releasing it when the trough arrives. The gas inside is squeezed through a generator inside each buoy, and 100 could power 55,000 typical homes, says the firm.
Go with the flow
Several new tidal power schemes have also benefited from a surge in interest to enter the water in recent months.
A fixed platform mounted with two turbines was installed in the tidal currents of Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, in 2008 and is already supplying 1.2 megawatts of power to local houses. The operators Marine Current Turbines plan an installation 10 times as powerful off the Welsh coast by 2011.
UK company TidalStream recently tested a 3-metre-tall scaffold bearing six turbines designed to be used in a similar way, in a tank at the Ifremer energy test centre in Brest, France. Also designed for tidal channels, a full-sized 60-metre-tall platform is projected to generate 10 megawatts of power.
Beating waves
John Armstrong of TidalStream points out that the reliable ebb and flow of the tides compares favourably with the fluctuating output of wind and solar installations, which have hitherto garnered more attention, and funding.
The reliability of wave power has also been underappreciated, according to a recent report by UK government agency the Carbon Trust.
That could help sustain the growth in interest in extracting energy from the sea, as the challenges of introducing fluctuating energy sources like wind into existing energy grids become apparent.
Only long-term trials, though, will determine whether one of the various designs in testing today will emerge to become the industry standard.
See a gallery of the wave and tidal power designs from around the world
Yahoo News 10 Jul 09;
MUMBAI (AFP) – The civic authorities in India's financial capital Mumbai are considering cloud seeding amid growing water shortages caused by a lack of consistent monsoon rain, according to media report.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said it had consulted the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and a company that conducted a cloud seeding experiment in 1992 for the best time to carry out the process.
The poor monsoon has seen water levels drop markedly at the six lakes that supply Mumbai with 3.3 billion litres (872 million US gallons) of water every day. A 30 percent cut in supplies was introduced this week.
"Over the coming week, we will consult the IMD to work out how to efficiently and effectively carry out the process of cloud seeding," senior BMC official Anil Diggikar was quoted as saying in The Hindustan Times newspaper.
The process involves spraying the chemical compound silver iodide or dry ice (frozen carbon dioxide) from an aircraft onto clouds to induce rainfall.
Diggikar ruled out another proposal mooted to alleviate the water shortage, desalination, because of the length of time it would take to set up plants and cost, the domestic Press Trust of India news agency said.
Like many Indian cities, Mumbai depends on the annual monsoon to replenish water stocks. The rains had been due to arrive on June 8 but only hit the city at the end of last month.
Since then, they have been intermittent, raising fears about water supplies and agricultural resources in western Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital.
The IMD said 63.4 millimetres (2.5 inches) of rain fell in the Colaba area of south Mumbai in the 24 hours to 8:30 am (0300 GMT) Friday. Heavy rain is forecast for Friday and Saturday.
David Fogarty, Reuters 10 Jul 09;
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Rising seas, a rapid weakening of the Indian monsoon and spiraling costs of adapting to a warmer, drier world are just some of the looming risks from rapid climate change, a report for the Australian government says.
The report, "Climate change 2009, faster change and more serious risks," examines the rapid progress of climate change science in recent years and the growing threats that face billions of people around the planet.
Rising temperatures, drought and long-term drying out of farmlands in Australia, Africa, the United States, acidifying oceans and rapid switches in weather patterns all threaten to undermine societies and cost billions in damage.
"Part of the reason for suggesting that the risks are higher than we thought is that the climate system appears to be changing faster than we thought likely a decade ago," the report's author Will Steffen told Reuters on Friday from Canberra, Australia.
The report was written for the Department of Climate Change and comes five months before a major U.N. meeting that aims to seal a broader pact to fight global warming.
(The report is available at http://www.climatechange.gov.au/science/index.html)
Many scientists have revised upwards their projections for the pace of global warming since United Nation's Climate Panel issued a major report in 2007, underscoring the increased focus on understanding the risks from climate change.
Steffen, executive director of the Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University, said drought and long-term drying out of farmlands and water catchment areas will likely cause costs to spiral as societies try to adapt.
"I think there are risks that are potentially more important. One is drought and drying risk and not just in Australia but in other parts of the world where that appears to be linked to climate change. That's going to affect water resources, it's affecting it now," he said.
He said there was now evidence of climate change being linked to the drying trends in major agricultural regions of Victoria state and southern South Australia. Evidence was much stronger for the grain-growing area of south-west of Western Australia.
SEA LEVEL
Sea level was less of a risk in the medium-term.
"Whereas sea level rise, unless there is a really fast, catastrophic event in West Antarctica, we're not going to see huge changes till the second half of the century at least," he said referring to a major collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet.
Potentially greater threats were abrupt changes to the ocean and atmosphere that led to irreversible switches in weather or ocean patterns, so-called "tipping points."
"An example is the Indian monsoon. According to some models, that could switch into a drier mode in a matter of years," he said. More than a billion people in South Asia rely on the monsoon for agriculture and water supplies.
Steffen pointed to the accumulation of carbon-dioxide, the main gas blamed for global warming, in the atmosphere that is now near the upper range of scenarios by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 2007 report.
Sea level rise of more than 3 millimeters per year was also tracking near the upper range of the panel's projections. The rate at which global ocean temperatures have been rising had also been revised up by 15 percent, he said.
"I think the reports coming out at various fora are clear the system seems to moving at the upper range of IPCC projections," he said.
"That in itself is a major change in thinking. What it says is there's a sense of urgency to getting on top of this issue."
(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
Anupreeta Das, Reuters 10 Jul 09;
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - This week's pledges by G8 leaders to cap increases in the world's temperature are insufficient, a group of small island countries that face potential catastrophe from climate change said on Friday.
The Alliance of Small Island States, a United Nations-based group of 42 island nations, called on the world's richest countries and major economies to take more concrete and ambitious steps to fight global warming.
The G8 countries and another 17-country group, the Major Economies Forum, agreed in L'Aquila, Italy, that global average temperatures should not be allowed to rise more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) by 2050.
"Two degrees of temperature rise is unacceptable," AOSIS Chair Dessima Williams told reporters at the United Nations.
If global temperatures increased that much, many island countries -- already vulnerable to hurricanes, cyclones and other adverse weather -- could get wiped off the map by rising sea levels, Williams said.
"The world has an obligation to ensure that no island is left behind," said Williams, who is also Grenada's ambassador to the United Nations. The group counts Barbados, Seychelles and Trinidad and Tobago among its members.
AOSIS is calling for emissions cuts in the short and medium term that would limit the temperature rise to "well below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels," Williams said.
The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that temperatures will rise between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius (2 and 11.5 degrees F) during the 21st century, depending on policies chosen by governments.
On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at the L'Aquila summit that the countries represented needed to commit to more cuts to make an upcoming U.N. climate treaty work. The deal, due to be struck at a Copenhagen conference in December, is a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
Ban urged the leaders at L'Aquila to work together to set specific goals, saying rich major economies were especially responsible because they emit more than 80 percent of the world's greenhouse gases.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
Diplomat says developing nations 'will commit once they have certainty that developed countries are commiting themselves'
Patrick Wintour, guardian.co.uk 10 Jul 09;
Developing nations are prepared to make concessions on climate change targets if the G8 fulfils its side of the bargain in the run-up to the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December, a key negotiator told the Guardian today.
The developing countries want the G8 nations to sign up to a 40% cut by 2020, but that figure is off the radar of the EU and, given the unwieldy legislation laboriously passing through the senate, not a possibility for the US.
In important forward steps this week, the G8 agreed to cut its emissions by 80% by 2050 and said worldwide emissions should fall 50% by the same date.
However, the value of this pledge has been reduced by the lack of an agreed start date from which the emission cuts should be measured, making it a distant promise.
Luis Alfonso de Alba, the lead co-ordinator on climate change for the developing countries at the G8, told the Guardian that their call for a 25-40%cut in developed nations' emissions by 2020 was based on what UN climate change scientists had recommended.
The Mexican diplomat gave some ground, saying: "It does not have to be a specific target of 40%.
"That is what we hope to achieve, but this is a process of negotiation."
He said a G8 commitment to a 2020 target was "fundamental", adding: "It is logical that developing countries will commit once they have certainty that developed countries are commiting themselves.
"We need to see the mid-term targets go much higher, and we want to see all the developed countries, including the US, move at the same pace.
"We still need to see numbers. We respect the internal debate in the US, but it is important for the US to understand that this is a global issue and a multilateral negotiation."
He said developing nations could not "just sit and wait to see what the internal debate in the US resolves". He insisted the meeting chaired by Barack Obama under the aegis of the Major Economies Forum this week had made progress in accepting common responsibility for the crisis and for the need for carbon emissions to peak.
"Climate change is no longer seen as a north-south issue," he said. "It is no longer a donor recipient relationship.
"The most important message is that assuming individual responsibilities to fight climate change can start immediately, and by doing it immediately it will be easier to reach an ambitious agreement at Copenhagen."
De Alba said Mexico had already come up with its own carbon reduction programme, and he expected other developing nations to do the same over the coming months.
It was acknowledged at the summit that science dictates world temperatures must not rise more than 2C degrees above pre-industrial levels.
The negotiators hope this acknowledgement will drive the coming negotiations in the run-up to Copenhagen.
The talks include three UN sponsored meetings in Bonn, Bangkok and Barcelona as well as another meeting of the G20 in September.
Ban Ki-moon attacks climate change deal
Andrew Grice, The Independent 10 Jul 09;
Developing countries agreed last night to limit the rise in global temperatures due to climate change but rejected pleas by rich nations to sign up to a specific target to cut their carbon emissions.
A day after G8 leaders agreed to reduce their emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, nine developing nations, including China, India and Brazil, made clear a long, hard negotiation lies ahead if a new global deal on climate change is to be struck at crucial talks in Copenhagen in December.
At talks with the G8 leaders chaired by the US President, Barack Obama, the nine developing nations endorsed the G8's call for the average rise in global temperatures to be limited to C. But they stopped short of matching the G8's decision by agreeing to halve their emissions by 2050. Instead, they promised to discuss firm emissions reduction targets in the run-up to Copenhagen.
Mr Obama hailed the 17-nation agreement as an "unprecedented commitment" but admitted: "I am the first one to acknowledge that progress on this will not be easy." He added: "We did not expect to solve this problem in one summit, but I believe we have made some important strides forward.... We can either shape our future or we can let events shape it for us."
Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary General, criticised G8 leaders for not going further by setting interim targets for 2020 and to finance efforts by developing nations to embrace low carbon technology. He said: "The leaders of G8 must be aware of their historical responsibility for the future of humanity. There must be bold and ambitious targets so we can seal the deal."
The G5 nations – China, Brazil, India, Mexico and South Africa – yesterday called for developed countries to cut emissions by 40 per cent by 2020. With 150 days to go to the Copenhagen summit, a crucial meeting will be held by the UN in New York on 22 September.
Gordon Brown struck a more upbeat note. He described yesterday's talks as "a significant moment on the road to Copenhagen", adding: "We have made huge progress."
Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said: "This is a very important step forward and shows politics catching up with the science of climate change. This will define the way governments have to deal with climate change not just in the coming months but for future generations."
But green groups expressed disappointment. Tom Picken, international climate campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: "Despite their pledge to limit global warming to C, the [17-nation] Major Economies Forum [MEF] has one arm tied behind its back because rich countries meeting at the G8 failed to show leadership by slashing their own emissions first and fastest."
Phil Radford, Greenpeace USA's executive director, said: "The failure is one of leadership from the G8.When they try to blame China and India for the failure, their excuse will be hollow. It is hard to believe that any of the G8 heads of state had the audacity to look the leaders from the developing world at the MEF in the eyes and talk about joint action to protect the climate."
On its final day today, G8 leaders will approve a $15bn (£9bn) package to tackle hunger in the world's poorest countries as they agree to switch aid programmes from emergency relief to long-term agricultural projects.
Yesterday they set a deadline for a new global trade deal to be completed next year. Trade ministers will meet soon to try to kickstart the long-delayed Doha round. But such deadlines have been set before and not been met.
Ban criticises G8 climate efforts
BBC News 9 Jul 09;
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has criticised leaders of the G8 industrial nations for failing to make deeper commitments to combat climate change.
On Wednesday, the leaders, meeting in Italy, agreed to cut emissions by 80% by 2050, but Mr Ban said big cuts were needed sooner rather than later.
The leaders are set to meet their counterparts from emerging economies to discuss a new deal on global warming.
US President Barack Obama will chair the session, in the city of L'Aquila.
The second day of the summit has begun, opening up its discussions to take in the so-called G5 nations - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa. Egypt is a special invitee.
The G8 leaders said on Wednesday they had agreed to try to limit global warming to just 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels.
That is the level above which, the United Nations says, the Earth's climate system would become dangerously unstable.
The G8 leaders also said rich nations should cut emissions by 80% by 2050 while the world overall should reduce them 50% by 2050.
But correspondents say emerging nations appear reluctant to sign up and tough negotiations lie ahead.
'Moral imperative'
Mr Ban said Wednesday's agreement was welcome, but the leaders needed to establish a strong and ambitious mid-term target for emissions cuts by 2020.
"This is politically and morally imperative and a historic responsibility for the leaders... for the future of humanity, even for the future of Planet Earth," he told the BBC.
Mr Ban said the leaders also had to come up with financial incentives for poorer countries to reduce pollution and aid to help them mitigate the effects of climate change.
President Obama will chair the Major Economies Forum meeting on Thursday afternoon.
The countries represented there account for some 80% of the emissions of gases that are blamed for global warming.
'Still time'
The BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins, in L'Aquila, says the talks with India and China will be difficult.
China's president has headed home to deal with the ethnic violence in Xinjiang, so there are now questions whether his delegation will be more cautious.
Our correspondent adds that India is already complaining that the G8's long-term targets for 2050 are too long-term and that G8 countries are ducking interim targets for 2020 which would make their 40-year ambitions more credible.
But in a meeting with Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, Mr Obama said there was still time to close the gap between developed and developing nations before UN talks on a new climate change treaty in Copenhagen in December.
The summit host, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has said a deal should be all-inclusive.
"It would not be productive if European countries, Japan, the United States and Canada accepted cuts that are economically damaging while more than five billion people in other countries carried on as before," he said.
The G8 summit began in L'Aquila on Wednesday, with the first day largely taken up with discussion of the fragile state of the global economy.
The leaders also issued a statement reaffirming that they were "deeply concerned" by Iran's nuclear programme and condemning North Korea's recent nuclear test and missile launches.
African leaders will join the summit on Friday to push for a new initiative to fund farming in the developing world and tackle global hunger.
UN Secretary-General calls for more ambitious targets as G8 Summit ends
UNEP 10 Jul 09;
L'Aquila (Italy), 10 July 2009 - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the G8 agreement on a long term goal to reduce emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, but says it is still not enough to reach a fair, effective climate agreement in Copenhagen Summit in December.
Mr. Ban called for more ambitious mid term emissions targets in order to ensure that a climate deal can be sealed at the Copenhagen meeting.
He urged developed countries in particular to lead by example by making firm commitments to reduce their emissions by 2020 on the order of 25-40 per cent below 1990 levels.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged that developing countries had their part to play by undertaking national efforts to cut their emissions and devising appropriate solutions to climate change challenges.
"Developing countries need funding and technology assistance. Funding is also needed to assist vulnerable developing countries adapt to the harmful effects of climate change." Mr. Ban said.
At a recent meeting held at the UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, African Environment Ministers pegged the cost of climate change adaptation at between $1 billion and $50 billion per year.
In their final declaration on Friday, G8 leaders identified financing as one of the three main tools to address climate change challenges along with technological innovation and capacity building. The leaders also stressed the need to move to a low-carbon economy in order to achieve continued economic growth and sustainable development - a move advocated by UNEP through the Global Green New Deal initiative.
The emphasis on climate change was echoed by the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, which met in the margins of the G8 Summit and stated that "climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time".
"As leaders of the world's major economies, both developed and developing, we intend to respond vigorously to this challenge, being convinced that climate change poses a clear danger requiring an extraordinary global response, that the response should respect the priority of economic and social development of developing countries, that moving to a low-carbon economy is an opportunity to promote continued economic growth and sustainable development, that the need for and deployment of transformational clean energy technologies at lowest possible cost are urgent, and that the response must involve balanced attention to mitigation and adaptation," the declaration says.
"We resolve to spare no effort to reach agreement in Copenhagen, with each other and with the other Parties, to further implementation of the Convention," the Major Economies Forum added.
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