wildsingapore news: Aug 15, 2009

Best of our wild blogs: 15 Aug 09

Punggol anglers left poor owl caught in fishing line to die
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Given the limited land available in singapore,is it wise to set aside some areas as nature reserves? Open question left on Yahoo Answers

Chek Jawa - Last Saturday of every month
from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

Seagrass monitoring at Labrador
from Labrador park

“I Polunin” Exhibition
from Urban Forest

Black-naped Oriole came for a visit
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Night walking
from Ubin at sgkopi

Dredging off Sentosa in Aug 09
from wild shores of singapore

September is Science Month in Singapore
from wild shores of singapore

Sat 15 Aug 2009: 2pm @ NLB Lvl 16 – Peter Borschberg on “Maps and Charts of Singapore from the Archives of Continental Europe” from Otterman speaks

Thu 20 Aug 2009: 7.30pm @ ACM: “An Orientalist’s Treasure Trove,” by Bonny Tan from Otterman speaks

Nine designated water-skiing areas in Singapore waters
from wild shores of singapore

Borneo’s burning forests
from Bornean Sun Bear Conservation

ICA uncovers a haul of smuggled in live birds at Woodlands Checkpoint

Rekha, Channel NewsAsia 14 Aug 09;

SINGAPORE: A 66-year-old passenger tried to smuggle seven live Merbok birds also known as the "songbirds" into Singapore via the Woodlands Checkpoint.

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority said on August 12, a Malaysia-registered tour bus arriving at the Woodlands Checkpoint was directed for routine inspection.

A passenger who tried to smuggle the birds in two cloth bags claimed they were given to him as a gift by a friend when the bus stopped over at a town in Johor, Malaysia.

The case has since been referred to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) for further investigations.

The importation of live birds without an AVA permit is a violation of the Animals and Birds Act, which carries a maximum penalty of S$10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year. - CNA/vm

Seven birds found on tour bus at checkpoint
Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times 15 Aug 09;

SEVEN Zebra Doves, also known as Merbok birds, were discovered in a Malaysia-registered tour bus that arrived at the Woodlands Checkpoint at 1am on Wednesday.

During a routine inspection, an Immigration and Checkpoint Authority officer found two colourful cloth bags hanging on the seat lever near the back of the bus, seemingly abandoned.

Nestled inside were the birds, known for their singing ability.

The driver helped to identify the 66-year-old Malaysian owner of the bags.

The man, who is also a Singapore permanent resident, claimed that the birds were given to him by a friend when the bus stopped at a town in Johor.

Zebra Doves, which are common in South-east Asia, are about 20cm to 23cm in length with a wingspan of 24cm to 26cm.

They are not considered an endangered species and are popular as pets due to their 'cooing' call.

The case has been referred to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) for further investigations.

The importation of live birds without an AVA permit is a violation of the Animals and Birds Act which carries a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

Last year, there were 17 wildlife-related enforcement cases, down from 46 cases the year before. The numbers have been on the decline since 2004's high of 97 cases.

Hot spring heat source could 'power 50,000 homes'

Shaft could be drilled to tap steam to drive turbine, says expert
Grace Chua, Straits Times 15 Aug 09;

A HOT spring tucked away in Sembawang might just hold the key to Singapore's untapped geothermal power potential, and at least one geologist is going full steam ahead on the idea.

The spring at Gambas Avenue produces water at 70degC and lures visitors keen to test its rumoured curative powers, but it could have a bit more than that to offer.

Dr Grahame Oliver believes the energy that heats the unassuming spring could be tapped - based on his geologic predictions and evidence from Singapore quarries - to power 50,000 homes here.

He told scientists at the annual meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society yesterday that the concept needed further study, but added: 'I see this as a new look at Singapore's geology, with a new geothermal model that explains existing hot spots.'

Geothermal energy stems from the earth's heat and is usually tapped at the boundaries of tectonic plates, such as those in Indonesia, where there are natural heat sources near the surface.

Dr Oliver, a visiting don at the National University of Singapore teaching mainly petroleum geosciences, said that while Singapore is not at a plate boundary, sources of geothermal energy can be located by following hot springs.

The Gambas Avenue spring suggests it sits atop a bed of hot rock - in this case, granite. Much of north and central Singapore sits on granite, which generates infinitesimal amounts of its own heat, Dr Oliver said.

This heat accumulates over millions of years and, when combined with the earth's other natural heat, great warmth can be found nearer the surface in granite than in other types of rock.

Dr Oliver's search for the water's source and direction has taken him to quarries in Bukit Timah and Little Guilin in Bukit Gombak.

He found joints and faults in the rock that channelled rainwater to the north-east and south-west and onto the spring at Sembawang.

His theory suggests that a shaft could be drilled about 2km into the earth at the right spot near Sembawang or another hot spring, such as the one at Pulau Tekong, a military training area.

At that depth, the water would be about 150degC and emerge as steam, which could drive a turbine to produce electricity. The water would be channelled back into the earth.

Or cooler water - at about 70degC - could be pumped up to flash-boil another liquid with a boiling point lower than that of water, producing steam for the turbine.

Since no carbon dioxide is emitted, tapping geothermal energy is cleaner than burning fossil fuels.

Advances in drilling technology mean that shafts could even be bored sideways, deep in the ground, to tap more of the heat.

The technique is already proven: A power plant in Alaska, based on the same principle proposed by Dr Oliver, has a 400kw capacity.

Dr Oliver, who spent three decades teaching at Scotland's St Andrews University and who has studied rock formations around the world, estimates that the cost of surveys and drilling needed to prove the concept would hit $27million.

The capital outlay is high but a 50MW plant the size of three football fields could pay for itself in about five years, power an HDB town and save about half a million barrels of oil a year.

The constant supply would also provide valuable energy security and reduce reliance on fuel imports, Dr Oliver said.

Singapore gets about 80per cent of its electricity from natural gas, which can be costly as it is linked to the price of oil.

A Trade and Industry Ministry spokesman told The Straits Times: 'Policymakers are tracking the dynamic developments in energy technology, including those in geothermal systems.

'The use of geothermal energy will depend on the quality of the physical resource, cost and safety implications and its economic viability.'

Clock ticking for Thai fishing cat

Numbers of endangered feline dwindling as wetlands in which it lives disappear
Nirmal Ghosh, Straits Times 15 Aug 09;

AS DUSK falls over the murmuring waves, quiet mangroves and jagged, brooding cliffs at the edge of the Gulf of Thailand, the fishing cats begin to prowl.

Here in the 98sqkm Khao Sam Roi Yot (KSRY) Marine National Park, a researcher has found Thailand's and possibly South-east Asia's largest remaining population of the endangered feline.

When 39-year-old 'Namfon' Passanan Cutter first surveyed likely fishing cat habitats in Thailand for her master's degree at the University of Minnesota, she did not know her path would lead to KSRY, about 50km south of Hua Hin.

The fishing cat - about twice the size of a house cat - is a barometer of the state of the wetlands it inhabits.

Charismatic megafauna like tigers, elephants, orang utans and giant pandas grab public attention, but smaller species rarely figure. Among hundreds of species disappearing fast from habitat loss and hunting are a dozen or more small cats, the red panda, the slow loris, and recently even the humble pangolin.

Smaller species are no less important. Fishing cats keep ecosystems in balance by preying on rodents, birds and crabs - which farmers consider pests. They also need less space than their large-bodied big cat cousins, so when they start dying off, it is a cause for worry.

Around half the world's wetlands have disappeared since 1900. Associated species are also dwindling.

Fishing cats have virtually disappeared from the lower Malay peninsula. Across their Asian habitat, their population has plunged to probably fewer than 10,000.

Their low-lying habitat has been turned into industrial and urban infrastructure. Peat swamp forests have been replaced by commercial plantations. In much of coastal tropical Asia, wetlands have been converted to cultivation and prawn farming.

Agri- and aqua-culture bring chemicals and poisons with them, applied to control diseases and pests. Urbanisation brings waste, and cats and dogs. Namfon's camera traps have recorded feral house cats and feral dogs roaming the wilderness at night. Packs of dogs have attacked and killed fishing cats.

'By the time people realise how important these animals are, they will be gone,' says Namfon, a native of northern Thailand.

Almost by accident last December, she discovered two captive fishing cats with a family at KSRY. Soon she found that fishing cats - only two isolated reports of them occurred elsewhere in Thailand - appeared to be surviving in KSRY, though there was no official record.

Namfon set up camera traps - battery-powered cameras triggered by breaking an infrared beam - in likely places.

On the first night, the cameras recorded a female with two kittens.

The discovery was cause for celebration. But even the top predator in KSRY remains on the margins and under threat.

KSRY is a wetland of international importance under the 1971 Ramsar Convention. But roads crisscross the area. Prawn farms have taken over vast tracts. Reed grass beds where fishing cats breed and deliver their cubs have vanished.

Feral cats and dogs compete with the fishing cat, and bring the risk of zoonotic disease - viruses which cross over between humans and animals. Disease could wipe out the fishing cats in weeks.

Poaching for the meat of the cat - or revenge killings if a cat kills a domestic chicken - is also a threat.

Namfon began her project - funded by, among others, the Smithsonian Institute, Cincinnati Zoo, a World Conservation Society Fellowship, and supported by Thailand's department of national parks - in earnest six months ago.

Every day she dons rubber boots and a hat against the hot sun, sprays on mosquito repellent, and trudges through mud and slush and dense brush to check cameras and baited traps.

The footage provides a visual record of individual animals. Trapped cats are tranquilised and checked for injuries and diseases. After DNA sampling, a collar that transmits a radio signal is placed around the neck.

In six months she has photographed 15 cats and collared seven.

But she has found two collared cats dead - one killed by a vehicle on the road, the other submerged in a rice field, badly decomposed and the cause of death unknown. Locals say it may have been shot.

Two others cannot be found.

An earlier study in Nepal found that male fishing cats can range over some 22 sq km. Females range over 4 to 8 sq km.

In the 98 sq km KSRY, where some of the area is rugged, rocky 'karst' outcrops and some is offshore, they simply do not have that kind of space. They must run the gauntlet of roads and open fields.

Namfon's radio telemetry records show that fishing cats spend a lot of time in rice fields, which are not their natural habitat.

The research will determine the fishing cats' eating habits. If, as suspected, they do not raid prawn farms, that would reassure many locals.

Namfon wants to educate local children to the fact that the cats are not a threat. The surrounding community's support is the key to their survival, she says.

'We can't leave out people.'

Firms urged to defend against NGO attacks on palm oil

Hanim Adnan, The Star 14 Aug 09;

SERDANG: The negative perceptions of Western non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on oil palm cultivation with regards to environment and sustainability practices must be appropriately addressed by palm oil industry players, said Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) chairman Datuk Sabri Ahmad.

He said recent attacks by NGOs could affect the marketability of palm oil and its related products, thus posing a challenge for the entire palm oil trade in the international market.

Sabri was speaking at MPOB’s International Conference on Palm Oil and the Environment held yesterday in conjunction with the on-going Malaysia International Commodity Conference & Showcase (MICCOS 2009).

He said MPOB had developed new technologies and techniques, which had been incorporated in the good agriculture practice (GAP) and milling practice to ensure sustainable production of palm oil in Malaysia.

“We have also embarked on oil palm genome sequencing to generate important probes for DNA fingerprinting as well as probes into other important agricultural traits,” Sabri added.

In addition, MPOB has developed technology to harnass abundant oil palm biomass for alternative bio-energy sources as well as palm oil mill effluent (POME) to be converted into renewable energy.

MPOB is also setting up a new research station in Belaga, Sarawak, poised to be the first of its kind in the world as a model station that incorporates precision agriculture technologies and GAP to improve efficiency and biodiversity.

It will adopt advanced technology for the precise agriculture systems using Geographic Information Systems, Global Positioning System and remote sensing.

Earlier, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said at the official opening of the conference that Malaysia had progressively improved its standards of environmental and sustainable practices despite allegations that the palm oil industry had caused the destruction of rainforests and peat lands, loss of biodiversity and release of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and climate change.

On the release of methane gas in the effluent ponds of palm oil mills, he said: “The Government is encouraging the trapping of methane gas as fuel to produce energy, thus reducing the carbon footprint.”

Currently, only 4% of over 400 mills in Malaysia have the methane capture facility while another 10% are in the process of construction.

Efforts are also in progress to utilise POME for the production of biofertiliser.

Seeing Through the Haze: How NGOs Work the Forests

Alan Oxley, Jakarta Globe 14 Aug 09;

As they do every year, Greenpeace and nongovernmental organizations like “Eyes on the Forest,” which is supported by the WWF and other western environmental groups, have squarely blamed the plantation industry for the seasonal fires in Sumatra.

This generates sympathy for the anti-forestry campaign NGOs have been waging in Indonesia for many years, which pits economic development against the environment.

But this perspective is simplistic and wrong.

Simplistic, because the causes of fire and haze are complex, involving numerous factors — as clearly stated by the region-wide inquiry into the 1997 fires undertaken by Asean and the Asian Development Bank.

Wrong, because NGOs have implied that Indonesia’s largest forestry companies are poorer managers of the environment than other forest users.

The Asean inquiry stated clearly that one of the chief causes of the fires was economic: impoverished forest communities using traditional techniques — like fire — to clear land or mark territory.

Since then, Indonesia’s larger forestry operators have instituted no-burn policies. We can safely assume that illegal loggers and forest communities have not.

The NGO perspective ignores the key question: why do poor communities clear land? It is because they are poor. Good environmental management requires money; the volumes of environmental aid flowing into developing countries are a clear indication of this.

The solution, then, would be to focus on economic growth for the forest and agricultural sectors, leading to better management and less haze, right?

Wrong, according to NGO thinking. The proposals being floated by WWF and Greenpeace at the climate talks in Germany this week would hinder economic growth in Indonesia and the developing world, as new research by World Growth shows.

In Bonn, Greenpeace and WWF launched the “NGO Climate Change Treaty.” Not unexpectedly, it proposed that all countries should adopt binding commitments to reduce emissions. The strategy to achieve that was more revealing.

Their plan is to have developed countries auction emission permits to the tune of $160 billion. This would be given to a UN committee which would disburse it to developing countries annually for five years .

Roughly $40 billion would go to developing countries which agreed to stop converting forest land for other uses, like food production and commercial crops.

But no money would be given to developing countries unless the UN Committee, which should include NGOs, according to Greenpeace and WWF, approved their reduction plans.

This is plainly ridiculous. How many developing countries would willingly agree to limit successful business sectors which produce jobs, taxes, prosperity and food security, and instead increase dependence on environmental aid grants, turning their workers into welfare dependents funded by the industrialized world?

The anti-private sector anti-business bias is palpable in the writings and policies of western environmental groups. In industrialized economies businesses are simply targets. Consider the campaigns against McDonald’s, ExxonMobil, Shell, Citibank and Kimberley Clark, to name a few.

There is patent cynicism among NGOs about which companies are tackled. WWF made clear a few years ago that big corporations were targets. And it can play rough. Indonesia’s Asian Pulp and Paper has been a target ever since the WWF decided unilaterally to abrogate an agreement to cooperate. It pressured the Forest Stewardship Council to deny the company certification of sources of timber despite independent certification that the company complied.

While companies like APP are just seen by the NGOs as vehicles to advance their environmental goals, (in WWF’s case, it is to stop the conversion of forest land to important, productive purposes) they are much more important to developing countries.

These companies are the leading agents in the private sector for economic development. They hire large numbers of workers and generate markets for small business.

If the global treaty that WWF and Greenpeace are promoting becomes a reality, the result in developing countries would be increased poverty, as well as a worse environment. An obvious lesson in recent years is that countries cannot protect their environments unless they have the wealth to do so.

Alan Oxley is the chairman of the US-based World Growth, a nonprofit NGO. The research referred to is “Forestry and the Poor: How Forestry Can Reduce Poverty,” which is available at www.worldgrowth.org.

Vietnam's taste for exotic meat threatens species

Prosperous middle class contributing to a growing appetite for 'forest food'
Andrew Buncombe, The Independent 15 Aug 09;

As any visitor to Vietnam can confirm, its people have a remarkable taste for meals made from each and every creature. From snakes and spiders to monkeys and rats, there are few wild animals not prized when it comes to the cooking pot.

But there is a price for this extreme omnivorousness. Experts have warned that the Vietnamese appetite for rare and exotic meat is threatening to eat many wild species into extinction.

Among the animals most seriously at risk from the burgeoning demand for "forest food" are the rhino, the white-handed gibbon and the civet.

"With the current situation of illegal hunting and trapping of wildlife, even hundreds of thousands of nature reserves fail to supply the demand," Professor Dang Huy Huynh, chairman of the Vietnam Zoology Association, told a conference this week.

The professor said up to 200 species are regularly traded, either for food or medicine, including lizards, wild cats, tigers, elephants and deer. Of these, around 80 species are threatened ones. In all, this trade results in 3,400 tonnes of wild meat – or a million individual animals – being consumed every year. Around 18 per cent of this meat is illegally hunted, he told the conference at the Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve in northern Vietnam.

Experts say this trade in wild meat exists on two levels.

Many rural Vietnamese still hunt wild animals on a subsistence basis, as they have for generations. But the biggest threat to wild animals is the growing demand from a newly wealthy, urban middle-class who often frequent restaurants that specialise in exotic and even protected creatures.

James Compton, a spokesman for Traffic, a British-based organisation that works to prevent trade in wild species, said this demand dates back 10 years to when Vietnam's economic growth accelerated.

A survey by Traffic and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that the largest consumers of wild meat in the capital, Hanoi, were civil servants and business people. "That is the socio- economic context for this," he said.

Mr Compton said that in the past Vietnam may have acted as a conduit for rare and exotic animals exported to China, where they are prized for medicinal and cultural reasons. However, the demand within Vietnam itself for such animals has now reached the point where local supply is being outstripped. As a result, such animals are now being sourced in neighbouring countries such as Cambodia and Laos. "Just last year a shipment of 24 tonnes of pangolin, a rare scaly anteater, was intercepted on its way to Vietnam from Indonesia," he said.

Ian Walker, a British chef and author who on a recent culinary tour of Vietnam vowed to eat everything put in front of him, said the Vietnamese have a very different way of looking at food to most Westerners: "It is utterly different. Everything is edible." Mr Walker, who documented his discoveries in a book, Against the Flow, said he met on his Vietnamese travels many people who still hunt wild animals for survival.

"The trouble is when some animals become valuable. That is when it starts to become unsustainable," he added.

Vietnamese officials maintain that laws have been introduced to protect wild species but that, as in many parts of Asia, these laws are not enforced. Pham Manh Hung, a senior member of the communist government's Central Committee for Propaganda and Education, cited a resolution passed five years ago to protect wildlife.

Perhaps with an eye to that survey that suggested bureaucrats' tastes are partly to blame for the demand for wild meat, he said awareness needs to be raised among civil servants of the importance of protecting threatened species rather than eating them.

New Sub "War" Range May Harm Rare Whales, Critics Say

Brian Handwerk, National Geographic News 14 Aug 09;

After considering several candidates, the U.S. Navy announced last week that it will build its latest submarine warfare training facility in the waters off Jacksonville, Florida.

But even though the site won't open until 2014, the new tenant is already having trouble with its neighbors.

That's because the chosen site for the Undersea Warfare Training Range is just 30 miles (48 kilometers) from the only known calving grounds of the North Atlantic right whale.

Only about 300 to 350 North Atlantic right whales remain. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as endangered, meaning it faces a "very high risk of extinction in the wild."

Several advocacy groups are contesting the Navy's choice, saying that the project could prove disastrous to the whales.

"For these right whales, it's hard to imagine a worse location," said Taryn Kiekow, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an "environmental action group."

The Navy counters that an environmental impact statement has already been carried out, and the site has approval from the U.S. government's National Marine Fisheries Service.

"The biological opinion concluded the construction and operation of the range will not jeopardize the continued existence of any listed species in the area—that includes right whales," said Jim Lecky, director for the service's office of protected resources.

"[The study] also concludes that [the range] wouldn't adversely impact or destroy critical habitat, and the right whale is the only species that has critical habitat near the area."

Brazil meat company to refuse cattle from Amazon

Reuters 14 Aug 09;

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's top leather exporter and second-largest beef exporter, Bertin, said on Thursday it has signed a pact with environmental campaigner Greenpeace to refuse purchases of cattle reared in recently-deforested parts of the Amazon.

The company will register and map all farms from which it buys cattle directly within the next six months and by 2011, expand systems that enable it to trace cattle from the farms to its facilities, including rearing and nursery farms.

"We already had a system to avoid buying from illegally deforested areas, now we're including legally cleared areas," said Bertin's Vice President Fernando Falco.

"We're just speeding up our (monitoring) system and adhering to a cause which society is demanding."

The announcement comes after meatpacker Marfrig signed a similar pact with Mato Grosso state's government. The state has the biggest cattle herd in Brazil.

Bertin's initiative is not restricted to the state; it includes the whole Amazon biome, where it has seven units -- four in Para, one in Rondonia and two in Mato Grosso.

It will use satellite images to map cattle ranches and ban purchases from areas deforested after June 2009.

"This is an opportunity for Brazil to conquer new markets because, besides having the most competitive beef, it will come from a sustainable cattle production system," Falco said.

Brazil's beef sector has been criticized for its role in deforestation of the world's largest rain forest.

Greenpeace this year released a report linking the beef business with illegal deforestation, leading key Brazilian retailers to say they would halt purchases from some suppliers.

Bertin's agreement, signed with Greenpeace, is based on a similar accord launched by the soybean industry in 2006. But Falco acknowledged that cattle herds are more difficult to monitor than soy farming.

The four largest soy trading houses in Brazil account for around 90 percent of the market, while top beef companies have only 30 percent of sales on the domestic market.

"Given the sheer size of Bertin's operations, this commitment will have a significant impact on driving down Amazon deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions," Greenpeace said in a statement.

(Reporting by Inae Riveras; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

How a wind farm could emit more carbon than a coal power station

Building wind farms built on peat bogs, which can release their huge carbon stores when damaged, is not sensible
Fred Pearce, guardian.co.uk 13 Aug 09;

Let's be clear: Britain needs wind turbines. Lots of them. But just about the worst place to erect them is on top of peat bogs, which are huge stores of carbon that can easily leak carbon dioxide into the air when damaged by the inevitable roads or drains.

So there are serious questions about the green credentials of plans to build Europe's largest onshore wind farm on 187 square kilometres of thick peat on the Shetland Islands. The fate of the £800m project will be decided by the Scottish government in the coming weeks.

More than half of the wind turbines in Scotland are on highland peat. This is not sensible. Scottish peat bogs hold three-quarters of all the carbon in British ecosystems – equivalent to around a century of emissions from fossil fuel burning.

Apart from water, peat bogs are largely composed of huge volumes of saturated, undecayed plants. A single hectare typically contains more than 5000 tonnes of carbon, ten times more than a typical hectare of forest. But any disturbance leads to lower water levels and to the peat drying, oxidising and releasing its carbon, says biochemist Mike Hall of the Cumbria Wildlife Trust.

The bog can decompose for hundreds of metres round every turbine, potentially releasing millions of tonnes of carbon. The process is slow, but frequently unstoppable, Hall says. So many wind farms may eventually emit more carbon than an equivalent coal-fired power station.

Is that the case on the Shetlands project, which will have 150 giant turbines and 118 kilometres of roads, most of them on deep bog? The promoters, Viking Energy, say the "payback time" for the turbines – that is, the time they will have to run before they recoup the carbon emissions from peat loss – could be as little as 2.3 years, or as much as 14.9 years. The higher figure is three-fifths of the assumed 25-year lifetime of the wind farm.

But dig deeper and even this high figure seems little better than guesswork.

An appendix in the project's environmental statement shows that just 10 out of 69 criteria are responsible for the difference between the best and worst-case scenarios of carbon loss. The criteria cover things such as how much peat would be drained, and how much the water table would fall as a result. But, worryingly, none of those 10 criteria were backed up by site data. The input figures for each were "assumed values".

Moreover, some critical input data that did not vary between the best and worst cases also seemed somewhat arbitrary. Thus the time required for the bog to stop leaking carbon after the closure of the site and the blocking of drains was set at 10 years. Why ten years? This is described as a "default value". Not reassuring.

One of the big risks for any construction on peat bogs is that the disrupted drainage will cause whole hillsides of waterlogged or dried out peat to slide and eventually oxidise. Such a peat slide happened at a wind farm at Derrybrien in Ireland in 2003, probably cancelling out all the benefits of building the wind farm.

Peat slides are a regular feature of the Shetland bogs. An independent technical assessment for the company raised serious issues, finding 54 problem areas.

But that hasn't stopped Viking's environmental statement from stating that the risk of a slide, even in a worst-case scenario, is zero. It blandly states: "It has been assumed that measures have been taken to may [sic] limit damage so that C losses due to peat landslide can be assumed to be negligible."

I asked David Thomson, the project officer for Viking Energy, about the veracity of these payback calculations. He said: "It's not perfect, but as a developer we submit a defendable ranged estimate using an accepted methodology and then it is for others to judge ... Ultimately it is a model. It has calculations. The quality of the answer is entirely subject to the initial inputs."

I appreciate that candour. But, much as we need more wind turbines to harness one of our most valuable natural resources, I think we deserve better information than that before deciding where to put them. When erecting wind turbines on the nation's largest carbon store, we need estimates of the likely carbon loss that are more than simply "defendable", and are not "entirely subject" to "assumed values".

As the RSPB's Lloyd Austin put it last month: "There is no point in building renewable [energy projects] that potentially emit more carbon than they save."

At risk from rising seas, Tuvalu seeks clean power

Alister Doyle, Reuters 14 Aug 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - The Pacific island state of Tuvalu set a goal on Sunday of a 100 percent shift to renewable energy by 2020, hoping to set an example to industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gases it blames for rising sea levels.

Tuvalu, a string of coral atolls whose highest point is 4.5 meters (15 ft) above sea level, estimates it would cost just over $20 million to generate all electricity for its 12,000 people from solar and wind power and end dependence on diesel.

"We look forward to the day when our nation offers an example to all -- powered entirely by natural resources such as the sun and the wind," Kausea Natano, minister for public utilities and industries, said in setting the 2020 target.

Tuvalu and many other low-lying atolls in the Pacific, the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean fear that rising sea levels could wipe them off the map. They want governments to agree a strong new U.N. deal in Copenhagen in December to slow climate change.

Natano said in a statement that Tuvalu's own efforts to curb the islanders' tiny greenhouse gas emissions "will strengthen our voice" in the negotiations.

A first $410,000 solar system on the roof of the main soccer stadium in the capital, Funafuti, has been generating 5 percent of electricity for the town since it was installed in late 2008.

The installation was led by Japan's Kansai Electric Power Co. backed by Tokyo Electric Power Co. Both are members of the e8, an international non-profit organization of 10 utilities from the Group of Eight industrialized countries.

SOLAR-POWERED SCHOOL

G8 leaders at a July 8-10 summit in Italy promised to help the poor cope with climate change, but have not yet said how much cash or technology they will provide.

"We are hoping to secure assistance from our traditional donor partners and any other funding assistance to achieve (the) ultimate goal" of 100 percent renewable power, Natano said.

Tuvalu says that "king tides" whipped up by more powerful cyclones are already bringing salt water onto crops.

Sea levels rose 17 cm (6 inches) in the 20th century and the U.N. Climate Panel estimated in 2007 they could rise by another 18-59 cm by 2100, and perhaps even more if a thaw of Greenland or Antarctica accelerates.

Tuvalu, a group of atolls covering 26 sq km, aims to expand the e8 project from 40 to 60 kilowatts and extend solar power to outer islands, starting this year with an $800,000 solar power system for a school in Vaitupu funded by the Italian government.

"The plight of Tuvalu versus the rising tide vividly represents the worst early consequence of climate change," said Takao Shiraishi, general manager of Kansai Electric Power Co.

The islands, halfway between Australia and Hawaii, would keep generators as back-up sources of power. Tuvalu's average fuel consumption is 5,000 liters of imported diesel per day.

Tuvalu's annual emissions of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from burning fossil fuels, are just 0.4 metric ton per inhabitant against more than 20 per American.

Tough climate goals risk huge costs: Lomborg

Alister Doyle, Reuters 13 Aug 09;

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - A goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) could mean crippling costs with gasoline taxes rising to $35 a gallon by 2100, a self-styled "skeptical environmentalist" said on Friday.

"The two degrees limit would simply cost too much," Danish statistician Bjorn Lomborg told Reuters, adding meeting the goal could total 12.9 percent of world gross domestic product (GDP) by 2100.

Major economies including top emitters China and the United States last month backed a target of limiting global warming to a 2 degree Celsius rise over pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst effects of climate change including floods, droughts and rising seas.

Most governments say costs will be easily manageable.

Lomborg, author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist," said gradual cuts in carbon dioxide, rather than drastic reductions, were a better solution for a U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed in December in Copenhagen.

"We should cut some carbon, but big cuts right now are a poor decision," Lomborg, who is head of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, told Reuters by telephone. About 180 nations are meeting in Bonn this week for talks on the new treaty.

The level of taxes implied by an ill-guided all-out assault to limit global warming to 2 Celsius would mean gasoline taxes of $0.90 a gallon, rising to $35.5 by 2100, he said.

IRREVERSIBLE CONSEQUENCES

Lomborg's views contrast with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose scenarios indicate that emissions should peak quickly and then be reduced fast to avoid the worst of global warming.

Many climate experts say delay could worsen problems, perhaps with irreversible consequences such as disappearance of many Himalayan glaciers that provide meltwater in dry seasons for millions of people, extinctions of species of animals and plants or a runaway thaw of West Antarctica, raising sea levels.

Richard Tol, a professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Ireland and an IPCC author who summarized recent research findings for Lomborg, said past computer models had in some cases been misleading.

"A well-designed, gradual policy of carbon cuts could substantially reduce emissions at low cost to society," he said. "Ill-designed policies, or policies that seek to do too much too soon, can be orders of magnitude more expensive."

The IPCC said in 2007 that a 2 Celsius target would brake world GDP by less than 5.5 percent by 2050. But Tol said costs could rise by 2100, based on longer-term projections overseen by the Stanford Energy Modeling Forum (EMF) in the United States.

"The 12.9 percent is for those models that could meet these targets. About half of the models found that these targets are impossible to reach within the constraints of their model," he told Reuters of the EMF findings.

"In my model, for instance, we could meet the (2 Celsius) target if we cut the world population by a third; in another model, we could meet the target if we multiply the number of nuclear reactors by a factor of five between now and 2020."

Lomborg said a moderate tax of $7 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions, rising with inflation over the century, would be the best deal and avoid $1.51 of climate damage per dollar spent.

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Vulnerable states team up for tougher climate pact

Alister Doyle, Reuters 14 Aug 09;

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - The world's poorest nations joined small island states on Friday to urge far tougher global goals for fighting climate change, saying their people were at risk from everything from droughts to rising sea levels.

The two groups, representing some 80 nations, formed a joint bloc to push for a goal of limiting world temperature rises to as far below 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) as possible as part of a new climate treaty due to be agreed in December in Copenhagen.

"Climate change is here, and already delivering damage," said Bruno Sekoli of Lesotho, chair of the least developed countries (LDC) group, mostly African nations. "Hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods are all on our doorstep.

"These impacts have the potential to threaten social and political stability and, in some cases, the very survival of low-lying island states," he told a news conference at the end of an August 10-14 session of U.N. climate negotiations in Bonn.

Last month, a group of 17 major economies, including the United States and China, agreed at a summit in Italy to seek to limit global warming to no more than 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times.

Temperatures have already risen by about 0.7 Celsius.

Small island states, which fear being wiped off the map by rising sea levels if Antarctic or Greenland ice sheets melt, adopted the 1.5 Celsius goal last year, arguing that 2 C was too much. The LDC group joined in backing the goal on Friday.

"This is significant. You have two major groups now agreed on the same target," said Kim Carstensen, head of the WWF conservation group's global climate initiative.

He noted a deal in Copenhagen to succeed the existing Kyoto Protocol has to be approved by unanimity among more than 190 nations involved.

The two groups said the 1.5 Celsius ceiling meant rich nations should cut greenhouse gases by at least 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Average cuts promised so far by the rich total just 10 to 16 percent, they said.

"This risks taking us on a path to temperature increases in excess of 3 degrees above pre-industrial levels," said Dessima Williams of Grenada, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States. "Such a path would be catastrophic for all nations."

They also said proposals for aid to help developing nations adapt to the impacts of climate change were vague and far short of needs of up to about $100 billion a year.

"We've not seen one proposal on the table that will deliver the level of financing required," said Selwin Hart of Barbados.

(For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/)

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

China says its carbon emissions to fall by 2050: report

Reuters 14 Aug 09;

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's carbon emissions will start to fall by 2050, its top climate change policymaker said, the first time the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases has given a timeframe for a decline, the Financial Times reported Saturday.

The comments by Su Wei did not indicate at what level emissions would top out. He restated Beijing's view that because China still needs to expand its economy to pull people out of poverty, it was too soon to discuss emissions caps, the Financial Times said.

At a G8 meeting in July, China and India resisted calls to agree to a 50 percent cut in global emissions by 2050, posing a major obstacle for a new United Nations pact due to be agreed upon in Copenhagen in mid-December.

"China's emissions will not continue to rise beyond 2050," the Financial Times quoted Su, director-general of the climate change department at the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning body, as saying in an interview.

"China will not continue growing emissions without limit or insist that all nations must have the same per-capita emissions. If we did that, this earth would be ruined."

(Reporting by Edmund Klamann; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

China to start cutting carbon emissions in 2050: FT
Yahoo News 15 Aug 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – China will start cutting its carbon emissions by 2050, its top climate change policymaker was quoted as saying in the Financial Times Saturday, the first time the nation has given a timeframe.

"China's emissions will not continue to rise beyond 2050," said Su Wei, director general of the National Development and Reform Commission's climate change department, according to the paper.

China competes with the United States for the spot as the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases and intense interest is focused on its stance ahead of climate negotations in Copenhagen in December.

The December negotiations are aimed at hammering out a new climate change pact to replace the Kyoto protocol that expires in 2012.

As a developing nation with low per-capita emissions, China is not required to set emissions cuts under the UN Framework on Climate Change, and it has so far also seemed reluctant to accept caps in the future.

For the regime that will emerge after 2012, Su in Saturday's Financial Times seemed to signal a willingness to compromise.

"China will not continue growing emissions without limit or insist that all nations must have the same per-capita emissions. If we did that, this earth would be ruined," he said, according to the paper.

Climate talks risk failure unless they accelerate: U.N.

Alister Doyle, Reuters 14 Aug 09;

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - U.N. talks on a new climate treaty due to be agreed in December risk failure unless negotiations accelerate, a senior U.N. official said on Friday after a sluggish week-long session involving 180 countries.

Many nations also bemoaned scant progress at the Aug 10-14 talks that failed to break deadlocks on issues such as sharing out curbs on greenhouse gases among rich and poor, and raising funds to help developing nations cope with global warming.

"If we continue at this rate we're not going to make it," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told a news conference after the meeting in Bonn.

He said "selective progress" has been made toward trimming a huge 200-page draft treaty text in Bonn, one of a series of talks meant to end with a U.N. deal in Copenhagen in December.

He warned participants that just 15 days of negotiations remain before Copenhagen -- at meetings in Bangkok in September-October and Barcelona in November.

"It is clear that there is quite a significant uphill battle if we are going to get there," said Jonathan Pershing, head of the U.S. delegation. But he said there were some signs of movement. "You absolutely can get there," he said.

Developing nations accused the rich of failing to take the lead in setting deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and of trying to get the poor to shoulder more of the burden of emission curbs without providing aid and technology.

"We still have the same problems that have been hindering us," China's climate ambassador Yu Qingtai told Reuters. He said that China was keen to see its emissions peak but that fighting poverty had to remain an overriding priority.

China and India want the rich to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avert the worst of climate change such as floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

ISLAND STATES WANT MORE

Small island states and least developed nations, 80 in all, teamed up to call for deeper cuts, of at least 45 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, to keep global temperature rises below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.4 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

"Copenhagen is the last chance to avoid a global human tragedy," said Dessima Williams of Grenada, who chairs the alliance of small island states. Many are at risk from stronger cyclones and rising seas.

She said cuts promised by industrialized nations so far totaled just 10 to 16 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and would mean a world temperature rise of 3 Celsius. "Such a path would be catastrophic for all countries," she said.

The European Union, which has offered some of the deepest cuts, also criticized average offers by developed nations.

"They are gravely insufficient," said Anders Turesson, the chief negotiator of Sweden which holds the EU presidency. He also said that developing nations had to show "more engagement."

Major emitters agreed at a summit in Italy last month to try to limit global warming to a maximum of two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Many delegates said that a meeting of world leaders at the United Nations in New York and a meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 in Pittsburgh, both in September, could help.

"Delegates are kept back by political gridlock. The political leaders must now unblock the process," said Kim Carstensen, head of the WWF environmental group's global climate initiative.

Greenpeace also criticized a lack of promised leadership at the talks by nations like the United States, Germany and France.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/

(Editing by Tim Pearce)

Gloomy Negotiators End Bonn Climate Talks
Paul Voosen, The New York Times 14 Aug 09;

The latest round of preparatory talks for the U.N. climate conference concluded today with negotiators lamenting that the languid pace of talks could mean there won't be a deal on emissions in Copenhagen this December.

"It would be incomprehensible if this opportunity were lost," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. For any hope of a deal, he said, "the speed of the negotiations must be considerably accelerated at the [next] meeting in Bangkok."

The United States' lead climate negotiator, Jonathan Pershing, added to the warnings.

"If we don't have more movement and more consensus than we saw here, we won't have an agreement," Pershing said.

Though the problems were many, there were also glimmers of hope in the current round, such as a collective agreement on what should be done, said Anders Turesson, Sweden's lead climate negotiator and chairman of the E.U. working group.

"What we're talking about is a profound change of industrial civilization," Turesson said. "It would be surprising if there weren't stumbling blocks."

The negotiators were wrapping up a week of talks in Bonn, Germany, aimed at narrowing the number of options in the 200-page main negotiating document. This text, which will serve as the basis for negotiations for the successor to 1997's Kyoto Protocol, is currently inundated with some 2,000 bracketed statements highlighting areas of disagreement.

"We seem to be afloat on a sea of brackets," de Boer said. The document has not been significantly slimmed down in the week's discussions.

Much debate hinges on whether the U.S. Senate will pass climate legislation this fall. Pershing made it clear that the United States will use whatever domestic legislation it passes as the basis for its carbon reduction agreements.

"Our focus is not to repeat Kyoto," Pershing said, recalling the climate treaty that the United States helped negotiate but the Senate did not ratify.

The rosiest interpretations of the House's recently passed climate bill would see U.S. greenhouse gas emissions dropping by up to 13 percent from 1990 levels, de Boer said, well below commitments made by the European Union to reduce its emissions by 20 percent.

In the end, Europeans want to be on comparative terms with the Americans, Turesson said. How that will be accomplished is unclear, given the domestic limits the United States faces.

The U.S. position is that the agreement that will emerge, rather than mandating a single percentage cut that will be met by every wealthy nation, "is something [that will be] conceived country by country," Pershing said.

From developing nations, the United States is seeking not legally binding targets but legally binding actions, Pershing said. One such example would be a quantified commitment from Brazil on how it will tackle deforestation.

Developing nations have been seeking financing from developed countries if they are to limit their emissions and adapt to climate change. So far, there has not been one proposal from developed nations that would raise more than $10 billion a year for such funding, negotiators said.

Meanwhile, the commitments currently on the table from industrial countries will only reduce emissions between 10 and 16 percent from 1990 levels, according to Dessima Williams, the permanent representative of Grenada to the United Nations and chairwoman of the Alliance of Small Island States.

Unless changed, these pledges will lead to temperature change of more than 3 degrees Celsius, Williams said.

Such a temperature increase is well above the goal agreed to by the world's wealthiest nations at the Group of Eight summit in L'Aquila, Italy, last month. There, countries including the United States, Canada and Russia agreed to cap global warming at 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

In its most recent report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change identified a 25 percent to 40 percent cut in emissions from 1990 levels as necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change: heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels.

More than 2,000 representatives met in Bonn this week. The consultation, which was characterized as "informal," is the latest in a series of meetings leading up to the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen this December. Further meetings will takeplace in Bangkok in late September and Barcelona, Spain, in November.

Comment: Australian carbon defeat is bad news for Copenhagen summit
The failure to pass new climate change legislation in Australia does not bode well for a global agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol at the end of the year in Copenhagen.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 13 Aug 09;

If Australia cannot agree, how will more than 90 countries with opposing views possibly thrash out an agreement to tackle climate change?

It was thought Australia was ready to follow Europe in committing to cut carbon. The country has more first-hand experience than most of the impact of climate change through its recent droughts and bush fires; Kevin Rudd, the prime minister, has overturned his predecessor's objections to signing up to the Kyoto Protocol and the Green Party is popular.

But Australia also is reliant on coal to run its economy, and it has some of the world's most outspoken climate change sceptics.

Ian Plimer, professor of mining geology at Adelaide University and author of a recent book Heaven and Earth, has controversially questioned whether climate change is man made. His book was refused by many publishers but has since gone on to sell tens of thousands of copies in Australia. Its author has been lobbying politicians and appearing regularly on television.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December will need rich countries such as Australia to introduce climate change legislation to prove they are serious about cutting carbon. Otherwise developing countries like India and China, that are predicted to produce more carbon in the future, will refuse to cut their own emissions.

All eyes are now on the US where President Barack Obama has a similarly tough job getting through his own legislation. He wants to introduce a carbon trading scheme in the most oil-hungry country in the world.

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