Best of our wild blogs: 12 Oct 09


Sunny fanny Sunday
from the wild shores of singapore and Singapore Nature

Exploring Singapore’s City Reefs!
from Pulau Hantu

Flowering Sea Apple trees in October
from Habitatnews

Life History of Semanga superba deliciosa
from Butterflies of Singapore

Caught In The Rain
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Mission Failed Again
from Colourful Clouds

Finally Saron at Tanah Merah
from wonderful creation and Urban Forest

Microcosmos
from The annotated budak

Close encounter with juvenile Coppersmith Barbets
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Crabs That Cannot Scratch Their Heads
from Catalogue of Organisms

World’s deepest bin – tools to combat improper disposal of litter
from Otterman speaks

Monday Morgue: 12th October 2009
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

New Book on CSR for Sustainability and Success
from Green Business Times

They Created An Impact
from Nature Is Awesome


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Republic Poly's Outdoor and Adventure Learning modules at Pulau Ubin

A unique approach
New chairman Richard Seow wants to spread the word
Lin Yan Qin, Today Online 12 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE - He would like to build up the brand of Singapore's youngest polytechnic, and hopefully improve its image and popularity among prospective students - many of whom may still not understand what Republic Polytechnic (RP) has to offer.

Even as its previous board has done a "tremendous job" in establishing RP, Mr Richard Seow, who took over as chairman of RP's board of governors in July, feels the public does not know what the "relatively new" institution, opened in 2002, stands for.

The school is not "unpopular", stressed Mr Seow, who is also the chairman of Parkway Holdings. Rather, it is a matter of publicising its unique brand of polytechnic education. "I thought I understood problem-based learning (PBL), but at my first PBL class at RP, I was really surprised by how it works," said Mr Seow.

Under this approach, students solve one problem a day and present solutions to their peers at the end of the school day - much as one would in a real work environment, he said.

And while the polytechnic has learnt that not every class can be taught with the PBL approach, such as more skills-oriented courses, it is also working to improve any shortcomings through symposiums on PBL where practices and research are shared.

"It's still one of our fundamentals," said Mr Seow, who spoke to the media at the opening of RP's new Experiential Learning Centre@Ubin. The $20,000 centre located on Pulau Ubin will allow students to learn how to solve problems in an outdoor environment. There, students can build hard skills, as well as soft skills such as learning to communicate well to perform tasks effectively.

It will also support RP's Outdoor and Adventure Learning modules, and could be used for other course work in future. For example, as flooding is one occasional hazard at the quarry, School of Applied Sciences students could look at ways of addressing this problem, said Mr Ang Keng Loo, senior director for student services at RP.


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Go green on bills and save the trees

Business Times 12 Oct 09;

Start-up firm GreenBills shows how users can view their bills from different companies through a single online portal, reports ANAND SINGH

IN Singapore, more than 600 million pages of bills and envelopes are sent out to households, costing billing companies more than $50 million annually.

As expected, these usually end up in the waste bin or thrown into a pile of already-viewed bills. Studies show that only 5 per cent of Singaporeans have switched to checking their bills electronically. The rest receive their bills the conventional way by post.

However, with the public growing more tech-savvy and environmentally conscious, this trend may change soon.

Paper vs electronic

For years, organisations have been grappling with the cost of sending paper bills to their customers, especially for those who bill on a regular basis such as telcos, utility companies and banks.

While each paper bill's cost ranges from 70 cents to $2.65, the total runs into millions spent each year after factoring in the cost of paper, printing, postage, equipment and labour.

Because of this, some companies have introduced online portals, allowing users to assess bills electronically. Unfortunately, the rate of adoption by the Singapore public has been low, which is surprising considering more than 80 per cent use the Internet for day-to-day transactions.

Why is this so? Firstly, each company has its own online portal, which customers must log in to retrieve their bill information. As most households receive at least five to 10 bills a month, it takes considerable time and patience to log into different portals, and remember separate login IDs and passwords, especially when the billing cycles are different.

Another factor is human nature. It is always difficult to convince people to change from what they are comfortable with, especially when the existing system remains in place. Furthermore, companies do not actively encourage their customers to opt out of receiving paper bills.

What many do not realise is the potential of deploying such a system. Even if just a fifth of Internet users were to view their bills electronically, this would translate to saving 134 million pages and 16,000 trees annually. As paper bills are widely used not only in B2C business segments but also in B2B markets, online portals have the potential of reaching out and catering to the needs of these segments.

Seeing the commercial potential and societal benefits of electronic bills, one start-up company is developing a solution to solve these problems. Supported by NUS Enterprise, GreenBills Pte Ltd has built a common platform, which aggregates bills from different companies.

Called GreenPost, this platform allows users to view their bills through a single online portal. It aggregates bills from M1, SingTel, StarHub and Singapore Power. GreenBills is also developing a 'paper opt out' mechanism, so users can choose the environmentally friendly option of saving paper once they are comfortable with viewing bills online. Other benefits of the portal include email alerts for new bills or overdue payments, downloadable PDF-version bills and unlimited archival of bills.

Technological innovations can potentially result in huge cost savings to companies and allow individuals to play an active part in saving the environment. For example, while Singapore's 600 million pages of bills and envelopes cost companies $50 million annually, they also result in 120 football fields' worth of trees being cut down.

No matter the type of business you are in, going green can be on your agenda. Your business can be environmentally responsible, efficient and cost-effective, all at the same time.

There is usually some initial investment required for companies to go green, including incorporating necessary practices or systems throughout the company and re-training employees. However, in the long run, the benefits will surpass this investment.

Gaining carbon credits

So how does a company go green? First, identify what in your organisation's value chain can be replaced with 'green practices'. Typically, most companies choose green practices which are easy to implement and are not costly.

The savings are often enough to make up for the time and effort invested. However, companies that wish to make an impact can leverage upon latest technological knowhow to develop new solutions and even new markets. One example is General Electric, which has created products such as solar panels.

Other companies invest in green funds and carbon trading, which has become popular in recent years since the Kyoto Protocol came into force in 2005. The treaty mandates countries to adhere to emission-reduction targets. These countries try to meet the targets by generating credits from emission-reducing projects or purchasing credits from countries which have excess credits.

Companies are also trying to get into this lucrative pie by engaging in simple yet innovative emission-reducing projects themselves. For instance, JPMorgan Chase gained a foothold in carbon trading by subsidising and distributing more efficient cooking stoves that use less fuel and give out less carbon dioxide in poor countries. JPMorgan generates carbon credits from this project, which it sells off to other parties.

Singapore acceded to the Kyoto Protocol in 2006 and, through the National Environment Agency, has launched various schemes to support the country's green movement. The government is supportive of companies that contribute to these efforts.

For instance, if GreenPost can accomplish its mission of saving two million sheets of pages per month, it would enable itself and its billers to earn carbon credits which can turn out to be an alternative form of revenue stream.

Companies can use the credits to either offset their own carbon emissions or sell them off to other parties that require them. A company can thus generate extra revenue stream when it goes green.

Any company can go green by taking small and simple steps, which do not have to cost thousands of dollars but can yet generate great benefits, both commercial and societal. It is not a tough choice. Just go green.

The writer is founder and CEO of GreenBills, a company currently being incubated by NUS Enterprise


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Environmental business solutions in Singapore

Daryl Neo, Business Times 12 Oct 09;

There is much potential for companies to benefit from adopting green business models, says DARYL NEO

JOINING 'Business Solutions', the business case club of Nanyang Business School (NBS) at Nanyang Technological University was a turning point in my life as it helped shape a lifetime goal.

My first contact with business cases was when I signed up to compete in the NBS Internal Case Competition in 2006. An advertisement for the competition during freshman orientation day was the trigger to form a team by gathering a bunch of friends I had made during that period.

We were barely a month into our business school education, and already found ourselves competing against students from the other levels. We finished as runners-up. That got me hooked on business cases and I accepted the invitation to join Business Solutions and never looked back.

At that time, Business Solutions had just begun planning for the organising of the inaugural Asian Business Case Competition (ABCC). The event comprises of two main portions, the roundtable discussion lunch - where students and industry guests gather to discuss certain issues, and the business case competition itself.

As a freshman, I was assigned to be the logistics director and subsequently the financial controller for the competition. For ABCC 2007, the theme for the roundtable discussion lunch was on the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and how Singapore had emerged and learnt from the crisis a decade on.

A year later, I had the privilege of spending five months as an exchange student for a programme in Maastricht in The Netherlands. During that time, I experienced first-hand what it was like to live in a community that takes the conservation of its environment seriously.

The Dutch have designed systems and built businesses that have developed into a thriving 'green industry'. The government's implementation of a waste disposal system that incentivises citizens to use less plastic bags, and Shell Petroleum's development and testing of wind and tidal energy systems across the country are good examples of such systems and businesses.

That sparked off a deep desire in me to discover ways in which society can go green. I realised that there was much potential for companies to benefit from adopting green business models, and it dawned that businesses will play a big part in any successful green movement. It was so compelling and I decided then that I wanted to be involved in pushing the green movement in Singapore.

Inspired, I proposed it as a concept for ABCC 2008. Hence, the theme for the roundtable discussion lunch that year was 'The Coming of the Green Economy'.

The lunch turned out to be a fantastic platform for the exchange of green business ideas and experience between professionals from various industries and students from all over the world.

The 'green' theme was also incorporated into the business case competition. The business case that was given to participants to solve was about a company wanting to expand into another country using its green business model.

Students may not always have the opportunity to make business decisions and policy changes that will impact the environment. However, the ABCC has proven that students can still make a meaningful contribution by organising similar events to provide a platform for the meeting of like-minded people to brainstorm, share ideas and to form networks for future inter-industry collaboration.

I have since graduated from NBS in July this year. Currently, as part of my work at the Singapore Exchange, I have the opportunity to develop and hone my skills in making policy changes and understanding business decisions.

Though I am still not in a position to make business decisions and policy changes that will impact the environment, I am confident that I will be able to find ways to contribute meaningfully, just as I did when I was a student at NBS.

The writer is an alumni of the Nanyang Business School at the Nanyang Technological University and is currently working in the Risk Management & Regulation Group at the Singapore Exchange Limited


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Activists Urge Indonesia's New House To Take Up Pro-Environment Agenda

Fidelis E Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 12 Oct 09;

The newly installed members of the House of Representatives only start work today, but already they have “homework” in the form of a comprehensive green agenda being pushed by environmentalists.

During a weekend event, leading green advocates urged new lawmakers to review all laws considered to be detrimental to the environment and people’s welfare, implement more sustainable development programs and give the people a greater say in the creation and implementation of laws designed to protect the environment, particularly the 2009 Environmental Protection and Management Law. The advocates also encouraged the government to take a stronger leadership role in climate change negotiations.

“We are aware that the majority of House members are young and new so they probably do not really comprehend environmental issues,” said Chalid Muhammad, coordinator of the Indonesian Green Institute.

“We [green groups] will approach each faction to address these issues because lawmakers need to be reminded [of their importance]. Hopefully they will be better than previous members.”

Berry Nahdian Furqon, executive director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), said environmental issues went beyond science into the realm of the economy and politics.

“The House is important because it decides on the country’s development,” Berry said.

“Lawmakers need to realize that policy-making in this country has been very destructive because the government has only been about exploiting natural resources as a commodity, without paying attention to the welfare of the people.”

Siti Maimunah, national coordinator of the Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam), said the previous House had been a disaster for the environment because many of the lawmakers approached their job as businesspeople more concerned with profit than looking after the interests of constituents.

“Because our [government’s] development paradigm is exploitation, it’s easy to understand why some members only thought about how to earn more money,” Siti said, adding that new lawmakers had no choice but to give people a greater voice in dealing with environmental issues and crimes, as mandated in the new law on environmental protection.

The law stipulates coordination between civil servant investigators, police and prosecutors in handling environmental cases.

Teguh Juwarno, a House member from the Muslim-based National Mandate Party (PAN), said new lawmakers had their work cut out for them in dealing with green issues.

“Yes, we’re facing many challenges,” he said. “One concerns laws that are now being implemented. After the government signs the law, it thinks the job is done. But the problem lies in synchronizing the laws with other sectors. But with civil society’s help in reminding us of what we are supposed to do, I hope we can do better than the last House.”

Budiman Sudjatmiko, a legislator from the nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that while 70 percent of the new lawmakers were relatively young and many had experience as activists, they could struggle to balance their idealism with their new responsibilities in the House.

“That is the reality. But I don’t think we should be pessimistic about the new lawmakers because they will also play a more significant role besides just budgeting,” Budiman said.

“Each member has the right to establish organizations outside of the House to accommodate the aspirations of their constituents,” he added.


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Lifeline for orang utans

New Straits Times 11 Oct 09;

The fate of orang utans in fragmented ecosystems in eastern Sabah was the focus of a two-day Orang Utan Conservation Colloquium. JASWINDER KAUR sat in to get details on the way forward.

WEAVING its way through the jungle, nibbling on fruits and tree bark, an orang utan suddenly finds itself in unfamiliar territory.

It looks ahead and sees row after row of oil palm, and soon starts foraging through this man-made landscape in search of another patch of forest for its next meal, and a tree to build a nest to sleep in.

This is the story of orang utans that move about in more than a hundred forest "islands" which mushroom from vast plantations at fertile flood plains on Sabah's east coast.


An aerial survey last year discovered over a thousand nests were seen on tree tops in jungle fragments that ranged from a few hectares to a startling single tree.

The study became the basis for a two-day Orang Utan Conservation Colloquium on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu aimed mainly at discussing the fate of the primate in fragmented ecosystems.

Dr Marc Ancrenaz of the French non-governmental organisation Hutan says the finding indicates orang utans are using plantations for short periods in their search for new territories and food.

"Between 2002 and 2007, there was a 30 per cent drop in the number of orang utans in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary but we didn't find any dead ones.

"We started asking ourselves where these orang utans had gone, and we felt that they must have dispersed somewhere else."

The 26,000-ha sanctuary gazetted four years ago is divided into 10 lots, which neighbour estates and several villages on the Kinabatangan flood plain.

Ancrenaz's study done in collaboration with the Borneo Conservation Trust (BCT) and funded by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), found 200 nests in 25 forest islands in plantations in the Lower Kinabatangan area.

At plantations south of Sandakan, there were more than 200 nests in 10 forest patches and at yet, another location in the Sugud area, there were over 150 nests in 15 tiny tracts of jungle.

"Yes, orang utans can find food in plantations by eating palm fruit, but they can't sustain themselves on a single plant. It is like telling a vegetarian to just eat carrots, and nothing else.


"It is unlikely that there can be a stable orang utan population in the long term in plantations. We have to find ways to reconnect the forests."

A long-term result that factors in the crucial role of planters is what conservationists are pushing for, as it is clear that the palm oil industry is here to stay.

As the largest exporter of palm oil in the world, Malaysia raked in RM65.2 billion last year from this golden crop, making it the country's third largest export contributor.

In Sabah, oil palm covers about 1.4 million hectares or about a third of the country's total cultivation of 4.5 million hectares.

And then, there is another statistic: Sabah has 11,017 orang utans at last count, making it a stronghold as it shelters a fifth of its population in Borneo and Sumatra, and yet, 62 per cent live outside protected areas.

"There are two groups -- the green people and the oil palm people. Each side wants to own what is left but if you want to get long-term results, we must sit together and talk.

"The important thing here is the fact that orang utans are getting isolated, and this affects gene flow which is needed for the long term survival of the species," Ancrenaz says.

Genetic modelling carried out a couple of years ago showed a majority of isolated populations in the Kinabatangan area would be extinct in less than 50 years if nothing was done to reconnect the various groups.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Laurentius Ambu says inbreeding of the species will lead to extinction and is an urgent problem that needs to be solved quickly.

"This is why we are working with an NGO (Borneo Conservation Trust) to buy land from the locals at market value so that we can start reconnecting forests in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Santuary.

"There are two lots in the fragmented sanctuary that are almost connected after BCT was able to buy the land. Planters have so far refused, but we are hoping that MPOC can come in to assist us."

As the meeting progressed and it became clear that an overnight solution was not on the cards, the possibility of translocating orang utans in fragmented areas to forest reserves was raised.

The department's chief veterinarian, Dr Sen Nathan says it could complement efforts to make sure orang utans in fragmented areas do not disappear, but it is not a solution.

"You have to look at the population of orang utans in the area marked for translocation. It is not that simple. There are issues of food sources and competition from other orang utans.

"Though the primate is solitary, it is territorial, especially the males," Dr Nathan says.

The department translocated more than 550 orang utans in the last 18 years, but it was done when the primate was in a "life and death" situation such as during floods, or when an area was cleared for oil palm.

Apart from the fact that translocating one orang utan can cost up to RM10,000 and takes up to a week of already stretched manpower, no post release monitoring was done for those shifted from one area to another.

"This is being done now, but only for rehabilitated orang utans sent from the Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre to the Tabin Wildlife Reserve. In the case of wild orang utans, we moved them and just hoped they were able to survive."

The human-orang utan conflict is not going to go away, and is one that needs answers now.

The six words on a framed photo of an orang utan given to Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok who opened the colloquium is perhaps reflective of the grave situation: "Will you still see me tomorrow?"


Oil palm sector playing a responsible role

THE palm oil sector can take some blame in the conservation debate, but not all of it.
This is the view of Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) chief executive officer Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron who spoke on responsibilities of the industry at the colloquium.

"We live in a world where sustainability is difficult to define.

"There has to be a percentage for agriculture and for forests and we don't really know what the optimal ratio is."

Aware of criticisms by some groups in the west that claim orang utans are being sacrificed for oil palm, Dr Yusof says if the world stops using Malaysian palm oil, it will have to substitute it with rapeseed, sunflower and soyabean which will take up much larger land areas.

Malaysia has 4.3 million hectares planted with oil palm and contributes 31.2 per cent to the world's supply of edible oils, compared to soyabean which takes up 92 million hectares producing 28 per cent of oil for consumption.

Rapeseed is planted on 30 million hectares producing 14 per cent of edible oils, and sunflower grown on 23 million hectares contributes 7.8 per cent of the world's edible oil supply.

"The world will have to fell 23.6 million hectares more to plant rapeseed or it has to clear another 41.5 million hectares to plant soyabean if it decides not to use Malaysian palm oil.

"This will be a tremendous loss of biodiversity."

He says the industry has shown responsibility, and that Malaysian companies were among the first to receive the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Wildlife Conservation Fund, a collaboration of the industry and the government, is now in place to fund studies on sustainability of wildlife.

"One of the projects from this fund is the aerial survey of orang utans in plantations which resulted in this meeting.

"Other projects include jungle patrols to protect wildlife in forest reserves that border plantations in Sabah, and a biodiversity conservation study of ox-bow lakes in oil palm plantations."

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun however feels that the palm oil industry must not get defensive when scientists come up with proposals to restore habitats.

"The industry must self-regulate itself. Eventually, by the full force of global pressure on the need for sustainable harvesting, it will have to be done.

"The industry can make money and be socially responsible at the same time.

"Profit comes from the soil and while the state government is dependent on (revenue) from palm oil, we need planters to be responsible," he says.

Masidi says recommendations from the meeting, which centres around the need to re-establish connections between orang utan populations, will be handed to the Sabah Cabinet once a paper is prepared.


Much to gain from protecting wildlife

HELLO Kitty, a popular caricature and brand in Japan, is helping to save Sabah's wildlife.
The "cat" with a red ribbon is featured on Saraya Corporation's soaps and a range of products that use palm oil, and one per cent of their sale goes to a fund that buys back land to reconnect forests in the oil palm landscape.

It was bad publicity the company faced five years ago that led it to learn what it could do to make sure that its use of palm oil would not further degrade wildlife habitats, especially in Malaysian Borneo.

There was anger among consumers when a television programme in Japan featured a Borneo pygmy elephant with a rope tied to its trunk at an oil palm plantation, its president Yusuke Saraya says.

"Our consumers wanted to know if our products were friendly to the environment after this programme was aired. We sent an officer to Sabah in November 2004 and found out that incidents like this were happening."

Within two years, Saraya pushed for the setting up of a body to buy back land to reconnect forests in oil palm landscapes and the state-mandated Borneo Conservation Trust was born.

One per cent of sales from Saraya's products went into a fund to buy land, and some of its consumers who won a contest were brought to Sabah to see for themselves what the company was doing.

"I feel that oil palm companies should donate to this fund when prices go up, even if it is only one per cent of their earnings."

Plantations too can gain from protecting wildlife and a diverse species of plants in forested areas at their borders or within their land by setting up conservation units.

This is the message that PT Rea Kaltim Plantations head of conservation, Rob Stuebing, sent to a handful of planters who attended the colloquium.

He says such a move could help the industry in effectively answering criticisms from conservation groups and non-governmental organisations that feel oil palm is bad for wildlife.

"It may not be a perfect solution, but it does help to save species," Stuebing says.

The plantation he works for in Kalimantan, Indonesia, still has 20 per cent under forest cover, providing a safe harbour for some 20- odd orang utans, and a range of other mammals, snakes, birds and frogs.

Stuebing says some plantation owners prefer to hire public relations companies to pump up their names claiming they are involved in conservation work, but these estates are often over-planted with oil palm.

He is hopeful that plantations will eventually "come around" and start caring for the species within their estates.

"The palm oil industry is young. It is like a teenager, and it acts like one. It throws things on the floor and it is defiant.

"Mature industries like the oil and gas sector don't react this way. They just do what they need to when others say something about them."


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Freshwater species suffer most as extinctions rise

Alister Doyle, Reuters 11 Oct 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - Creatures and plants living in rivers and lakes are the most threatened on Earth because their ecosystems are collapsing, scientists said on Sunday.

They urged the creation of a new partnership between governments and scientists to help stem extinctions caused by humans via pollution, a spread of cities and expanding farms to feed a rising population, climate change and invasive species.

Governments globally had aimed to slow the losses of all species by 2010.

"Massive mismanagement and growing human needs for water are causing freshwater ecosystems to collapse, making freshwater species the most threatened on Earth," according to Diversitas, an international grouping of biodiversity experts.

Extinction rates for species living in freshwater were "four to six times higher than their terrestrial and marine cousins." Fish, frogs, crocodiles or turtles are among freshwater species.

"The 2010 target isn't going to be met," Hal Mooney, a professor at Stanford University, who is chair of Diversitas, told Reuters. Diversitas will hold talks among more than 600 experts in Cape Town, South Africa, from October 13-16 to discuss ways to protect life on the planet.

World leaders agreed at a 2002 Earth Summit in Johannesburg to achieve by 2010 a "significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity."

"Changes to ecosystems and losses of biodiversity have continued to accelerate ... Species extinction rates are at least 100 times those in pre-human times and are expected to continue to increase," Georgina Mace of Imperial College in London, vice-chair of Diversitas, said in a statement.

Dams, irrigation and climate change that is set to disrupt rainfall are all putting stresses on freshwater habitats. Canals allow plants, fish and other species and diseases to reach new regions.

FRANCE TO RUSSIA

"You can travel from France to Russia without going to the sea any more," Klement Tockner of the Leibnitz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, told Reuters. "Mixing is much faster and more severe than in marine and terrestrial habitats."

By 2025, some experts predict that not a single Chinese river will reach the sea except during floods, with tremendous effects for coastal fisheries in China, Diversitas said.

Tockner said freshwater ecosystems covered 0.8 percent of the Earth's surface but accounted for about 10 percent of all animals.

The United Nations has also turned skeptical about achieving the 2010 goal after long saying that it was too early to judge.

Ahmed Dhjoghlaf, head of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said in February that: "On 1 January 2010, we will not be able to say that we significantly reduced the rate of biodiversity loss."

In Cape Town, experts will try to work out better goals for slowing extinctions, by 2020 and beyond.

Anne Larigauderie, executive director of Diversitas, urged creation of a new panel for monitoring extinctions modeled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose findings are approved both by scientists and governments.

"There should be a new IPCC for biodiversity and ecosystem services," she told Reuters.

New fears for species extinctions
Emilio San Pedro, BBC News 11 Oct 09;

Scientists have warned of an alarming increase in the extinction of animal species, because of threats to biodiversity and ecosystems.

The threats are posed by pollution, climate change and urban spread.

The comments come two days ahead of a meeting of the Diversitas group of global experts on biodiversity in the South African city of Cape Town.

Group members say world leaders have failed to honour commitments on reducing the loss of biodiversity.

Rivers warning

These latest warnings are stark.

They point to statistics that demonstrate that the extinction rates of animal species are much higher than had been predicted only a few years ago.

The worst affected - according to the scientists from the Diversitas group of biodiversity experts - are freshwater species like fish, frogs, turtles and crocodiles.

The scientists warn that these freshwater species are becoming extinct six times faster than their terrestrial and marine cousins.

Some of the group's experts predict that by 2025 not a single river in China will reach the sea - except during floods.

The members of Diversitas are meeting from Tuesday in Cape Town to come up with new goals to slow down the extinction rates.

They lay the blame on these increased threats to animal species on world leaders.

The leaders, they say, have failed to implement the policies needed to make good on their commitments - drafted at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg seven years ago - to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010.

A weekly series of thought-provoking opinion pieces on environmental topics


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Scientists back law to limit farm runoff to Great Barrier Reef

Jamie Walker, The Australian 12 Oct 09;

SCIENTISTS have backed the Queensland government's crackdown on farm runoffs to the Great Barrier Reef, describing new laws to limit the chemicals on sugar crops and pastures as "the right answer".

Conservation groups have swung behind the measures, after producer organisations and individual farmers branded them unnecessary and a sop to the green lobby.

Judy Stewart, managing director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, a think tank that funds research into the impact of climate change and other threats to the reef, said the increased nutrient levels associated with agricultural runoff had been identified as the biggest threat to the corals after global warming.

"It's the right answer," Ms Stewart said of the law requiring farmers and graziers to use only the optimum amount of fertilisers and pesticides.

"The state is taking its responsibility to the reef very seriously ... I think we have to do everything we can."

Marine scientists have warned that vast sections of the reef are threatened by the coral bleaching associated with rising sea temperatures caused by climate change.

The laws, to come into effect on January 1, have been heralded as "historic" by the Queensland government.

A spokesman for Queensland Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones hit back at claims by the Canegrowers and AgForce producer groups that the new laws were unnecessary because most farmers were already cautious about using chemicals because of their expense, and out of a sense of responsibility to the environment.

But Ms Jones's spokesman pointed out that high concentrations of the nutrients associated with fertiliser runoff were being detected up to 50kmoffshore.

Nick Heath, of WWF Australia, said it was disappointing the sugar industry was resisting the laws. "We hoped they'd represent the progressive farmers rather than those who want to keep farming the way they always have," Mr Heath said.

Separately, Queensland has announced that coral reef fish species will be off-limits for fishing for a few days this month and in November to allow for spawning time.

The state government has this year introduced a new policy of two five-day closures to allow the reef fish stocks to rebuild.

The closures will run from October 15 to 19 and November 14 to 18, which scientists say are the peak periods for spawning.

Additional reporting: AAP


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Man-made noise is blamed for driving whales to their deaths

A northern bottlenose whale stranded in Scotland
Frank Pope, Times Online 12 Oct 09;

Scientists say man-made noise equipment, including anti-seal sonar devices used in fish farms, is driving deep-water animals such as whales to shore, where they die.

A northern bottlenose whale was washed up dead on a beach in Prestatyn, North Wales, on Saturday morning, the tenth of the species to become trapped or stranded on British shores this year.

Scientists are blaming not just military sonar, but a large range of man-made noises that they fear are driving the normally deep-water animals to shore.

The week before, another of the 10m (33ft) whales became trapped in a small Scottish loch. Rescuers managed to push the distressed animal out of Loch Eil and halfway to safety but on Friday morning the whale was found dead.

“The whales are migrating at this time of year, so we normally do see more of them, but to have so many washing up is a little strange. There’s an enormous amount of man-made noise out at sea off the northwest of Scotland, and we can’t rule out that this is what causing them to come ashore,” said Mark Simmonds, Director of Science for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

Northern bottlenose whales are acutely sensitive to sound, for like other beaked whales they use sonic pulses for hunting. The noise of oil exploration (which uses loud underwater explosions to help geologists search for undiscovered reserves), wind farm construction and shipping are all possible culprits.

“It seems military sonar caused the mass beaching of dolphins we saw in Cornwall last year, but this is different,” said Dr Simmonds. Once close to shore, northern bottlenose whales are easily disoriented, Mr Simmonds believes. Lochs can act as “whale traps”, which confuse the animals into swimming into ever more enclosed waters. This time last year another whale of the same species got trapped in Loch Eil.

“There’s some kind of phenomenon in this loch that is funnelling them in. Once in, it seems that other noises may have prevented the whale from leaving,” said Mr Simmonds.

Fish farms use ’Acoustic Harassment Devices’ in an effort to dissuade seals from looting from their nets. While designed to be used intermittently, it appears that at least some fish farms leave theirs running continually.

“It’s an awful siren sound — very, very loud,” said Dr Patrick Miller of the Sea Mammal Research Unit in St Andrews. “There’s quite a bit of research that says they have more effect on cetaceans than seals. It may very well be that the seal-scarer had a big effect on keeping the animal inside the loch."

"Standing on the shore of a Scottish loch it might seem silent, but stick a microphone in the water and it’s now an incredibly noisy environment,” said Mr Simmonds. “Sound travels 1,000 times faster underwater than it does through air.”

The Loch Eil whale was only persuaded to leave when a nearby fish farm had turned off its seal-scaring device. Volunteers from the Marine Life Rescue Unit then used underwater loudspeakers to play sounds of their own – including a recording of a hunting killer whale — to push the 10-metre whale back out to sea.

“Although we think of these as open ocean animals, for so many to come in there may be something we’re missing,” said Dr. Millar. “Maybe they’re looking for food. We just know so little about the animals it’s difficult to make strong conclusions.”

A study found that 109 northern bottlenose whales had stranded on the coasts of the UK and Ireland between 1800 and 2002. September was the month that saw most incidents, and coincides with their annual migration southwards. Although the number of reported strandings is increasing, Mr Simmonds cautioned that heightened public awareness and concern may mean dead whales are more likely to be reported.


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Killer earthquakes shake scientific thought

Talek Harris Yahoo News 10 Oct 09;

SYDNEY (AFP) – A sudden cluster of massive earthquakes which has shaken Asia-Pacific communities and likely left thousands dead has also jolted some scientists, who are starting to question conventional thought.

Experts who dismissed notions that far-away quakes could be linked are beginning to think again after huge tremors rocked Samoa and Indonesia on the same day, followed by another major convulsion in Vanuatu.

Some 184 people died in the terrifying tsunami which smashed Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga on September 30, while thousands are feared dead after parts of Indonesia's Padang city were reduced to rubble just hours later.

On Thursday, thousands of panicked people fled the coast as a rapid succession of large quakes off Vanuatu set off a tsunami warning for much of the South Pacific.

The "remarkable" sequence has prompted veteran earthquake-watcher Gary Gibson to tear up his theory it was all down to chance and search for a possible connection.

"I can no longer keep using the response it's all a big coincidence, can I?" Gibson, senior seismologist at Environmental Systems and Services consulting group, told AFP.

"But what would the (link) mechanism be? Nobody has come up with a good story."

University of Queensland's Huilin Xing also challenged accepted science by proposing a possible link between the Samoan and Indonesian earthquakes -- 6,000 miles (9,660 kilometres) apart.

Xing said the fast-moving Australian tectonic plate may have set off one quake, and then the other.

"From the observations, there were similar correlations of the quakes in the different places," Xing said.

"For two great earthquakes to occur within hours in such a way, it is abnormal."

Thursday's 7.6, 7.8 and 7.3 Vanuatu earthquakes also came just minutes after another large tremor shook the Philippines.

"It's remarkable. I've been working on this for 30 years and never seen it before," said Gibson.

"Many times it's chance but when you get this many large earthquakes on the Australian plate boundary it's stretching the concept of just coincidence. But nobody I know has published a link that will stand up in all cases.

"There's no mechanism to describe why it's happening that anybody's thought of. I personally think there may well be something else and I'm continuing to look for it."

Kevin McCue, president of the Australian Earthquake Engineering Society, rejected ideas of any connection between the Pacific and Indonesian quakes, but said the tremors in Samoa and Vanuatu had a historical precursor.

McCue said in 1917 a major earthquake rocked Samoa, followed three years later by another of similar size off Vanuatu, with both going off close to the recent quakes' epicentres.

But he said the high activity in different areas was simply part of the random nature of earthquakes.

"It's just the nature of the beast -- you have a cluster of events then you wait months without one," he said.

"(But) I don't deny that I don't know something. It is possible there's something more. We don't know what's happening down there, really."


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Burkina farmers successful in fight against advancing desert

Romaric Ollo Hien Yahoo News 10 Oct 09;

SELBO, Burkina Faso (AFP) – As African policy makers demand compensation for the effects of climate change at a forum in Burkina Faso's capital, the country's farmers fight a daily struggle to halt the advancing Sahara desert.

"Because of the (advancing) dunes many villages have moved," Boubacar Diallo, a farmer in the village of Selbo, some 280 kilometers (174 miles) to the north of Ouagadougou, explained.

"These dunes you see wanted to chase me away from here because the wind would blow the sand right into the houses," Daillo said.

Now the dunes are covered in lush green shrubs which provides a perfect meal for the roaming sheep. The Selbo villagers have managed to stabilize 17 hectares (42 acres) of dunes in just three years.

By planting shrubs in the sand it is no longer swept away and cannot blow into homes or clog up water sources, rare in this landlocked Sahel country.

"Since we started using these techniques I am no longer afraid," said Diallo.

"The dunes were empty but now there are shrubs and trees growing and animals grazing."

The dunes are divided up in squares borderd by rows of millet stems, a kind of cereal grass which is an important food source in Africa.

"This helps trap the seeds and once it rains they will start growing on the dunes. That way neither the wind nor rain storms can move the sand," Sylvain Kabore, a local forestry inspector told AFP.

This method allows the natural greenery to regenerate is this part of Burkina Faso that only sees rain about twice a year, the official said.

Once the dunes are stabilised like this farmers grow more millet, okra used in local dishes, or grasses that are cut and dried to use as hay in this mainly pastoral region.

"Before you had to buy a hundred sacks of hay a year, now we just need 10 or 20 bags. We are making important savings," Hamidou Maiga of the neighbouring Djomga village told AFP.

"We used to start having to buy feed for the animals already in October and now that can wait a little longer too."

The programme to stop the desertification in this zone of Burkina is financed jointly by the African Development Bank and the Burkina Faso government. According to the project's coordinator Goudouma Zigani, some 3,000 hectares of dunes should be stabilized by December 2010 giving Burkina Faso much needed extra greenery.


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Flood victims in Burkina Faso illustrate the effects of climate change

Christophe Parayre Yahoo News 11 Oct 09;

OUAGADOUGOU (AFP) – A world away from the heated negotiations for a critical deal on stopping climate change at the UN summit in Copenhagen, Burkina Faso inhabitants are suffering the direct consequences of global warming.

Jacqueline, Noroudine and Guy-Prosper are among the 150,000 made homeless by floods after the heaviest rainfall in decades hit Burkina's capital Ouagadougou last month. On September 1 some 30 centimetres (one foot) of rain fell in the space of 10 hours, the heaviest rainfall in the west African country since 1919.

In central Ouagadougou the flood victims live in a makeshift tent village set up on a sporting pitch in the middle of the capital. At first glance the site, which houses 1,600 people --mostly women and children-- looks like a warzone refugee camp.

For these victims of climate change September 1 is a day that remains etched in their minds.

"I was very scared, we had never seen that kind of rain. We managed to get some of our stuff out but suddenly the house caved in," student Noroudine Maranga, 25, told AFP.

The rain started a little before daybreak.

"I was sleeping, they told me it was raining and that it wouldn't stop," 21-year-old student Guy-Prosper Ouedraogo, said.

"There was a lot of water in the houses in the lower parts and the people did not know how to swim so we rescued them."

"After we saw that the dam (close to the neighbourhood that was hit) had overflowed. The water was rising and flowing into the houses. We tried to block the entrances with sandbags but the water kept coming. We got out our stuff and the family and then the house fell down," Ouedraogo said.

In the crowded working class neighbourhoods of Ouagadougou many of the houses, built straight onto the earth, without foundations, were destroyed by the water.

Seydouben Traore managed to save himself after being swept away by the water when he stepped outside his house.

"I climbed in a tree and stayed there the whole day. I saw chickens, cows, bulls and goats swept away by the flood," he said.

"I also saw three bodies but I couldn't do anything. It was every man for himself, it was horrible," the 43-year-old musician told AFP.

His house was destroyed and he is hoping for help from the authorities to find a new home.

"We cannot stay here indefinitely, I want to be far away from the dam. I am afraid that it will happen again. We really believed the sky was falling down on us when it happend."

"We have to rebuild a house but we have no money," Jacqueline Ouangre, 36, said.

"We are here, we don't know what to do," the unemployed woman told AFP.

Just several kilometres from the camp, African policy makers are meeting Sunday to agree on a joint position during the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. The African states have already announced that they would be seeking billions of dollars in compensation payments from industrialized countries.

The African continent is the world's poorest and least industrialized. The 800,000 Africans account for only four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions while the central Congo basin is considered one of the worlds 'green lungs' together with the Amazon rain forrest.


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50,000 short of water in south China drought

Yahoo News 11 Oct 09;

BEIJING (AFP) – More than 50,000 people in southern China's Guangdong province are suffering from water shortages as a spreading drought has left farmers' fields dry and cracked, state media reported Sunday.

Guangdong's annual average rainfall this year was 1,400 millimetres, down 13 percent down from previous years, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing drought relief officials.

In Renhua county in Shaoguan city, one of the worst-hit areas, reservoir levels this year have been 78.2 percent of normal levels, Huang Fuyang, deputy head of the county, was quoted as saying.

Cracks can be seen in fields due to drought, the report said, adding that more then 53,000 hectares of farmland had been affected.

More than 67.7 million yuan (10 million dollars) has been earmarked for drought relief by various levels of government, the report said.

Drought has hit several parts of north, central and southern China this year, leaving millions short of water.

Nearly five million people were affected by drought that hit in late July and lasted until last month in an area spanning Inner Mongolia province in the north to Jilin province in the northeast, earlier state media reports said.

In Liaoning province, next to Jilin, the situation was the worst in 60 years, with half of all arable land having dried up, reports said.

Meanwhile, the provinces of Hubei and Hunan in central China have also suffered drought, as they have been hard hit by a combination of low rainfall and high temperatures, reports said.


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Dinner is grass in South Sudan after drought kills crops

Guillaume Lavallee Yahoo News 11 Oct 09;

LOBIRA BOMA (AFP) – In a rustic village at the foot of a steep mountain, women prepare meals by crushing dried grasses, all there is to eat after drought left over a million people in south Sudan short of food.

"You soak the herbs in water, and then eat. This is what we eat every day," said Juspine Ifuho, showing the fine green powder collected from a hollow in the rock she uses as a mortar.

At the edge of Lobira Boma in East Equatoria state, home of people from the Latuka tribe, a valley extends all the way to the neighbouring mountains.

In these remote regions of south Sudan, farmers depend mainly on rain to grow sorghum, millet and peanuts, but a severe drought in May and June ruined the summer harvest.

"We have nothing else to eat because the harvest is gone. We should buy grain at the market, but we don't have money," said Pilagio Ohiasa, the village's deputy chief, dressed in a (American Football team) Dallas Cowboys T-shirt.

The drought, price rises and the increase in tribal violence all contribute to the severe food insecurity which affects 1.5 million people in south Sudan, according to Michelle Iseminger, director of operations of the World Food Program (WFP) in South Sudan.

"Those who have cows can sell them (to buy food), but not everyone has cows," Ohiasa said.

At the local market, there no fruits or vegetables on the stalls, only bottled water, fizzy drinks and biscuits brought over from Kenya and Uganda through torturous routes and sold at high prices.

"Eastern Equatoria used to be a food basket for all of southern Sudan, but this year is different. We don't have anything at all," said Dennis Okumu, food security and nutrition officer at the Catholic Diocese of Torit.

"The main stable food crop here is sorghum and for people here without sorghum, there is nothing," he told AFP.

The region gets an average of 360 millimetres (14 inches) of rainfall between March and September, but this year there were only 280 mm, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.

"The big problem is the distribution of the rains," explained Rogerio Bonifacio, of FAO Sudan.

A rainy April followed three parched months which destroyed the crops.

"The month of May was one of the driest in 10 or 15 years," he said.

The vast resource-rich but underdeveloped area is blessed with fertile land. But south Sudan is still trying to recover from a devastating civil war with the north that left two million people dead by its end in 2005.

"South Sudan has a history of war. After the peace agreement in 2005, emphasis was placed on education and basic services. It's only now that agricultural activities are restarting. But the systems in place are not very developed," said March Bloch, regional representative for the Swiss aid agency Caritas.

In Lobira Boma, residents have replanted millet and peanuts on sun-drenched land. They hope for rain... and new food aid.


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UK Joins European Drive To Make Energy From Waste

Gerard Wynn, PlanetArk 12 Oct 09;

COVENTRY, England - More lucrative British incentives to produce energy from rotting and gasified waste are driving a push to biogas, following a wider European trend.

More farmers aim to use crop waste to generate electricity from burning biogas while big business is considering the same for industrial waste, after Britain introduced more generous support in April.

And new incentives from 2011 to produce renewable heat are adding to a gradual push to replace the fossil fuel natural gas.

"It's a technology which is about to see its day," said National Grid's Mark Fairbairn, who anticipated biogas could supply nearly half Britain's heating needs by 2050, as a green alternative to natural gas.

Compressed biogas could also meet transport needs, he told the European Bioenergy Expo and Conference.

British landfill rubbish and sewage operators already burn methane -- also called biogas -- to produce power. The new incentives will likely divert more waste for a wider range of energy uses, including heating and transport.

That would follow what has already begun in Germany, where biogas is injected into the gas grid, and in Sweden, where many vehicles run on the gas, and Spain, which has an ambition to run half Madrid's local buses on biogas from next year, said Johann Hudde of Sweden's Greenlane Biogas.

"Things are changing, and that's here in the UK as well," Hudde told the conference near Coventry.

Using biogas produced from rotting or gasified waste to generate heat or power avoids venting the powerful greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere, making it a climate-friendly option. It may also be a more secure, long-term energy option than importing natural gas.

The new UK incentives are part of the country's drive to get 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources such as wood, wind and solar power by 2020, compared with 2-3 percent now.

FOOD

Biogas isn't without its problems: it is more costly than natural gas in Britain, requiring incentives.

And in Germany, plants called anaerobic digesters (AD) often run on rotting maize, not waste. Using farmland to produce energy instead of food harmed the standing of liquid biofuels -- partly blamed last year for a global hike in food prices.

British farmers aim to cash in on the new incentives by collecting biogas in AD plants run on various mixes of dung, grass, crops such as maize and municipal food waste.

The end product, or digestate, is nitrogen-rich and can be used to replace fertilizer.

Operators expect to install about 20 AD plants in Britain in the next year, adding to 20-30 operating now, with an industry target of 1,000 by 2020. More than 5,000 plants generate about 1,400 megawatts of power across Europe now, experts said.

The prospect of higher incentives prompted Climate Change Capital to invest 6 million pounds ($9.64 million) in UK biogas company Renewable Zukunft last year.

"That has brought (the premium for) UK green electricity to something like that in Germany," said Climate Change Capital's Alex Betts. UK support will be replaced next year with a simpler green electricity price premium called a feed-in tariff.

Germany's renewable energy sector has developed under a feed-in tariff introduced in 2000.

British Sugar's Richard Stark said his company was contemplating building a biogas plant in Britain using crop waste from sugar extraction. "It is essential that the (support) policy intent is clear and the horizons are long-term," he said.

(Editing by Christopher Johnson)


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Geothermal electricity: The next hot thing?

Michael Richardson, The Straits Times 12 Oct 09;

ENVIRONMENTAL activists have an above-ground and a below-ground view of the world.

Energy sources harnessed on or very close to the surface, such as wind, tidal, solar and hydro power, are good. These sources are renewable and do not emit carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas warming the planet.

However, energy sources found under the ground - such as coal, oil and natural gas, as well as uranium for nuclear power - are bad. Fossil fuels are major greenhouse gas emitters while nuclear power, though it produces almost no global warming emissions, is still regarded by many environmentalists as too much of a safety and proliferation risk.

But there is another form of underground energy that gets an environmental seal of approval: geothermal heat. What comes out of the ground with this form of energy are hot water and steam, and almost no pollution.

Advocates point out that geothermal is the only form of renewable energy that provides a near-constant supply of base- load electricity to commercial grids in the same way that plants powered by coal, oil, gas and nuclear fuel do. Other types of renewable energy generate electricity intermittently, depending on the strength of the sun, wind, waves and tides.

South-east Asia is a world leader in exploiting the first wave of geothermal power, although it could do even more with the right incentives. Of some 10,000 MW of geothermal power installed around the world, nearly one-third is in the Philippines and Indonesia, the two largest generators of electricity using underground heat, after the United States.

This is only a tiny fraction of global electricity supply. But installed geothermal capacity is expected to reach 13,500 MW next year, with the number of countries producing power from underground heat rising to 46, from 21 a decade ago.

This power system is currently limited to areas where volcanic activity produces very hot underground water in reservoirs, which may be as large as 50 sq km and can be tapped to drive steam turbines installed in power plants on the surface.

Among places with the richest volcanic resources are those on the so-called Ring of Fire that circles the Pacific. They include New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the west coasts of the US and Canada, Central America, and the west coast of South America.

The Ring of Fire is a zone where tectonic plates collide to create the earthquakes and tsunamis so much in the news in recent days. But these same forces also create subterranean heat reservoirs that can easily be reached with current oil and gas drilling technology.

But volcanic geothermal power exploits less than 5 per cent of the very hot underground water resources that could be exploited worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency. Advanced drilling technology in geologically stable parts of the world has opened up a big underground heat source for future power generation. This has unleashed a wave of exploration and development activity in Australia, Europe, the US, China and India.

Known as Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) or 'hot rock' technology, it focuses on high heat-producing granite typically found between 3km and 5km below the surface. In this zone, which draws heat from the molten core of the earth and the decay of radioactive elements in the crust, the temperature can reach 300 deg C. By some calculations, the heat energy content in the upper 10 km of the earth's crust is 50,000 times greater than the energy content of all known oil and gas resources.

Exploiting this power - by drilling down, fracturing the rock with water pumped in under high pressure and then drawing very hot water from the resultant reservoir up a separate well - poses major technical and financial challenges. Since 2006, two EGS projects in Europe, both near urban centres, have been halted amid concerns that the underground rock fracturing had caused earth tremors. However, this appears to be a manageable problem.

Geoscience Australia, a government agency, calculates that extracting just 1 per cent of the energy from rocks hotter than 150 deg C (the minimum for generating electricity) and less than 5 km below the surface would yield about 26,000 times Australia's primary power usage in 2005.

A report last year commissioned by the Australian Geothermal Energy Association concluded that geothermal power could provide 2,200 MW of baseload capacity by 2020, about a third of the new generating capacity the country would likely need by then.

But this will require investment of at least A$12 billion (S$15 billion). The cost of geothermal electricity will also have to fall. The industry reckons this will happen as commercial-scale generation results in improved efficiency and climate change concerns impose added costs on fossil fuel power.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.


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