At Last!!!
from Life's Indulgences
Rufescent Prinia’s nest
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Wet and wild at Chek Jawa
from wild shores of singapore
Scarlet Backed Flowerpecker eating Indian cherry
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Upcoming Workshops
from The Leafmonkey Workshop
Fields in Toronto
from spotlight's on nature
Turning dreams into reality
Lee Wei Ling, Straits Times 4 Oct 09;
On Sept 16, we had dinner at The Compleat Angler, a famous restaurant outside London, to celebrate my father's 86th birthday. He was last in the restaurant 47 years ago, when he was in London to discuss the terms of Singapore's merger with Malaya.
With him then were Dr Goh Keng Swee, Mr Hon Sui Sen, Mr Sim Kee Boon and Mr Howe Yoon Chong. In the midst of the acrimonious negotiations, the Singapore team had decided to de-stress at The Compleat Angler.
Forty-seven years later, the staff of Singapore's High Commission in Britain sprung a surprise on my father, who was visiting London last month. At the end of the dinner, while he was in the washroom, a birthday cake was brought out, and we all sang Happy Birthday when he returned to the table. Then we all sang his favourite song, 'Que sera sera, what will be will be...'
I thought to myself: 'Wrong. What will be, need not be!'
Consider what happened after that dinner at The Compleat Angler 47 years ago: The negotiations then led Singapore to join Malaya in 1963. Two years later, in 1965, Singapore was unceremoniously ejected from Malaysia. The outlook for this new island-nation was bleak.
But a small group of men was determined to ensure our survival. They built a multiracial Singapore, with the best interracial harmony in the world, and a meritocratic system in which all are given an equal chance. They achieved peace, happiness and progress for Singapore.
My father had other specific dreams for Singapore. In the 1970s, my mother's blind telephone operator could tell when he was approaching the Singapore River, such was its stench. Dr Albert Winsemius, who was Singapore's economic adviser and my father's friend, challenged my father to clean up the river so fish could live in it.
In 1987, upon the successful completion of the 10-year project to clean up the river, Dr Winsemius did indeed catch a fish.
My father then expanded upon his dreams for the area: 'In 20 years, it is possible that there could be breakthroughs in technology, both anti-pollution and in filtration,' he said. 'Then, we can dam up or put a barrage at the mouth of the marina...and we will have a huge freshwater lake.'
The Marina Barrage is the fulfilment of that vision. Its construction creates the world's first reservoir in the heart of a city. The reservoir's catchment is the most densely populated area of Singapore.
The reservoir's water will be treated using advanced membrane technology. This will ensure that the water is safe for drinking and will also allow land and water-based activities to be carried out within the catchment. The Barrage is also part of a flood control scheme to alleviate the problem of flooding in low-lying areas of the city.
The Marina Barrage was designed as part of the Public Utilities Board's ABC Waters Programme. This aims to encourage Singaporeans to appreciate the value of clean water and to do their part to keep our water clean.
In the year since its opening by the Prime Minister last October, the Marina Barrage has attracted more than 550,000 visitors. It has become a vantage point for people to view the picturesque city while enjoying the sea breeze. My father visited the area often during its development.
While I saw raw earth and construction, he described to me his dreams of a beautiful Marina Bay.
There will be two indoor gardens with careful climate control so that exotic plants can be cultivated. When the whole project is completed, there will be a beautiful water 'square' like the Piazza in Venice, but with a boardwalk around its perimeter that will pass the Gardens by the Bay. (Go to www.marina- bay.sg/marinabayvideo.html for a view of how the Bay will look like when fully developed.)
We also toured One Fullerton on a Sunday this past August. There were interesting restaurants and cafes, crowded with customers dining alfresco and enjoying the evening breeze and view.
The Old Guard turned many dreams into reality. Mr Lim Kim San, for instance, achieved in HDB what once seemed unachievable - housing 80 per cent of Singaporeans in public housing. And Dr Goh began the streaming of students to enable them to learn at their own pace - a step which helped propel Singapore's education system to the top ranks in the world.
Dr Goh was also instrumental in building from scratch a tough and smart military fighting machine - with the help of some 100 so-called Mexicans, as the disguised Israeli military officers were known.
Successive defence ministers have made refinements to what Dr Goh achieved, so Singapore now has a Third Generation Singapore Armed Forces.
In short, a group of determined men - together with Singaporeans who had lived through tough times and were willing to endure more hardship - succeeded in building a Singapore that no one ever thought possible, least of all the Old Guard themselves.
Margaret Mead was correct when she said: 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; it is the only thing that ever has.'
But we must not rest on our laurels. We must keep on striving to improve the quality of life of all Singaporeans. What the future will bring will not always be what we dreamt of. We must remain alert and resilient. Fortune favours only those who grab the opportunities life offers. If the future has rough patches, we should simply accept that as a fact of life, and continue to make the best of things.
My biggest worry is that our success to date has allowed a generation to grow up without knowing hardship. Whether they are willing to put in the hard work to turn their dreams into reality, and how they respond when misfortune and disasters strike, will determine Singapore's future.
The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.
New species of snake unveiled in Lam Dong
VietnamNet 29 Sep 09;
VietNamNet Bridge – Russian and Vietnamese scientists have announced the discovery of a new species of snake in Loc Bac forest in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong.
The new species is named Coluberoelaps and belongs to the water-snake family and has neither fangs nor poison.
This snake looks like a cross between a water snake (Coluber) and copperhead (Elaps)so its Latin name is the combination of the two – Coluberoelaps.
Its species name is named after Dr. Nguyen Van Sang, from the Institute for Ecology and Creature Resources, who found the specimen and to honor his great contribution in research of reptile and amphibians in Vietnam.
The Vietnamese name of this snake is nguyen van sang snake and its full scientific name is Coluberoelaps nguyenvansangi Orlov, Kharin, Ananjeva, Nguyen & Nguyen, 2009.
The standard specimen of this snake was collected in Lam Dong in 2003 in a biodiversity survey funded by the World Wildlife Fund Indochina.
New species of snake found in Lam Dong
VOVNews 3 Oct 09;
A new species of snake has been discovered in Loc Bac forest in the Central Highland province of Lam Dong, according to the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper.
The new species, Coluberoelaps nguyenvansangi, is named after Dr Nguyen Van Sang from the Institute of Ecology and Natural Resources who discovered the snake’s specimen while conducting a biodiversity survey of the forest.
The newly found reptile which belongs to the family of water snakes, is not poisonous, 393mm in length, has a 107mm tail and 14 teeth on its upper jaw.
Verónica Díaz Favela IPS News 3 Oct 09;
MEXICO CITY, Oct 3 (IPS/IFEJ) - Four sculptures in human forms, made of concrete, will be submerged in November in the Mexican Caribbean - the first of 400 figures that will comprise the world's largest underwater museum.
The Subaquatic Sculpture Museum will be situated in the West Coast National Park in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula. The park receives nearly 300,000 visitors each year. The museum's mission is to attract some of those tourists in order to reduce the pressures on important natural habitat in other areas.
The watery museum will become even more attractive when the sculpture area fills up with thousands of colourful fish. The concrete of the sculptures is pH neutral, which allows rapid growth of algae and incrustation of marine invertebrates.
"The underwater museum will draw many tourists, allowing us to give a rest to the natural reefs. It's like a restoration process," national park director Jaime González explained to this reporter.
"By becoming healthier, the coral reefs will be more resistant to hurricane damage," he added.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (PCC) has warned that extreme weather phenomena, like hurricanes, will become more intense and frequent as a result of global warming. The panel also predicts higher acidity of ocean waters and consequent bleaching of coral, which can kill it.
"Coral bleaching is akin to us losing our skin pigment. The ultraviolet rays of the sun would harm us," explained Roberto Iglesias Prieto, of UNAM's (Autonomous National University of Mexico) Institute of Sea and Lake Sciences.
The whitening process stresses the coral, which expels the algae that live within it and which provide nutrition, leaving the coral to starve, Iglesias added. The coral also reproduces less and becomes more vulnerable to disease.
The phenomena associated with climate change threaten the survival of coral reefs around the world. In July, experts meeting at the Royal Society of London agreed that these important marine ecosystems could disappear within a century if climate-changing gas emissions aren't sharply reduced.
What would the world be like without coral? "On this planet, 200 million people make their living from fishing for species that inhabit coral reefs," said the UNAM expert.
Another 300 million people benefit from reefs as a form of coastal protection. "In a hurricane, 99 percent of power in waves is dissipated in the reef, thereby protecting human lives and property," said Iglesias.
"Given the global threat of climate change, local protection of reefs is very important," said the researcher.
"We need to gain time against climate change, by curbing the number of tourists visiting coral reefs, for example," he said.
In the West Coast National Park of Isla Mujeres, Punta Cancún and Punta Nizuc, the challenge is to draw tourists away from natural habitats without losing the 36 million dollars the visitors bring into the area each year.
Events in recent years have left clues on how to achieve that.
González recalls that in 1997 a cruise ship destroyed 500 square metres of coral of the Cuevones reef in Punta Cancún. Since then, all tourist access to the reef has been banned.
As an alternative diving site, in 2005 the park administration submerged 110 hollow domes and concrete structures in layers to create an artificial habitat in the area known as Sac Bajo.
"At first the people of Isla Mujeres told us that they were never going to bring tourists there, but after a few years it became a must-see attraction," said González.
Meanwhile, the Cuevones reef, where the cruise ship grounding occurred, is now the reef in the best condition in the area. "The only difference is that there are no tourists," he said.
"If they swim near the corals, the divers with little experience might kick them with a fin or hit them with the oxygen tank," he added.
"Before it was declared a park, the tourists even climbed up the corals and walked on top of them, breaking and shattering them," González said.
Now there are buoys that mark the borders and tourists must wear lifejackets to prevent them from submerging. Once the underwater museum opens, it will require divers to gain previous experience in artificial habitats.
With these measures, they hope to extend the lifespan of the coral and the services the reefs provide, including the production of the white sands for which Mexico's Caribbean beaches are famous - the result of natural erosion.
Corals also "have the potential to contain substances or pharmaceuticals that can be useful to humanity," says Ernesto Enkerlin Hoeflich, national commissioner of Protected Natural Areas in Mexico (CONANP).
"Furthermore, they act as carbon sinks (absorbing greenhouse gases) and, because of their incredible beauty, they serve as a tourist attraction and an opportunity to reconnect with nature," said the commissioner. For these reasons, CONANP is supporting the Subaquatic Sculpture Museum with resources and by facilitating permits.
Last year, the commissioner himself went diving in the Caribbean waters to observe the results of the concrete structures submerged in 2005, which serve the same environmental principle as the statues.
"It's a unique experience... to witness the rapid colonisation of the spheres by thousands of fish of different species and to see how, although we sometimes damage nature, humans can also do something to restore it," said Enkerlin Hoeflich.
The national park director González calculates that by April 2010 there will be some 250 sculptures installed in the underwater museum. The total cost of the project is about 350,000 dollars.
The artistic director is Jason de Caires Taylor, famous for his underwater sculptures, but other artists will also be involved.
The museum isn't expected to increase the flow of tourists to Isla Mujeres much, though most agree the site will provide a new identity for the park.
Each sculpture will be human sized, with a base of four square metres. There will be theme-based galleries as well.
One of them, "The Dream Catcher," will be the figure of a person who sorts bottles that arrive with messages sent by castaways. Another will be titled "Coral Collector". Also in the works is a series of sculptures depicting an army of Maya indigenous warriors.
*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by IPS - Inter Press Service and IFEJ - International Federation of Environmental Journalists, for the Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development (www.complusalliance.org). (END/2009)
The Star 29 Sep 09;
MUAR: A stake-out by the General Operation Force (GOF) intelligence unit led to the seizure of live pangolins being transported in a car near here.
A 24-year-old man was arrested after a short car chase at Sungai Sarang Buaya in Bakri, near here, at about 11pm on Sunday.
About 40 live pangolins, including several babies, were recovered from the car.
The successful seizure followed four days of stake-out by a team headed by Asst Supt Azha Ahmad.
The team had stationed itself at the river estuary and spotted two boats approaching the coast.
One returned to the sea after the other landed near the estuary.
Two men then began loading sacks of the pangolins into a car and sped away after realising they were being watched, said ASP Azha.
“Our men gave chase. After about 100m, the driver lost control of the car and skidded into the river.
“However, he managed to escape in the dark but his friend was arrested,” he said.
ASP Azha said the seized animals, with an estimated street value of over RM70,000, were surrendered to the Wildlife and National Parks Department here.
He said the man, from Kampung Parit Enam in Sungai Balang, had been detained to assist investigations into the smuggling of pangolins from Indonesia.
Pangolins are protected animals. The case will be investigated under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
Yemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post 3 Oct 09;
East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) residents are becoming more distressed by the massive oil spill in the Timor Sea, especially fishermen who depend on it for their livelihood.
NTT Deputy Governor Esthon Foennay said Friday his administration urgently responded to the offshore Australian Montara gas and oil field spillage. He said the Timor Sea, abundant with marine life, was at risk of being seriously damaged.
"The situation has affected fishermen in the Timor Sea," he said in NTT's capital city of Kupang.
"The provincial administration has reported the incident to the central government to instigate bilateral talks between Indonesia and Australia."
The oil slick was reported to have spread 80 kilometers, and is estimated to reach the shores of West Timor in the next two weeks.
The Indonesian Navy has deployed a naval vessel to gain further insight about the pollution level from local fishermen and West Timor Care Foundation reports.
"The Navy sent a ship to the Timor Sea on Thursday night aimed at observing the extent of damage caused by the crude-oil slick in Australia," a source said in Kupang.
The NTT legislative council has urged the central government to take a firm stance on Timor Sea pollution.
"We received reports the oil spill is getting closer to the Kolbano area in South Central Timor regency. Some residents were reportedly suffering from skin irritation and nausea after consuming fish. The issue is quite serious - the central government should take urgent steps to push Australia to clean up the mess," NTT legislative vice speaker Nelson Matara said on Thursday.
The Directorate General of Sea Transportation has instructed the Tenau Port administration in Kupang to immediately set up a command post to monitor the oil spill, which is believed to have polluted Indonesian waters.
The oil slick is currently located less than 80 kilometers from Rote Island, Indonesia's southernmost island.
Tenau Port Administration head Piter Fina has organized routine patrols to determine the oil slick's direction, which is expected to reach Indonesian shores in the middle of the month.
"We will continue to send reports to the central government," Piter said.
The Australian Embassy in Jakarta said in a press statement Indonesian officials would visit Darwin this week to monitor the handling of the oil leak.
"The visit's aim is to observe Australia's measures to combat the spillage," Paul Robilliard, the Australian Embassy's deputy head of mission to Indonesia, said.
"Our measures would effectively minimize sea pollution.
"Authorities in Australia have applied nontoxic solvents to accelerate the cleanup process. After the slick dissolves, a nontoxic oil sheen will appear on the water's surface, which is not dangerous," he explained.
He also said authorities would conduct aerial patrols to observe the oil leak, and carry out procedures to confine the slick from spreading further.
"We immediately informed Indonesian authorities about the spill, and kept them notified about further developments. We intend to work with Indonesia to protect the environment," Robilliard said.
The Montara oil and gas field leaked on Aug. 21. An oil rig recently arrived at the Montara offshore oil rig to drill a replacement well to stop the leak.
West Timor Care Foundation director Ferdi Tanoni said his organization had forged an alliance with the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), Greenpeace Indonesia, Greenpeace Australia, WWF Indonesia, WWF Australia and Ocean Watch, to carry out independent investigations into the environmental impacts caused by the pollution.
"We urge the Indonesian and Australian governments to take necessary steps to resolve the issue," he said.
Nadia Badarudin, New Straits Times 28 Sep 09;
ALOR STAR: A suspected illegal dealer in dried skins of protected wildlife was detained here yesterday.
Acting on a tip-off, the state anti-smuggling unit seized five dried wildlife skins, believed to be that of wolves, from the 56-year-old's car, which was parked at Darulaman Stadium about 5pm.
The dried skins were packed inside two boxes in the boot of his car.
Preliminary checks showed the man, who did not have any Customs Department declaration on the dried skins, had illegally sourced the contraband from abroad.
Checks also showed that the items were recently sent to him from Hong Kong.
Unit commander Mohd Noor Idris said after questioning him, the man led a six-man party to his house in Taman Sejahtera, also near here.
Inside his house, the raiding party recovered 12 more dried skins, also believed to be that of wolves.
The skins, measuring about one-metre long and about 0.5m in width around the animals' bellies, were kept in similar boxes, bearing the names of an international courier firm. The boxes also bore a similar address in Hong Kong.
Mohd Noor said the dried wildlife skins, sold in the black market for about RM500 a piece, were meant for the domestic market.
"We believe the suspect trades in the items, sourced from China, only for local consumption."
Sunday's seizure of the dried animal skins was the second by the unit this year.
In May, it seized five dried Malayan tiger skins from two Thais at a roadblock at the Changlun-Bukit Kayu Hitam Expressway.
Mohd Noor ruled out the possibility that both cases were related.
The latest case is now being investigated by the Wildlife and National Parks Department under the Wildlife Protection Act.
The man faces the maximum fine of RM8,000 or five years' jail or both upon conviction.
A spokesman for the department said the dried skins would be sent to the Chemistry Department to ascertain the species.
Animal pelt smuggler released on bail
The Star 29 Sep 09;
ALOR SETAR: The 56-year-old man arrested with 17 animal pelts has been released on bail.
State Wildlife and National Parks Department director Rahim Ahmad said the man, a trader from Kuala Kedah, was questioned and released on a RM3,000 bail posted by a friend at about 11pm on Sunday.
“We are carrying out preliminary analysis by taking pictures and tagging the pelts prior to sending them to our headquarters in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, for DNA tests to determine the animal species.
“We are investigating this case as possession of protected animals under Section 64 and Section 68 of the Wildlife Act 1976/1972,” he said.
The Kedah Anti-Smuggling Unit detained the man at the Stadium Darulaman car park after recovering five animal pelts from his car on Sunday. He later led the team to his house where another 12 pelts were recovered.
The pelts are said to be that of tigers, leopards, wolves and hyenas.
It is learnt that a syndicate couriered the pelts from Hong Kong to the man’s house.
This is the second time this year that the anti-smuggling unit seized such pelts from smugglers.
On May 29, five tiger pelts worth RM90,000 were seized at a roadblock near the Malaysia-Thai border in Bukit Kayu Hitam.
Andrew C. Revkin, The New York Times 2 Oct 09;
Half a century after Pacific walruses began recovering from industrial-scale hunting, marine biologists are growing worried that they face a mounting threat from global warming.
Masses of lumbering walruses have been crowding on beaches and rocks along the Russian and American sides of the Bering Strait in the absence of the coastal sea ice that normally serves as a late-summer haven and nursery.
While the retreats in sea ice around the Arctic this summer were not as extensive as in 2008 or 2007, the Chukchi Sea, at the heart of the walrus subspecies’ range, was largely open water.
On Thursday, biologists from the United States Geological Survey issued a report concluding that 131 walruses found dead near Icy Cape, Alaska, on Sept. 14 died from being crushed or stampeded. Several thousand walruses had been congregating in the area, a situation that scientists from the agency said was highly unusual.
Last month, Russian scientists and the World Wildlife Fund had reported several thousand crushing deaths among tens of thousands of walruses crowding along the western shores of the Chukchi Sea.
Walruses have endured more than 15 million years of climatic ups and downs, so experts do not foresee the species’ becoming extinct, particularly if hunting remains controlled. (Thousands are legally killed each year by indigenous communities in both countries.)
But there has been growing confirmation that the walrus is suffering substantial losses as the sheath of sea ice in coastal waters erodes in the summer.
The floes normally provide a floating nursery for pups while adults dive to root for clams and other food in the seabed in shallow coastal waters along the continental shelf. Last month, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, responding to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group, concluded that there was sufficient scientific evidence of rising stress on the animals from climate change to consider granting the Pacific walrus protection under the Endangered Species Act.
That review is under way, and the service is taking public comment until Nov. 9.
The polar bear, which is similarly dependent on sea ice, was listed as threatened under the species act last year.
“I think there is reason to be concerned,” said Brendan P. Kelly, a marine biologist at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, who has been studying walruses for several decades.
Fatal stampedes among walruses have occurred in past years, Mr. Kelly said, citing research he conducted on a similar event in 1978 and reports by hunters on islands in the Bering Sea more than a century ago. But the expansion of open waters along the coasts raises the odds and adds to other pressures on the animals, he said.
For the moment, the Pacific walrus remains abundant, numbering at least 200,000 by some accounts, double the number in the 1950s.
The Atlantic walrus, a subspecies in Canada, Norway, Russia and Greenland numbering about 22,000, has never recovered from sustained slaughter.
Dr. Kelly said the long-term forecast of warming and less summer ice for the Arctic did not bode well for the Pacific walrus.
“The Pacific population did recover,” he said. “But it is hard to imagine that it will not decline in the coming century.”
Leaf blowers: noisy and polluting?
Kieran Cooke, Times Online 28 Sep 09;
Q: My husband calls me a “tree hugger” for objecting to his latest garden toy — a leaf blower. Surely these machines are not only noisy but emit fumes that can’t be good for the environment? Or am I being naive and old fashioned?
A: You are having a lunchtime sandwich in your favourite park, enjoying the warm autumn sunshine. Along comes a leaf blower operative. The sound is like a dentist’s drill played through a loud hailer. Its user, fancying himself on the race grid, revs his machine. He is wearing ear-muffs and a protective mask. You are not. The World Health Organisation says that for what it calls “good speech”, background noise levels should be less than 45 decibels (Db). Meanwhile, noise levels should be less than 55Db “to prevent significant community annoyance”. While some manufacturers boast of “low noise technology”, leaf blowers can emit noise of up to 85Db at the machine: at 50ft away the noise level could still be above 55Db.
Local authorities say that they have a duty to clear up leaves: if not there could be accidents, with people slipping about and falling. Before you could say “compost heap”, the lawyers would be knocking on the door. Apparently, many council employees object to raking duties: the argument is that leaf blowers are labour-saving and more efficient. Yet anyone who has hawked one of these machines about for a few hours might question their supposed advantages.
A less obvious side effect is the amount of fumes leaf blowers emit. Most have two-stroke engines running on a combination of petrol and oil, emitting carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and other gases. One US study found that a hand-held blower emits as much CO2 in one hour as a car run for more than a 100 miles. And then there’s the dust, garden and park pesticide residues, animal droppings and fungi spores. Several towns and cities in the US and Canada have either banned the machines or severely limited use.
In the 19th century gardeners at the Imperial Palace in Japan used bellows: around 1970 the first leaf blowers were unveiled, also in Japan. Worldwide sales now run in the millions.
The leaf blower would seem to be part of a strange obsession with making everything tidy, not allowing a stray leaf to blow about in the wind. While you might not want to say: “It’s the leaf blower or me” to your husband, plead with him to put away his noisy machine — and maybe buy him a new rake instead.
Belinda Goldsmith, PlanetArk 1 Oct 09;
SYDNEY - Rather than throwing that bag or hosepipe into the recycle bin, how about turning it into a belt or a shower curtain, joining a growing band of upcyclers?
Upcycling refers to reusing an object in a new way without degrading the material it is made from, as opposed to recycling which generally involves breaking down the original material and making it into something else, using more energy.
Supporters of the environmentally friendly practice of upcycling say people in developing countries have effectively been upcycling for years, using old packaging and clothing in new ways, although more out of need than for the environment.
But upcycling is now taking off in other countries, reflecting an increased interest in eco-friendly products, particularly ones that are priced at an affordable level and proving profitable for the manufacturers.
"If upcycling is going to become mainstream, then the corporate world needs to see that it can be profitable," said Albe Zakes, spokesman of U.S. company TerraCycle which specializes in finding new uses for discarded packaging.
A growing number of companies are focusing on upcycling although the trend is still in its infancy with industry-wide figures yet to be produced.
Upcycling is used on a range of products including jewelry, furniture and fashion items, such as making bracelets from old flip flops, lamps from blenders, and turning skateboards into furniture such as chairs and bookcases.
British company Elvis & Kresse Organization (E&KO) uses industrial waste to make new luxury products, turning fire hoses into bags, belts, wallets and cufflinks.
E&KO co-founder James Henrit said they avoid what they call "virgin materials," instead opting for scrap sail cloth or furniture textiles in their lines.
"We are very much a social enterprise, and we're hoping to change the landscape of the luxury accessories industry by leading by example," Henrit told Reuters Television on the sidelines of the London Design Festival.
A design store in Vienna in Austria called Gabarage lets customers rifle through trash like used plastic covers, old computer chips, and discarded X-rays and pick what they like to create their own individual bag.
All the single pieces of waste chosen are put together by the creative team of "garbage upcycling design."
"Upcycling stands in contrast to recycling," said spokesman Daniel Strobel. "We upvalue products innovatively, instead of just reusing them."
TerraCycle, set up in 2001 by U.S. college freshman Tom Szaky, turns drink pouches into backpacks and cookie wrappers into pencil cases or kites, paying schools and other groups a small amount to send them the old packaging to be upcycled.
TerraCycle also makes a line of clocks, coasters and picture frames from vinyl records and circuit boards, with major companies like Kraft and General Mills sponsoring the company's waste streams.
CEO Tom Szaky, in his newly released book "Revolution in a Bottle" -- that came with a returnable book cover for upcycling -- said he was working to eliminate the idea of waste by proving all things can be reused, recycled or upcycled.
"We upcycle waste that can't be recycled ... we love the challenge of looking at any kind of waste and thinking of something amazing to make from it" says Szaky. "Our products are both greener and cheaper."
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)
New Scientist 3 Oct 09;
ONE nation's thirst for groundwater is having an impact on global sea levels. Satellite measurements show that northern India is sucking some 54 trillion litres of water out of the ground every year. This is threatening a major water crisis and adding to global sea level rise.
Virendra Tiwari from the National Geophysical Research Institute in Hyderabad, India, and colleagues used gravity data from the GRACE satellite to monitor the loss of continental mass around the world since 2002. Regions where water is being removed from the ground have less mass and therefore exert a smaller gravitational pull on the satellite.
The data revealed that groundwater under northern India and its surroundings is being extracted exceptionally fast. Tiwari and colleagues calculate that between 2002 and 2008 an average of 54 cubic kilometres - enough to fill more than 21 million Olympic swimming pools - was lost every year. Boreholes in the region show the water table is dropping by around 10 centimetres a year (Geophysical Research Letters, DOI: 10.1029/2009gl039401).
Agriculture is the primary culprit, says John Wahr of the University of Colorado at Boulder. If the trend isn't reversed soon, the 600 million people living in the region could face severe water shortages in the next few years.
The "lost" water doesn't just disappear, though. Most of it runs into the oceans. The team calculates that it could be pushing up global sea levels by as much as 0.16 millimetres each year. That's 5 per cent of total sea level rise.
Reuters 3 Oct 09;
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Drought could parch close to 70 percent of the planet's soil by 2025 unless countries implement policies to slow desertification, a senior United Nations official has warned.
"If we cannot find a solution to this problem... in 2025, close to 70 percent could be affected," Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, said Friday.
Drought currently affects at least 41 percent of the planet and environmental degradation has caused it to spike by 15 to 25 percent since 1990, according to a global climate report.
"There will not be global security without food security" in dry regions, Gnacadja said at the start of the ninth UN conference on the convention in the Argentine capital.
"A green deal is necessary" for developing countries working to combat drought, he stressed.
The next meeting on the convention is scheduled to take place in South Korea in 2010.
UN warns of 70 percent desertification by 2025
Yahoo News 3 Oct 09;
BUENOS AIRES (AFP) – Drought could parch close to 70 percent of the planet's soil by 2025 unless countries implement policies to slow desertification, a senior United Nations official has warned.
"If we cannot find a solution to this problem... in 2025, close to 70 percent could be affected," Luc Gnacadja, executive secretary of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, said Friday.
Drought currently affects at least 41 percent of the planet and environmental degradation has caused it to spike by 15 to 25 percent since 1990, according to a global climate report.
"There will not be global security without food security" in dry regions, Gnacadja said at the start of the ninth UN conference on the convention in the Argentine capital.
"A green deal is necessary" for developing countries working to combat drought, he stressed.
The next meeting on the convention is scheduled to take place in South Korea in 2010.
Yereth Rosen, Reuters 2 Oct 09;
ON BOARD COAST GUARD FLIGHT ABOVE BEAUFORT SEA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Out in the Arctic Ocean, about 200 miles (322 km ) north of the nearest human settlement, the future of the world's climate is written in the patterns of ice patches on the water's surface.
Old, "multiyear" ice -- the glue that holds the polar ice cap together and forms the Arctic's defense against encroaching warming -- is slowly disintegrating, a process that is plain to see from the air.
Thick ice floes used to be kilometers (miles) wide just over a decade ago, said Jim Overland, a sea-ice expert with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who has been surveying the site since the 1990s.
Now the narrow floes -- with bright-white tops and a blue underwater glow -- are just meters (yards) wide, observed Overland as he studied the patterns from the window of a U.S. Coast Guard C-130 aircraft.
The dense, high-quality ice is not coming back, Overland said.
"That's a one-way street," he said "We have the same amount of multiyear ice this year as last year, even though we have a little more ice overall."
Overland said while there was broad awareness of the harmful effect of sea-ice loss on polar bears and other Arctic animals, its impact on weather elsewhere in the northern hemisphere and the rest of the world was potentially more critical.
A warmed Arctic Ocean emits heat into the atmosphere that drastically alters weather patterns, he said.
"That's the big question: Who cares about the Arctic? Well, it's going to change the whole heat engine of the planet," he said.
Scientists have voiced concern for years about the alarming decline in the size of the Arctic ice cap, which functions as a giant air conditioner for the planet's climate system as it reflects sunlight back into space.
As a greater portion of the ice melts, larger expanses of darker sea water are exposed, absorbing more sunlight and adding to the global warming effect attributed to rising levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere by human activity.
SMALL CHANGE, BIG EFFECT
Arctic ice cover this year was 23 percent greater than the record-low levels of 2007, according to the latest data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, which has been keeping records for 30 years. But it was the third-lowest coverage on record, after 2007 and 2008.
The one-year ice that accounts for the increase over 2007 and 2008 -- pancake-flat pieces with finger-like surface ridges etched by movements of the water -- is no substitute for the thick multiyear ice, Overland said.
"It's thinner. It's more broken up. And it moves faster," he said. "And all of that contributes to melting earlier in the season."
For the Arctic, incremental temperature changes have multiplied effects.
An increase of just a few degrees -- or even fractions of degrees -- can mean the difference between freeze and thaw. Thaw leads to more thaw, as dark-colored sea surfaces absorb solar radiation that would bounce off white snow and ice.
The additional warming caused by the melt itself, along with the greater absorption of solar heat into the now-uncovered northern waters, amplifies the warming in the polar region.
That feedback phenomenon is why the Arctic is warming at about three times the global rate and its ecosystems are changing so much, according to the International Panel on Climate Change.
Total summer ice cover in the Arctic Ocean is only about half the level it was in 1950, according to the IPCC. This year's summer minimum was 20 percent below the 30-year average, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
In the Beaufort Sea, winter is already encroaching just days after the autumnal equinox. Evidence is in the thin film of new ice appearing between existing multiyear and single-year chunks. But the seasonal build-up will be slower than in the past, Overland predicted.
There was "no indication of freezing whatsoever" in the open water next to the grouped ice, he said as the C-130 flew south to land at Barrow, Alaska. "In contrast to previous years, there's absolutely no freezing outside that cluster."
(Reporting by Yereth Rosen; Editing by Bill Rigby and Peter Cooney)
With the world's oceans absorbing six million tonnes of carbon a day, a leading oceanographer warns of eco disaster
Robin McKie, The Observer The Guardian 4 Oct 09;
Carbon-dioxide emissions are turning the waters of the Arctic Ocean into acid at an unprecedented rate, scientists have discovered. Research carried out in the archipelago of Svalbard has shown in many regions around the north pole seawater is likely to reach corrosive levels within 10 years. The water will then start to dissolve the shells of mussels and other shellfish and cause major disruption to the food chain. By the end of the century, the entire Arctic Ocean will be corrosively acidic.
"This is extremely worrying," Professor Jean-Pierre Gattuso, of France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, told an international oceanography conference last week. "We knew that the seas were getting more acidic and this would disrupt the ability of shellfish – like mussels – to grow their shells. But now we realise the situation is much worse. The water will become so acidic it will actually dissolve the shells of living shellfish."
Just as an acid descaler breaks apart limescale inside a kettle, so the shells that protect molluscs and other creatures will be dissolved. "This will affect the whole food chain, including the North Atlantic salmon, which feeds on molluscs," said Gattuso, speaking at a European commission conference, Oceans of Tomorrow, in Barcelona last week. The oceanographer told delegates that the problem of ocean acidification was worse in high latitudes, in the Arctic and around Antarctica, than it was nearer the equator.
"More carbon dioxide can dissolve in cold water than warm," he said. "Hence the problem of acidification is worse in the Arctic than in the tropics, though we have only recently got round to studying the problem in detail."
About a quarter of the carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by factories, power stations and cars now ends up being absorbed by the oceans. That represents more than six million tonnes of carbon a day.
This carbon dioxide dissolves and is turned into carbonic acid, causing the oceans to become more acidic. "We knew the Arctic would be particularly badly affected when we started our studies but I did not anticipate the extent of the problem," said Gattuso.
His research suggests that 10% of the Arctic Ocean will be corrosively acidic by 2018; 50% by 2050; and 100% ocean by 2100. "Over the whole planet, there will be a threefold increase in the average acidity of the oceans, which is unprecedented during the past 20 million years. That level of acidification will cause immense damage to the ecosystem and the food chain, particularly in the Arctic," he added.
The tiny mollusc Limacina helicina, which is found in Arctic waters, will be particularly vulnerable, he said. The little shellfish is eaten by baleen whales, salmon, herring and various seabirds. Its disappearance would therefore have a major impact on the entire marine food chain. The deep-water coral Lophelia pertusa would also be extremely vulnerable to rising acidity. Reefs in high latitudes are constructed by only one or two types of coral – unlike tropical coral reefs which are built by a large variety of species. The loss of Lophelia pertusa would therefore devastate reefs off Norway and the coast of Scotland, removing underwater shelters that are exploited by dozens of species of fish and other creatures.
"Scientists have proposed all sorts of geo-engineering solutions to global warming," said Gattuso. "For instance, they have proposed spraying the upper atmosphere with aerosol particles that would reduce sunlight reaching the Earth, mitigating the warming caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide.
"But these ideas miss the point. They will still allow carbon dioxide emissions to continue to increase – and thus the oceans to become more and more acidic. There is only one way to stop the devastation the oceans are now facing and that is to limit carbon-dioxide emissions as a matter of urgency."
This was backed by other speakers at the conference. Daniel Conley, of Lund University, Sweden, said that increasing acidity levels, sea-level rises and temperature changes now threatened to bring about irreversible loss of biodiversity in the sea. Christoph Heinze, of Bergen University, Norway, said his studies, part of the EU CarboOcean project, had found that carbon from the atmosphere was being transported into the oceans' deeper waters far more rapidly than expected and was already having a corrosive effect on life forms there.
The oceans' vulnerability to climate change and rising carbon-dioxide levels has also been a key factor in the launching of the EU's Tara Ocean project at Barcelona. The expedition, on the sailing ship Tara, will take three years to circumnavigate the globe, culminating in a voyage through the icy Northwest Passage in Canada, and will make continual and detailed samplings of seawater to study its life forms.
A litre of seawater contains between 1bn and 10bn single-celled organisms called prokaryotes, between 10bn and 100bn viruses and a vast number of more complex, microscopic creatures known as zooplankton, said Chris Bowler, a marine biologist on Tara.
"People think they are just swimming in water when they go for a dip in the sea," he said. "In fact, they are bathing in a plankton soup."
That plankton soup is of crucial importance to the planet, he added. "As much carbon dioxide is absorbed by plankton as is absorbed by tropical rainforests. Its health is therefore of crucial importance to us all."
However, only 1% of the life forms found in the sea have been properly identified and studied, said Bowler. "The aim of the Tara project is to correct some of that ignorance and identify many more of these organisms while we still have the chance. Issues like ocean acidification, rising sea levels and global warming will not be concerns at the back of our minds. They will be a key focus for the work that we do while we are on our expedition."
The toll by 2100
■ The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast in 2007 that sea levels would rise by 20cm to 60cm by 2100 thanks to global warming caused by man-made carbon-dioxide emissions. This is now thought to be an underestimate, however, with most scientific bodies warning that sea levels could rise by a metre or even higher. Major inundations of vulnerable regions such as Bangladesh would ensue.
■ The planet will be hotter by 3C by 2100, most scientists now expect, though rises of 4.5C to 5C could be experienced. Deserts will spread and heatwaves will become more prevalent. Ice-caps will melt and cyclones are also likely to be triggered.
■ Weather patterns across the globe will become more unstable, numbers of devastating storms will increase dramatically while snow will disappear from all but the highest mountains.
Reuters 2 Oct 09;
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The world is in danger of spending its "carbon budget" by about 2025 and risks temperatures rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius unless nations adopt a flexible carbon accounting system, conservation group WWF says in a report.
The report by Dutch energy consultancy Ecofys and commissioned by WWF, says rich nations must cut emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and global emissions of greenhouse gases must be cut by 30 percent from 1990 levels by 2030.
Failure to do so would lead to rapid warming.
The report, "Sharing the effort under a global carbon budget" was released on Friday on the sidelines of U.N. climate talks in Bangkok that are trying to find ways for nations to sign up to a broader effort to fight climate change.
The U.N. climate panel says that to limit the average rise in global temperatures to 2 deg C by 2050, emissions need to peak or stay below 450 parts per million.
To reach that limit, rich nations would need to cut emissions at home and help poorer nations curb the pace of their emissions.
The report lays out three methods to help nations distribute the sharing of the budget by helping developing nations to continue to grow their economies and to recognize financing of clean-energy programs by rich nations in poorer states.
"If we relax on the trajectory of one country, another country needs to pick up the bill," the report says.
It says the carbon budget can be defined as the amount of tolerable global emissions over a period of time to limit the average global temperature increase to 2 deg C.
"The budget is from 1990 to 2050," Stephan Singer, WWF's director of global energy policy, told Reuters.
"Within the past 18 years, we have used up approximately 40 percent of the budget of 1990-2050. If we keep on doing what we're doing now and including the increase of emissions, we have wasted, not only time, we've spent our budget by about 2025."
According to the report, the cumulative global greenhouse gas emissions excluding land use change and forestry is forecast to be 1,660 billion tons between 1990 and 2050. Between 2010 and 2050, it is 970 billion tons.
But the report, looking at the budget out to 2100, says because mankind has already increased its global emissions substantially since 1990, the remaining net cumulative budget between 2009 and 2100 is limited to 870 billion tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent.
"This translates to an allowable global annual emissions on average for the next 91 years of no more than 9.5 GtCO2-eq (billion metric tons CO2-equivalent), or about 20 percent of today's net global emissions," the report says.
It says in order to stay within the boundary of the global emissions budget, sometime from 2060 net global emissions must be negative, with little emissions from energy use and greater soaking up of CO2 from forests and other methods.
(Reporting by David Fogarty; Editing by Sue Thomas)
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