Best of our wild blogs: 22 Jul 09

Releasing munias in our nature reserves
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Nem Hunt Day 2: Pulau Sekudu
from wild shores of singapore and Singapore Nature

Blue-throated Bee-eater: 8. Excavating two further nests
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Cheng T’ng
from Urban Forest

Living Earth Walk - Rainforest
from Cicada Tree Eco-Place

'Gangs' responsible for graffiti at Pasir Ris mangrove site
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Great Barrier Reef Could Be World's First Gobal Ecosystem to Collapse
from The Daily Galaxy: News from Planet Earth & Beyond

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Underground Science City to take shape

JTC calls for feasibility study on 20-hectare Kent Ridge project beneath Science Parks
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 22 Jul 09;

(SINGAPORE) The term 'underground economy' has taken on a whole new meaning as Singapore pushes beneath the land surface to house R&D laboratories and data centres: it proposes to set up an Underground Science City (USC) at Kent Ridge.

There are moves afoot to get detailed designs and cost estimates for the project, which spans a 20-hectare geological formation below Science Parks 1, 2 and 3 as well as Kent Ridge Park.

The USC project is also in the vicinity of One-North, National University of Singapore and National University Hospital, where research and development activities are actively pursued.

The push for the USC follows the government's recent green light to start building the billion-dollar Jurong Rock Cavern (JRC) on Jurong Island to store oil and petrochemicals.

JTC Corporation - which called a tender yesterday for a consultant to carry out feasibility studies on the USC - said that the project was needed given the limited land available for new investments at Kent Ridge, following the earlier substantial developments at the three Science Parks.

The USC is part of a wide-ranging, 10-usage underground rock cavern feasibility study called by the government in May last year. Other possible underground uses being looked at by that study include power stations, incineration plants, water reclamation plants, warehouses, wafer fab plants and an airport logistics facility.

This islandwide study - being carried out by the Sintef-Tritech-Multiconsult consortium - is, however, not site or location-specific. It is nearly completed and interim reports from this will be made available to the consultant appointed for the latest USC feasibility study, JTC said.

JTC added that the first studies on the proposed USC project by various bodies and corporations had concluded by 2001 that it was technically feasible to develop an underground cavern at Kent Ridge for R&D facilities.

But with advancements in technologies for cavern construction, JTC said that it was necessary to review the previous findings.

Hence the USC consultant - working within a 14-month timeline - will now reassess the maximum-size cavern complex that can be built, as well as other factors like its impact on the environment and working population at Kent Ridge. It will also have to provide ballpark construction estimates for the USC's three preliminary designs.

Under a second stage of the project, JTC said that it is also preparing to call a tender for soil and rock investigation works at Kent Ridge to prepare for the USC's cavern design. The USC consultant will help provide inputs for this.

When that is completed, the USC project will then proceed to its third phase of detailed concept design, which will include the cavern's layout and design, space distribution for the specified usages, surface and subsurface facilities, and cavern access and circulation.

Here, the consultant will need to provide data like projected user demand, method of excavation and the impact of the cavern construction on existing surface developments. It will also have to consider issues like tremors from earthquakes, and address the psychological effect of working in caverns.

The latest USC study follows JTC's award in April of the main $890 million construction contract for Phase One of the JRC on Jurong Island to Hyundai Engineering & Construction.

Actual building of the underground facility will begin this year-end, with the first two caverns providing 480,000 cubic metres of oil storage when ready in the first half of 2013. The entire Phase One, comprising five caverns, will provide a total 1.47 million cu m of storage when completed by 2014.

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Singapore shipping emissions scrubbing invention makes waves

David Hughes, Business Times 22 Jul 09;

IT IS not often that I spend part of my weekend reading articles on keeping saltwater fish. In fact, it is unlikely to happen again. But I discovered an online aquatic journal that told me everything I needed to know about calcium in seawater.

Why, you may ask, would I want to know about that? The answer is: understanding that there are a lot of calcium ions in seawater, but they have water molecules firmly attached to them, was in my case the key to understanding why a Singapore company has just made what could be one of the biggest technical breakthroughs in the shipping industry since - oh, who knows? - containerisation, perhaps.

Regular readers of The Business Times shipping news pages will know about local firm Ecospec and its emissions scrubbing system.

What has perhaps not been fully appreciated until now is just what a huge achievement this is. But that is likely to change rapidly, and a presentation on the system at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) last week was probably a milestone in a transformation of the way Ecospec's CSNOx system is seen, both by the shipping industry and much more widely.

So why is this system so important? Basically because it is claimed to be able to meet current IMO regulations restricting nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulphur oxide (SOx) emissions and - this makes it really exciting - it greatly reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

So Ecospec managing director and founder Chew Hwee Hong was addressing a packed house when describing a system that could potentially not only solve the industry's problems with SOx and NOx but also holds the promise of enabling shipping to meet increasing pressure to cut CO2 emissions.

Scepticism

Now, it must be said that there is considerable scepticism about Ecospsec's claims within the industry. In fact, in many quarters there is outright disbelief. Last week, several industry insiders who expressed interest when talking to Ecospec representatives were privately dismissive. Why? Well, because if something looks too good to be true, it usually is. Ecospec and the Singapore government, which has put its credibility on the line by backing the company, now have to prove CSNox is an exception to that general rule.

It is worth stressing that if this system can perform as well as claimed, it will have a huge effect. It is pretty much a magic bullet that can sort out all the emissions issues facing the shipping industry. Crucially, it could make most of the difficult issues facing delegates at IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee virtually disappear.

Ecospec claims its system can reduce CO2 emissions by about 75 per cent. If that can be achieved, it would be fantastic. But even a much lower reduction would be impressive, given that shipping currently has no way of taking CO2 out of engine exhaust.

Last week's presentation was an opportunity to put some hard facts in front of the shipping community.

Crucially, classification society ABS, acting on behalf of the Singapore government, verified that CSNox achieved significant results in reducing emissions, including CO2, when tested on a shore-based rig.

The levels of CO2 removal verified by ABS were not as high as those reported from an initial test on Tanker Pacific's tanker Coral Sea last December, when over 74 per cent of CO2 was removed, but still about 30 to 55 per cent was taken out of the emissions stream.

And Mr Chew is certain higher percentages can be achieved by onboard installations.

Thomas Tan, ABS vice-president, Southern Pacific Region, said: 'While instruments have been erratic up to this point, tests do indicate the significant and consistent ability of the set-up to remove substantial nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulphur oxide (SOx) and CO2.'

The next step will be more sea trials this year on another tanker.

This time, the equipment's operation will be monitored by ABS. The intention is that the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore will issue type approval as an SOx scrubber after successful completion of these trials.

Mr Chew told me the rig being fitted to the tanker for the trials is a full production version and that other units are now under construction for owners who have already committed to use the technology. He expects something like 30 onboard installations to be operating within a year.

Advanced maritime R&D

That is good news for Ecospec and for Singapore. While much of the fabrication of the units will be done abroad, the high-tech bits will be done here. The technology is entirely entirely Singaporean, and continuing research and development of this and other systems based on the same principles will definitely help push Singapore as a centre of advanced maritime R&D.

So what about the calcium content of seawater? Well, one of the many questions from the floor to Mr Chew was whether CO2 would be produced when calcium ions were released from seawater to capture CO2 by creating calcium carbonate.

The question was not really answered as there was confusion about what the questioner was asking. My 'O' Level chemistry is all long forgotten, so I thought I had better find out whether there is indeed a supply of calcium ions in seawater. It turns out there is, but they cannot easily be put to use because they are essentially locked in by water molecules.

That's where Ecospec's invention comes into play. Its Ultra-Low Frequency Electrolysis System (ULFELS) excites these calcium ions and enables them to react with the CO2.

Exactly how ULFELS works is Mr Chew's secret and is the key to a number of innovations Ecospec has been working on.

He says that 'doing something about emissions' only came up last year, and initially Ecospec focused on IMO requirements to deal with SOx and NOx. But when the rig was tested, it was discovered that a large percentage of CO2 was also removed.

That discovery means Ecospec and Singapore could have a winner on their hands - big-time.

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Geylang Serai: The kampung memories that last a lifetime

Shaik Kadir, Straits Times 22 Jul 09;

THE new Geylang Serai market opened earlier this month - on the very same site as the old one.

The event brought back many memories for me for I lived in Geylang Serai from the age of eight to 21. I had seen it grow from a kampung into a conglomeration of ultra-modern buildings. But it is the area's kampung days that I cherish most for they are associated with the days of my childhood.

After my father died, my mother, my sister and I moved from Chinatown to Paya Lebar and then, in 1954 when I was eight years old, to Geylang Serai. We lived not far away from a kampung mosque, Surau Aminah, now relocated to nearby Jalan Eunos and called Masjid Darul Aman. My mother rented a room in a row of attap houses for $14 a month.

My house had no tap, so I had to collect fresh water from the government standpipe a little distance away. I usually did this at night, carrying two pails. It took a few trips to the standpipe to fill the water-drum in our tiny kitchen area. On my last trip, I would bathe at the standpipe, enjoying the cold water, before returning to my room.

There was an entertainment centre in the area called the Eastern World Amusement Park. It had rides, games galleries and snack stalls. Though the entrance fee to the park was a nominal sum, we children would insist on sneaking into the park through secretly-made holes in the zinc fence.

Beside the park was the Taj cinema, where Tamil, Hindi and Malay movies were screened to packed houses during weekends. We boys found it more fun to watch cowboy and Tarzan films at the open-air cinema located at Jalan Alsagoff. It cost only 10 cents to watch movies there.

Once, as we watched a travelling wagon being set on fire in a cowboy movie, we suddenly realised that the screen was really burning - perhaps because vandals had set it on fire. The show was abandoned, much to our dismay.

Another popular cinema was The Garricks, which showed English movies. Located at the junction of Onan Road and Geylang Road, where The Galaxy is currently located, the cinema screened English and Hindi movies. Its front seats cost 50 cents, as at the Taj, and so we seldom patronised it, though we often went there to look at the photos of the movies being shown.

In front of the Taj, in the area where Northlight School is now located, there were many food and drinks stalls. Men would play sepak raga there, standing in a circle as they used their legs, shoulders and heads to toss a rattan ball to one another.

Nearby, in an open field, we boys would play with tops and marbles. In the kite season during windy April, we would watch young men fly kites and engage in 'kite battles'. Boys carrying salvaging poles would run after the 'losing' kites, often stepping on food spread out to dry on the ground or on roaming chicks. With the curses of residents ringing in their ears, the boys would run away.

Beside the amusement park was a bus terminal fronting Changi Road. The diesel buses plied routes from the city to Jalan Eunos, Kaki Bukit and faraway Changi Point, while the trolley buses, which ran on electricity from overhead electric cables, plied routes from Geylang Serai to the city.

The terminal area was often crowded with people who had made purchases at the popular wet market on Changi Road, where the Joo Chiat Complex is now located. Trishaw riders waited in the vicinity to take housewives with their heavy purchases home to the kampungs nearby.

The terminal was littered with leaves from the many Madras thorn trees in the area - and also with used bus tickets. I would go round with a friend to collect clean used tickets and arrange them according to value, the lowest being 5 cents. We used the tickets to play number-guessing games.

One day, as we were collecting these tickets, my friend found a 10-cent coin. We rushed off to buy a packet of nasi lemak - coconut-flavoured rice with sambal, a piece of cucumber, a tamban fish and a bit of fried egg, all wrapped up in banana leaf, which in turn was wrapped in old newspaper. Between the two of us, the food was gone in no time.

Finding the 10-cent coin was a piece of good luck. But there was another time when I was even luckier. At the edge of the present Malay Village, there used to be four rows of shops. One afternoon, I went to a bookshop there to look at some Malay books. As I was leaving, an elderly man in the shop tapped my shoulder and gave me an old English book.

That book - Grimms' Fairy Tales - stirred my interest in reading, and I went on to read most of the books in the library cabinet in my classroom. I was then a Primary 6 pupil at Telok Kurau Primary School.

Some time in the middle of that year, my principal, Mr Ratnam Sabapathy, a strict man who walked around with a cane in his hand, made an announcement during the morning assembly.

'Singapore now has a Prime Minister,' he said. 'He is Mr Lee Kuan Yew - and he was a student at this school.'

The year was 1959, when Singapore became a self-governing state.

Shaik Kadir, a retired teacher, is a freelance writer.

Attap houses, such as these, often had no running water in the 1950s. The writer had to collect water from the government standpipe every day when he was a child. -- ST FILE PHOTO
Changi market stood where the present Joo Chiat Complex is. Trishaw riders clustered in the vicinity to take housewives with heavy purchases home to the kampungs nearby. -- ST FILE PHOTO

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Fires raging in Sumatra up haze risk for Singapore

Far more numerous hot spots this year as El Nino's impact is felt
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 22 Jul 09;

ALMOST twice as many hot spots have been detected in Sumatra as at the same time last year and the year before.

Satellite images yesterday showed 2,248 hot spots in Sumatra, compared with 1,229 from the same time last year and 1,218 in 2007. The number surpassed even the 2,031 hot spots in 2006, the last time that smoke haze hit Singapore hard.The fires have been fuelled by an earlier and longer dry season caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim warned last month that uncontrolled burning in Indonesia in the dry weather would mean smoke haze returning to Singapore with a vengeance.

So far, Singapore has escaped the worst because of favourable wind directions. The 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) reading that measures air quality was in the good range at 39 yesterday.

But if the winds change to south-westerly, and with signs of El Nino still growing, haze could hit Singapore and persist for months.

El Nino is a warming of surface temperatures over the Pacific Ocean which wreaks havoc on global weather patterns - as well as economies.

'In a typical year, the south-west monsoon season should end by September but with the El Nino outlook, we expect the dry season to extend to October,' said the director-general of the National Environment Agency's (NEA) meteorological services division, Mr Foong Chee Leong.

'The lack of showers over fire-prone areas will increase the prospects for transboundary haze till late October.'

NEA data shows 4,716 hot spots in the regions of Riau, West Sumatra, Jambi and South Sumatra to date this year.

This is 'significantly higher' than the number recorded over the same period in each of the last three years, probably because of the earlier dry season, said Ms Lim Lay Eng, senior meteorological officer at NEA.

The south-west monsoon season usually starts in late June but El Nino has brought it forward a month, she said.

The last bad haze year for Singapore was in 2006, when the drier weather conditions from a moderate El Nino saw an increase in forest clearing activity.

That year, the hot spot count in Sumatra hit 12,014, and Singapore experienced its worst haze in a decade, with the PSI peaking at 150 in October.

It is not certain yet how quickly or severely El Nino will develop this year.

But the haze problem will persist while open burning is carried out by plantation companies, said Dr Lee Poh Onn, research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

He said that political will was still the most important factor in monitoring such burning and taking action against it.

South-east Asia has been hit by haze almost every year since 1997. That year, a strong El Nino saw annual rainfall plunge 48 per cent below the long-term average, while the annual average temperature rose 1.4 deg C above the long-term average, the NEA said.

The tell-tale evidence
Straits Times 22 Jul 09;
THE image above shows a fire scene, taken by the French SPOT-4 satellite, on Saturday at 11.33am (Singapore time) in Riau province (see map).

Near the centre of the image, two smoke plumes (blue-green) can be seen.

The greenish areas are vegetation, while the pinkish areas are exposed soil.

The darker, purple patch between the two smoke plumes is a recently burnt area.

The satellite image was received and processed at the Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing (CRISP), the National University of Singapore.

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Charming tourists with mangrove magic in Indonesia

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post 21 Jul 09;

Standing on a pier on a sunny day in Pulau Pahawang village, a group of villagers was enthusiastically attending to a lesson in "magic" tricks for tourism.

The speaker was Citra Persada, a facilitator in a workshop on Conservation and Maritime Tour Development and lecturer at Lampung University's technical school. The villagers were getting training in becoming tour guides, and one of the main attractions of the area is its clean environment.

The lesson was in the sapta pesona (seven spells), or the seven principles that will attract tourists to Indonesia: safety, order, cleanliness, a cool environment, beauty, friendly people and fond memories.

"So, ladies and gentlemen, if in the village there's rubbish scattered around, or piled up near the pier, this means that this village is not yet suitable for welcoming tourists," said Citra Persada.

"If you ladies meet foreign tourists and you are still too frightened to welcome them, or are too shy to smile, that also means that the sapta pesona principles have not been accepted. So, let's practice our smiles."

The future tour guides responded with applause.

And then they practiced. One day they studied the sapta pesona and smiling. The next day, the workshop participants learned how to assess the Pulau Pahawang tour development program through a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.

Pulau Pahawang village is located in the waters of Lampung Bay on the southern tip of Sumatra, about 50 kilometers south of Bandarlampung city, and can be reached by motorboat (about one hour) from Ketapang harbor in South Lampung.

The village, which spans more than 1,000 hectares, is in Pesawaran regency in Lampung province. Although it is near the beach, 80 percent of its 400 households (about 1,600 residents) make a living from agriculture, the rest from fishing.

Supporting the village and its endeavors is Mitra Bentala, a local environmental NGO that cares for the community life in the coastal region in Lampung, and Heifer International Indonesia.

The Pulau Pahawang community is making preparations so it is ready to welcome tourists who want to visit the beautiful village and neighboring islands, in the lead-up to the launch of the Conservation and Maritime Tour Program in December this year.

Preparations for the program by the community and the NGO have included the workshops to train those who will be working as tour guides as well as educating all members of the community about the best ways to deal with tourists.

Some of the villagers' houses will be used as homestays for tourists; other tourists will stay in simple cottages with a village garden.

"We're also teaching the community to make handicrafts, which can be sold as souvenirs to all the tourists," said Herza Yulianto, the director of Mitra Bentala.

Herza said that Pulau Pahawang's tourist potential, which will be the basis for tour packages, lies in the well-maintained condition of the local environment and the natural and clean beach village. Success in tourism, if and when it happens, will have been a long time coming.

"Before it could be ready to be *sold' to tourists, all the communities around Pahawang village had to learn for 12 years the best way to save the mangrove forest and the coral ridges that are exposed at low tide. "Now dozens of hectares of mangrove forest are being looked after. The coral ridges that are exposed at low tide and the clean sea will become powerful tourist attractions," Herza said.

"It's time now for the Pulau Pahawang community to reap the benefits from their work in saving the environment and the mangrove forest over the past 12 years. With many tourists visiting Pulau Pahawang, then hopefully the local economy will just get better and better."

In 1978, the mangrove forest, which covers 141 hectares along the beach of Pulau Pahawang, came close to being destroyed by newcomers to the area, who set about building shrimp ponds for farming.

Then Mitra Bentala began its association with the community in 1997. Since then, the NGO and the community have worked together, with about 30 hectares of mangrove forest being successfully replanted.

The work has been backed up with a village regulation (perdes) to protect the mangroves. The regulation makes it an offence for anyone, whether from the village or not, to cut down mangrove trees, and sets out punishments for offenders.

Supriyanto, an activist with Mitra Bentala, said that the community passed the perdes not only because of the success of the NGO's environmental conservation campaign, but also because of a widespread local belief that failure to protect the mangrove forests could result in another major disaster.

"In the 1980s, there was a huge natural disaster in Pulau Pahawang village with a cyclone and flooding that inundated the entire village," Supriyanto said.

"All the village elders believed that disaster occurred because Mpok Awang, an ancestor of their village founder, became angry because the mangroves had been cleared."

According to the Pulau Pahawang village's community beliefs, Mpok Awang, a Betawi woman of Chinese descent, was one of the first people to live in their village in the 1800s. She was believed to have been holy. When she died, her body was buried at the top of the village hill.

"The building housing her grave is still there, but it has been damaged because people outside the village broke into it looking for hidden treasures," Supriyanto said. "Somehow the word had got around that there was treasure hidden in Mpok Awang's grave."

The Mpok Awang legend became established as part of local wisdom. Because of the legend, individuals in the community were prohibited from touching or cutting down trees on the hill or removing rocks from the hill because the area is sacred to the village.

"Because of that legend the forest on the hill of Pulau Pahawang has been preserved to this day," said Supriyanto. The forest protection has had benefits for the local natural environment, he added.

"Because the forest has been preserved, some of the water in Pulau Pahawang isn't salty," he said. "The water is not polluted and is suitable for drinking."

Whatever the truth behind the Mpok Awang legend, it is certain that of all the people in Pulau Pahawang village, there is not one who will dare to cut so much as a twig off a mangrove tree.

Instead, for many years they have been planting and caring for the mangrove trees together. If anyone new to the area seeks to cut down a mangrove tree or bomb any fish on the beach, they can be sure the community will gather together to kick the destructive intruder out.

Pulau Pahawang is one of the many small islands that make up the Pahawang group. The others are Maitam island, Kelagian island, Pahawang Lunik island, Lalangga Balak island, Lalangga Lunik island, Tanjung Putus island, Lunik island, Balak island and Lok island.

All these islands are considered to be beautiful and pristine, and their beaches are still clean. The coral ridge also is beautiful.

Any tourists who visit Pulau Pahawang village can also travel around the small islands, perhaps while on a fishing trip.

"If there are tourists who want to look at the water around Anak Krakatau mountain, the owner of boat is also ready to take them around," said Herza Yulianto.

"The natural underwater environment is as good as at Senggigi beach in Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara. If you're lucky, you can even see the amazing beauty of the hot lava flows of Anak Krakatau mountain. Tourists can also grill fresh fish caught in the sea," he added. "We're ready with a package to satisfy all visitors."

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Malaysia urged to beef up war against tiger poaching

Yahoo News 21 Jul 09;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysia's dwindling tiger population could be wiped out in less than a decade unless authorities quickly halt the illegal trade in tiger parts and poaching, a wildlife expert warned Tuesday.

Wildlife activists last week said that Malaysia, estimated to have just 500 tigers still living in the wild, was losing its battle to save the endangered big cats after a series of raids that netted tiger carcasses and bones.

"The two major threats we see here are poaching and illegal trade of tigers, and also the loss of habitats," Washington-based Save the Tiger Fund director Mahendra Shrestha told AFP after a conference here on tiger conservation.

"The poaching level is becoming so high in many countries that if such things continue here maybe we will lose the tigers in less than a decade," he said.

"All you need to do is to increase the law enforcement, to reduce levels of poaching threats .... because there is an increase in demand on tiger parts in all the countries," he added.

Douglas Uggah Embas, natural resources and environment minister, said the government had sought the help of the military to battle poaching, adding that Malaysia was committed to an ambitious plan to double the tiger population to 1,000 by 2020.

"We hope by working together with the military and the local community, the enforcement will be more effective," he told reporters.

"It is very challenging but it is not a hopeless war (to save tigers)," he added.

Last week, the Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (MyCat) demanded that local authorities take action to stop the illegal trade in tiger parts.

It listed a series of seizures of dismembered tigers in recent months, from the Thai-Laos border right down to Malaysia itself, including three kilograms (six-and-a-half pounds) of tiger bones found in northeastern Kelantan state last month.

The coalition said that investigations into the seized tiger parts found that some were from sub-species not found in the wild in Asia, including the Siberian tiger.

It said the findings suggested that captive tigers, such as those found in zoos and theme parks, were finding their way into the illegal wildlife trade where they are butchered for traditional medicine.

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Malaysia: 2025 target for nuclear energy use

New Straits Times 22 Jul 09;

BANGI: Malaysia is set to use nuclear power as an alternative energy source by 2025, as it is the cheapest source of power in the long run.

Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Fadillah Yusof said several government agencies were working on forming a committee to implement the policy.

He said Malaysia had the expertise for the undertaking.

Speaking to the media after officiating Malaysia Nuclear Day 2009 at the Malaysian Nuclear Agency (Nuclear Malaysia), he said the cabinet had given approval two weeks ago for the policy to be implemented.

"We will also be engaging professionals and consultants for advice, besides linking up with international organisations such as the United Nations and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) for verification and certification."

On the comparative cost of building nuclear plants and coal-fired plants, he said although initial costs may be twice the amount at US$1 billion to US$3 billion (RM3.5 billion to RM10.5 billion) for a 1,000 megawatt capacity, it would still be cheaper over the long run.

"Over time, nuclear energy is the cheapest, and environmentally-friendly with no pollutants produced. Hydrogen is produced but it can be used. We only need to treat waste products after 20 years."

Fadillah said the agency would embark on a public awareness campaign by engaging in dialogue and being transparent in dispelling the negative perception and doubts on the safety of nuclear energy.

"Nuclear energy has many positive uses such as in hospitals for CT scans and in food technology." he said, adding that Malaysia was lagging behind in embracing nuclear power as Indonesia would go nuclear by 2017, Vietnam by 2018 and Thailand next year.

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Solar eclipse shrouds Asia in darkness after dawn

Indrajit Kumar Singh, Associated Press Yahoo News 22 Jul 09;

TAREGNA, India – The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century pitched a swath of Asia into near-darkness after dawn, as millions watched the once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon Wednesday. A woman was killed in a stampede at the Ganges river in India, where devout Hindus had gathered for the eclipse.

Millions of others, gripped by fear, shuttered themselves indoors. India abounds in superstitions and fables based on Hindu mythology, one of which says an eclipse is caused when a dragon-demon swallows the sun, while another myth is that sun rays during an eclipse can harm unborn children.

Thick cloud cover over India and China obscured the sun when the eclipse began at dawn. But the clouds parted in several Indian cities minutes before the total eclipse took place at 6:24 a.m. (0054 GMT; 8:54 p.m. EDT) before moving to Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China.

The eclipse — caused when the moon moves directly between the sun and the earth, covering it completely to cast a shadow on earth — lasted almost 4 minutes in India. In some parts of Asia it lasted as long as 6 minutes and 39 seconds.

In Beijing, a thick blanket of grayish smog blotted out the sky and virtually obscured all high-rises in the downtown area of the Chinese capital.

In coastal Shanghai, eclipse watchers were disappointed by a light drizzle in the morning. Dozens of people had gathered at one hotel rooftop with telescopes and special glasses.

But as the sky darkened fully for about five minutes, watchers became excited again.

Holding a big green umbrella and wearing special glasses, Song Chun Yun was prepared to celebrate the occasion in a new white dress.

"Although the rain came, I don't want to screw up the mood. I want to enjoy the special day," she said before dancing and singing in the rain with her two sisters. "I don't want to wait until the next 300 years to see this again."

In Bangladesh too, people came out in droves.

"It's a rare moment, I never thought I would see this in my life," said Abdullah Sayeed, a college student who traveled to Panchagarh town from the capital Dhaka to view it.

He said cars in the town needed to use headlights as "night darkness has fallen suddenly." People hugged each other and some blew whistles when the eclipse began, he said.

One of the best views, shown live on several television channels, appeared to be in the Indian town of Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges river, sacred to devout Hindus.

Thousands of Hindus took a dip in keeping with the ancient belief that bathing in the river at Varanasi, especially on special occasions, cleanses one's sins. The eclipse was seen there for 3 minutes and 48 seconds.

But the gathering was marred by tragedy when a 65-year-old woman was killed and six people injured in a stampede at one of the river's banks where about 2,500 people had gathered, said police spokesman Surendra Srivastava.

He said it is not clear how the stampede started.

The eclipse — visible only in Asia — is the longest such eclipse since July 11, 1991, when a total eclipse lasting 6 minutes, 53 seconds was visible from Hawaii to South America. There will not be a longer eclipse than Wednesday's until 2132.

A 10-member team of scientists from the premier Indian Institute of Astrophysics in Bangalore and the Indian air force filmed the eclipse from an aircraft.

Scientists had said the Indian village of Taregna would have the clearest view, where thousands of scientists, nature enthusiasts and students gathered a day in advance.

But thick clouds and overnight rains provided no spectacle, just a cloudy darkness.

"It was still a unique experience with morning turning into night for more than three minutes," said Amitabh Pande, a scientist with India's Science Popularization Association of Communicators and Educators, in Taregna.

Still, the rain was welcomed by many in this agricultural area which has seen scant rainfall this monsoon season.

"It would have been nice to see the solar eclipse but the rain is far more important for us," said Ram Naresh Yadav, a farmer.

Millions across India shunned the sight and stayed indoors.

Even in regions where the eclipse was not visible, pregnant women were advised to stay behind curtains over a belief that the sun's invisible rays would harm the fetus and the baby would be born with disfigurations, birthmarks or a congenital defect.

"My mother and aunts have called and told me stay in a darkened room with the curtains closed, lie in bed and chant prayers," said Krati Jain, 24, who is expecting her first child, said in New Delhi.

In the northern Indian state of Punjab, authorities ordered schools to begin an hour late to prevent children from venturing out and gazing at the sun.

Others saw a business opportunity: one travel agency in India scheduled a charter flight to watch the eclipse by air, with seats facing the sun selling at a premium.

At a Buddhist temple in the Thai capital Bangkok, dozens of monks led a mass prayer at a Buddhist temple to ward off what they said would be ill effects of a solar eclipse.

"The eclipse is bad omen for the country," said Pinyo Pongjaroen, a prominent astrologer. "We are praying to boost the fortune of the country."

On the Net:

Eclipses Online: http://www.eclipse.org.uk/

Mr. Eclipse: http://mreclipse.com/

Associated Press writers Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Ambika Ahuja in Bangkok, Thailand and researcher Ji Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.

Clouds 'likely to block eclipse in Shanghai'
Yahoo News 21 Jul 09;

SHANGHAI (AFP) – Heavy clouds and rain are likely to ruin the party for millions of people hoping to watch Wednesday's solar eclipse in Shanghai and other parts of eastern China, meteorologists said.

The Shanghai Meteorological Bureau has predicted thunderstorms for when the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century starts at 8:30 am (0030 GMT), according to a forecast released Tuesday evening.

"It will be almost impossible to see the eclipse in Shanghai," Li Jinyu, the bureau's chief service operator, was quoted as telling the Shanghai Daily.

"Even if there is no rain, the heavy clouds will block the view," he said.

However people will still experience the sky changing from bright to dark, the report said.

Eastern China has been regarded as one of the best places in the world to view the total eclipse, which is expected to last about six minutes and reach its midpoint around 9:30 am.

The event is being described as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which, due to its trajectory over China and India, could end up being the most watched eclipse in history.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon is caught between the sun and the earth while each of them moves along their fixed orbits.

"This is a very important milestone. None of us will live long enough to see another one like it," said Federico Borgmeyer, the German-based manager of the specialist travel agency Eclipse City, who is in Shanghai for the event.

The travel agency said it would proceed with plans to take eclipse chasers to Shanghai's Yangshan island to experience the event despite the forecast.

Museums, observatories and specialty stores were sold out of solar eclipse glasses to protect eyes from the intense light, the Shanghai Daily reported.

The phenomenon has sparked a mini-tourism boom for Shanghai and other parts of eastern China, such as historic Hangzhou city.

Thousands of tourists from around the world have already descended on Shanghai, with hotels and restaurants in marquee locations such as the Bund being quickly booked out.

Hyatt on the Bund said its eclipse breakfast event remained fully booked and the weather concerns had not led to any cancellations.

"People are just looking for a reason to get together," hotel spokeswoman Meg Zhang said. "You can tell your boss: 'It's only once in 300 years'."

The next total solar eclipse will be on July 11, 2010 but far fewer people are likely to see it as it tracks across the South Pacific over French Polynesia and Easter Island to the southern tip of South America.

Indian air force planes to stalk eclipse
Yahoo News 21 Jul 09;

NEW DELHI (AFP) – India's air force will scramble a fighter jet and a transport plane filled with scientists to photograph and monitor Wednesday's total solar eclipse as it races across the country.

The Indian scientists will take off from the Taj Mahal town of Agra on a Russian AN-32 transporter and follow the shadow of the eclipse northwest until the central town of Khajuraho, the air force said.

The propeller-driven aircraft will cruise at an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,570 metres), above the monsoon clouds that are threatening to obscure the phenomenon from people on the ground.

A French-designed Mirage-2000 fighter jet will also chase the eclipse, taking pictures as it goes.

Wednesday's eclipse has stirred up immense excitement due to its trajectory over India and China and the unusually long duration of the instant of greatest eclipse, or "totality" -- when the sun is wholly covered.

At its maximum, this will last six minutes and 39 seconds -- a duration that will not be matched until the year 2132.

The up to 258-kilometre- (161-mile-) wide shadow cast along the "path of totality" will first make landfall on the western Indian state of Gujarat shortly before 6:30am (0100 GMT).

Solar eclipse shrouds Asia in cloak of darkness
Pedro Ugarte Yahoo News 22 Jul 09;

VARANASI, India (AFP) – The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century cast a shadow over much of Asia on Wednesday, plunging hundreds of millions into darkness across the giant land masses of India and China.

Ancient superstition and modern commerce came together in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity likely to end up being the most watched eclipse in history, due to its path over Earth's most densely inhabited areas.

While bad weather confounded some eclipse watchers, tens of thousands of people gathered at dawn on the banks of the Ganges river in Varanasi where a largely cloudless morning offered a stunning view.

With Hindu priests conducting special prayers, the crowds cheered and then raised their arms in salutation as the sun re-emerged from behind the moon, before they took a spiritually purifying dip in the river's holy waters.

A total solar eclipse usually occurs every 18 months or so, but Wednesday's spectacle was special for its maximum period of "totality" -- when the sun is wholly covered by the moon -- of six minutes and 39 seconds.

Such a lengthy duration will not be matched until the year 2132.

State-run China Central Television provided minute-by-minute coverage of what it dubbed "The Great Yangtze River Solar Eclipse" as the phenomenon cut a path along the river's drainage basin.

Millions of people in areas of southwestern China enjoyed a clear line of sight, according to images broadcast on CCTV, but the view was obstructed along much of its path by cloudy weather.

Shanghai viewers braved rain and overcast skies to witness the spectacle as darkness shrouded China's commercial hub at 9:36 am (0136 GMT).

"It is working hours now, but with such a spectacle going on, you don't want to miss it. The experience is truly thrilling," said Allen Chen, a Shanghai office worker, who stepped out into the street to witness the event.

And despite the weather, hotels along Shanghai's famed waterfront Bund packed in the customers with eclipse breakfast specials.

Those who could afford it grabbed expensive seats on planes chartered by specialist travel agencies that promised extended views of the eclipse as they chased the shadow eastwards.

The cone-shaped shadow, or umbra, created by the total eclipse first made landfall on the western Indian state of Gujarat shortly before 6:30 am (0100 GMT).

It then raced across India and squeezed between Bangladesh and Nepal before engulfing most of Bhutan, traversing the Chinese mainland and slipping back out to sea off Shanghai.

From there it moved across the islands of southern Japan and veered into the western Pacific.

In Mumbai, hundreds of people who trekked up to the Nehru planetarium clutching eclipse sunglasses found themselves reaching for umbrellas and rain jackets instead as heavy overnight rain turned torrential.

"We didn't want to watch it on television and we thought this would be the best place," said 19-year-old student Dwayne Fernandes. "We could've stayed in bed."

Others opted to stay home and shuttered their windows, fearful of the effects of the lunar shadow which some believe can lead to birth defects in pregnant women.

Superstition has always haunted the moment when Earth, moon and sun are perfectly aligned. The daytime extinction of the sun, the source of all life, is associated with war, famine, flood and the death or birth of rulers.

The ancient Chinese blamed a sun-eating dragon. In Hindu mythology, the two demons Rahu and Ketu are said to "swallow" the sun during eclipses, snuffing out its light and causing food to become inedible and water undrinkable.

Some Indian astrologers had issued predictions laden with gloom and foreboding, and a gynaecologist at a Delhi hospital said many expectant mothers scheduled for July 22 caesarian deliveries insisted on changing the date.

The last total solar eclipse was on August 1 last year and also crossed China.

The next will be on July 11, 2010, but will occur almost entirely over the South Pacific, where Easter Island -- home of the legendary moai giant statues -- will be one of the few landfalls.

Asia Darkens Under Longest Solar Eclipse Of Century
Sunil Kataria and Lucy Hornby, PlanetArk 23 Jul 09;

VARANASI,WUHAN - A total solar eclipse on Wednesday swept across a narrow swathe of Asia, where hundreds of millions of people watched the skies darken, though in some places thick summer clouds blocked the sun.

The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century cut through the world's most populous nations, India and China, as it travelled half the globe. It was visible along a roughly 250 km-wide (155 miles) corridor, U.S. space agency NASA said.

In India, where eclipse superstitions are rife, people snaked through the narrow lanes of the ancient Hindu holy city of Varanasi and gathered for a dip in the Ganges, an act believed to bring release from the cycle of life and death.

Amid chanting of Hindu hymns, thousands of men, women and children waded into the river with folded hands and prayed to the sun as it emerged in an overcast sky.

"We have come here because our elders told us this is the best time to improve our afterlife," said Bhailal Sharma, a villager from central India traveling in a group of about 100.

But for one 80-year-old woman the trip was fatal. Police said she died from suffocation in the crowd of hundreds of thousands that had gathered to bathe in the Ganges.

The eclipse next swept through Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and over the crowded cities along China's Yangtze River, before heading to the Pacific.

In Hindu-majority Nepal, the government declared Wednesday a public holiday and thousands headed for water.

"Taking a dip in holy rivers before and after the eclipse salvages and protects us from disasters and calamities," said 86-year-old Sundar Shrestha, who had come to the holy Bagmati river with six children and grand children.

In central China crowds gathered along the high dykes of the industrial city of Wuhan, roaring and waving goodbye as the last sliver of sun disappeared, plunging the city into darkness, although clouds cheated them of part of the spectacle.

"As soon as the totality happened, the clouds closed in so we couldn't see the corona. That's a pity," said Zhen Jun, a man whose work unit had given him the day off to enjoy the spectacle.

But eclipse viewers in central China were luckier than those in the coastal cities near Shanghai, where overcast skies and rain in some places blocked the view of the sun entirely.

STUDYING SUNS'S CORONA

Eclipses allow earth-bound scientists a rare glimpse of the sun's corona, the gases surrounding the sun, and this year there will be extra time for study.

"This is indeed quite an important event for scientific experiments. Its long duration provides you an opportunity to make very complicated, complex experiments," said Harish Bhatt, dean at the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics.

Scientists in China planned to snap two-dimensional images of the sun's corona -- up to 2 million degrees Celsius (3.6 million F) hot -- at roughly one image per second, Bhatt said.

The eclipse lasted up to a maximum of 6 minutes, 39 seconds over the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA.

It will be the longest eclipse of this century and will not be surpassed until June 13, 2132, according to NASA (here).

The eclipse is seen as a mixed blessing for millions of Indians. Those who considered it auspicious bathed in holy rivers and ponds for good fortune during the solar blackout.

But astrologers predicted the eclipse spelled bad luck for others. Expectant mothers asked doctors to advance or postpone births to avoid complications or a miserable future for children.

Parents in several schools in India's capital, New Delhi, kept their children home from classes since the eclipse coincided with breakfast. According to Hindu custom, it is inauspicious to prepare food during an eclipse.

In ancient Chinese culture, an eclipse was an omen linked to natural disasters or deaths in the imperial family. Chinese officials and state media were at pains to reassure the public that city services would run normally.

In modern China, people who wished to see the astronomical rarity clearly tried to escape pollution, avoiding industrial cities where smog smudges the horizon, even on clear days.

"The majority of people decided to go to Tongning, in Anhui, because they're worried about the serious air pollution from industrial areas in Shanghai," said Bill Yeung, the president of the Hong Kong Astronomical Society.

Those who chose Shanghai ended up fleeing to inland cities to escape the clouds, he added.

(Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison and Alex Richardson)

FACTBOX: Solar Eclipses, History And Science
Lucy Hornby PlanetArk 23 Jul 09;

(Reuters) - The longest eclipse of this century was passing through the world's two most populous nations, India and China, on Wednesday.

The total eclipse was crossing straight through India and northern Bangladesh, then along the Yangtze River in China from Chongqing to Shanghai. NASA said it would last a maximum of 6 minutes, 39 seconds.

Here are some facts about a solar eclipse:

- A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and the earth, blocking out the sun from the areas in the moon's shadow. Without the sun's light, the sky darkens enough for stars to be seen and the sun's corona makes a spectacular halo around the moon.

- The first datable record of a solar eclipse was in 753 BC, in Assyria, but earlier notations, among them Chinese diviners' queries on oracle bones from 1,300-1,100 BC, clearly refer to eclipses.

- From 720-480 BC, astronomers in the state of Lu, now China's Shandong Province, recorded eclipses that can be reliably dated. By the first millennium AD, Chinese imperial astronomers could predict eclipses with an accuracy of within 15 minutes.

- Ancient Chinese eclipse records can be used to calculate the slowing of the earth's rotation, due to the braking action of the moon.

- A solar eclipse in 1919 helped confirm Einstein's theory of general relativity.

- Eclipses are also scientifically interesting because they allow a rare glimpse of the cooler corona, glowing gases near the sun's surface and solar flares, which are normally not visible due to the brightness of the sun.

- The next annular eclipse, in which the moon crosses the center of the sun but does not fully cover it, will be visible in central Africa, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China on January 15, 2010.

The next total eclipse, on July 11, 2010, will cross the South Pacific, making landfall only on the Cook Islands and Easter Island.

Sources: Dr F Richard Stephenson, Durham University; Dr Jay Pasachoff, Williams College; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

(Editing by Sugita Katyal)

Rain spoils view for 350 at Science Centre
Straits Times 23 Jul 09;

PEOPLE hoping to catch a glimpse of the solar eclipse in Singapore were blocked by wet weather yesterday.

Despite the rain, more than 350 people showed up at the Science Centre to pick up a pair of solar filter spectacles and try to see the partial eclipse that would have been visible if the skies had stayed clear.

Undergraduate Tan Peng Wen, 21, said: 'I'm a little disappointed that we can't see anything as I got up early.'

Instead, visitors were treated to an animated simulation of the eclipse if it had been viewed from Singapore and China, a talk by science educator Andrew Melia, and a tour of the observatory.

A group from The Astronomical Society of Singapore which travelled to Wuhan, China, for the eclipse, had better luck - they caught glimpses of the five-minute event through clouds.

'I'm happy for the first-timers who got to see totality (when the moon totally covers the sun), and the eerie light around the horizon,' said the society's president Albert Lim, who led the group on the trip.

VICTORIA VAUGHAN

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Venus flytrap origins uncovered

Matt Walker, BBC News 20 Jul 09;

The origin of the voracious Venus flytrap has been uncovered.

The flytrap, and one other carnivorous snap-trap plant which grows underwater, evolved from a more conventional relative that had sticky leaves.

Over time, the plants added elaborate structures and weapons such as trigger hairs and teeth to trap and immobilise their meaty prey, botanists say.

Ultimately, the need to hunt and eat ever larger animals drove the plants' evolution, say the scientists.

Carnivorous plants come in many forms, and are known to have independently evolved at least six separate times.

For example, pitcher plants create tube-like leaf structures into which insects tumble and become trapped, while other plants have sticky surfaces that act like flypaper.

But among all these plants, two species stand out: the Venus flytrap ( Dionaea muscipula ) and the waterwheel plant ( Aldrovanda vesiculosa ).

Both are known as snap-traps because they actively hunt animals, snapping shut specially adapted leaves to trap any hapless creature that crosses them.

The Venus flytrap closes around an insect in just 0.3s or faster, while the waterwheel use thin translucent traps to snare copepods and other aquatic invertebrates.

Charles Darwin was so enamoured by this striking adaptation, and the speed with which it works, that he described the Venus flytrap as being "one of the most wonderful plants in the world."

"Darwin was fascinated by carnivorous plants in general and the Venus flytrap in particular, I think, partly because they go against type," says Don Waller, a botanist at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, US.

"In his time and ours, most of us feel that plants are passive, harmless, and can't move. But the Venus flytrap acts like an animal, it moves fast and eats fresh meat."

Elusive origins

But until now, it has not been clear which plant the Venus flytrap and waterwheel evolved from.

Waller and his colleague Thomas Gibson now think they have the answer, which they have published in the journal New Phytologist.

What is more, they think its possible to trace a series of steps that the Venus flytrap and waterwheel must have undergone to become accomplished hunters.

They started by comparing snap-traps with other carnivorous plants known as sticky traps.

The two types look very different. While snap traps have gaping leaves, sticky traps have small leaves that are covered by simple stalks, which are often covered in sticky glue.

Many sticky trap plants belong to the genus Drosera , such as the circumboreal sundew ( Drosera rotundifolia ), and come in various forms.

A DNA analysis by Ken Cameron of the University of Wisconsin confirmed that the Venus flytrap and waterwheel are indeed related, and the closest relative of both turns out to be a species called Drosera regia .

Then Waller and Gibson mapped out the steps that would have been required to evolve from a sticky trap ancestor into a snap-trap.

First the ancestral plant must have adapted to move its tentacles and leaves in a particular direction, giving it a greater chance of sticking to and engulfing a passing insect.

Next it sped up how quickly it detected prey and tried to respond.

Then the plant would have had to find a way to become selective, so it only tried to trap live prey and not any detritus that landed upon it.

Finally, it must have evolved its tentacles into sensory hairs and teeth that detect and wrap around prey, respectively, while also losing its sticky glands and growing new digestive glands capable of digesting the victim's corpse.

But that raises the question of what strong selection pressure could have driven the evolution of such an extraordinary series of adaptations?

Bigger and better

The short answer, say Waller and Gibson, is the benefits of eating ever larger prey.

"Capturing big prey provides big rewards to any carnivorous plant, and snap-traps can immobilize and digest these bigger prey far more effectively than the sticky fly-paper type traps we see in sundews," says Waller.

"A bug twice as long as another has more like eight times the biomass and nutrients, so these rewards accelerate as prey get bigger. This is why flytraps build bigger traps as soon as they can, unlike almost all other plants where the size of leaves or traps remains the same as plants get bigger."

Waller also suspects that engulfing and sealing in prey may also provide other advantages to the Venus flytrap and waterwheel.

It stops other more sure-footed predators coming along and stealing a captured insect or spider, he says, and any nutrients being washed away by water or rain before the plant can digest them.

Answering such questions is particularly important because the Venus flytrap is becoming increasing rare in the wild, and should be listed as endangered in the US, where it only lives in North and South Carolina, says Waller.

Knowing its evolutionary history will help botanists work out, for example, if it is becoming dangerously inbred.

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Almost extinct Galapagos tortoise mates at 90

Reuters 21 Jul 09;

QUITO (Reuters) - Lonesome George, the last remaining giant tortoise of his kind, may soon be a father to the delight of conservationists.

Unhatched eggs have been found in his "bachelor" pen in the Galapagos Islands, his keepers said on Tuesday.

For decades, the last known Pinta island tortoise had shown little interest in reproducing. But at age 90, George is said to be in his sexual prime.

Galapagos tortoises were among the species Charles Darwin observed to formulate his theory of evolution in the 19th century.

Scientist have been trying to get George to mate since 1993, when they introduced two female tortoises of a different subspecies into his pen.

The Galapagos National Park said the five eggs found on Monday were "in perfect condition" and have been placed in an incubator.

"Now we have to wait for the incubation period of 120 days to find out whether they are fertile," it said in a statement.

The 198-pound (90-kg) George stunned conservationists last year by mating for the first time in the 36 years he has been in captivity. But the eggs laid by one of his female companions turned out to be infertile.

Tortoises were hunted for their meat by sailors and fishermen to the point of extinction, while their habitat has been eaten away by goats introduced from the mainland.

Some 20,000 giant tortoises still live on the Galapagos.

(Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; writing by Eduardo Garcia, editing by Anthony Boadle)

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Predators battle bugs, become pests themselves

Sudhin Thanawala, Associated Press Yahoo News 21 Jul 09;

SAN FRANCISCO – Imported insects have been deployed as foot soldiers in the fight against invasive bugs and plants that cause billions of dollars in damage each year. But some of those imports are proving to be pests themselves that upset the balance of nature and threaten native species.

A weevil released to attack a weed has veered off target and is gobbling up a native plant in Nebraska. A fly that was supposed to kill invasive moths is wiping out native moths in New England. And an insect introduced to combat a pesky weed led to a spike in the population of mice carrying a potentially deadly virus in Montana.

Despite such scattered scientific mishaps, the Associated Press found the federal agency that has approved the importation and release of hundreds of insects over the past three decades seldom tracks their effects on other species and the environment and does not even know whether most of the introduced bugs have died off or thrived unchecked.

It largely leaves the monitoring of bug releases to states and researchers who critics say have little funding or inclination to track impacts that might not show up for decades.

Too many insects have been let loose without understanding their effectiveness and the long-term consequences, critics say. Although only a relative handful of biological controls are known to have gone wild, they say there is potential for unpredictable harm from others.

"If you find you've got a problem with a chemical, you can stop spraying it," said Daniel Simberloff, an environmental science professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. "If you find you made a mistake with a biocontrol agent, you can't call it back."

In one of the most infamous disasters, farmers introduced the mongoose to Hawaii in the late 1800s to control rats that were feeding on sugar cane. Rather than control rats, the mongoose have preyed on the nests of endangered and threatened native birds.

In the past decade, researchers found that a parasitic fly, released as late as 1986 to combat gypsy and brown tail moths, is devastating the native silk moth population in New England.

But supporters view biological controls as an alternative to widespread pesticide and herbicide use, and say the science has come a long way.

Scientists now spend years vetting critters to make sure they do not feed on what they are not supposed to, said Mark Hoddle, an entomologist with the University of California, Riverside.

Despite some recent lapses, advocates of biocontrol point to successes.

The vidalia beetle from Australia in the late 19th century helped save California's citrus industry, which was ravaged by a scale insect, Hoddle said. In the 1940s, Klamathweed beetle helped control St. John's wort, a weed that is toxic to livestock and crowds out native plant species.

"The alternatives are do nothing, let (the invasive species) do what it does, and suffer the consequences," Hoddle said. "Or spray insecticide or herbicide like crazy. That's expensive, pollutes the air and contaminates our groundwater."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has approved hundreds of biocontrol agents since the early 1970s, said technical adviser Robert Flanders, the former head of the permitting unit.

But officials say they do not have a more precise number because biocontrol permits over the decades have been intermingled with thousands of files for other permits.

The agency does not know what happened to most of the biocontrol agents it approved for use, Flanders said, because it does not have congressional authority to require monitoring after insects are released or to collect such data.

However, he noted that the potential effects are assessed prior to every release, with input from federal environmental agencies.

"When you approve a permit, it is an irretrievable event," Flanders said. "The signing of a permit ... is not received lightly by the people who do it."

But in Hawaii, where invasive species have long been a concern, the standard is more stringent. The state requires monitoring for effects on non-targeted plants and insects, said Neil Reimer, Hawaii's plant pest control chief.

When biocontrol agents approved by federal authorities have gone awry, the effects have not been discovered for years.

Researchers recently found that a chain reaction followed the release of gall flies in Montana in the 1970s to combat spotted knapweed, which takes over grasslands.

The fly larvae became food for deer mice that proliferated and ate the seeds of the very native plants the fly was supposed to protect, said Dean Pearson, a research ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station.

The deer mice also were carrying hantavirus — a disease that can be deadly in humans.

A Montana health department spokesman said it is unknown whether any of the 23 hantavirus illnesses and six deaths since 1993 were associated with the gall fly release.

APHIS spokesman David Sacks said the agency would continue to issue permits for the gall fly until it sees additional evidence of the problem.

Introduced insects can also travel great distances and start eating what they should not, said Svata Louda, a professor of biology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "There are very few exotic species introductions you can name that have long-term positive effects," she said.

Louda found that a weevil introduced from Europe in 1969 to combat musk thistle had moved by the 1990s nearly 30 miles from the nearest musk thistle population to the Nebraska Sandhills. It began feeding on a native thistle that Louda says could now go extinct.

Given the difficulty in predicting future impacts of biocontrols, critics say they should be used more sparingly.

"In biocontrol today, we sort of take a shotgun approach," Pearson said. "We need to become more surgically precise."

(This version CORRECTS name of Nebraska Sandhills)

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Zambezi hit by killer fish disease

FAO 21 Jul 09;

Risks spreading to other parts of Africa

21 July 2009, Rome – A killer disease is decimating fish stocks in the Zambezi River Valley, threatening the food security and livelihoods of rural populations in an area shared by seven countries, FAO warned today.

An alert issued by FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) said the disease, known as Epizootic Ulcerative Syndrome, or EUS, is caused by the fungus Aphanomyces invadans, which forms ugly lesions on fish and has a high rate of mortality. It is one of the most serious aquatic diseases affecting finfish.

“If not properly contained there is the risk of the disease spreading to other countries surrounding the Zambezi River as well as river systems in the region,” said Rohana Subasinghe, Senior Fishery Resources Officer. The 1,390,000 km² Zambezi River Basin is home to some 32 million people, of whom 80 percent are dependent on agriculture or fishing and fish farming.

Up and downstream

Indications are that EUS, which was first confirmed in Africa in 2007, is spreading both upstream and downstream of the Zambezi and risks taking hold in other parts of Africa. The GIEWS alert serves notice on the international donor community that a food security crisis is developing and that assistance and funding will likely be required.

The most affected country is Zambia, where two thirds of the Zambezi River Basin lies. Over 2000 villages and some 700,000 people are at risk of food insecurity because fish is not only a source of revenue in many rural districts but is also the cheapest available source of protein.

Fish infected with EUS do not normally pose health hazards to humans, although the deep ulcerations and tissue decay characteristic of the disease could harbour secondary, more threatening pathogens. It is therefore recommended not to eat EUS-contaminated fish unless it is thoroughly cooked.

Irreversible damage

EUS-affected fish is un-marketable, causing severe economic loss to fishers and fish farmers. Some 50 species of finfish are susceptible to the disease, with outbreaks often affecting younger fish in particular so that irreversible damage to fish populations and severe loss of biodiversity often occurs.

EUS first appeared in Japan in the early 1970s then spread to Australia and much of Asia, while the United States was hit in 1984. It is now present in at least 24 countries in the world.

FAO has since 2007 been helping build capacities for coping with the disease in the seven Zambezi River Basin countries – Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This includes basic EUS diagnosis, targeted EUS surveillance and basic aquatic animal health management.

Urgent requests

In response to urgent requests from a number of countries FAO, in close cooperation with the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), is helping develop and implement an aquatic biosecurity framework for Southern Africa and build capacity for the management of Zambezi River resources.

The programme will strengthen institutional and human capacity for managing aquatic animal health in the wild in the affected countries through appropriate policies and regulations.

Control of EUS in natural waters such as rivers is impossible but is relatively simpler in fish farming operations where a number of simple biosecurity measures can minimize or prevent its spread. They include preventing possible carriers or vectors getting into water bodies or fish ponds, removing dead fish and improving water quality.

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Rwanda beekeeper 'sparked fire' in the Volcanoes National Park

BBC 21 Jul 09;

Emergency crews in Rwanda have contained wildfires that they say were set off by a beekeeper collecting honey by smoking out bees from a hive.

The fires burnt for days, consuming 1.5 sq km of land in the Volcanoes National Park, home to rare gorillas.

Rwanda's tourism chief Rosette Rugamba said 4,000 people had taken part in the emergency response - including local officials and government ministers.

She said the fires were under control but not completely extinguished.

"We are being cautious and saying it is contained," she told a news conference. But she said wind tended to spark further fires.

"From what we have been seeing, in the morning and in the evening, you see the smoke."

The BBC's Geoffrey Mutagoma, in the capital Kigali, says the national park accounts for 90% of all tourism revenues to Rwanda.

He says the Rwandan government is spending $30,000 (£18,200) a day to maintain the disaster team on location - but there have been similar outbreaks of fire in other parts of the country over the weekend.

Mrs Rugamba said the fire was sparked accidentally by a local beekeeper extracting honey from a hive.

"He tried to put it out by himself but he failed. He is the one who broke the news about the fire," she said.

Tourism officials have now issued a stern warning to people to avoid lighting fires near national parks.

Earlier reports said groups of gorillas had been seen fleeing the flames, heading to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

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Tanzania charges six for 11-ton ivory smuggle

Yahoo News 21 Jul 09;

DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) – Six Tanzanian businessmen were Tuesday charged with smuggling 11 tons of elephant ivory worth around 600,000 dollars to the Philippines and Vietnam over the last six months.

They were also charged with 11 counts of conspiracy, unlawful hunting, exporting concealed and undeclared items as well as making false documents.

According to the Dar es Salaam magistrate court before which they were charged, they committed the offence between October 2008 and March this year.

The men, who denied the charges and were remanded in custody until July 28 pending bail appplication, run several export and cargo clearing firms in Dar es Salaam.

The tusks were impounded by authorities in the Philippines and Vietman through cooperation with Interpol.

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Waiting for the low carbon revolution

Andrew Pendleton, BBC Green Room 21 Jul 09;

The low-carbon revolution is not going to happen by itself, says Andrew Pendleton. In this week's Green Room, he calls on governments put the necessary frameworks in place that will allow the private sector to roll out the technologies needed to deliver the ambitious cuts in emissions.

In the early 1980s, consultants McKinsey completed a study for a US telecoms company predicting there would be fewer than one million wireless subscribers in the US by the turn of the century.

Today, nearly 2.5bn subscribers across the globe are using digital wireless technologies for voice, email, internet access, music and video services.

The firm is now at the forefront of predicting how different, climate-friendly technologies will help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions and at what cost.

In general, its message is helpful and optimistic suggesting, as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair argued recently, that much of the technology we need to fight climate change in the next decade is within our grasp.

However, we should be wary of predictions based on the status quo.

Last week, the UK government published an ambitious plan for transforming the British economy into one that is not only powered by low-carbon technology, but whose transport, housing and manufacturing are climate-friendly too.

The plan is to be applauded, as it signals a significant shift in climate policy from the lofty ideals of the climate change bill.

Its emissions reduction targets also suggest an approach that might best be termed "getting down to business".

The plan is certain to come in for some stick; and probably from several different angles at once.

The green campaigners, while broadly welcoming it, are generally of the view that it does not go far enough.

The acknowledgement that implementing the plan will increase household energy bills leaves the government open to attack from political opponents and consumer groups. Certainly, one could quibble with some of the detail.

However, the message sent out by the very existence of a centrally planned, government-led, economy-wide response to climate change is loud and will be heard beyond Britain's shores.

Carbon copy

It is a message that chimes with the results of a study recently completed by the Global Climate Network, an international coalition of think tanks of which IPPR is a founder member.

Our research involved speaking to more than 100 leading business people, government officials and academics in eight countries: Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Nigeria, South Africa and the US.

We reached three conclusions:

First, we have argued that a low carbon technology revolution will not simply happen, but requires government intervention of the sort the UK government announced last week.

Our research clearly shows that one of the major barriers to low-carbon technology is the lack of coherent policy at the domestic level in both industrialised and developing countries.

A progressive strategy would include tough carbon standards for specific products or sectors, tax incentives to drive investment in low-carbon energy, structural changes to energy markets to encourage renewable energy and energy efficiency and, finally, much greater government support for research, development and demonstration of new inventions.

The need for finance is our second conclusion. This is inescapable and logically follows on from the first conclusion.

Almost all of those whom we interviewed in our study identified the lack of upfront finance as being a major barrier to low carbon technology.

While the private sector may well eventually be the main source of low carbon finance, governments have to lead to make new technologies cheaper and less risky, both with technology policies and with public finance.

Third, we call for an International Technologies Initiative, which could help accelerate the development of new technology through collaboration.

'Valley of death'

The so-called "valley of death" that lies in between invention and commercialisation in which many great ideas perish cannot be allowed to kill off important low carbon inventions.

Some will baulk at the suggestion that governments should have such a strong role in driving new, low carbon technology; there will be muttering about the dangers of nations "picking winners".

Yet the overwhelming conclusion of our study is that the low carbon technology revolution will not happen of its own accord; it will require a strong, interventionist approach including technology policy.

Later this year in Copenhagen, the world's environment ministers will come together for what is in theory a meeting to put the finishing touches to a new, global climate change agreement.

Currently however, the preparatory talks are deadlocked because developed countries refuse to accept ambitious emissions reduction targets and, as a result, developing countries refuse to talk about targets at all.

In truth, governments on either side of this divide do not fully understand how even the less ambitious of the targets on the table will be reached.

It is IPPR's view that greater emphasis needs to be placed on getting the technology we all need demonstrably working, and developed government-led financing needs to draw in the big bucks from the private sector.

We should not look to the low-carbon future as the study of subscribers to wireless technology did in the 1980s.

This will lead to timid policymaking and defeatism in the face of the great global threat of climate change.

Instead, governments should get down to the business of setting technology policies today that at least stand a chance of delivering a low-carbon revolution tomorrow.

Andrew Pendleton is senior research fellow at IPPR, a UK public policy think-tank

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

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El Nino continues to develop: Australian met bureau

Reuters 22 Jul 09;

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An El Nino continues to develop in the Pacific Ocean with sea temperatures above average, but other weather indicators are fluctuating, Australia's weather bureau said on Wednesday in its latest report.

"While El Nino indicators have fluctuated over the past few weeks, the overall picture remains one of a developing El Nino event," the Bureau of Meteorology said.

"Ocean conditions in the Pacific Basin remain at El Nino levels. Should they persist at such levels through the remainder of the southern winter and into spring, as predicted by the world's leading climate models, 2009 will be considered an El Nino year."

El Nino, meaning "little boy" in Spanish, is driven by an abnormal warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean and creates havoc in weather patterns across the Asia-Pacific region.

It is associated with drought conditions in parts of Australia and Asia and wetter-than-normal weather in parts of South America.

India this year suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states.

The last severe El Nino in 1998 killed over 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage to crops, mines and infrastructure in Australia and Asia.

The Australian weather bureau said Pacific Ocean temperatures remained at about 1 degree Celsius above average and that cloud patterns and rainfall along the equator were now becoming consistent with a developing El Nino event.

However a major indicator of an El Nino, the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), was running contrary to a normal El Nino development.

The SOI, which measures the pressure difference between the Pacific island of Tahiti and the Australian city of Darwin, was currently at a positive 12, while a consistently negative SOI indicates an El Nino.

The bureau said the positive SOI was due to a high pressure system near Tahiti and warmer than expected sea temperatures in the western Pacific and Coral Sea.

For more information: www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/

(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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Drought threat for Bangladesh as monsoon fails

Yahoo News 21 Jul 09;

DHAKA (AFP) – A delay to Bangladesh's monsoon season is posing a severe risk of drought in the impoverished nation and threatening food supplies, officials warned Tuesday.

Monsoon rains normally sweep Bangladesh from June to September and the South Asian country gets more than 75 percent of its annual rainfall during this period but a lack of rain is hampering crop potential.

"For weeks there have been no rains in the northern and central districts, the country's main food belt. Tens of millions of farmers could not sow summer rice as their farmlands have dried up," said Ruhul Amin, the government's food planning chief.

"If no rain comes in the next couple of weeks, it will be a severe drought," he added.

The head of the government's weather department, Arjumand Habib, said rainfall during June was 37 percent below average while the first 19 days of July saw 23 percent lower precipitation than average for the period.

"What rains we've had since June were mainly concentrated in the northeastern and southeastern hilly areas, triggering flash floods there while causing drought-like situation in the plain lands," she said.

Scientists say Bangladesh is one of the countries worst affected by the effects of climate change with extreme weather conditions such as flooding and drought likely to increase in future.

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US West Coast Tsunami Threat Higher than Thought

livescience.com 21 Jul 09;

The threat of a devastating tsunami hitting the U.S. West Coast might be higher than previously thought, scientists say, based on a new study of earthquake faults off the coast of Alaska.

Tsunamis are often triggered by earthquakes, as was the case with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which was sparked by the 9.3-magnitude Sumatra-Andaman subduction quake in the same ocean. The tsunami killed nearly a quarter of a million people.

The new research suggests that future tsunamis could reach a scale far beyond that suffered in a 1964 tsunami generated by the great 9.2-magnitude Alaskan earthquake - "the most devastating seismic sea wave to impact the northwestern coast of the U.S. in historical time," said study team member Ron Bruhn, a geologist at the University of Utah.

That tsunami killed about 130 people, according to official records: 114 in Alaska and 16 in Oregon and California, including several who heard it was coming and went down to the coast to watch.

Researchers looked at ancient fault segments off the coast of Alaska and determined that the rupture of an even larger area than the 1964 rupture zone could create an even bigger, more devastating tsunami.

While warning systems are in place on the West Coast of North America, the findings, detailed in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, suggest a need for a review of evacuation plans in the region.

Past temblors

A research team from Durham University in the United Kingdom, the University of Utah and Plafker Geohazard Consultants gauged the extent of earthquakes along the U.S. West Coast over the past 2,000 years by studying subsoil samples and sediment sequences at sites along the Alaskan coast.

The team radiocarbon-dated peat layers and sediments, and analyzed the distribution of mud, sand and peat within them. The data indicate that two major earthquakes have struck Alaska in the past 1,500 years - specifically, about 900 and 1,500 years ago. The results suggest that earthquakes in the region may rupture even larger segments of the coast and sea floor than was previously thought.

"Our radiocarbon-dated samples suggest that previous earthquakes were 15 percent bigger in terms of the area affected than the 1964 event," said lead author of the study, Ian Shennan of Durham University. "This historical evidence of widespread, simultaneous plate rupturing within the Alaskan region has significant implications for the tsunami potential of the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific region as a whole."

The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Tsunami trigger

Tsunamis can be created by the rapid displacement of water when the sea floor lifts and/or falls due to crustal movements that accompany very large earthquakes. The movement acts like a giant paddle. The shallow nature of the sea floor off the coast of Alaska could increase the destructive potential of a tsunami wave in the Pacific.

Tsunamis are not always a given though: In 1899 and 1979, large earthquakes occurred in the region but did not trigger tsunamis because the rupturing was localized beneath the land instead of the sea floor.

But a quake whose effect is spread out over a longer distance could have a devastating impact.

"In the case of a multirupture event, the energy imparted to the tsunami will be larger but spread out over a longer strike distance," Bruhn said. "Except for the small communities at the tsunami source in Alaska, the longer length will have more of an effect on areas farther from the source such as southeastern Alaska, British Columbia, and the U.S. West Coast from Washington to California."

Pacific Ocean tsunami warning systems, first put in place in the 1940s and improved in 2004 after the Indian Ocean tsunami, help, but tsunamis could still do considerable damage. (No comparison was made between the potential future tsunamis and the Indian Ocean disaster, which happened in a different part of the Pacific Ocean.)

"Earthquakes can hit at any time of the day or night, and that's a big challenge for emergency planners," Shennan said. "A tsunami in this region could cause damage and threaten life from Alaska to California and beyond."

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