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from Singapore Nature and Nature's Wonders and wonderful creations and wild shores of singapore
Bee-eater hybrid 3
from Bird Ecology Study Group
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from Butterflies of Singapore
The gentle treks at the new Dairy Farm Nature Park suit nature newbies, older walkers and kids
tay suan chiang, Straits Times 19 Sep 09;
First-time nature trekkers and wobbly walkers will cheer - a new park has opened next to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, but minus its heart-stopping hills.
Nature newbies, plus older walkers and young children, will love the Dairy Farm Nature Park at Upper Bukit Timah, where instead of progressing painfully up peaks, they will find it easier to pause and check out butterflies, birds and plants.
The 63ha park was opened earlier this month by National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan.
It is managed by the National Parks Board (NParks), which began developing the park in 2007.
Unlike the neighbouring 126-year-old Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, which has many uphill trails along the way to its 164m-high summit, the $5.7-million Dairy Farm Nature Park has flatter trails which 'will be more enjoyable for new hikers', says MsSharon Chan, NParks' assistant director of the Central Nature Reserve.
Where cows once mooed and chewed grass, visitors will be able to amble along two trails: One follows an old road leading to the Singapore Quarry while the other meanders through secondary jungle to the Wallace Education Centre, a learning lab and information centre.
The park has already proven a hit with visitors. Retiree Mickey Tan, 67, found the trails easy to manage when he visited the place last week. 'It's a new spot to take my walks in,' he says.
There are two carparks within the park, and there is a bus stop nearby as well.
Another who is aflutter over the park is architect Khew Sin Khoon, in his 50s, who is a member of Butterfly Circle, a group of photographers with a special interest in butterflies.
He says: 'Nature enthusiasts are always looking for new places to go to. The opening of this park gives greater accessibility to those who drive, and also makes it more convenient for those with young children.'
He had often been to the area before it was developed into a park, when it was accessible only by foot.
For visitors who want to spot butterflies, he recommends they go between 9am and 3pm on sunny days. 'More than 150 species have been spotted here,' he adds.
It is not just butterflies which have caught the eye of nature lovers. NParks' Ms Chan says dragonflies, damselflies, beetles, fish and birds, such as the kingfisher and the endangered Little Grebe, can be found here.
She also advises those keen to study the park's plants to keep their eyes peeled when hiking in the forest for plant life such as bracket fungi, a type of inedible mushroom that grows on trees.
Bike trail with a view
The park sits on what was formerly a dairy farm set up 80 years ago, hence its name. The farm was established on a 24ha patch of thick secondary jungle which MrFred Heron, then the managing director of Cold Storage, had purchased and cleared.
In 1929, 24 cows were imported from Holland and Australia to establish a dairy herd.
The farm stopped operating in the 1970s and the area was used for vegetable farming. Several orchid farms were later started there.
A horticulture-related company occupied the area that used to house the farm from 1981 to 2006. The following year, the estate was taken over by NParks for development.
It is not just nature lovers who will benefit from the new park. Its opening will also help ease the squeeze in Bukit Timah park, which gets 400,000 visitors a year to its 163ha environs.
NParks is expecting 100,000 visitors to the Dairy Farm park annually.
Besides being a nature showcase, Dairy Farm Nature Park will also serve as an alternative recreational venue to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve: It is becoming a hit with mountain bikers as it has two trails for them.
Mr Lim Hui Min, a trail specialist from DirTraction, an organisation that promotes mountain biking, says: 'The new Dairy Farm trails cater to the intermediate level of riding, and also to beginners who want to have the thrill of mountain biking'.
Public relations executive Cheryl Han, 26, says the trail at Dairy Farm is her favourite place to ride in, as it is 'intense with steep descents and climbs so you get an adrenaline rush'. The bike trail cuts through hilly jungle, unlike the walking trails which are on flatter ground.
She adds: 'Plus the view of the quarry is magnificent and makes it all worth it.'
taysc@sph.com.sg
'The trail is intense... Plus the view of the quarry makes it all worth it'
Biking enthusiast Cheryl Han on the mountain biking trail at Dairy Farm
Milk the walk
The Dairy Farm Nature Park has two sections. One trail leads to the Wallace Education Centre and the other goes to the Singapore Quarry.
Trail to Wallace Education Centre
Distance: 200m to the centre from Carpark B
Time taken: 10 minutes one way. Set aside about 60minutes for the walk and to enjoy the area.
Level of difficulty: Fairly easy as it is a road (the old Dairy Farm Road) leading to the centre. But the actual Wallace Trail itself, which cuts into the forest, has some inclines. This trail can get slippery after a downpour.
What to see: The Wallace Education Centre: It is named after English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who collected specimens in the area in the 19th century. The centre, a former milking shed that has been restored, houses an information centre that traces the history of the area. Also check out the interactive info kiosk that has pictures of the biodiversity found in the area.
Wallace Trail: Also named after Mr Wallace, this 1km walking trail cuts through secondary forest. Look for fruit trees such as the durian and rambutan, flora such as the bracket fungi and fauna such as beetles.
Abandoned home and old-fashioned English garden: Located slightly after the centre, this one-storey house is believed to have been built in the 1920s. There are no plans to restore it. In front of it is a small garden planted with ixora, lantanas and hibiscus, making it a popular spot for photo buffs.
Trail to Singapore Quarry
Distance: 1km from Carpark A
Time taken: 30 minutes one way. Set aside about 90 minutes for the walk and to enjoy the area.
Level of difficulty: Easy
What to see: Singapore Quarry: A former quarry that was in use till the late 1980s, it has been transformed into a wetland. There is a viewing deck with a sheltered area that allows visitors to go into the quarry. Dragonflies and birds, such as the kingfisher and the Little Grebe, an endangered bird, can be spotted here.
The releasing of fish or other animals into the wetland is prohibited, so as not to disrupt the ecosystem here.
Best time to go: Before 10am or in the evenings. The trail to the quarry is not sheltered and it can get very hot at times. It is a good idea to take an umbrella along.
Other nature spots
The Dairy Farm Nature Park is the latest spot for nature enthusiasts but here are more to check out:
Admiralty Park
This 27ha park has a nature area within its premises. Amenities include three boardwalks and a 2km nature trail. Two boardwalks span the river Sungei Cina, so visitors can appreciate the beauty of the river at various water levels. The third boardwalk is within a mangrove forest.
Bukit Batok Nature Park
This park was developed from an abandoned quarry site. It has undulating terrain and footpaths that meander through lush secondary forest leading to look-out points reaching more than 10 storeys high, giving breathtaking views of the former quarry.
Labrador Nature Reserve
It is only minutes by car from VivoCity, but this nature reserve offers a spot of tranquillity. It also boasts Singapore's only rocky sea-cliff that is accessible to the public for recreation. More than 50 kinds of birds, such as the Blue-crowned Hanging Parrot and the Rufous Woodpecker, have been spotted here.
Pasir Ris Park
This park is popular not only with families who want to take pony rides on its premises, but also with nature lovers.
It has a 6ha mangrove forest which has boardwalks for visitors to get closer to the wildlife here. Bird enthusiasts can also observe birds from a three-storey-high bird-watching tower located within the mangrove forest.
Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
There is plenty of wildlife to see at this 87ha wetland site. Keep an eye out for mudskippers, crabs, shellfish, water snakes and monitor lizards. The site is also a hot spot for seeing migratory shorebirds or waders such as plovers and sandpipers.
For MORE wild places on the wildsingapore website: info for visitors, how to get there, what to see and do.
Straits Times 19 Sep 09;
SINGAPOREANS are part of an ambitious plan to transform desert regions in Mongolia into green belts.
Local Timberland employees were among those who made the trip to Inner Mongolia's Horqin desert last month for a tree-planting blitz.
During the three-day trip, 60 volunteers from China, Japan and Taiwan, as well as five Singaporeans, planted close to 1,000 saplings. The work involved transporting soil and plants, digging holes and planting and watering the young trees, as well as pruning existing trees.
Volunteers with the outdoor footwear and apparel company have planted more than 700,000 trees there since 2001, together with Japanese non-profit organisation Green Network.
The goal is to plant a million trees there by next year.
Timberland Singapore marketing manager Cheryl Kow, 31, joined the tree-planting effort for the second time in two years. 'When I saw the trees we planted earlier had grown to knee-height, I felt a sense of pride,' she said.
The Horqin desert, now the size of Switzerland, is expanding at 10,000 sq km every year, said Timberland, and this growing barren region generates massive migrating dust clouds that affect air quality in China, Japan and other Asian countries.
Planting trees helps to reverse the process.
The difference was palpable, said Ms Kow.
Describing how her group had walked from a desert area to one where trees were planted, she said: 'At first, you could just feel the sand grains pelting against your skin. The minute we reached the forest, all this stopped and it was cooler.'
Globally, Timberland has planted close to one million trees in 25 countries to help prevent erosion, protect wildlife habitats, improve air quality and green urban areas.
CHANG AI-LIEN
Electric dreams
Venessa Lee Today Online 19 Sep 09'
CHARGING an electric car is not unlike charging a mobile phone: Stick the plug into the wall socket and wait for the bars on the battery gauge to fill out nicely.
Using a household outlet, it takes about eight hours to fully charge the electric car prototype that I test drove recently.
Low-emission, battery-powered electric cars have been touted by some as the car for the near-future, with 2020 posited in some quarters as the beginning of the electric wave.
Auto-makers and governments have invested in these virtuously green vehicles with an eye on reducing the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. However, there are kinks to be ironed out, as I found out for myself.
The all-electric prototype I drove, which is powered entirely by lithium-ion batteries, accelerated at the lightest touch. With its tight turning circle, parking was easy. So was scaling slopes, though Mount Faber isn't ideal for a test drive up slopes. (Perhaps we need a higher iconic hill.)
Battery-powered cars are known to be more silent than petrol-driven ones with combustion engines. Mine made the most attractive little sounds, somewhere between a hum and a breeze. In contrast to conventional cars, it moved as quietly as a ninja, a difference that was all the more marked when I drove briefly alongside a revving Ferrari and later, a diesel taxi.
The intoxicating new-car smell may have got to me, but I was finding the electric car a dream to drive. It was a good-looker too, with its futuristic blunt contours and minimalist fixtures.
Eat my sparks, gas-guzzlers.
From my starting point at Alexandra Road, I'd driven around Mount Faber, Tanglin and Holland Village before I decided to head to Changi Airport to test how far I could go on the car's fully charged battery.
The manufacturer's rep told me that it could theoretically do 160km when fully charged, but the reality was more modest since everything in the car was powered by its battery, including the air-conditioning and radio. Anywhere between 90km and 100km was more likely.
I decided to drive from Changi to Tuas.
Along the PIE towards Tuas, however, before the Toa Payoh exit, I realised that there were only three of 16 bars left on the battery gauge, indicating that it was time to recharge the battery.
This called for drastic measures.
I switched off the air-con and soldiered on in the sticky heat.
I was forced, however, to turn back at the Dunearn Road (City) exit of the PIE and make my way down Bukit Timah Road. Near Eng Neo Avenue, I found that there was only one battery bar left. The digital odometer showed that I'd travelled 87.5km.
I decided to head to Holland Village and rely on the kindness of strangers.
This didn't work out so well..
I pulled up at a coffee shop at Holland Village with the battery completely flat. According to the distance display, I'd travelled 91km. I asked a man at the zichar stall if I could recharge the car using the electrical outlets at the coffee shop.
He said this would trip the system and, looking at the 10 plugs and switches on the wall, I was inclined to agree. I called for help and a tow truck soon came along.
BETTING ON ELECTRIC CARS
It was a somewhat ignominious ending, but the episode also illustrated the thorny issue of battery technology for the electric vehicle industry.
Limited range, high costs and long recharging times characterise present car batteries. Electric cars generally run between 60km and 200km on a single charge, while taking anywhere between two and seven hours to fully recharge.
But even as researchers work on improving battery technology, car-makers are racing to get electric vehicles on to the roads.
Nearly all major auto-makers had at least one electric model on display at the 63rd Frankfurt Auto Show this week. Renault introduced no fewer than four electric models. Volkswagen AG will put its new E-Up! electric car into production in 2013.
In August, Nissan Motor in Japan unveiled the Leaf, an electric car set to go into mass production for a global market in 2012. In June, Mitsubishi Motors started leasing its electric vehicle, the ¥4,599,000 ($71,300) i-MiEV, in Japan.
According to The Economist, over the next 40 years, the global fleet of passenger cars is expected to quadruple to nearly 3 billion, with profound implications on the climate change issue. Governments worldwide have invested in electrified vehicles as part of an environmentally-conscious strategy.
Such investments can also serve other ends such as reducing urban pollution, creating clean-energy jobs and decreasing a dependence on imported oil, as in the case of China, which seeks to be one of the leading producers of hybrid, as well as all-electric vehicles within three years.
In Germany, the government proposes spending some ?500 million ($1.04 billion) on a plan that aims to put 1 million electric cars on the road by 2020.
President Barack Obama has committed US$42.4 billion ($60 billion) in federal grants to develop next-generation electric vehicles and batteries in the US.
Domestic chargers are not the only way to charge electric vehicles; street-level charging devices are another way.
More generally, analysts have long contended that a roadblock to the deployment of electric cars has been the lack of infrastructure to ensure they can be charged anywhere, at home, at the office or at stations in the city or along a highway.
Building that infrastructure could cost billions of dollars and stakeholders have stressed the need for government support in the early days.
"We think the potential is beyond but it's going to depend not so much on the technology but on how governments, mayors, presidents and governors are willing to push this technology," said Renault-Nissan's chief executive Carlos Ghosn.
He added that car-makers had little choice but to make the shift, given that oil prices would probably go up and emissions regulations would likely get stricter. He has forecast that 10 per cent of vehicles would be electric globally by 2020.
Not all auto-makers are convinced of the potential of electric cars, given the variety of power sources for cars available. All-electric cars are still much more expensive than petrol-electric hybrids, which match battery power with combustion engines, for instance.
The high cost of batteries is seen as prohibitive and analysts say it will take at least a decade to see if electric cars can keep pace with, or surpass, petrol-powered automobiles.
Audi of America president Johan de Nysschen recently called General Motors' Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid "a car for idiots".
"No one is going to pay a US$15,000 premium for a car that competes with a Corolla. So there are not enough idiots who will buy it," he said.
The trick apparently is whether to place your bets on electric technology improving, and fast. With Israel one of the early enthusiasts of electric cars, Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi is reported to have said that the industry will take off in just a few years, just like mobile phone technology did.
Mr Agassi told the Knowledge@Wharton series: "We will have a billion electric cars on the road sometime around 2025 because we will have a billion people driving and there's no way they can be driving gasoline cars ...
"If you think of an industry that will make a billion of something, with an average price of US$20,000, you're looking at a $20 trillion industry rising up from nothing today within a span of 10 to 15 years."
Unwanted water tubes and plastic crates are part of the decor of a beauty services shop
tay suan chiang, Straits Times 19 Sep 09;
About the only thing that is new at the Spa Esprit Group's newest outlet at Wheelock Place may be how you look as you walk out of the beauty services establishment.
Little else about the nearly 3,000 sq ft place which houses its three brands - Brazilian waxing service Strip, brow-grooming service Browhaus and facial service Mask - is new.
Old furniture and assorted industrial objects such as a sink and plastic pipes have been recycled for the beauty spa's interior decor.
A 1950s cake chiller has been turned into a cash register. Discarded kitchen cabinets have had their doors reupholstered with vintage fabric and now store beauty products.
Even old copies of The Straits Times were used. Mr Jerry De Souza, the group's creative director and store designer, had initially wanted a display shelf made entirely of papier mache.
'We created three prototypes, which were tricky to build. But they couldn't stand and fell flat,' he says. In the end, the shelf was created using a recycled wooden frame covered with newspaper.
Elsewhere, recycled items are purely decorative. The main reception counter is spruced up with repainted old compressor fans that appear like mini windmills. Wooden crates were taken apart then reassembled to create a feature wall. Plastic water tubes make another reception area inside look vaguely like a prop from a science-fiction movie.
Mr De Souza has designed more than 30 outlets under the group, including Strip at Suntec City and Raffles Place and restaurants Barracks and Tippling Club at Dempsey. He had all along seen treasure in so-called junk, using recycled material such as reupholstered old chairs in the stores and eateries.
This is the first time he is doing it on such a large scale. He says: 'Rather than spend money on new items, I decided to be creative and transform old, disused items.'
Going green, however, does not mean going cheap.
He says recycling 'definitely costs more as it requires more manpower, such as consultants and contractors to use unfamiliar materials, and more time and effort to get it right'.
'It is challenging to recycle material for commercial uses as the new furniture must be functional and durable for daily use. There are regulations set by the Singapore Civil Defence Force, such as those concerning fire safety, that we had to abide by,' he adds.
About $300,000 was spent on renovation, interior decoration and customising old furniture for the store. The sum includes the cost of making prototypes such as the papier mache shelf and buying recycled materials.
Mr De Souza says most of the recycled materials were bought from a scrap heap factory in Paya Lebar, where metal objects are usually melted and sold.
Items such as the compressor fans cost about $80 each.
Ms Janet Lim, Spa Esprit's public relations manager, says the company is taking small steps towards green conservation. She adds that more of the group's stores will be 'going green' in the future.
Its second Skinny Pizza restaurant, also at Wheelock Place, will have seats made from restructured bicycle seats and tables made from bicycle wheels. It will open in November.
The Wheelock beauty services store opened on Sept 1 and has already attracted the attention of shoppers passing by.
Undergraduate Kelly Lee, 20, says: 'It's quirky and makes me think about how I can get creative with what may be junk.'
Jessica Yeo, Channel NewsAsia 18 Sep 09;
SINGAPORE : The Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) was 29 at 4pm on Friday. The 24-hour reading was the lowest so far this month. This puts Singapore's air quality in the good range.
The National Environment Agency said the drop in PSI is due to the rain earlier Friday.
It added that more showers in the region over the next few days may help to alleviate the haze situation. - CNA/ms
Caroline Jackson, The Star 19 Sep 09;
KUCHING: Located about 40km northeast of Kuching City is the Bako-Buntal Bay, an expanse of intertidal mudflats fringed by mangrove forest with Gunung Santubong lying to the west and Bako National Park on the east.
Residents of the two Malay villages in the area, Kampung Bako and Kampung Buntal, derive their primary income from fishing, with increasing participation in tourism activities.
However, the proximity of Bako-Buntal Bay to the capital city is like a double-edged sword.
The bay is one of only two project sites in the country undertaken to support the implementation of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar Convention) in four South-East Asian countries including Malaysia.
The other site considered of global importance as a wintering spot for waterbirds is the north-central coast of Selangor.
While being located considerably close to the city means easy access for urbanites who appreciate nature, it also makes the wetlands vulnerable to urban activities and development.
According to Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) Kuching branch chairman Rebecca D’Cruz, the bay has enormous potential for eco-tourism but the human population and infrastructure development in the area applied a constant stress on the site and its natural resources.
“Kampung Bako is the only entry point to the (Bako) National Park and villagers gain significant income from ferrying visitors while several tour companies provide wildlife cruises in the bay area, which offer close-up views of proboscis monkeys, dolphins, crocodiles, fireflies and many bird species,” she said when highlighting the Bako-Buntal Conservation Study, a collaborative effort between the Sarawak State Planning Unit and MNS Kuching.
The cruises cover the nearby Kuching Wetlands National Park, which is Sarawak’s first and only Ramsar Site, and the popular seafood destination of Kampung Buntal with restaurants lining the sandbar that is also the high-tide roost for shorebirds.
Bird-watching enthusiasts from MNS Kuching frequently go on excursions at the bay where 32 shorebird species have been recorded so far, with an estimated 15,000 waterbirds arriving there to escape winter.
The most significant are the Spotted Greenshank, Asian Dowitcher and Fareastern Curlew while the numbers of Red Knot and Great Knot are among the highest for any site in Malaysia.
“Of particular note in recent years are the 31 Chinese Egrets counted at the bay in 2003, accounting for 1% of the global population and may be the largest number recorded to-date in Borneo,” said D’Cruz.
She said the previous record number of 13 was charted in Brunei in December 1984 and between 15 and 25 in April 1986, which reinforced the global conservation importance of the bay.
With continuous observations dating back to the early 1900s, it was noted from historical records that even back in February 1913 Spotted Greenshanks were seen at Buntal while in 1935, Fareastern Curlews were described as ‘swarming’ at the same bay, she added.
The area also supported a steadily increasing population of proboscis monkeys, initially confined to the park but protection has increased their numbers beyond its carrying capacity and the excess is spreading across the bay and into Santubong.
D’Cruz said dolphin- and crocodile-watching activities were rising in popularity as the waters within the bay supported at least three species of dolphins — the Irrawaddy Dolphin, Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin and the Finless Porpoise — while its delta has a healthy population of estuarine crocodiles.
“The larger crocodiles can be seen basking along the exposed mudbanks and may constitute one of the most important populations of crocodiles in the state,” she said, adding that the study’s objective was to improve the conservation status of the bay through the establishment of a local conservation group (LCG).
In promoting the approach as an effective contribution to the implementation of the Ramsar Convention in Malaysia, she said the LCG as an effective community-based organisation worked to find solutions for nature conservation issues.
“The success of such an approach depends a great deal on the awareness level of stakeholders,” she said of the project to promote sustainable wetland-based livelihood especially for the people in Bako and Buntal villages.
Besides Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam are participating in the project to strengthen government-civil society partnerships funded by the Darwin Initiative (United Kingdom), Keidanren Nature Conservation Fund (Japan) and Japan’s ministry of environment.
The project received the nod from Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, which served as the administrative authority for the Convention in Malaysia and will run for an initial period of two years, with the possibility of an extension for a third year.
“South-East Asia’s wetlands are very important for biodiversity, national economies and the well-being of local communities but unfortunately, the same wetlands have frequently been viewed as unproductive areas and converted into other land uses,” D’Cruz noted.
She said South-East Asia’s remaining natural and semi-natural wetlands supported tremendous biodiversity wealth, including many threatened and endemic species that provide vital ecosystem services, particularly to local communities.
There are six Ramsar sites nationwide -- Tasek Bera in Pahang (1994), Pulau Kukup, Sungai Pulai and Tanjung Piai in Johor (2003), Kuching Wetlands National Park in Sarawak (2005) and the Lower Kinabatangan-Segama Wetlands in Sabah (2008), covering a total area of 134,158ha. — Bernama
Ben Webster and Emily Gosden Times Online 19 Sep 09;
They are the must-have accessory for fashion-conscious shoppers who want to be seen carrying home the most exclusive and expensive brands.
But there is a dirty secret behind the glossy paper bags often spotted dangling from the arms of socialites.
Several of Britain’s top fashion brands and makers of luxury goods have been buying these bags from a supplier majority-owned by a company responsible for destroying millions of acres of Indonesian rainforest.
One of the last refuges of the critically endangered Sumatran elephant and tiger is being steadily eroded by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) to produce cheap, high-quality paper for bags, gift boxes and other designer packaging.
APP is planning to pulp up to 480,000 acres of forest in Jambi province, Sumatra. Environmental groups claim that this will include the site of the only successful reintroduction programme for orang-utans. Alexander McQueen, Marc Jacobs, OKA, H&M Group and Osborne & Little have admitted buying bags from Pak2000, which is majority-owned by APP.
When approached yesterday by The Times, Osborne & Little, a luxury wallpaper company owned by the family of George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, said that that it would stop buying bags from Pak2000.
COS, part of H&M Group, said: “We can confirm that we have decided to terminate our business relationship with PAK2000. We do not have any further comments.”
OKA, a home furnishings company co-founded by Viscountess Astor, mother-in-law of David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said it would cease trading with Pak2000 “as soon as possible”.
Alexander McQueen refused to say whether it would continue to use Pak2000 bags. Marc Jacobs declined to answer questions from The Times.
The five companies were among almost 100 clients listed by Pak2000 on its website. Pak2000 removed the list two weeks ago at the request of several clients who had received letters from Rainforest Action Network, a US-based conservation group.
Michael Brune, the network’s director, wrote: “Our research indicates that your company is, we assume unknowingly, contributing to the destruction of endangered tropical rainforests in Indonesia through your procurement of packaging products and shopping bags from PAK 2000.”
Claude Roessiger, Pak2000’s chief executive, said that the company sold 300 million bags a year and 25 per cent of the company’s paper came from Indonesia.
Asked about the source of the 25 per cent, he said: “Either it’s entirely plantation wood or forests which are exploited in a proper plan.”
Mr Roessiger said Pak2000 did not “knowingly” use paper from original rainforest but he could not guarantee that it did not.
The Times tried to contact APP directly but it did not respond to phone calls or e-mails.
Reuters 17 Sep 09;
BEIJING, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW-www.ifaw.org) announced today that Alibaba (www.taobo.com.cn), the world's largest business-to-business and outsource portal site for traders worldwide, has agreed to ban all online trade in elephant ivory, sea turtle, and shark fin.
In addition, Alibaba has strengthened its internal control of wildlife products traded to accord to international and national regulations.
Alibaba's announcement comes nearly a year after eBay, working with IFAW, agreed to ban the sale of all ivory products.
The milestone decision was made following a year long collaboration between IFAW and Alibaba's partner site, Taobao.com to raise awareness about the unsustainable and cruel trade of wildlife on the Internet. IFAW encourages netizens to report online wildlife crime activities and helps portal sites filter out advertisements of wildlife products. To date, 333 wildlife product advertisements and 5 traders registered from Cameron, USA, and Canada have been removed from the Alibaba site.
Grace Gabriel, IFAW's Asia Regional Director said, "From eBay to Taobao to Alibaba, a growing number of internet sites are taking responsibilities to protect the world's precious wildlife from the threat of trade. It is a very encouraging trend."
About the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) As one of the world's leading animal welfare organization, IFAW has representation in 16 countries and carries out its animal welfare work in more than 40. IFAW works from its global headquarters in the United States and focuses its campaigns on improving the welfare of wild and domestic animals by reducing the commercial exploitation of animals, protecting wildlife habitats, and assisting animals in distress. IFAW works both on the ground and in the halls of government to safeguard wild and domestic animals and seeks to
motivate the public to prevent cruelty to animals and to promote animal welfare and conservation policies that advance the well-being of both animals and people. For more information on IFAW, visit www.ifaw.org
SOURCE International Fund for Animal Welfare
WWF 17 Sep 09;
Barcs, Hungary 17 September 2009 – Croatia and Hungary signed today a declaration to establish a Trans-Boundary UNESCO Biosphere Reserve that will protect their shared biodiversity hotspot along the Mura, Drava and Danube Rivers. This paves the way to create Europe’s largest river protection area.
The ceremony in the presence of the Prime Ministers of Croatia and Hungary, Mrs Jadranka Kosor and Mr Gordon Bajnai, took place in the border city of Barcs, Hungary.
Given the global significance of this agreement, WWF has highlighted the leading role of the Governments of Croatia and Hungary with a “Leaders for a Living Planet” award, handed over by Lifeng Li, Director of WWF Global Freshwater Programme.
"This cross border agreement to protect an area of great natural importance will foster regional cooperation, international understanding and peace keeping – 20 years after the fall of the ‘Iron Curtain’”, said James P. Leape, Director General of WWF International. “It is not only a significant advance for the region but can serve as an example of how nature conservation visions can bring countries together”.
With rare large floodplain forests, river islands, gravel banks and oxbows, the new protected area covers a 500 kilometres section of the three rivers and about 630,000 hectares of unique natural and cultural landscapes. The protected area, which has been declared with help of WWF and partner organisations (e.g. Drava League, Green Action and Euronatur) is awaiting UNESCO approval to become a Biosphere Reserve in 2010.
Today’s agreement, which was signed by the Ministers of Croatia and Hungary, Božo Biškupić (Minister of Culture) and Imre Szabó (Minister for Environment and Water) has the potential to become the cornerstone for a five-country Biosphere Reserve shared with Austria, Slovenia and Serbia. This would create the world’s first Biosphere reserve, commonly shared by five countries.
“WWF greatly welcomes this step of the governments of Croatia and Hungary as a very important milestone for the conservation of Europe’s natural treasures,” said Gábor Magyar, CEO of WWF Hungary. “This cross-border undertaking between a current and a future EU member is a potent symbol of the proposed unification of Croatia with the European Union,” Andreas Beckmann, Director of WWF’s Danube-Carpathian Programme added.
The area is home to the highest density of breeding pairs of the White-tailed Eagle in Europe and endangered species such as Little tern, Black stork, otters and sturgeons. It is also an important stepping stone for more than 250,000 migratory waterfowls every year. “The diversity of species in this region is one of Europe’s richest. Such areas can only be topped by the tropical rainforests,” says project leader Arno Mohl from WWF Austria.
Moreover, the river ecosystem is vital for the socio-economic well being of the trans-boundary region. It is a major source for good drinking water, for natural flood protection, sustainable forestry, agriculture and fisheries as well as having an important role in promoting eco-tourism, awareness raising and environmental education in the region.
“We encourage Austria, Slovenia and Serbia to join the proposed Biosphere Reserve with Croatia and Hungary to complete this green belt protecting the heart of Europe”, WWF stresses.
Reuters 17 Sep 09;
ROME (Reuters) - Italian researchers said on Thursday they had found one of the largest forests of rare black coral in the world off southern Italy and a related coral species never before studied in its natural habitat.
Investigators said they used a remote-controlled submarine to film the forest of Antipathes subpinnata coral, spanning an area the size of two soccer pitches, submerged at a depth of 50-100 meters between mainland Italy and the island of Sicily.
Officials said they were not disclosing the exact location of the discovery for fear that treasure hunters could plunder the rare coral, used to make jewelry.
"The coral we found has a great value, primarily because of its rarity," said Silvestro Greco, head of the environment agency for the southern Italian region of Calabria.
"If somebody with no conscience knew exactly where they were, I think there would be risks. That's why we have not really disclosed where they are."
Black coral's living tissue is brightly colored, but it takes its name from the distinctive black or dark brown color of its skeleton, highly prized as an adornment. It is listed as endangered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Simone Canese, chief researcher of the 1 million euro exploration project which has been running since 2005, said progress in underwater technology was permitting breakthroughs in the filming and study of new marine habitats.
"We found an extremely rare species of black coral, 'Antipathes dicotoma', that had never been observed alive in its environment. There were only 5 fragments of it kept in museums," Canese told Reuters.
"With the recent increase in underwater exploration, more of them may be discovered but we have provided the first images of them, alive, in their environment."
The discoveries were made in the Strait of Messina, which separates Sicily from mainland Italy, close to the town of Scilla. The waterway was held to be the home in Greek mythology of sea monster Scylla, which together with Charybdis menaced ships in the channel.
(Reporting by Daniel Flynn and Antonio Denti; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
WWF 15 Sep 09;
Vigo, Spain – A team of Australian inventors today were awarded the $30,000 grand prize in the International WWF Smart Gear Competition for a fishing gear innovation that could save thousands of seabirds from dying accidentally on longlines each year.
Their invention – the underwater baited hook – allows longline vessels to set baited hooks underwater out of reach of seabirds. Designed for use on coastal tuna and swordfish vessels worldwide, the invention minimizes or eliminates accidental mortality of seabirds including albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters, which are sometimes killed in the fishing gear when they attempt to seize bait attached to longline hooks.
The grand prize winning team consists of Phil Ashworth, general manager of Australia-based Amerro Engineering and Dr. Graham Robertson, a principal research scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division. WWF and its partners made the awards announcement today at the World Fishing Exhibition in Vigo, Spain.
Every year, unselective fishing catches non-target animals as ‘bycatch’ – an issue that causes the death of hundreds of thousands of marine animals, including seabirds. A recently published study defines bycatch as unmanaged or unused catch and on this basis it is estimated that bycatch accounts for at least 40% of what is taken from our oceans each year.
”With bycatch accounting for at least 40% of what is taken from our oceans each year, competitions like Smart Gear are critical opportunities to stimulate and showcase new technologies to reduce this threat,” said Dr. Robin Davies, Interim Leader of WWF’s Bycatch Initiative. “It is inspiring to see how many innovative ideas were submitted to the Smart Gear Competition because it reflects a dedicated and extremely diverse group of people who are committed to finding solutions to bycatch.”
Two other inventions to help reduce bycatch won runner-up prizes of $10,000 for their inventors. A team from Belgian’s Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO) won for their invention named Hovercran, which substantially reduces bycatch in shrimp trawls. The other runner-up is David Sterling, of Australia’s Sterling Trawl Gear Services, who developed a device called the Batwing Board, an alternative to the standard trawl door used by most trawl operators, which both reduces impact to the sea bottom by approximately 90 percent and reduces fuel consumption.
This year’s competition also features a special East African Marine prize of $7,500 which has been awarded to Samwel B. Bikkens of Kenya’s Moi University for his device known as “The Selector.”
The invention makes use of fish responses to light and water movement to address a bycatch problem in Lake Victoria, the largest lake in East Africa and an important fishery in the region. This is the second year that WWF has offered a special regional prize to encourage inventions that address issues in areas of critical concern.
“The creative inventions designed by the winners of the Smart Gear Competition promise practical, effective, everyday solutions to the problem of bycatch - a serious issue which threatens the health of our oceans,” say Michael Osmond, WWF’s senior program officer for fisheries, who directs the competition.
The Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation, The Marisla Foundation, the Sea World & Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, the Lemelson Foundation, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are supporting this year’s Smart Gear Competition.
For more information on the International Smart Gear competition go to: www.smartgear.org.
Jeremy Page, Times Online 14 Sep 09;
India is planning to reintroduce cheetahs into the wild, more than six decades after they were thought to have been hunted into extinction in the sub-continent.
But the plans have ignited a debate about wildlife conservation, with opponents arguing that India has neither the land nor the funds to sustain cheetahs and the dwindling tiger population. Wildlife experts and officials met in the northen Indian state of Rajasthan last week to draw up proposals to import up to 100 cheetahs from Africa over the next ten years.
The cats, which would come from countries such as Tanzania, Botswana and Kenya, would be kept in captivity in semi-wild enclosures until they were acclimatised, the experts said.They would then be released at several potential sites in Rajasthan, the western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra, the central state of Madhya Pradesh, and the southern states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
“This is the only large mammal ever to have gone extinct in independent India,” Milind Pariwakam, wild species manager at the Wildlife Trust of India, which jointly organised last week’s meeting, told The Times.
“If you bring back a charismatic mammal like the cheetah, which is also an apex predator, it will help to protect many other species, as well as the whole grassland ecology.”
The plans have yet to be approved formally by the Indian Government, but they have been endorsed by Jairam Ramesh, the Environment and Forests Minister. “We plan to bring the cheetah back in India,” he told Parliament.
Mr Ramesh did not attend last week’s meeting, but sent a written message, pointing out that “cheetah” is derived from an ancient Sanskrit word meaning “spotted”.
“The risks are indubitable,” he said. “However, I feel that we owe it to the animal whose very name is derived from Sanskrit and that was once so ubiquitous in our country to at least analyse the pros and cons.”
The Asiatic cheetah used to roam across the Middle East, Central Asia and India, and was tamed by the Mughal emperors for hunting. The last one in India is believed to have been shot dead by the Maharajah of Surguja in Madhya Pradesh in 1947.
Today it is found only in the wild in Iran and is listed as a critically endangered sub-species.
Experts say that they will not reintroduce cheetahs to India from Iran, which has fewer than 60 in the wild. However, they say that they could use cheetahs from Africa as they are almost genetically identical to their Asiatic cousins.
Stephen J. O’Brien, a leading conservation geneticist, said that African and Indian cheetahs separated about 5,000 years ago, but did not qualify as a sub-species.
By contrast, African and Asiatic lions were separated about 100,000 years ago and are considered sub-species, as are African and Asiatic leopards.
Most experts and officials agree in principle to the cheetah proposals, but many argue that India cannot afford the project, given the problems it has protecting tigers and other endangered species. “I don’t think it’s a wise idea,” said R. N. Mehrotra, the chief wildlife warden of Rajasthan.
India started the Project Tiger programme in 1973 to protect its tigers, which numbered about 40,000 a century ago. But the initiative failed to prevent the tiger population from falling to 1,411 in February last year, down from 3,642 in 2002, largely because of poaching.
Call of the wild
— Almost wiped out by trapping, poisoning, and habitat loss, the last 22 California condors were captured by the US Government and intensively bred in captivity. It released them again in 1991, and there are now 156
— In 1918, Britain’s last white-tailed eagle, its largest bird of prey, was shot in the Shetland Islands. After attempts to reintroduce the species in 1959, there are now 32 pairs living there
— The Arabian oryx has been reintroduced to Oman from a zoo population since being hunted to death in the wild in 1972. Despite mixed success, in 2006, one, named Orry, became the official mascot for the Asian Games in Doha
— Grey wolves were wiped out in the northern Rockies, in the US, under extermination projects in the 1930s then reintroduced in the 1990s, despite protests from ranchers that they would kill livestock
Sources: RSPB, actionbioscience.org, reference.com
Dan Joling, Associated Press Yahoo News 17 Sep 09;
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Up to 200 dead walruses have been spotted on the shore of Chukchi Sea on Alaska's northwest coast.
Federal wildlife researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey on their way to a walrus tagging project spotted 100 to 200 of the animals' carcasses near Icy Cape about 140 miles southwest of Barrow.
They report the dead walruses appeared to be mostly new calves or yearlings. However, neither the age of the dead animals nor the cause of death is known, said Bruce Woods, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"It's just too early to say until we can get someone on the ground," Woods said.
About 3,500 walruses were reported last week at the Icy Cape haulout site, where walruses rest from feeding forays.
Young animals can be crushed in stampedes when a herd is startled by a polar bear, human hunters or even a low-flying airplane.
This is the second time in three years that walruses have congregated in large numbers on the Alaska shore.
Walrus cannot swim indefinitely and historically have used sea ice as a platform for diving in the Bering and Chukchi seas for clams and other food on the ocean floor.
In recent years, however, sea ice has receded far beyond the outer continental shelf, forcing walruses to choose between riding the ice over waters too deep to reach clams or onto shore.
Environmental groups calling for measures to slow greenhouse gas emissions say walruses gathering in herds on shore are evidence that global warming is alerting the Arctic environment and forcing major changes in wildlife behavior.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado announced Thursday that Arctic sea ice for 2009 shrunk to its third lowest level since satellite measurements began in 1979. The record low was set in 2007 and ice last year melted to the second lowest level on record.
Walruses for years came ashore intermittently in Alaska during their fall southward migration but not so early and not in such numbers.
Herds were in the tens of thousands at some locations on the Russian side of the Chukchi Sea. Russian biologists in 2007 reported 3,000 to 4,000 walruses died out of a population of perhaps 200,000, mostly young animals crushed in stampedes.
Emmanuel Angleys Yahoo News 17 Sep 09;
MONTPELLIER, France (AFP) – Pesticides, viruses, industrialised farming, fungus... what on Earth is killing our bees?
That's the big question being asked at Apimondia, the 41st world apiculture congress, where 10,000 beekeepers, entomologists and other actors in the honey business are gathered in this southern French city until Sunday.
Across parts of North America and swathes of Europe, but also now in patches of Asia, bee hives have been struck by a mysterious ailment dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).
At normal times, bee communities naturally lose around five percent of their numbers. But in CCD, a third, a half -- sometimes even 90 percent -- of the insects can be wiped out. Eerily, no bodies are typically found near the hive.
The phenomenon is alarming for beekeepers, many of them small-scale operators or hobbyists, who lack the clout and subsidy support that other agricultural sectors enjoy.
But food experts and environmental scientists are also worried.
The Western honey bee is a vital link in the food chain, fertilising nearly 100 kinds of crops.
Around a third of the food on our plates gets there thanks to Apis mellifera.
By some estimates, this unseen, unsung work is worth more than 200 billion dollars a year, often through hives that are trucked to monoculture farms to do pollinating magic at specific times of the year. Wild bees, bats and other pollinators are simply not numerous enough to do the trick.
So when honey bees and beekeeping are devastated, the impact for large-scale agricultural production is clear.
"In China, fruit farmers in Sichuan are having to hand-pollinate their orchards," says Henri Clement, president of the National Union of French Beekeepers.
Despite intense investigation, the cause of CCD remains unclear.
Mooted culprits include a blood-sucking mite called varroa; a single-celled fungal parasite called Nosema cerenae that causes bee dystentery and pesticides used in fields that are pollinated by bees.
Fingers in Europe have also pointed at an intruder, the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina, which lurks near hives and captures the poor honey bee in flight and devours it.
Other proferred explanations include poor nutrition -- that mega farms, stripped of hedgerows and wild flowers, and spreading suburbs, with their concrete, roads and lawns, are depriving bees of a decent diet.
Despite the many suspects, there has been no conviction, or at least none that singly explains why bee colonies should be collapsing in so many parts of the world at the same time. Climate change may also be an aggravating factor, say some experts.
One possibility is that CCD is a complex web of factors.
Last month, entomologists at the University of Illinois reported that bees in CCD-ravaged hives had high levels of damaged ribosomes -- a key protein-making machine within cells.
Their ribosomes appear to have been hijacked by so-called picornia-like viruses, which seize control of cellular machinary to make it crank out only viral components.
Picorna-like viruses are carried by the varroa mite, which has spread by being accidentally introduced through commercial transactions of bees.
"If your ribosome is compromised, then you can't respond to pesticides, you can't respond to fungal infections or bacteria or inadequate nutrition because the ribosome is central to the survival organism," said researcher May Berenbaum.
Meanwhile, researchers at Britain's University of Leeds have begun a three-year study to see if the bees' decline could have an earthier cause -- a lack of variety in the sex life of queen bees.
They are investigating whether a decreasing number of potential mates means colonies are becoming less genetically diverse and more prone to disease.
CSIRO, ScienceAlert 17 Sep 09;
CSIRO scientists have bottled ‘Recharge’ , pure drinking water that was once stormwater.
“This is an exciting demonstration of the value of stormwater and the drinking water that can be produced from it by using a combination of natural treatment processes and engineered methods,” CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country Flagship Urban Water Stream Leader Dr Peter Dillon said.
The water was captured in the City of Salisbury, on the Northern Adelaide Plains in South Australia. It was stored under Salisbury in a porous limestone aquifer 160m below ground.
When recovered it was found to meet drinking water health standards.
“The stormwater was first treated by passing it through a reed bed or wetland,” Dr Dillon said.
“This allows particles to settle. It was then injected via wells into a limestone aquifer for storage and months of natural slow filtration through the aquifer.”
After recovery the water was rigorously tested in National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) accredited laboratories.
For extra safeguard and aesthetic quality the water was aerated, filtered through an activated carbon filter and it underwent microfiltration and ultraviolet disinfection.
‘Recharge’ complies with the same health standards as tap and bottled water.
Dr Dillon said the water demonstrates that drinking water can be produced from stormwater, and that the concept can be part of a suite of diversified water supply options.
“Compared to other common alternative supplies stormwater harvesting is cheaper, energy efficient and has a small carbon footprint.”
“It also avoids the economic, social and environmental costs of building new dams for water storage and shows the value of urban aquifers.”
CSIRO scientists are continuing to test the robustness of the concept to ensure water can be produced that consistently meets drinking water health standards.
‘Recharge’ was produced by CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Flagship and the City of Salisbury.
• Trafigura offers payout to 31,000 victims of toxic dumping
• Secret email trail exposes truth behind £100m legal battle
• Read the emails here
David Leigh, guardian.co.uk 16 Sep 09;
The British oil trader Trafigura has offered to pay out in a historic damages claim from 31,000 Africans injured by the dumping of toxic waste in one of the worst pollution disasters in recent history, the Guardian can reveal.
The compensation deal for the victims of toxic oil waste dumping in west Africa – likely to be confirmed imminently – means the full extent of attempts to cover up what really happened can be spelled out for the first time.
The truth is laid bare in Trafigura's hitherto secret documents, published by the Guardian today.
The company's internal emails show the true nature of the toxic waste dumped around Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. Trafigura had publicly claimed the waste was harmless.
The exposure of the company files has contributed to Trafigura's climbdown after three years of bitterly contested legal battles. We are publishing them online today.
Martyn Day is a senior partner at the British law firm Leigh Day, which has brought one of the biggest group actions in legal history, seeking damages of £100m. He said today in Abidjan, where he has been negotiating the settlement: "The claimants are very pleased."
He was in the process of putting a global deal to the victims, he said. "The sum being discussed is based on the range of short-term symptoms claimed by our clients."
Thousands of west Africans besieged local hospitals, and a number died, in 2006 after the dumping of hundreds of tons of highly toxic oil waste around Abidjan.
Official local autopsy reports on 12 alleged victims showed fatal levels of the poisonous gas hydrogen sulphide, one of the waste's lethal byproducts.
The traders have been publicly insisting for three years that their waste was routine and harmless. They claim it was "absolutely not dangerous".
They have until now denied the compensation claims, and their lawyers repeatedly threatened anyone worldwide who sought to contradict their version. They launched a libel case against BBC Newsnight, forced a "correction" from the Times, demanded the Guardian deleted articles, and yesterday tried to gag journalists in the Netherlands and Norway with legal threats.
But dozens of damning internal Trafigura emails have now come to light. They reveal how London-based company employers were told in advance that their planned chemical operation, a cheap and dirty process called "caustic washing", generated such dangerous wastes it was widely outlawed.
Claude Dauphin, the managing director, was told by the London manager, Naeem Ahmed, on 28 December 2005: "Caustic washes are banned by most countries due to the hazardous nature of the waste (mercaptans, phenols, smell) … there are not many facilities remaining in the market. There is a company in Rotterdam that burns such waste in a high stack chimney and charges are approximately $200/kg."
An email from Ahmed the previous day to the head of gasoline trading spelled out: "US/Singapore and European terminals no longer allow the use of caustic soda washes since local environmental agencies do not allow disposal of the toxic caustic after treatment."
Transport of such toxic waste across EU borders was outlawed, he told his bosses. It was illegal to dump it on any EU landfill.
The London-based traders pressed on regardless, the documents reveal. They hoped to make profits of $7m a time by buying up what they called "bloody cheap" cargoes of sulphur-contaminated Mexican gasoline.
They decided to try and process the fuel on board a tanker anchored offshore, creating toxic waste they called "slops".
One trader wrote, on 10 March 2006: "I don't know how we dispose of the slops and I don't imply we would dump them, but for sure, there must be some way to pay someone to take them."
The resulting black, stinking, slurry was eventually dumped around landfills in Abidjan, after Trafigura paid an unqualified local man to take it away in tanker trucks at a cheap rate.
Trafigura's libel lawyers, Carter-Ruck, recently demanded the Guardian deleted published articles, saying it was "gravely defamatory" and "untrue" to say Trafigura's waste had been dumped cheaply and could have caused deaths and serious injuries. Both the Dutch paper Volkskrant and Norwegian TV said they were yesterday also threatened with gagging actions.
Trafigura launched a libel action against BBC Newsnight, complaining Trafigura had been wrongly accused of causing deaths, disfigurement and miscarriages, and had "suffered serious damage to their reputation".
The BBC filed a fighting defence this week, accusing Trafigura of knowing its chemicals were "highly toxic, potentially lethal and posed a serious risk to public health". The BBC also alleges a cover-up, saying Trafigura's denials "lack credibility and candour".
Newsnight plans to transmit another programme on the subject on BBC2 tonight.
The UN human rights special rapporteur Professor Okechukwu Ibeanu criticised Trafigura for potentially "stifling independent reporting and public criticism" in a report the oil traders tried and failed to prevent being published in Geneva this week.
The report said Ibeanu "views with great concern reports that the company has filed or threatened to file lawsuits against various civil society and media institutions that have reported … in a critical manner".
He wrote: "According to official estimates, there were 15 deaths, 69 persons hospitalised and more than 108,000 medical consultations … there seems to be strong prima facie evidence that the reported deaths and adverse health consequences are related to the dumping."
The report is written in cautious terms, but Trafigura's lobbyists, Bell Pottinger, responded by claiming to be "appalled", saying it was "premature", "inaccurate", "potentially damaging", "poorly researched", and "deeply flawed".
Yesterday Greenpeace, which has been investigating the issue, along with Amnesty, launched a legal action in Amsterdam calling for the oil firm to be prosecuted there for homicide or grievous bodily harm. It said: "This intentional pollution … has caused many people to suffer serious injuries and has even led to death."
Trafigura said it "utterly rejected" claims of a cover-up. "Every statement that has been made … has been made in good faith."
The traders said the autopsy reports were unreliable, and that hydrogen sulphide in the waste was only there in "potential" form. It has never actually been released. They said the emails contained "crude and distasteful" language, but had been taken "out of context" and should "not be taken literally".
They repeated denials that the slops could have caused death or serious injury, and were highly toxic. They denied lying about the composition of the slops.
Trafigura says it is the world's third-biggest private oil trader, and declared a $440m profit last year. Its 200 traders are reported to receive annual bonuses of up to $1m each.
Jason Dearen, Associated Press Yahoo News 18 Sep 09;
NEW IDRIA, Calif. – Abandoned mercury mines throughout central California's rugged coastal mountains are polluting the state's major waterways, rendering fish unsafe to eat and risking the health of at least 100,000 impoverished people.
But an Associated Press investigation found that the federal government has tried to clean up fewer than a dozen of the hundreds of mines — and most cleanups have failed to stem the contamination.
Although the mining ceased decades ago, records and interviews show the vast majority of sites have not even been studied to assess the pollution, let alone been touched.
While millions live in the affected Delta region, the pollution disproportionately hurts the poor and immigrants who rely on local fish as part of their diet, according to a study conducted by University of California, Davis ecologist Fraser Shilling. His research found that 100,000 people, which he calls a conservative estimate, regularly eat tainted fish at levels deemed unsafe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"Tens of thousands of subsistence anglers and their (families) are consuming greater than 10 times the U.S. EPA recommended dose of mercury, which puts them at immediate risk of neurological and other harm," Shilling said.
But neither the state nor federal government has studied long-term health effects of mercury on the people who regularly eat fish from these waters.
The legacy of more than a century of mercury mining in California — which produced more of the silvery metal than anywhere else in the nation — harms people and the environment in myriad ways.
Near a derelict mine in this California ghost town, the water bubbling in a stream runs Day-Glo Orange and is devoid of life, carrying mercury toward a wildlife refuge and a popular fishing spot.
Far to the north, American Indians who live atop mine waste on the shores of one of the world's most mercury-polluted lakes have elevated levels of the heavy metal in their bodies and fears about their health.
And other mercury mines are the biggest sources of the pollution in San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast.
In all, this metal known as quicksilver has contaminated thousands of square miles of water and land in the northern half of the state.
Records and interviews show that federal regulators have conducted about 10 cleanups at major mercury mines with mixed results, while dozens of sites still foul the air, soil and water. The AP's review also found that the government is often loathe to assume cleanup costs and risk litigation from a failed project.
Mercury from mine waste travels up the food chain through bacteria, which converts it to methylmercury — a potent toxin that can permanently damage the brain and nervous system, especially in fetuses and children.
The federal government calls methylmercury one of the nation's most serious hazardous waste problems, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is a possible carcinogen.
Mercury is considered most harmful to people when consumed in fish. People who regularly consume tainted fish are at risk of headaches, tingling, tremors and damage to the brain and nervous system, according to the CDC.
The toxin is less of a threat in drinking water, which is filtered and monitored more closely.
Mining in California ceased decades ago, leaving behind at least 550 mercury mines, though no one knows for sure how many. One U.S. Geological Survey scientist says the total may be as high as 2,000.
"Mercury tops the list as the most harmful invisible pollutant in the (state's) watershed," said Sejal Choksi of San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental watchdog group for the bay. "It has such widespread impacts, and the regulatory agencies are just throwing up their hands."
In the 19th and 20th centuries, California produced up to 90 percent of the mercury in the U.S. and more than 220 million pounds of quicksilver were shipped around the world for gold mining, military munitions and thermometers. Much of the liquid mercury was sent to Sierra Nevada gold mines, where miners spilled tons of it into streams and soil to extract the precious ore.
"There's probably a water body near everybody in the state that has significant mercury contamination," said Dr. Rick Kreutzer, chief of the state Department of Public Health's Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control.
Government officials blame mining companies for shirking their financial responsibilities to clean the sites, either by filing for bankruptcy or changing ownership.
When the government does target a site, success is not guaranteed.
The Sulfur Bank Mine has made the nearby Clear Lake the most mercury-polluted lake in the world, despite the EPA spending about $40 million and two decades trying to keep mercury contamination from the water. Pollution still seeps beneath the earthen dam built by the former mine operator, Bradley Mining Co.
For years, Bradley Mining has fought the government's efforts to recoup cleanup costs. An attorney for the company didn't return calls seeking comment.
For the Elem Band of Pomo Indians, whose colony is next to the lake and shuttered mine, the mercury has made it unsafe to eat local fish.
Their colony was built in 1970 by the federal government over waste from the mine. Officials knew it was contaminated, but were not aware at the time how dangerous mercury was to people. The mine is now a Superfund site.
State blood tests on 44 volunteer adult tribe members in the 1990s found elevated levels of mercury. The average level was three times higher than found in people who do not eat tainted fish, but regulators said only one man was at immediate risk of brain damage or other harm.
Yet the EPA determined that the tribe's mercury levels were a serious enough threat for the agency to spend millions of dollars removing contaminated dirt from the colony's homes and roads.
Many have moved from the colony, leaving about 60 of what was once a community of more than 200 people.
As a child, Rozan Brown, 31, said she ate lake fish, swam in the turquoise waters of the mine waste pit and played on mercury-tainted mine waste piles.
"When I was pregnant, I drank the water," Brown said. "When I was breast-feeding, I worked as a laborer during some of the (mercury) cleanups."
The CDC says high levels of mercury can cause brain damage and mental retardation in children when passed from mother to fetus. Brown's son, Tiyal, has been diagnosed with autism. The CDC has found no link between mercury and autism, but agency spokesperson Dagny Olivares said in an e-mail, "Additional information is needed to fully evaluate the potential health threats."
At most abandoned mercury mines, especially ones in remote places, nothing gets done at all.
Twenty-seven years ago the EPA shut down New Idria Mine, once the second-largest mercury producer in North America. The mine and its towering blast furnace still sit untouched. Acidic runoff flows from hills of waste and miles of tunnels into a pool that smells like rotten eggs. The toxic brew turns nearby San Carlos Creek orange and kills aquatic life before flowing into the San Joaquin River.
"It's really hard living up here," said Kate Woods, 51, standing on a wooden bridge in front of her rural home, tucked amid the hills and cattle ranches just downstream of the mine. "It would be paradise here but for this damned orange creek."
Woods and her brother, Kemp, experience tremors in their hands and headaches, she said, blaming prolonged mercury exposure through water and dust. The EPA found mercury in the creek exceeding federal standards in 1997, records show. Field researchers sent a "high priority" referral to state water quality regulators, warning the mercury could be migrating into a popular fishing area and eventually to the Delta-Mendota Canal, "a drinking water conveyance to other parts of California."
Neither agency undertook the expensive cleanup, nor did they conduct the follow-up studies to find out if New Idria's mercury was the source of the contamination found downstream.
EPA officials said mines such as New Idria are a concern but are not always the agency's highest priority.
"We are here to protect the environment, and sometimes we do it better than other times," said Daniel Meer, EPA's assistant Superfund director for the region. "We can't start cleaning up everything all at once."
The EPA, with financial help from the mine owners, has covered up waste piles at two mines feeding pollution into Cache Creek to try to reduce the mercury flowing into the Delta, but no one has touched the other problem sites.
At least 13 other mine sites also pollute Cache Creek, and are responsible for 60 percent of the mercury in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where thousands regularly catch and eat local fish, state water quality officials said.
"What can we do? We're evaluating that now," said Jerry Bruns, a mercury control official with the Central Valley Water Quality Control Board. "It's complicated, we can't just go in there and do whatever we want. There are Native American archaeological sites and different landowners."
A separate cluster of derelict mercury mines near San Jose has been called the largest source of the toxin in the San Francisco Bay's south end, where warning signs warn fishermen of the "poisonous mercury" polluting the water.
A solution to California's mercury pollution is nowhere near at hand, state and federal regulators say.
"It took a hundred years to occur," said the EPA's Meer. "And it may take a hundred years or more to solve."
WWF 17 Sep 09;
Industrial biotechnology has the potential to save the planet up to 2.5 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year and support building a sustainable future, a WWF report found.
As the world is debating how to cut dangerous emissions and come together in an international agreement treaty which will help protect the planet from potentially devastating effects of climate change, innovative ideas how to reduce our CO2 are very valuable.
A recent report published by WWF Denmark identifies the potential to be between 1 billion and 2.5 billion tons CO2 per year by 2030, more than Germany’s total reported emissions in 1990.
Industrial biotechnology could help create a true 21st century green economy, the report states.
Industrial biotechnology applications are already widely used in everyday life. They help reduce the amount of time needed to bake fresh bread, increase the yield in wine, cheese and vegetable oil production and save heat in laundry washing.
“Low carbon biotech solutions are a good example of hidden or invisible climate solutions that are all around us already today but are easy to overlook for policymakers, investors and companies.” says John Kornerup Bang, Head of Globalization Program at WWF Denmark and coauthor of the report.
A newer example on how biotechnology solutions could help reduce carbon emissions is the harvesting of biogas from waste digesters and wastewater streams.
The report emphasizes the potential of taking that existing technology even one step further and creating fully closed loop systems.
Biorefineries are able to transform any biobased waste material into a valuable feedstock for the production of other biobased materials. The possible emission reductions for such processes are estimated to be as high as 633 million tons of CO2.
The report indentifies four fundamental dimensions of industrial biotechnology: Improved efficiency, the substitution of fossil fuels, the substitution of oil-based materials and the creation of a closed loop system with the potential to eliminate waste.
But as with most technologies, the potential to achieve sustainability objectives does not automatically translate into such goals being realized.
“Politicians need to set the path toward a green economy. This will not be easy, and we must look for new solutions, which can help us reduce emissions very quickly. It is clear that there is no alternative to explore these innovative pathways,” John Kornerup Bang said.
Download from the WWF website
Biotech technical report 6.78 MB pdf
Biotech policy report 6.06 MB pdf
Bill Rigby, PlanetArk 18 Sep 09;
SEATTLE - Ever wondered what it would be like to have Lance Armstrong pedal your bike for you? Well now you can find out, sort of.
About 15 companies are now offering bicycles with an electric power option -- as opposed to a purely engine-powered moped -- for around $1,000 to $4,000 -- and they are catching on with some green-thinking commuters.
The latest electric bikes from Giant, EcoBike, Currie Technologies and Ultra Motor, among others, can deliver around 500 watts of power at the flick of a wrist or a turn of the pedals. That is roughly what Armstrong could generate over shorter races in his prime.
The result is that you zip up hills or hustle along the street, silently passing all, but the most competitive two- wheelers.
One of the top sellers in the emerging market is the A2B, made by London-based Ultra Motor.
"Some people buy the bike to commute, other people purchase the bike to use as a replacement for short automobile trips," said Paul Vlahos, vice-president of sales for the U.S. arm of Ultra Motor.
THE TECH
Privately held Ultra Motor has sold "north of 1,000" of its electric bikes in the United States since launching the A2B model in September last year, said Vlahos. The Green Car Company in Bellevue, Washington -- close to Microsoft Corp's campus and cycling mecca Seattle -- said they have sold about 40 of the bikes this summer and are awaiting a new batch.
Priced at $2,699, the A2B is not cheap, but it is comparable to a high-end racing bike and less expensive than a standard motor scooter. It is sold at some independent bike shops, scooter dealers, specialist electric vehicle outlets and, for a short test period, about 20 Best Buy Co Inc stores in the western United States.
The machine, technically known as a "light electric vehicle," qualifies as a bicycle under U.S. transport regulations, so you do not need a license to operate it and you can ride wherever cyclists are allowed. It is not the same as a moped, which generally has a gas engine and pedals fitted for emergency use only.
The A2B is meant to be pedaled, but the electric motor can be switched on at any time, with the use of a motorcycle-style throttle on the right handgrip, which generates speeds up to 20 miles per hour (32 kilometers per hour) on the flat. You can augment your pedaling efforts with the motor at any time, or switch entirely to electric power.
The aluminum frame with full suspension and disc brakes looks more like a sporty motorbike than a bicycle (see pictures here). Baskets and racks for bags can be fitted to the frame to make commuting or shopping easier.
At 73 pounds (33 kg), the bike is two or three times the weight of an ordinary commuter cycle. Pedaling downhill or on the flat is reasonably comfortable, but as soon as the road pitches up, it is hard not to rev it up.
The built-in lithium ion battery will carry you around 20 miles and there is an option to put another detachable battery on the rear rack, doubling that range.
The bike has seven gears for normal pedaling, using a standard Shimano derailleur system. The Taiwan-manufactured motor, sealed into the hub of the back wheel, is brushless, like those used in PC hard drives and the Segway scooter.
The lack of friction from brushes -- which make contact with the moving rotor in conventional electric motors -- means electricity is converted to mechanical power more effectively. That gives the A2B good torque to clamber up hills and zoom from a standing start.
THE FUTURE
There have been versions of electric bicycles for more than 100 years and combinations of moped and bicycle -- such as the French velomoteur -- have achieved some popularity in Europe. But so far, electric bikes have not reached the U.S. mainstream.
"The category is very much in its infancy (in the United States)," said Vlahos. "We think it is becoming more mainstream."
The company says the bike appeals to cyclists, but the chief market is car drivers.
"The U.S. is historically so dependent on the automobile," said Vlahos. "But you are starting to see cities invest more in cycling lanes. As more development comes back into an urban environment, you are starting to see a higher degree of bike- friendliness."
(Editing by Andre Grenon)
Ben Webster Times Online 16 Sep 09;
The World Bank is spending billions of pounds subsidising new coal-fired power stations in developing countries despite claiming that burning fossil fuels exposes the poor to catastrophic climate change. The bank, which has a goal of reducing poverty and is funded by Britain and other developed countries, calls on all nations in a report today to “act differently on climate change”.
It says that the world must reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, but it is funding several giant coal-burning plants that will each emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide a year for the next 40 to 50 years.
Britain is contributing £400million to a World Bank fund that claims to support “clean technology” but is financing coal power plants.
The bank’s World Development Report says: “Developing countries are disproportionately affected by climate change — a crisis that is not of their making and for which they are the least prepared. Increasing access to energy and other services using high-carbon technologies will produce more greenhouse gases, hence more climate change.”
The report says that between 75 and 80 per cent of the damage caused by climate change through drought, floods and rising sea levels will happen in developing countries. It calls on richer nations, including Britain, to increase the amount that they spend on helping developing countries to adapt to climate change.
The bank also wants global spending on research and development on sustainable sources of energy to be increased from the present $70billion (£40billion) a year to $700billion.
The report says that unless the world acts now to cut carbon dioxide emissions it faces a 5C (9F) rise in global temperatures by the end of the century. “Such a drastic temperature shift would cause the possible dieback of the Amazon rainforest, complete loss of glaciers in the Andes and Himalayas, and rapid ocean acidification leading to death of coral reefs,” it says.
“The speed and magnitude of change could wipe out more than 50 per cent of species. Sea levels could rise by one metre this century, threatening 60 million people. Agricultural productivity would likely decline throughout the world and over three million additional people could die from malnutrition each year.”
The 260-page report advises against “locking the world into high-carbon infrastructure” but makes no mention of the bank’s plans to subsidise coal power plants in India, South Africa, Botswana and other developing countries.
Last year the bank and its partner, the Asian Development Bank, approved $850million in loans to finance a coal-fired plant in Gujarat, western India.
The Environmental Defence Fund, a US lobby group, said that the plant, the first of nine planned in India, would be one of the biggest new sources of greenhouse gases on Earth, emitting 26.7million tonnes of CO2 a year for the next 50 years.
The bank is also contributing $5billion towards South Africa’s power generation expansion plan, which includes six coal plants.
Marianne Fay, the bank’s chief economist for sustainable development, said that coal was the cheapest and most secure way to deliver electricity to the 1.6billion people without it. She said: “There are a lot of poor countries which have coal reserves and for them it’s the only option. The [bank’s] policy is to continue funding coal to the extent that there is no alternative and to push for the most efficient coal plants possible. Frankly, it would be immoral at this stage to say, ‘We want to have clean hands, therefore we are not going to touch coal’.”
Tim Jones, policy officer of the World Development Movement, which campaigns to reduce poverty, said: “The World Bank is acting in the interests of Western countries and companies and not in the long-term interests of the world’s poor.
“It is an absolute disgrace that money meant for clean technologies will actually be used for building new coal power stations. Every pound of green aid that will be spent on funding coal power through the World Bank is money that should be spent on supporting renewable energy in developing countries.”
The bank said that it had lent $5billion for fossil fuel projects in the past three years and $11billion for “low-carbon” alternatives.
A spokesman for the Department for International Development in Whitehall said: “We have informed the World Bank that we will be scrutinising future coal-fired power plant proposals to ensure that they have explored all other options (including accessing the additional finance needed for cleaner alternatives), and we would expect any future coal plants to reach the highest international standards.”
Ryan Schuchard and Betsy Fargo - Greener World Media
PlanetArk 18 Sep 09;
Building on BSR's article last month on why climate change matters for every company, managers should be aware of some important, and very specific, opportunities for creating business value while promoting climate stability.
First, the good news: It's not mechanically hard to manage greenhouse gases (GHG), the key ingredient to climate change. There's a saying that "a ton of carbon is a ton" everywhere, which, for climate purposes, is true. And given that roughly two-thirds of global emissions are tied to energy in networks that are already regulated, finding your company's GHG hotspots is no great feat.
Now for the hard part -- responding to the actual problem. Averting climate change requires the will to deal with a decade-plus lag between activity and reward, which our current business and political institutions do not seem very well equipped to handle. It also requires a coordinated global effort in order to avoid "leakage," ensuring that emissions really disappear rather than migrate from one place to another. This has proven to be a great challenge, as country coalitions including the U.S. and China, which comprise approximately half of global emissions, work to find common ground that has so far been elusive.
Even with a growing number of experts, advocates, and average citizens committed to addressing climate change, there remain conspicuous gaps -- in public knowledge, in action, and in results. For example, while scientists agree that global climate change is a genuine, systemic threat, many legislators in the U.S. are quibbling about short-term price hikes in their districts -- which does not bode well as the rest of the world prepares for a global climate treaty.
These gaps may represent serious potholes on the way to climate stability -- but they are also gaping opportunities for smart companies willing to help bridge these divides.
The Gap Between Science and Knowledge
Here's the bad (but not surprising) news: The public thinks there is still debate about climate science. According to an important recent study (PDF), 90 percent of Earth scientists who specialize in climate say the Earth is warming and that human activity is to blame. In contrast, approximately half of all Americans think scientists have yet to settle the matter.
This gap is profoundly consequential because, despite what the truth may be, the life force of decisions for lawmaking politicians and business managers is public opinion.
On the bright side, this gap gives companies a chance to improve the public's environmental literacy, and develop goodwill, credibility, and loyalty by doing so.
So what is a company to do? Start by considering some of the traits of this disparity, such as the knowledge divide. Most climate-related science is updated in scholarly journals, which are expensive, inaccessible, and not targeted to the public. Misinformation, on the other hand, is cheap and easy to access, and mass media -- its conflict-hungry carrier -- often treats science as a matter of opinion, and therefore gives disproportionate coverage to extreme views.
Here's where business comes in: Take a look at how your organization might be causing misinformation and then stop it at the source, especially in your media outreach and branding. A related opportunity is to find ways to share accurate science through your communications efforts.
As BSR has reported in the past, Patagonia brings an educational approach to communicating issues, especially through its website, which teaches consumers about the lifecycle impacts of products. You can also educate your industry, as the apparel company H&M has done by sponsoring a recent BSR-led lifecycle study on carbon dioxide emitted during the manufacture of garments.
The Gap Between Knowledge and Action
We have learned from Princeton University researchers Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow -- and many others -- that the world has no shortage of technology or financial resources to solve climate change. Furthermore, the popular McKinsey report, "A Cost Curve for Greenhouse Gas Reduction," reveals that many solutions to eliminate emissions result in a net-zero cost.
So what's the delay? One reason is malfunctioning markets. For example, energy service companies perched in border areas like Hong Kong are ready to enter China, the world's biggest energy-efficiency market, but they are blocked by prohibitive transaction costs and project risks due to persistent, entrenched market barriers.
But companies can address challenges like these themselves, and in doing so create value all around. For instance, as part of a recent collaboration with BSR, Walmart launched a supplier energy-efficiency program that created a marketplace pairing more than 30 energy-service companies with more than 300 factory representatives, in turn making both shopping and selling easier.
There is another dimension. Walmart is providing training, practical tools, and encouraging messages to its suppliers to promote energy efficiency. The company's aim is to improve the energy efficiency of 200 Walmart suppliers by 20 percent. This alone is significant, but experience shows that once managers begin to find efficiency gains, they are even more likely to identify and reduce waste, which could create a ripple effect throughout the company and among the company's partners.
Theoretical models such as Pacala and Socolow's studies also fail to account for the internal hurdles that can prevent action. These tend to be situational and include obstacles related to timing, momentum, politics, unfamiliar cultural environments, and human psychology. The lesson here is that starting a new climate change program is no small feat, and should be seen as a major accomplishment and milestone.
In our experience, you can build early momentum by using qualitative and quantitative data to capture quick "wins" that demonstrate the value of making further commitments.
The Gap Between Action and Results
At the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen last May, one participant remarked, "It doesn't matter how fast you are moving if you are going in the wrong direction." Unfortunately, with climate change, the reverse is also true: We have the mechanics and are gazing in the right direction, but we are moving too slowly. According to the C-Roads simulator, an MIT-developed software modeling tool, even if the most progressive proposed legislation around the world is enacted, we would still have a long way to go to achieve stabilization targets. Recent findings by Carbon Disclosure Project support this conclusion.
According to conventional wisdom, companies concerned about climate change should focus on reducing emissions from internal operations, management of which is closely tied to their control or ownership. Yet if the goal is to stop climate change, we must make a collective effort to outpace emissions, which continue to grow despite reduction efforts to date. Unfortunately, few companies view it as their job to solve this problem. As a result, the bar is even higher: Instead of reducing emissions by 80 percent from our 1990 baseline, we need to reduce them by 83 percent from 2005.
The problem, says Chris Tuppen, chief sustainability officer at BT, is that we are measuring the wrong thing. While climate business metrics measure carbon dioxide emissions compared to the company's past performance, the metric for the collective goal of solving climate change is carbon dioxide parts per million in the atmosphere with agreed-upon peak dates. That metric is measured by physical science.
Tuppen suggests we change our business metrics: Rather than tracking individual reductions, we should measure what we, collectively, have left to achieve. That thinking led BT to pioneer the CSI Index, which associates the company's emissions with those of the global economy, thereby linking company efforts with national targets, which are based on climate stability.
Undoubtedly, it will be challenging to bring these technical standards to scale, but Tuppen's idea to start with the ultimate goal in mind is a necessary step. His approach is rooted in Peter Senge's "systems thinking" and Harvard Business School's recommendation that sustainability efforts start from the future.
When we start to think more broadly about business progress, it's easy to see more options for action. Auden Schendler, Aspen Skiing Company's executive director of sustainability, says business can have the biggest impact by influencing policy, because climate change is, at its core, a market failure. Without robust climate policies, individual efforts, however "directly" related to operations, will be limited.
Looking at the big picture, influencing policymakers -- whose numbers are relatively few -- is not only likely to make a bigger impact, it's also more manageable than tracking billions of disparate emissions sources. According to Schendler, Aspen has engaged in policy through national advertising, lobbying Congress individually and through coalitions such as Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy, leveraging industry trade groups to send letters, and speaking publicly. Schendler himself contributed by writing the book "Getting Green Done."
It is natural when planning and reporting to follow the crowds, but there are opportunities for climate leadership when you look for the gaps in public knowledge, action, and results. Taking them seriously will do wonders for your credibility, and potentially lead to new kinds of business growth.
Ryan Schuchard is manager of environmental research and innovation, and Betsy Fargo is associate of advisory services at BSR.
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