Life History of the Elbowed Pierrot
from Butterflies of Singapore
Picking up after the party
from The annotated budak and other updates
Pied Fantail takes a dragonfly
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Meandering through mangroves at Pulau Ubin
from wild shores of singapore
Monday Morgue: 17th August 2009
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales
Straits Times Forum 17 Aug 09;
I WRITE in response to last Tuesday's report, 'Will you need to pay an emissions tax for your flight?'.
It is heartening to hear that the civil aviation industry recognises the need to take bold steps to make itself climate-friendly. This is despite the difficulties it faces in setting an international rate for emissions pricing, due to uneven demand for such a scheme in different countries.
However, if the International Civil Aviation Organisation is committed to being climate-friendly, despite this challenge, how does Singapore, a country where it is relatively easy to implement policy due to its small size, compare in terms of its environmental policies?
Consider, for example, the use of plastic bags. They have a large environmental footprint. It is estimated that the manufacture of one plastic bag emits 200g of carbon dioxide. Moreover, when disposed of, they either take up space in landfill, or emit noxious gases when incinerated.
In Taiwan and Hong Kong, plastic bags are banned unless consumers pay for them. In Singapore, there is the weekly Bring Your Own Bag day, an exercise that relies on the altruism of voluntary participants - which is far less effective than an economic mechanism which sends constant price signals to consumers.
The Electronic Road Pricing system shows Singapore is no stranger to using economic instruments to achieve its policy goals. If a 'Sustainable Singapore' is indeed on the agenda of policymakers, they should also think about environmental pricing.
Curbing the use of plastic bags - so common in everyday life, yet so easily replaceable with re-usable bags - could be the low-hanging fruit Singaporeans could start with.
Lau Ying Shan (Miss)
Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia 16 Aug 09;
SINGAPORE: Tremors were felt in Singapore on Sunday afternoon at 3.40pm.
Just two minutes after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Indonesia, Singapore's Metrological services said the epicentre was in the waters of southern Sumatra, some 620 kilometres away from Singapore.
Residents in Marine Parade, East Coast, Beach Road, Punggol and Ang Mo Kio told the MediaCorp News Hotline, the tremors lasted for two minutes.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force said 26 buildings felt the effects of the tremors.
Some six HDB buildings, four private residential buildings and six commercial buildings were affected.
Engineers have certified none of the buildings have suffered structural damage.
In the last few years, Singapore had experienced tremors following earthquakes in Indonesia.
And for one resident in Marine Parade, the tremors this time round were not as strong as those in previous years.
Gregory Yeo, resident in Marine Parade, said: "My first instinct was that it was a tremor. I woke up and I saw my chandeliers rocking and immediately I confirmed that it was a tremor.
“This time, the intensity was not as strong as the previous ones. But the length of the tremor was more sustained between two and a half to three minutes. I asked my neighbours, whether they felt it and they said ‘yes’. But they didn't see a need to evacuate compared to previous times." - CNA/vm
Tremors felt in KL and Penang
The Star 17 Aug 09;
KUALA LUMPUR: Residents staying in high-rise buildings in some areas here felt tremors as a strong underwater earthquake reportedly struck western Indonesia.
Residents in Bandar Tun Razak here reportedly felt tremors yesterday afternoon.
Tremors were also felt in the southern part of Penang such as Telok Kumbar and Gertak Sanggul.
The Meteorological Department noted that a moderate earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale was felt in southern Sumatra.
“We have received a few calls from the police and people in Penang about the tremors, but there is no danger,” a spokesman said.
There was no tsunami threat.
The earthquake occurred at 3.38m with its epicentre located 58km south-east of Siberut, Indonesia and 520 south-west of Malacca.
Quake hits Sumatra, tremors felt in Malaysia
New Straits Times 17 Aug 09;
KUALA LUMPUR: A strong earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale occurred at 56km southeast of Siberut, southern Sumatra in Indonesia at 3.38pm yesterday, and the effect was felt in the waters off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
However, there was no possibility of a tsunami occurring in Malaysia, according to a press statement released by the Meteorological Department here.
The earthquake was centred at latitude 1.6 degrees south and longitude 99.4 degrees east, and about 541km southeast of Malacca, it said.
A spokesman for the Jalan Hang Tuah Fire and Rescue station here said it received reports from members of the public who felt tremors in the city since 4pm.
Among the calls received were from the Wangsa Maju, Desa Petaling and Bandar Tun Razak areas, he said.
A tenant of Mentari Condominium at Bandar Tun Razak, Mashitah Omar, 40, who lives on the 13th floor, said at the time of the incident, she was relaxing with her family and she felt dizzy. She then saw the ceiling fan and lights in her lounge swaying.
Mashitah said the tremor was felt for about two minutes, and she then gathered at the open space together with the other tenants when instructed by the Fire and Rescue Department.
Meanwhile in Johor Baru, the tremor was also felt by occupants of several tall buildings in the city, including the 33-storey Menara Landmark at Jalan Ngee Heng, Hotel Selesa at Jalan Datuk Abdullah Tahir and Wisma Tenaga Nasional Berhad at Jalan Yahya Awal. -- Bernama
Michael Richardson, Straits Times 17 Aug 09;
WILL Asia's armed forces find their role in national defence and security shifting significantly in the future as the effects of climate change caused by global warming intensify? If so, how quickly will it happen?
Television pictures and media reports last week of military helicopters and soldiers evacuating victims of Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan are just the latest sign of disaster relief becoming a more prominent part of military operations.
Of course, not all natural disasters are linked to climate change. But they are becoming more costly as global warming causes more extreme weather, including violent storms, floods and droughts.
In January, two United Nations agencies reported a marked rise last year in the number of deaths and amount of economic losses arising from disasters, compared to the 2000-2007 yearly average. They said that last year, 321 disasters killed more than 235,800 people, affected 211 million others and cost US$181 billion (S$260 billion).
As in previous years, Asia was the main affected continent. Nine of the top 10 countries with the highest number of disaster-related deaths were in Asia. The death toll last year was three times more than the annual average of about 66,800 for the eight years to 2007. This was chiefly due to Cyclone Nargis, which killed over 138,300 people in Myanmar, and the Sichuan earthquake in China, which caused the deaths of at least 87,470 people.
The UN refugee agency is making plans, based on what it believes are conservative estimates, that global warming will force between 200 million and 250 million people (an average of around six million a year) from their homes by 2050: about half displaced by sudden disasters, and the other half, economic refugees pushed out by gradual changes like rising sea levels.
The international aid group Oxfam said in April that it expected climate crises to affect more than 375 million people each year by 2015, up from nearly 250 million now.
Almost every military force in the Asia-Pacific region is configured and trained to some degree for disaster relief, not just within national borders but also beyond. Armed forces from Asean and partner nations worked together on an ad hoc basis after a devastating tsunami struck Indonesia and other parts of Asia in December 2004. The Asean Regional Forum is trying to build a more effective disaster response capability.
Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean noted last Tuesday that in an ever more connected world, 'the spectrum of threats we face will be wider and even more complex, going beyond the conventional threats to include terrorism, piracy, natural disasters, pandemics and others that we have not foreseen'.
Military planners in the United States, Europe, Australia and some Asian nations are weighing the potential impact of climate change and tensions over the supply of energy, food and fresh water on security.
Australia's Defence White Paper in May said that the security effects of climate change were likely to be most pronounced where states had limited capacity to respond to environmental strains. It added that the impact of sea-level rise, changed rainfall patterns and drought 'will place greater pressure on water and food security, including local fisheries'.
A 2007 study by a group of retired US admirals and generals published by the Centre for Naval Analyses described climate change as 'a threat multiplier for instability' in Asia and other volatile regions of the world.
A panel of scientists and officials advising the UN has warned that climate change will have a mostly adverse impact, with the consequences intensifying progressively after 2020 if nothing effective is done to curb greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a warmer world.
Last year, the European Commission outlined a grim catalogue of possible threats in a report on climate change and international security. The list included resource conflicts, tensions over energy supply, risks to coastal regions from rising sea levels, loss of territory, border disputes due to receding coastlines, environmentally-induced migration, political radicalisation in weak or failing states, and the undermining of cooperative international relations.
Australia's Defence White Paper said that the first and main line of defence against instability caused by global warming and resource shortages should be three-pronged: agreement on international climate change mitigation; coordinated economic assistance strategies to countries in need; and concerted international action to assure energy supply and distribution.
If preventive strategies were to fail, it said Australia's military might face 'new potential sources of conflict related to our planet's changing climate or resource scarcity' - at the same time as more frequent and severe natural disasters increased demands on the armed forces and other government agencies to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
If these climate change and resource scarcity predictions are correct, Asia-Pacific armed forces will face pressures in the longer term that may be difficult to reconcile. They will be expected to guard national borders and protect overseas supply lines, while rendering more assistance both at home and abroad.
This will be a major challenge in a climate-stressed and resource-constrained world. It is one that will inevitably bring about changes in military force structure, deployment patterns and doctrine.
The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
Stephen Then, The Star 16 Aug 09;
BAKUN (KAPIT, CENTRAL SARAWAK): Environmentalists are up in arms over the move by the developer of the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam project in central Sarawak to set fire to timber-leftovers in 64,000 hectares of logged territories in the Bakun reservoir - an area the size of Singapore.
Sarawak Conservation Action Network coordinator Raymond Abin told The Star Sunday, the network had gathered information that the burning of the timber-debris had begun in Bakun as a prelude to the impoundment of the dam and the eventual flooding of the reservoir.
“We (network) are shocked that the entire reservoir will be set on fire in order to clear all the leftovers to enable the the impoundment of the dam to be done.
“Ground surveys carried out by us showed that the work to clear the dam reservoir had already started early this year and the contractors carrying out this clearing work are setting fires to those areas with large amount of uncleared timber-debris.
“The reservoir is the size of Singapore. Imagine the havoc to the environment if the burning is allowed to be done in such a huge area.
“There are 20 sub-catchment areas in Bakun. We have found that the burning had already started in different locations. The contractors are told to burn all areas to make sure all timber debris are cleared before the flooding.
“The workers are gathering all these debris and burning them until they turn to ash. An environmental crisis is waiting to happen in Bakun if the authorities do not step in and stop this,’’ he said.
The network is a coalition of more than a dozen environmental and native rights action groups.
Among its members are the Borneo Resources Institute, the Indigenous Peoples’ Development Centre, Customary rights of Sarawak’s Indigenous People Network, Sarawak Centre for Indigenous Rights, Sarawak Indigenous Lawyers Association, Serukup Raban Iban Bintulu, Gerempung Anak Biak Sekabai, Indigenous Peoples Institute of Malaysia, Society for Alternative Living and Native Longhouse Action Committee.
Abin on Sunday said the developer of the dam, Sarawak Hidro, is rushing to clear the reservoir of all timber debris because the impoundment of the dam is set for October this year.
“They want to get the reservoir flooded as soon as possible so that the power generation can start next year,’’ he stressed.
He said burning of such a massive area would cause large-scale air pollution and destruction of whatever is left of the Bakun ecosystem and the wildlife.
The recent fires and haze episode in Miri that had caused air pollution for a whole month showed how much damage such burning can cause to the environment and to humans, he noted.
“From the information we have received, the Bakun dam developer had not obtained any open-burning permit.
“Why is the Department of Environment and the Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment Board so silent about this?’’ he asked.
The Star had on July 27 to July 30 entered the Bakun region and found tracts of huge logged areas already being burned.
Sarawak Hidro managing director Zulkifle Osman had acknowledged that the clearing of biomass in the Bakun reservoir had started, but he did not say how the biomass would be cleared.
He, however, did say that efforts would be made to rescue as many of the wildlife and endangered plants as possible before the flooding.
Developer plans to use fire to clear Bakun dam area
Stephen Then, The Star 17 Aug 09;
BAKUN: An environmental crisis may be looming in Sarawak following revelations that the developer of the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam plans to set fire to an area the size of Singapore.
Sarawak Conservation Action Network coordinator Raymond Abin told The Star yesterday that it had information that the burning of the leftovers in the 64,000ha area had begun as a prelude to the flooding of the reservoir.
“We are shocked that the entire reservoir area will be set on fire in order to clear all the leftovers.
“The reservoir is the size of Singapore. Imagine the havoc to the environment if the burning is allowed to be done in such a huge area.
“This is a shortcut for the developer as a way of getting rid of the debris instead of carting it away,” he said, adding that contractors were already setting fires to the debris and burning it to ashes at various locations within the reservoir area.
The developer, Abin pointed out, could have carted the debris out but such a measure would take a long time and is expensive.
“An environmental crisis is waiting to happen in Bakun if the authorities do not step in and stop this,” he said, adding that the burning could cause large-scale air pollution and destruction of whatever was left of the Bakun ecosystem.
“The recent fires and haze episode in Miri which have caused air pollution for a whole month showed how much damage such burning can cause to the environment and to humans,” he noted.
The network is a coalition of more than a dozen environmental and native rights action groups, including the Borneo Resources Institute, the Indigenous Peoples’ Deve-lopment Centre and the Customary Rights of Sarawak’s Indigenous People Network.
Abin said the dam developer, Sarawak Hidro, was rushing to clear the reservoir area of debris because the impoundment of the dam was set for October.
“They want to get the reservoir flooded as soon as possible so that power generation can start next year.
“We have information that the Bakun dam developer has not obtained any open burning permit. Why is the Department of Environ-ment and the Sarawak Natural Resources and Environment Board so silent about this?” he asked.
The Star had entered the Bakun region between July 27 and 30 and found tracts of huge logged areas already being burned.
Sarawak Hidro managing director Zulkifle Osman acknowledged that the clearing of biomass in the Bakun reservoir had started, but he did not elaborate on the method.
However, he did say that efforts would be made to rescue as much of the wildlife and endangered plants as possible before the flooding.
Stephen Then, The Star 16 Aug 09;
KUALA BARAM: Fires that raged through forests and peat lands were finally extinguished by an unexpected thunderstorm that lasted 30 minutes.
The storm brought a heavy downpour at 1am yesterday that doused the fiery menace that had been raging out of control for almost one month in the Kuala Baram district, some 35km north of Miri city.
It also destroyed more than 3,000 hectares of land near the Sarawak-Brunei border.
More than 200 firefighters battled the fires for more than two weeks round-the-clock, but they were hampered by the dry weather and the lack of water, as well as the large areas involved.
Their hardwork bore fruit after they got the much-needed rain yesterday. A check by The Star at the border found that all the fires had been effectively doused.
There were no more fires on the surface, nor were there any more smoke coming out from the peat soil, which meant that the underground fires had been contained.
A drive along the 35km-route from the border to the city found there was no more open-burning by illegal planters at the squatter resettlement schemes.
The fire teams that had been camping day and night at the fire zones had also packed and left.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam yesterday confirmed that in other areas in Sarawak, almost all the forest and peat fires have been doused.
“The situation throughout Sarawak has improved a lot, even in Miri and Sibu (the two worst-hit divisions),” he said.
He advised the public to continue taking precautions against fires, conserve water and save as much of rainwater as possible.
“I am worried that after next week, we may suffer another prolonged dry spell,” he said.
Dr Chan said agencies must be prepared to face another round of fires and drought and put on standby the necessary manpower and equipment.
The Star 16 Aug 09;
The threat of another Chernobyl and the question of where to dump the waste are key arguments against nuclear power.
AS mankind begins to come to terms with the fact that oil will run out in the not-too-distant future, nuclear power advocates trumpet a solution that is “clean, efficient, safe and, in some cases, environmentally friendly.
However, nuclear power nay-sayers stand on solid ground, too.
Elizabeth Wong, the Selangor Exco for Tourism, Consumer Affairs and the Environment, says nuclear energy is not a safe option for the future.
“Contrary to the claims of the nuclear industry and the federal government, nuclear energy is neither safe nor inexpensive. It is also not a solution to climate change. Nuclear power usage has environmental, health, and security risks that make it an undesirable substitute for fossil fuels.
“Nuclear advocates focus on the apparently low operational unit cost of nuclear energy. This sidesteps the total life-cycle costs incurred in the construction and decommissioning of plants, and disposal of waste.”
Wong strongly advocates using solar energy instead.
“It is estimated that nuclear power costs between US$0.15 (52 sen) and US$0.21 per kilowatt hour, whereas solar costs around US$0.20. But the costs for nuclear are rising, whereas for solar it’s dropping. Solar power does not present the problems of toxic waste containment, inflated capital costs, and the political and security risks associated with nuclear power,” she says.
“Besides, nuclear plants take at least 20 years to construct. “You do not have to wait decades for a solar plant to earn revenue. It starts earning in year one. You do not need teams of highly trained technical specialists to maintain it, nor do you need to worry about complicated anti-terrorist security measures, or the danger of a catastrophe. One large solar farm in Germany is staffed by one man and two dogs!
“In fact, a solar panel factory in Kedah produces some of the cheapest solar energy in the world, and another major player, Q-Cells, will have its factory in Selangor. But this is all being exported. Federal policy should take advantage of this bargain in our own backyard. Stimulating demand for solar will also reduce its price by allowing producers to reap economies of scale.”
Wong looks at alternatives for energy.
“Energy efficiency makes economic and climate sense. By making our existing systems more efficient and getting new buildings to commit to stricter standards we can eliminate or greatly reduce the need to build new power plants to fuel our inefficient consumption. This saves money for the consumer and taxpayer.”
The Green Building Index (GBI) launched by the Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) and the Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia (ACEM) earlier this year should become a standard for all buildings in Malaysia, she says, because it recognises and rewards advances in energy efficiency through better technology and smart design.
“We should also look at restructuring the set-up of our existing energy sector, which favours independent power producers at the expense of Tenaga Nasional and taxpayers. We currently run at about 50% over-capacity to compensate for fluctuations in demand and interruptions in supply.”
Wong’s views are echoed by Datuk Dr Ronald McCoy, one-time president of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
“I think climate change is almost irreversible; the thing now is not to make it worse. To say that we should use nuclear technology just because we have it is a potentially fatal argument.” In fact, McCoy challenges not just the technology, but the urgency of such an undertaking.
“We’re told that Tenaga Nasional Bhd has 40% electricity reserves. That’s quite adequate for years to come. We have Bakun Dam, which has not been commissioned yet. So what reason is there for us to have nuclear energy?
“The most famous nuclear accidents like Chernyobyl and Three Mile Island occurred due to human error. Malaysia does not have a good reputation when it comes to construction and maintenance. We built a stadium in Terengganu and, what happens? One year later, it collapses. We cannot afford an accident in a nuclear reactor – it’ll be disastrous.
“If we have an explosion like Chernobyl, radiation will destroy a large part of the country and the people. In Chernobyl, the radiation reached as far as Scotland from the Ukraine. If we have an accident here it’ll affect Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand,” McCoy adds.
Gurmit Singh, chairman of the board of directors for the Centre for Environment, Technology & Development, Malaysia (CETDEM) reckons that if the same amount of money poured into nuclear weapons development had been spent on renewable energy, we would definitely make “breakthroughs” in five to 10 years.
“Nuclear was not developed for the generation of electricity but for weapons of mass destruction. The concept of ‘atoms for peace’ was a clever way for former US President Dwight Eisenhowever to allow the military to continue working on nuclear energy.”
Gurmit says there have been real breakthroughs for solar power, especially in Germany. “It’s time we put our act together and commit more resources to renewable energy.”
Wong would rather that the government examine other “more natural” energy sources.
“The potential for wind power is more viable in East Malaysia and parts of the east coast of the peninsula.
“The Federal Government should undertake a comprehensive energy policy review that integrates cost issues, demand and supply management, technologies that are robust for the present and future, and development pathways that do not compromise the health and safety of Malaysians now and in the future.”
Wong notes that nuclear plants tend to go over-budget as a matter of course. “Nuclear plants famously incur cost overruns and construction complications, resulting in major delays. The first generation of reactors in the United States cost over 200% more than originally estimated. Subsequent generations have often taken longer than the baseline 20 years to construct.”
The so-called “next generation” nuclear plant in Finland is now three years behind schedule, and 50% over its original budget, due in part to major construction mistakes on safety significant structures. Even pro-nuclear commentators have described it as a “farce”, she notes.
Plants do not always measure up to their projected efficiency. One plant in Britain produces only 37% of its projected load; even newer generation plants can fluctuate between 40% and 75% efficiency.
But the key argument against nuclear energy is safety – that of plant workers, the environment and the public.
There is the problem of nuclear waste disposal, followed by the need to decommission a plant once it ceases operations.
Both are expensive and thorny issues which even the United States has not been able to resolve. Thus many defunct reactors and waste barrels sit decaying out in the open, Wong adds.
“Because the half-life of nuclear materials can stretch into hundreds of thousands of years, if one is responsible, then an equally long-term solution needs to be found. But what business or government is able to plan that far ahead?”
There’s also the danger of radiation exposure leading to cancer.
“The US National Academy of Sciences has concluded that there is no safe level of radiation. Even at low exposures negative health impacts such as cancers can result. Nuclear contamination can occur not just with the fuel material, but also with the water pumped through to cool the plants. This is often sluiced back into rivers and enters our human and natural water systems.
“Nuclear reactors can generate up to 35 tonnes of high-level radioactive waste per reactor each year. What will happen to this waste? Will it be dumped in Malaysia, exported to pollute another country, or sold as material for nuclear weapons? Will the government’s desire for nuclear energy inadvertently facilitate nuclear weapons proliferation? How will security and health be guaranteed when nuclear materials are transported to and from a power plant?
“All societies with nuclear power have faced tremendous financial and political problems in disposing nuclear waste. Nobody wants a waste depository in their backyard. But I believe that it is morally right to say that we would not want any such facility anywhere.
“Even in South Korea, there has been strong opposition to nuclear waste disposal. Environmental groups claim that the South Korean government spends more than US$8mil a year on pro-nuclear public relations.”
McCoy adds: “Radioactive waste is my main objection to nuclear energy. No country in the world has a safe method of disposing it. Radioactive waste is going to last thousands of years. Plutonium, one of the substances used to produce nuclear energy, has a half-life of 24,400 years. That means in 24,400 years the radiation from plutonium will be halved. That means 244 centuries. We’re talking about radioactive waste forever.
“It’s collecting all over the world in 31 countries with nuclear reactors in open casks just out there because we can’t dispose of it. People have said we must bury it underground. The Americans indicated that they’ll bury the waste in the Yucca mountains in Nevada. The people in Nevada said, ‘No way are you going to do this in our state’ and now President Obama has stated that Yucca is not an option.”
Under the Ninth Malaysia Plan renewable energy was supposed to the ‘fifth fuel’ developed in Malaysia, and nuclear wasn’t even on the table, Wong says.
“Where is the concrete push to take us into the solar and renewable age? If only the same amount of political will, funds and commitment displayed currently to introduce nuclear is diverted to alternative renewable energy such as solar, I dare say, we would be able to implement a comprehensive retrofitting of solar panels exercise in most homes in the country.
“Nuclear energy is a Cold War-era technology. Its development as a civilian energy source was tied to the attempt to legitimise nuclear weapons. The nuclear energy industry has been facing declining prospects in the nuclear nations, with few new plants commissioned. They are thus keen to persuade other nations that they have a future.
“Where are the guarantees that reprocessing in Malaysia won’t lead to legal or black-market trade in weapons-grade plutonium? Is it ethical for Malaysians to enjoy ever more electricity by possibly fuelling militarisation? Shouldn’t we opt for safer and non-violent alternatives?” she asks.
CETDEM will hold a public forum on nuclear energy this Tuesday, 7.30pm to 10pm, at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall, Kuala Lumpur. All are welcome.
Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times 16 Aug 09;
MIGINGO ISLAND, Lake Victoria — This little island doesn’t look like much.
It’s a slab of rock, not even an acre big, packed with rusty metal shacks, heaps of garbage, glassy-eyed fishermen and squads of prostitutes, essentially a microslum bathing in the middle of Africa’s greatest lake.
But baby Migingo is creating a huge fuss. The island happens to lie right along the disputed watery border between Kenya and Uganda, and politicians have even threatened to go to war over it.
The reason?
Fish. Lots of them, but maybe not enough. The island is an angler’s paradise, surrounded by schools of tasty — and exportable — Nile perch. But Lake Victoria, one of the world’s biggest bodies of fresh water, which 30 million impoverished Africans depend on for their survival, may be running out of these fish. According to a recent study, Nile perch stocks are down by nearly 70 percent, threatening a crucial industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
But there may be an even bigger issue here: the rapidly receding lake itself. Water levels have dropped more than three feet in the last 10 years and explosive algae blooms, which cover the lake’s surface like a coat of thick green paint, are choking off the fish.
It is irrefutable evidence, environmentalists say, of climate change, overpopulation, pollution, deforestation and other modern ills coming to a head in a part of Africa that is unprepared to deal with it.
“You’ve got an ecosystem that is totally out of balance now,” said Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program, which has been closely watching Lake Victoria. “It should be an extreme concern for anybody who cares about the future of 30 million people. The pressures on this huge natural asset in East Africa are increasing.”
And so are the passions about Migingo. At a recent rugby match between Kenya and Uganda, Kenyan fans chanted, “Migingo, united, can never be defeated.” In April, Kenyan hooligans got so worked up about the islet that they ripped up the railway line to Uganda. Fishermen on Migingo said that the Ugandan police officers prowling around the island have been dishing out beatings lately — and worse, stealing their catch.
A bilateral border commission is poring over dusty colonial documents, trying to figure out if Migingo is in Kenya or Uganda, but the group itself has been beset by cash woes and rival patriotic feelings.
The dispute heated up this year when Uganda sent soldiers to claim the island. To Kenya’s ire, the Ugandans even planted a flag. Before the lake levels dropped a few years ago, Migingo was little more than a rock sticking out of the water and nobody gave a hoot. Today, it is still just a hazy bump on the horizon when seen from shore, though more than 300 people live there, mostly Kenyan fishermen.
But the Ugandan government claims that Migingo is in Ugandan waters and that it is illegal for Kenyans to fish there. The subtext is that fish are essential to Uganda’s economy, which does not have the manufacturing or tourism industries that Kenya has. Uganda’s 200-shilling coin (worth about a dime) has the national seal on one side and a scaly fish on the other. Each year, Uganda earns more than $100 million exporting Nile perch, though overfishing and environmental mismanagement are imperiling that.
Most of Uganda’s fish factories — the ones that are not shuttered — are down to 25 percent capacity because of the lack of fish, according to the Ugandan Fish Processors and Exporters Association.
But one thing is clear, at least according to the experts.
“Migingo is within Kenya’s borders,” said John Donaldson, a research associate at the International Boundaries Research Unit, a British institute that studies border disputes. It is close, he said, but documents from 1926 clearly place the island a few hundred meters inside Kenya.
Even without the old maps, Kenyan fishermen feel entitled to stray into Uganda’s waters. They say (and scientists back this up, to a certain extent) that the swampy lakeshore on the Kenyan side is where the perch breed, and therefore the fish, even if they grow up to be caught in Ugandan waters, are Kenyan by birth.
But even this is changing, for the worse. According to Henry Aryamanya-Mugisha, director of Uganda’s environmental protection agency, overpopulation and overfarming on the Kenyan side of the lake are decimating these wetlands where the fish spawn. At the same time, rapid deforestation is reducing the amount of rainfall that flows into the lake, and all the new development in the area is pumping fertilizer, industrial pollutants and even raw sewage into the water, catalyzing the algae blooms that block sun and oxygen penetration.
“It’s very, very sad,” Mr. Aryamanya-Mugisha said. “It’s happening so fast. Five years ago there were plenty of fish.”
That is why Migingo is so ideal. The water around it is relatively deep and filled with perch, and once there, fishermen do not spend as much on fuel, because they basically cast a line and pull up dinner.
“It’s like no other place,” said Charles Okumu Chambu, a Migingo angler.
Granted, Migingo, with its shantytown skyline, may not be everyone’s dream of a tropical isle. But there is a lot of life packed onto that tiny lump of lava.
The other day at sunset, fishermen gathered at the water’s edge, singing, laughing and smacking one another on the back as they worked together to haul in their boats. The minute they were done, the dice came out. Skillets sizzled with greasy chips. Hip-hop music blasted in the tin-walled discos — Migingo may be smaller than a football field but it boasts half a dozen bars, discos and brothels.
Men danced with women. Men danced with men. The rocky footpaths snaking up the island were littered with biscuit wrappers, bottle caps and other distinctive leftovers crumpled up on the ground from long, steamy nights.
“Ah, Migingo,” remembered Yasinbogere Kataike, a shore-bound Ugandan fisherman, with a twinkle in his rheumy eye. “Everything is there. It’s a good place to be a young man.”
The millionare founder of Lush is no ordinary tycoon – he backs direct action that makes a political stink
Tom Peck, The Independent 17 Aug 09;
As the loud-shirted, multi-millionaire purveyor of such bathroom delights as Melting Marshmallow Moments, Vanilla Mountains and Creamy Candy Bath, Mark Constantine is not a man one might naturally associate with batallions of eco-protesters holed up in muddy airport climate camps.
Yet the 57-year-old founder of the high-street chain Lush cosmetics is devoting millions to funding environmental direct-action guerrillas.
The former disciple of Body Shop founder Anita Roddick has never owned a car. He once cut rather a wimpy figure, by his own account, as a "very cold and miserable" protester on Greenham Common.
Twenty-five years later, the so-called bubblebath baron has donated over £500,000 to radical green and humanitarian activists in 12 months. Among the beneficiaries are Plane Stupid, the anti-airport expansion group whose members are known for their willingness to be carted off in police wagons, and Sea Shepherd, the direct action maritime conservation group that has attacked Japanese whaling ships. Constantine is a businessman seemingly revelling in creating a political stink.
"We give to them because no one else will," he said yesterday, breaking cover. "I hate the criminalisation of the environmental movement. These people are vilified as eco-terrorists, when what they're doing is a selfless act. They are trying to look after us," he added. "They need someone to look after them."
He encourages others to throw themselves before the police – and is motivated in part by a sense of inadequacy about avoiding face-to-face protest himself. "I'm not very brave physically and I'm terrified of being incarcerated," he said. "I feel much more effective like this. I like business, and I'd rather make money and give it to those that can use it. Like a Victorian patron kind of thing."
Lush, founded in 1995 to dispense soaps, bubblebaths and fragrances made mainly from vegetable ingredients, made sales of £153m last year from 600 outlets in 43 countries. Constantine has pledged to give a slice of the profits each year to those activists willing to stand up to the powers that be.
He paid the legal costs incurred by Plane Stupid after its members camped on the runway at Stansted in December last year, effectively shutting down the airport.
"His action legitimised the idea of big, ethically run businesses giving money to non-violent direct action groups," says the Plane Stupid spokesman Leo Murray. "People like Mark are not alone in the business world. Hopefully, it will encourage others to do the same." As a maker of beauty products and supporter of radical campaigns, Constantine follows in the footsteps of Body Shop tycoon Dame Anita Roddick, who died in 2007 of a brain haemorrhage. It was Roddick who gave him his first break, over 30 years ago.
"I was making products in my spare bedroom and basically starving to death," he said. "I saw a tiny piece about Anita in Honey magazine, asking for products. She had one shop back then. I sent her some soap samples. and she placed an order for loads of my stuff. It was very exciting." He was to become her biggest supplier in the 80s, with Roddick eventually buying him out for £6m in 1990. He lost the lot in a mail order cosmetics company within two years. But then came Lush, and further riches.
Constantine grew up in Weymouth and left school at 18, by which time he and wife Mo, who works in the business and has invented many of their leading products, had been together for two years. His dalliance with protest was limited to one dreary afternoon on Greenham Common in the 1980s with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. When he found out that his home town of Poole didn't have any cycle paths, he mapped a cycle network and persuaded the council to make it.
This year Lush launched Shark Fin Soap to highlight the killing tens of millions of sharks each year, many for the production of Shark Fin soup, a Chinese delicacy. Sales have raised £22,000 for Sea Shepherd.
Last year, after a meeting with the civil rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, Lush launched the Guantanamo Garden foaming bath ball. Named after the garden in which inmates were not allowed to grow anything. The orange soap ball dissolves in the tub, liberating pictures of the British former detainee Binyam Mohamed, and the Sudanese journalist Sami al-Hajj to float to the surface, along with details of the human rights charity Reprieve.
The Guantanamo-themed bath foam raised so much money for the human rights charity Reprieve that one of Mr Mohamed's first actions as a free man was to drop into Lush's Covent Garden office to say thanks. Constantine cheerily refers to his predominantly vegan staff at the Poole headquarters as "lunatics". He adds: "I'm not vegan so they call me the fish and chipocrite."
Over 100 causes have received Lush funds, money generated principally through Charity Pot, a cocoa butter and almond oil body lotion that retails for £10 – all except the VAT goes into a fund given away in lumps of up to £10,000.
"We want unbelievable value for money," Constantine says. "We could have given that whole half-million to one thing, and not seen any effect for the money. It's better to help people who are really dynamic, and see them do tremendous things."
The accounts for the current year are being audited, but Sophie Pritchard, the Charitable Giving Manager who oversees the Charity Pot, says the company intends to double that £500,000 figure next year. Perhaps Constantine can finally rid eco-protesters of their stereotype as long-haired soap dodgers.
Jessica Marszalek, The Age 17 Aug 09;
The tourism industry will face a massive cost shock from climate change as coral bleaching increases, species are threatened, national parks are closed, wetlands are lost and insurance bills grow, a tourism conference has been told.
CSIRO principal research scientist Kevin Hennessy used climate change modelling to predict what may be in store by 2020, 2050 and 2070 for some of Australia's top tourism destinations: Kakadu, Cairns, the Blue Mountains and the Victorian Alps.
Climate change is one of the key issues at this week's Tourism Futures conference on the Gold Coast, which is examining the future of one of the country's largest export industries.
Mr Hennessy said all four regions would grow hotter, with more intense rain, but for the most part less rainfall.
Kakadu and Cairns would see more severe cyclones, while there would be an increased fire danger in the Blue Mountains.
And in the Victorian Alps, modelling showed snow cover by 2050 could decrease by up to 80 per cent from current levels.
Less snow also meant less skiing, and reef tourism would be impacted if coral bleaching became an annual event by 2020, as predicted by some, he said.
More broadly, studies suggested the loss of wetlands from rising sea levels, more water-borne illness such as dengue fever, national park closures due to fire risk and reduced grape quality, Mr Hennessy said.
Mr Hennessy said there was also the question of how animals would react to a changing climate.
"There's talk about providing migration corridors - in some cases that's feasible, in other cases it's not," he said.
"There's also relocation, which is a fairly drastic solution.
"And there's some uncertainty about the natural adaptation within a species."
He said in the case of the Great Barrier Reef, it was thought by many that fish could not adapt if coral bleaching became a yearly occurrence.
"So it would actually change the whole ecosystem," he said.
Meanwhile, a strategy to address the potential impact of climate change on the health of the Great Barrier Reef and Australia's $5.1 billion reef tourism industry will be launched at the conference.
It is hoped the joint strategy by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Queensland Tourism Industry Council and Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators will encourage visitors to offset and minimise their environmental footprints.
It will also improve marine tourism staff training and risk management planning.
Email from American Petroleum Institute outlines plan to create appearance of public opposition to Obama's climate and energy reform
Suzanne Goldenberg, guardian.co.uk 14 Aug 09;
The US oil and gas lobby are planning to stage public events to give the appearance of a groundswell of public opinion against legislation that is key to Barack Obama's climate change strategy, according to campaigners.
A key lobbying group will bankroll and organise 20 "energy citizen" rallies in 20 states. In an email obtained by Greenpeace, Jack Gerard, the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API), outlined what he called a "sensitive" plan to stage events during the August congressional recess to put a "human face" on opposition to climate and energy reform.
After the clamour over healthcare, the memo raises the possibility of a new round of protests against a key Obama issue.
"Our goal is to energise people and show them that they are not alone," said Cathy Landry, for API, who confirmed that the memo was authentic.
The email from Gerard lays out ambitious plans to stage a series of lunchtime rallies to try to shape the climate bill that was passed by the house in June and will come before the Senate in September. "We must move aggressively," it reads.
The API strategy also extends to a PR drive. Gerard cites polls to test the effectiveness of its arguments against climate change legislation. It offers up the "energy citizen" rallies as ready-made events, noting that allies – which include manufacturing and farm alliances as well as 400 oil and gas member organisations – will have to do little more than turn up.
"API will provide the up-front resources," the email said. "This includes contracting with a highly experienced events management company that has produced successful rallies for presidential campaigns."
However, it said member organisations should encourage employees to attend to command the attention of senators. "In the 11 states with an industry core, our member company local leadership – including your facility manager's commitment to provide significant attendance – is essential," said the email.
Greenpeace described the meetings as "astroturfing" – events intended to exert pressure on legislators by giving the impression of a groundswell of public opinion. Kert Davies, its research director, said: "It is the behind the scenes plan to disrupt the debate and weaken political support for climate regulation."
The rally sites were chosen to exert maximum pressure on Democrats in conservative areas. The API also included talking points for the rallies – including figures on the costs of energy reform that were refuted weeks ago by the congressional budget office.
The API drive also points to a possible fracturing of the US Climate Action Partnership (Uscap), a broad coalition of corporations and energy organisations which was instrumental in drafting the Waxman-Markey climate change bill that passed in the House of Representatives in June.
Passage of the legislation is seen as crucial to the prospects of getting the world to sign on to a climate change treaty at Copenhagen next December.
Five members of Uscap are also in API, including BP which said its employees were aware of the rallies. Conoco Phillips, which was also a member of the climate action partnership, has also turned against climate change, warning on its website that the legislation will put jobs at risk, and compromise America's energy security. The company is also advertising the energy rallies on its website, urging readers: "Make your voice heard."
However, Shell, also a member of both groups, said it did not support the rallies. Bill Tenner, a spokesman, said: "We are not participating."
Brian Hayward The Herald 16 Aug 09;
THE voracious global demand for perlemoen has resulted in the Eastern Cape becoming a major black market supplier and, despite intensified police activity, poaching of the sought-after shellfish continues unabated amid fears natural stocks could soon be obliterated.
Although police have swooped on several upmarket homes of alleged poachers this month and confiscated big hauls of perlemoen (abalone), researchers believe this is just the tip of the iceberg with the majority able to continue their illegal activities to support extravagant lifestyles.
Up to 2000 tons of perlemoen – which is marketed as a delicacy in the Far East – is thought to leave the Eastern Cape annually with only a small percentage of that seized by police in raids.
These are just some of the findings contained in a groundbreaking report authored by Grahamstown Rhodes University ichthyology head Prof Peter Britz and his former PhD student Serge Raemaekers, now with the University of Cape Town’s Environmental Evaluation Unit.
The report also lambastes government’s poorly co-ordinated attempt at stemming the problem.
The report, published in a recent edition of international journal Fisheries Research, includes interviews with several local poachers as well as law enforcement agencies.
According to Britz, who earlier this month was elected chairman of the International Abalone Association, and Raemaekers, the growth of the industry in the region has seen it become as profitable, since it started in the mid-1990s, as in the Western Cape.
The illegal exploitation of perlemoen in both provinces has become so bad that it is described in the report as “the most criminalised wildlife trade in Africa”.
Other findings contained in the report include:
* Poaching in the region has become highly organised and is far more sophisticated than previously acknowledged by law enforcement agencies;
* The region has more than 50 “superducks” – 500hp, semi-rigid inflatable boats which can carry up to 15 divers at a time – which can handle a one-ton load of de-shelled perlemoen;
* Up to 2000 tons of perlemoen leaves Eastern Cape shores annually, with just a small portion of that seized by police during raids;
* Perlemoen fished locally is snapped up by buyers in Johannesburg and smuggled over the border to countries like Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana before being transported to the Far East;
* Chinese syndicates, as well as other national and international organised crime cartels, are increasingly moving into the region to harvest and dry perlemoen before sending it to the Far East;
* The depreciating rand has made poaching more profitable and alluring with divers in the province typically paid between $40 (R330) and $60 (R490) a kilogram of de-shelled perlemoen, which rises to nearly $80 (R660) during periods of high demand;
* Boat divers can harvest up to 150kg of de-shelled perlemoen a trip, earning them as much as $6000 (R49300) for each of the up to six deep-sea trips taken a month; and
* Perlemoen paid to Johannesburg exporters fetches prices of up to $125/kg (R1030), with payments made mostly in cash, but also bartered for drugs.
According to the authors, brazen poachers are also increasingly casting a wider net by making day trips to the Tsitsikamma coast and even as far afield as Robben Island off Cape Town’s coastline.
“The resilience and adaptation of these poachers has been interesting,” said Raemaekers. “Depending on the law enforcement and the new gear which comes onto the market, if they can’t catch in Algoa Bay, they’ll go to Knysna and Plettenberg Bay and return to Swartkops (on the outskirts of the Bay) and distribute (their catch). They are always 10 steps ahead of law enforcement a lot of the time.”
While poaching in the Western Cape was typified by gangsterism, violence and drugs, in the Eastern Cape poachers entered into the lifestyle out of choice. “The expensive cars and the lifestyle that comes with it (the poaching) is alluring,” said Raemaekers. “It’s huge money and it’s easy to do. A lot of families are benefiting from it in some way or another and for them it’s a lifestyle.”
According to the report, the government’s plan to crack down on the problem was poorly co-ordinated, with most anti-poaching initiatives lasting for the short-term.
But despite the criticism, police believe they are on the right track with more than R5-million worth of perlemoen seized in Nelson Mandela Bay over the past month and 24 suspected dealers and poachers arrested.
On Wednesday, police in Uitenhage arrested a married couple and their sons, aged 18 and 19, as well as a 34-year-old woman who was boarding at their De Mist home, for their alleged involvement in dealing in R220000 worth of perlemoen which was seized at the scene.
Last Friday, police arrested a 47-year-old man with about R2-million worth of perlemoen in Colleen Glen, which was the second haul of the week after the arrest of a 54-year-old man with R1-million of perlemoen ready to be shipped off on Thursday. The week before, 17 suspected perlemoen poachers were arrested after being spotted by marine rangers in Algoa Bay.
SanParks, which is in charge of monitoring the perlemoen hot-bed of Bird Island as it falls under the Addo Elephant National Park, believes it is on the right track with its 2007 establishment of the marine rangers.
“Our aim is to stay in that area. We have had lots of help from tip-offs from the public and we encourage people to carry on reporting that,” said spokesman Megan Taplin.
WWF 16 Aug 09;
Stockholm, Sweden: Improved river flow management will be vital to protecting communities from the worst impacts of climate change and to achieving international goals on poverty reduction, according to a new report issued on the eve of World Water Week.
Securing Water for Ecosystems and Human Well-being: The Importance of Environmental Flows also finds that river flow management to meet diverse environmental and human needs should be funded through appropriate valuation of the ecosystem services provided by healthy rivers. These include maintenance of groundwater levels, flood and drought mitigation, and contributions to human livelihoods, nutrition and health.
The report, developed in collaboration between major global institutions including Water Week organizer the Stockholm International Water Institute, Swedish Water House, UNESCO-IHE, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), UNEP- DHI, Deltares and NGOs such as WWF, Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy, draws on the latest research and practices on environmental flows and their significance.
“Initially the emphasis in environmental flows was on the amount of water released down rivers,” said one of the report’s lead authors, Dr Birgitta Malm Renöfält, Cluster group leader at Swedish Water House.
“Now we recognize the importance of different flow levels and the timing of flows to different river functions and understand that maintaining a healthy functioning ecosystem requires much more sophisticated river management.
“For example, base flows are vital to surrounding water table levels and soil moisture levels, pulse flows shape the character or river channels and large floods replenish nutrients and recharge aquifers over wider areas.”
The report documents sensitive infrastructure development and operation and appropriate environmental flow management benefits for health and earnings in Kenya and Tanzania, Cambodia, China, Colombia, Iran and the Sudan.
With water availability expected to be one of the major and most severe impacts of climate change in many areas of the world, sufficient and equitable allocation of water will become more and more vital for both people and nature.
“The environmental community has critical tools to offer for climate change adaptation, and environmental flow regulation is an important part of the climate adaptation toolbox,” said Dr Mark Smith, Head, IUCN Water Programme.
Note: Further information on this report will be available at the Swedish Water House Cluster group booth at World Water Week, at EH 0310, Stockholm International Fairs on 17.45 CET on 16 August 2009.
Science Alert 17 Aug 09;
International Institute for Environment and Development
Researchers working with forest community groups and policy makers in ten countries in Africa and Asia have developed a novel way to improve the flow of social and environmental benefits from tropical forests, according to an independent evaluation of an International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) project published on 17 August.
"With forests set to take centre stage in a new global deal to tackle climate change, there is a desperate search underway for proven ways to improve governance to ensure that forest resources are managed for the public good,” says project leader and head of IIED’s Natural Resources Group, James Mayers.
“That search should look at what’s been achieved by the Forest Governance Learning Group (FGLG). Its experience shows how to improve governance in ways that lead to tangible changes in policy with positive impacts on people who depend on forests.”
Through stimulating, for example, improved parliamentary debate, enhanced civil society action and more informed journalism, the project has achieved impacts such as:
* Forest-dependent households living around Mabira forest in Uganda have more secure livelihoods after action which successfully reversed a government decision to degazette the forest and convert it to sugar plantations
* Small scale forest enterprises in South Africa can now operate within a framework of simplified, rationalised and improved policies
* Indigenous community groups in Orissa state, India have increased access rights to collect and manage non-timber forest products in state forest land
* In Vietnam, improved governance frameworks have enabled practical actions for locally beneficial community forestry
* Several investments in logging deals that were over-exploitative of local forests and livelihoods have been questioned and prevented by high-level action in Mozambique
In each country, IIED and partners set up FGLG teams to bring together representatives of communities, governments, civil society organisations and businesses to explore the drivers of poor forest governance and to influence national and sub-national policymaking.
The groups enabled varied stakeholders to build trust and learn from each other whilst identifying positive policy changes suited to local circumstances and priorities.
To assess the work’s impact so far and what can be learned from it, IIED commissioned an independent evaluation by Tom Blomley of Acacia Consulting.
Blomley’s report, published 17 August 2009, concludes that the project’s specific object of improved governance of forest resources in ten countries in Africa and Asia “will largely be met in most of the ten countries”.
It adds: “Strong examples of this come from Ghana, South Africa and Indonesia where important policy changes have been effected as a direct result of the work of the learning groups in those countries.”
The report notes that the level of impact generated in terms of learning, as well as improved governance, is high despite the project’s modest cost.
“The decentralised manner in which FGLG has worked across the ten countries has provided an important testing ground for locally-driven and innovative approaches,” it states.
James Mayers adds, “Many forest problems are questions of social justice. Where FGLG country teams are working well they have shown how practical steps to greater social justice and sustainable local livelihoods can be taken even when very powerful players are up against them. This provides strong lessons for efforts to support forest governance as a climate change mitigation strategy – known as REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).”
The FGLG project has been funded by a grant from the European Commission and co-financing from the Dutch Government (DGIS). A new proposal to extend the activities of the initiative for an additional five years from January 2009 has been approved by the EC.
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