Avian Visitors
from Life's Indulgences
Missing
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales
Venus drive
from Singapore Nature
Macaranga triloba: An excellent bird tree
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Pulau Ubin Tour, Nature Walk
from Pulau Ubin Tour with Justin
“HIGH STAKES” : a movie on the Economics of Climate Change in SE Asia from EcoWalkthetalk
Rights body opposes firm's sand dredging proposal
Bangkok Post 15 Nov 09;
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has opposed a proposal from a firm which wants to dredge sand from the Takua Pa river basin in Phangnga and ship it to Singapore.
The commission says that such operations should not be permitted as they are in violation of community rights and environment laws under the current constitution.
KSand and Resources Cooperation, a Thai-Singapore registered company, had offered to help the Tambon Bang Nai Sri Administrative Office in Takua Pa district clear more than 40km of sediment that is blocking the mouth of the Takua Pa River. The firm has offered to do the job free of charge over a five-year period. About 21 million cubic metres of sand would be collected and shipped to Singapore for a land expansion project, if the firm is given the go-ahead.
Niran Pitakwatchara, an NHRC commissioner, said the scale of the proposed operation is considered a mega-project that is bound to strongly impact the area's sensitive eco-system and the traditional way of life of the locals.
Therefore it requires public hearings and an environmental impact assessment (EIA) under Section 67 of the charter.
The commission is close to completing and submitting a report on the issue to ministers of the Environment and National Resources, Commerce, and also Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, chairman of the National Environment Board, said Mr Niran.
"The go-ahead at the local level is not enough. It is a very important issue and we cannot do without a full-scale EIA and public involvement," he said.
He said it is not an issue on which a decision by the local administrative office could be taken alone.
The reason officials of a much higher level need to get involved is that more than 40,000 rai of the Takua Pa river basin is rich in natural resources and a source of food for so many people.
When Mr Niran and his team visited the area last month, they found that most of the local people did not have that much information about the project. All they were told was that it would help ease the annual flooding. They were not aware of the possible negative impacts of the project.
His team also listened to the firm's explanation, which he said was not clear on many points, especially on measures it planned to put in place to minimise the environmental impacts.
The Department of Mineral Resources is now studying the area's silica oxide levels and the test results are expected by the end of the month.
Thailand bans the export of sand from areas where silica oxide levels are found to be higher than 75%.
Gen Chira Navisthrira, the company's president, previously said that the project would not go ahead without the local people's agreement.
Whopper of a catch
Shuli Sudderuddin, Straits Times 15 Nov 09;
Kelong owner Maureen Ng has a whopper of a fish tale - and it is true.
About a year ago, she caught three huge garoupa at her kelong just off Punggol.
Each weighed about 25kg, about 10 times that of an average garoupa caught in Singapore waters.
Mrs Ng, in her early 60s, raised them till they were 40kg. Two were sold as a pair for more than $1,000. 'I kept the third and it now weighs about 50kg to 60kg. It's huge,' she said.
Whopper-sized catches make the news when they turn up every few months.
On Nov 3, The New Paper reported that a fisherman caught a 100kg garoupa and a 100kg guitar shark in waters near Singapore - both within a week.
Avid angler and fishing equipment seller Mark Ang, 37, said: 'There are big fish and sea creatures in nearby waters but to catch them is quite hard. I've caught a 33kg stingray off Changi.'
Mr Kelvin Thean, 45, works in sales but is an avid angler. Together with friends, he charters boats to go fishing.
His biggest catch - near Pulau Ubin - was a 20kg stingray. It was barbecued and eaten.
'Some of the bigger animals, like sharks, are found much further away from the coast, where it is about 80m to 100m deep,' he said.
Mr James Low, 50, who charters out his fibreglass speedboat, said sea cucumbers - marine animals related to sea urchins - have been fished out near Punggol Marina.
They can grow to more than a metre, but the ones caught are usually about 20cm long.
'But we usually throw them back as we don't know how to eat them,' he said.
Mr Low added that his customers have caught stingrays that weighed between 30kg and 50kg. 'They can be the size of a small table and are too big, so we let them go,' he said.
An Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority spokesman said it is not illegal to catch or sell a marine animal if it is not listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Animals on the list are endangered. Marine animals on this list include the Asian arowana, sturgeon and seahorse.
The curator of Sentosa's Underwater World Singapore, Mr Anthony Chang, said there are a number of marine animals that can be found in the waters around Singapore.
For example, in 2002, the Underwater World rescued and released an Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphin calf stranded in a kelong off Pasir Ris.
In 1998, it rescued a young du-gong. Given the name Gracie, it now lives in the Underwater World.
'There have also been reports of such endangered species as green turtles and loggerhead turtles. In the past, when the conditions of our waters were better, there was more marine life, but now large fish cannot be found as frequently or easily,' Mr Chang said.
Professor Chou Loke Ming, a marine expert from the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, said many species of large marine animals can be found in our waters.
These include the whale shark, sawfish, billfish and false killer whale.
He said: 'In the 1950s, what was thought to be the carcass of a young blue whale - a rarity here - was found, but this could not be confirmed as the carcass was disposed of in deep water.'
Mr Chang said many of the less common sea creatures may not be native to Singapore, but move around the region, including Malaysia and Indonesia.
For some fishing enthusiasts, like Mrs Ng, there is money to be made from a big catch.
She said: 'If you sell a big one, you can get a few hundred dollars. It's like picking money off the road.'
shulis@sph.com.sg
Have you caught any really big sea creatures in Singapore waters? E-mail your 'one that didn't get away' story to suntimes@sph.com.sg
The ones that didn't get away
Straits Times 15 Nov 09;
They may be rare off the coast of Singapore, but for Mr Lim Kian Heng, 20kg garoupa are a daily encounter.
The 38-year-old owns Yuan Wei Deep Sea (Giant Grouper) Fish Porridge and Fish Steamboat in Serangoon, which specialises in giant garoupa dishes.
Every two days, he gets two giant garoupa from suppliers who import them from places like Malaysia and Thailand.
Each fish, which comes live and is transferred by two men into a tank, costs about $600.
The garoupa are killed just before cooking and every part is made into different dishes, from the head and tail to the lips.
Said Mr Lim: 'The bigger fish take longer to cook than regular ones and must be cooked with more care. Each fish can feed two to three tables of people and we are sold out in about 11/2 days.'
The former subcontractor hit on the idea of a giant garoupa eatery when he came across dishes featuring the fish in China.
He found a chef who taught him how to cook and flavour the larger fish, and opened his restaurant two years ago.
Since then, he said, a steady stream of fans has spawned and his business is now doing quite well.
Despite the effort that goes into preparing the dishes, Mr Lim said the payoff is worth it.
He said: 'The giant garoupa have a firmer consistency and the flesh has a sweetness to it.'
Shuli Sudderuddin
Related article
Guitar shark caught off Changi Possible to find large sharks in local waters, Teh Jen Lee, The New Paper 5 Nov 09 AsiaOne
Jassmine Shadiqe, New Straits Times 14 Nov 09;
KOTA TINGGI: Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) southern region enforcement officers impounded two Singaporean-owned cargo tankers and detained 21 crew members for illegally transferring fuel between the vessels on Wednesday.
MMEA southern region enforcement chief First Admiral (Maritime) Che Hassan Jusoh said the agency's patrol boat, Pelindung 3, captained by Commander Abdul Hadib Abd Wahab spotted the tankers anchored next to each other about 2.7 nautical miles off Tanjung Ayam about 12.30pm.
The officers discovered fuel being transferred from a Singapore-registered MT Sea Hawk to the Kiribati Island-registered tanker, Baltic Glory. Both vessels are owned by a Singaporean company. The crew, comprising 15 Indonesians and six Indian nationals, were detained.
The tankers' owner had apparently failed to alert the department about the transfer and had not paid the required fees.
"They also failed to inform us of the ships' arrival in Malaysian waters," Che Hassan said.
He said the MMEA southern region had from July this year, impounded 17 vessels that had violated regulations.
Fifteen of the vessels were illegally transferring fuel while two were carrying out oil tank cleaning activities in Malaysian waters.
Che Hassan urged fishermen and the public to alert the agency via the Maritime Operation Centre's 24-hour hotline at 07-2199401 or 07-2219231, if they stumbled upon such illegal activities in Malaysian waters.
Marina Bay, Singapore's crown jewel, is slowly but surely taking shape
Tan Dawn Wei, Straits Times 15 Nov 09;
In 1992, there were plans for a landmark twin tower - Singapore's tallest office buildings - just at the water's edge in Marina Bay, soaring to as high as 80 storeys.
A model of the towers was even on exhibition in 1996 when plans were unveiled for the area.
Those monumental structures never quite materialised on the fringe of the waterfront. And it was probably a good thing: Imagine how people in the other buildings behind the two mammoth structures would have felt.
The new plan by Singapore's urban planners was much more equitable: Let everyone have a piece of the bay views.
It was a rethinking that meant throwing out the original blueprint of densely developed buildings along the waterfront, and creating districts rather than block after block of commercial buildings.
And so it was mandated that waterfront developments should not rise above 50m in height, while buildings will step up gradually, much like how seats are arranged in a theatre.
When the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) was tasked with the job of planning for Singapore's future land needs, it was not just about dumping soil into the sea to create more land.
The bigger challenge was sculpting the skyline, making sure it looks picture perfect on every postcard and tourist snapshot.
Meticulous planning
Marina Bay is, undoubtedly, Singapore's crown jewel - arguably the most ambitious and longest-in- planning development the Government has ever undertaken.
An enormous amount of contemplation, engineering and investments has been poured into this prime plot, which the public had a glimpse of when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shared a fly-by video of it at his National Day Rally speech this year. In his rally speech in 2005, he gave a preview of the new Marina Bay, which was still at the drawing stage.
The Government has already pumped in $7.5 billion in infrastructure cost to make the land ready for investors, while total private investments tally up to $20.2 billion to date.
Around 24ha of land within Marina Bay has already been sold for development, including sites for One Raffles Quay, the Marina Bay Financial Centre and Marina Bay Sands.
It is where everyone will congregate and where everything will happen: the annual night-time Formula One race, New Year's Eve countdown, National Day Parade, big-scale conventions, an upcoming casino, the new financial centre and the city's highest luxury residential blocks.
With the bay's most iconic development - integrated resort Marina Bay Sands - about to open for business in the first quarter of next year, anticipation and excitement are at an all-time high.
But it has taken more than 30 years to get to this point. At the beginning, there was nothing - not even land.
Land reclamation exercises from 1969 to 1992 produced about 370ha in the bay area and 80ha in Marina Centre, in anticipation of the nation's economic growth and, with it, the extension of the Central Business District (CBD).
Unlike, say, Canary Wharf in East London, which was developed as a huge office and shopping precinct that is separate from the city's traditional financial centre in The Square Mile, Marina Bay's advantage is in its integration with the current financial district.
'It is not the old downtown and the new downtown. Marina Bay is planned as a seamless extension of the existing CBD,' said Mr Andrew Fassam, deputy director of URA's urban planning department.
All new roads branch off from existing road networks at Raffles Place and Shenton Way.
Singapore's urban planners also made a conscious decision to frame the bay, and ensure that the area would have a mix of uses where there would be life after dark - 24/7, in fact.
Another design principle was that it had to be a place for everyone and 'not just the affluent', said Mr Fassam.
So the Government decided to put in public-pleasing facilities: A 3.4km promenade linking the major public attractions like the Merlion, Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay and the upcoming ArtScience Museum; underground links lined with shops; and 100ha of land set aside for three waterfront gardens.
But it also decided to zone the area as a 'white site', which means that developers have the flexibility to build according to their vision.
When property tycoon Kwek Leng Beng bid for a plum piece of land fronting the bay, he had initially wanted the project to be half-commercial.
He later changed his mind and developed The Sail instead, two residential blocks towering at 63 and 70 storeys which saw no lack of takers, even though property analysts were initially sceptical and felt only that an office building would work on that site.
The URA also allotted larger parcels in the area so developers could build bigger buildings based on the needs of financial institutions, such as trading floors.
An upcoming development, Asia Square, is hoping to plug the gap for Grade A office space in town, especially those that have column-free floor plates.
When completed, the two towers will add 2 million sq ft of office space to the mix.
'What clinched the deal for us was the availability of a huge parcel of land that could be developed into premium grade A+ office space, sitting in a prime location that is well-connected to the business hub,' said project director Jeremy Choy.
The development's parent company, Macquarie Global Property Advisors, bid more than $2 billion for the land.
The integrated development also houses a 280-room five-star hotel, and has space for retail and food and beverage, in addition to office space.
Mr Choy added that one of the critical deciding factors was the long-term plan for the area.
That the area was supported by the latest advances in infrastructure, like access to a district cooling system, also helped seal the deal.
Buildings in the area are served by common services tunnels which carry sewerage, water and telecommunication pipes typically buried under the road. These tunnels can be accessed without digging up the roads.
This is the first such network in South-east Asia.
The district also has its own cooling system, which makes for better economies of scale. In the pipeline is a centralised pneumatic refuse collection system that sucks all rubbish to one central location and saves the garbage truck from having to go door to door.
Even the greening of the area has been planned to a T. Planting plans include green, pink and yellow themes for different districts within the area. Coupled with this is a night lighting plan, which was originally designed for the Civic District but has since been extended to the CBD and Marina Bay.
Under the plan, buildings are required to be lit as part of the sale conditions, while the Government gives a cash grant to existing buildings around the bay to light up.
'We can put good hardware in place, but that doesn't mean that the place will be successful. The right software is important to make it come alive,' acknowledged Mr Fassam.
So it went and wooed private investors by going to overseas fairs, some of which have translated into successful land sales.
Good long-term prospects
Likewise, the clincher for Marina Bay Sands has been the long-term prospects of the area and the growing exhibition and convention business, said its chief executive officer and president Thomas Arasi.
'The company's investment and commitment were based on the fact that Singapore has breadth and depth across all the major travel segments to make the integrated resort thrive. Few global gateways offer everything that Singapore can offer tourists from around the region and around the world,' he said.
Over the years, the plan has been constantly refined - from when it first appeared as a concept plan in the 1970s, to 2000, when the first site was launched - which has since been developed into what is now One Raffles Quay.
At one point, Marina South was thrown up as a possible site for the Singapore Management University campus, but it was decided that the university should go back to where the schools traditionally were, in the Bras Basah area.
Marina South's interim tenants have since all gone, and infrastructure works are taking place there now. That land had been sold on short-term leases of between 21 and 24 years after it was reclaimed. Those leases expired last year.
But the fervent development of Marina Bay as the new financial hub has also thrown up some concerns, among which is whether there will be an oversupply of office space, especially since the economy has been hit so badly.
The authorities do not seem worried.
Some office leasing agents have reportedly seen an increased number of leasing enquiries over the last quarter as rental rates became more competitive, and lease packages offered by landlords became more attractive, said URA.
And this could spur demand and help absorb some of the office space that is coming on stream.
Some developers have also continued to delay the completion of their projects, while a few others are considering converting existing office buildings in the CBD to residential use.
This would help regulate the supply of office space, they reason.
There has been quite a bit of international interest, said Mr Fassam, with investors asking when the next parcel will be released for sale.
But the authorities are in no hurry to open the floodgates and let buildings sprout.
After all, it has taken three decades for Marina Bay's transformation, and it could well take another three decades to fill up the rest of the land.
Dedicated amateur astronomers here share their passion for night sky objects with others
Magdalen Ng, Straits Times 15 Nov 09;
People living near the Bukit Timah home of 50-year-old Albert Lim must wonder about the raise-the-roof antics that happen there.
The roof of his four-storey semidetached house sometimes slides open and a robot moves around.
They need not fret. It is just his telescope, which rises up for a better view of the night sky.
He is one of Singapore's small group of amateur astronomers.
They are a dedicated bunch, but he is especially so - not only does he have a computerised telescope, but his home was also customised for it before he moved in two years ago.
The sliding roof took nearly a year to install because the positioning had to be precise or the telescope would be unable to track stars automatically. It cost him 'a few hundred thousand dollars'.
The father of two started to build his own telescopes as a teenager after being enthralled when he saw a meteor, or 'falling star'.
'I was amazed and constantly wondering how that could happen,' says Mr Lim, who owns Astro Scientific Centre, a company that sells astronomical instruments.
He is also president of The Astronomical Society Of Singapore, which was set up in 1992 to promote an interest in astronomy. This is the study of objects such as stars, planets and meteors.
Each Friday, the society collaborates with the Science Centre Singapore in Jurong to conduct free stargazing sessions for the public and its members will be present.
Mr Albert Ho, a project manager, says: 'It's a great opportunity to share our knowledge and experience and to introduce the hobby of amateur astronomy to others.'
The 51-year-old adds: 'What attracts me to astronomy is the beauty, peace and quiet of the night, especially when you are out by yourself looking up at the stars.
'It's just you and the universe and the secrets it has to offer.'
His friend, teacher Kalaimani Retnasamy, agrees that the weekly sessions are fun.
'We amateur astronomers always have many topics to share, talk and argue about,' says the 53-year-old.
The society's efforts in promoting astronomy as a hobby seem to have paid off.
The weekly stargazing sessions at the Science Centre attract about 50 people each time.
McGill Commercial House, a trading company that specialises in equipment such as camera lenses, telescopes and binoculars, has seen a significant increase in the number of astronomy hobbyists over the past few years. Sales manager Jim Sim says its customers include students, professionals and retirees.
However, not many are as passionate as these society members.
'I have known many astronomy amateurs who started out very enthusiastically, but disappear from the scene after a couple of years,' says Mr Ho.
Certainly, not many are as enthusiastic about astronomy as Mr Lim, who even wanted to name his 22-year-old daughter Andromeda after a constellation, much to the horror of his wife, Siew Ping. They called her Hui Ting instead.
'I always tell my daughter that she should thank me for saving her,' she says.
Seeing stars
Straits Times 15 Nov 09;
Shooting stars - the Leonid meteor showers - are expected to be visible in Singapore skies from midnight on Tuesday to 5am on Wednesday.
The Science Centre Singapore and The Astronomical Society of Singapore are organising various activities at the Japanese Garden in Jurong for the event. Call 6425-2541.
For stargazing, choose a spot that:
# Is reasonably shielded from the glare of street lights
# Offers an unobstructed view of the sky
# Allows you to look away from the city area; the lights there make it difficult to see stars
Some places to go to include East Coast Park, West Coast Park, Sime Road Cemetery, Sarimbum Campsite, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the various reservoirs.
However, the best spot is on the offshore landfill of Pulau Semakau, where it is dark and you can actually see the Milky Way.
The Astronomical Society of Singapore organises regular trips to Semakau Island. For more information, visit www.tasos.org.sg
TEMPO Interactive 13 Nov 09;
Jayapura:The damaged forest in the hills of the Cycloop Mountain is threatening the habitat of its native butterflies. Thirty years ago, said Brother Henk van Mastringt, Jayapura residents could see about 30 kinds of butterflies. “Now, there are no more than 10,” said Papuan butterfly researcher during the International Biological Diversity Conference in Jayapura yesterday.
According to Brother Henk, people who want to see butterflies must go about three kilometers inside the forest before they can see them. Yet, some years ago, these animals could be seen flying around Jayapura Regional General Hospital. He hoped that the government would be more careful when constructing in areas like Foja, Arfak, Wondama and Cycloop, which is rich eco-biodiversity.
Brother Henk said that there were other exotic and protected animals besides the butterflies. In Arfak, Manokwari, for instance, there are 30 species of butterflies. During the period between 2000 and 2004 in Wamena, some areas were deforested, causing butterflies to become extinct.
Former Environment Minister Emil Salim said more than 50 percent of Indonesia’s biological diversity is found in Papua. “They are found with a high average of endemic species,” he said, in his address at the International Biological Diversity Conference. Papua also has a complete ecosystem, from coral reefs and mangrove, to savanna, lowlands and highlands, as well as mountains.
Conservation International researchers have found new flora and fauna species – including land species and a variety of coral reefs – in quite large quantities. “Hence, it is crucial that Papua’s ecological, social, and cultural values are reflected in a sustainable spatial plan that should be implemented consistently,” said World Wildlife Fund Indonesia’s program director, Benja Mambai.
Cunding Levi
At least 1 million have died in the past three years from a mysterious disease, posing serious questions for our environment. But one Boston University biologist is leading the hunt for answers.
Stacey Chase, The Boston Globe 15 Nov 09;
Thomas Kunz emerges from Aeolus cave in East Dorset, Vermont, with a half-dozen metal ID bands -- smaller than SpaghettiOs -- cupped in the palm of his latex-gloved hand. They’re tiny emblems of death, having once been affixed to the forearms of little brown bats.
The renowned bat biologist from Boston University, who bears a passing resemblance to Harrison Ford, minutes earlier had recovered the bands while trudging, like a real-life Indiana Jones, through a slippery mud-like ooze of rotting bat carcasses, liquefied internal organs, toothpick-sized bones, piles of guano, and a strange white fungus on the cave floor.
If bats had come out of hell, it couldn’t have been worse than this.
“What we saw was bat soup. There were a lot of bones of wings and skulls and emulsified bodies,” Kunz says. “There were dead bats -- decomposing bats -- hanging from the walls of the cave.
“My heart sunk,” he says, noting some of the bands bore his initials, THK. “It was as if I had lost family members.”
It’s late August, when bats are in their swarming phase, and the 71-year-old Kunz and two fellow biologists have trekked, at night, in hard rain, with heavy gear, 2,520 feet up the rugged Taconic Mountains to Aeolus -- the largest bat hibernaculum in the Northeast -- to bleed live bats and collect samples for researchers leading the hunt for clues into the cause of mysterious bat deaths like these.
At least 1 million bats in the past three years have been wiped out by a puzzling, widespread disease dubbed “white-nose syndrome” in what preeminent US scientists are calling the most precipitous decline of North American wildlife in human history. If it isn’t slowed or stopped, they believe bats will continue disappearing from the landscape in huge numbers and that entire species could become extinct within a decade. It’s enough to make some wonder: Is the bat in the cave the new canary in the coal mine?
“We’re at the vanguard of an environmental catastrophe,” says Tim King, a conservation geneticist with the US Geological Survey in West Virginia. “There’s very little definitive information available at this point. Everybody’s just scrambling, with very limited resources, to do whatever they can to help -- help stop this.”
The little brown bat, historically among the most common of North American bats, has been the hardest hit of the six species known to be afflicted with the baffling illness. The others are: the big brown bat, the Eastern small-footed bat, the Northern long-eared bat, the tri-colored bat (formerly known as the Eastern pipistrelle), and the Indiana bat.
The mass deaths are difficult to quantify because wild bats are almost impossible to count, but to scientists monitoring hibernation sites, serious declines are as undeniable as they are unprecedented. Population counts at two dozen small winter colonies in Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont show they have plummeted from 48,626 bats to 2,695 -- an average 94.5 percent decline -- since the outbreak began.
“If it continues at this pace,” says New York bat specialist Alan Hicks, “in a few years we won’t have any [of these] bats.”
Scientists are alarmed that white-nose syndrome, unlike many wildlife diseases, is a multi-species killer, infecting nearly every cave-dwelling bat species in states where it has struck. It attacks the bats as they hibernate in caves and mines, typically from mid-October to mid-April.
Since white-nose was detected in February 2006 by a caver photographing a private section of Howe Caverns near Albany, New York -- considered the disease epicenter -- its spread, from New England to South Atlantic states, has been terrifyingly swift. Infected hibernation sites were discovered the second winter less than 20 miles from Howe; the next, about 120 miles; and by last winter, more than 650 miles.
In addition to Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont, the plague-like condition has been confirmed in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and, earlier this year, Virginia and West Virginia. It appears headed toward caves and mines in Kentucky and Tennessee, and possibly North Carolina and Ohio. (There have been no confirmed cases in Ontario or Quebec.) For Kunz and his colleagues, this winter will be telling.
* * *
White-nose syndrome gets its name from the white fungus that looks like confectioners’ sugar found around the noses -- as well as on the ears, wings, and other exposed skin -- of many infected bats, though not all show signs of the disease.
Researchers strongly suspect but have not proved that the sickness is caused by a newly identified cold-thriving soil fungus aptly named Geomyces destructans. (Some believe the fungus is a secondary infection that grows on bats with already weakened immune systems.) Nor have they unraveled the enigma of a perplexing chain of events that leads from an apparent fungal infection to erratic bat behavior to death by what appears to be starvation.
The hallmark of the syndrome is a skin infection that creates holes in and scarring of the bats’ wing membranes, causing them to lose elasticity. “It’s challenging to think of why an animal might die of a skin infection. Isn’t that just like getting athlete’s foot?” says David Blehert, director of diagnostic microbiology at the National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin and lead author of the report that identified the fungus. But you can’t really liken it to that, he explains, because this infection “actively invades living skin cells.”
Initial white-nose studies have produced two consistent findings: The fungus has been found on bats at every site where mass deaths have occurred, and most of the dead bats are emaciated. But the link between them has evaded scientists. The leading hypothesis -- Kunz shorthands it as “itch and scratch” -- is that the fungus irritates the bats’ skin, arousing them more frequently than normal in hibernation to groom it off. Those actions, the thinking goes, squander their fat reserves until, ultimately, they starve to death.
The animals, which are nocturnal, are exhibiting other aberrant behaviors, such as clustering near cave entrances where it’s coldest, perhaps an attempt to lower body temperatures further to conserve energy, and flying around outside in winter, in daylight, possibly in a desperate search for food.
Because Geomyces destructans grows in chilly cave-like temperatures, optimally 41 to 57 degrees Fahrenheit, bat biologists originally thought the die-offs might end when surviving bats fled the hibernacula. But they kept on dying into May and June. “Even those bats that might make it through the winter may have sufficient wing damage that they’ve lost maneuverability and they can’t catch food very effectively,” says DeeAnn Reeder, a bat researcher at Bucknell University. “So, there’s all of these things that are happening to them, and we haven’t connected those dots.”
Heightening concerns further, female bats give birth just once a year to a single pup or twins. “They are not going to be able to rebound from this very quickly, if at all,” says Vermont Fish and Wildlife biologist Scott Darling.
Scientists are not certain how white-nose syndrome is spread but say its rapid dispersal suggests bats -- which can migrate 200 miles between summer roosts, where they intermingle, and hibernation sites -- are most likely transmitting the disease to one another. Increasingly, however, there are suspicions that humans who explore caves and mines may play a role in the spread by unwittingly carrying fungal spores, which attach to their clothing and equipment, from infected sites to clean ones. As a precaution, the US Forest Service last spring closed approximately 2,000 caves and mines in 33 states in its Eastern and Southern regions for up to one year. The action followed a US Fish and Wildlife Service request that the public observe a caving moratorium in 17 states. Since then, cave owners and managers have closed dozens more.
Of the six species of bats affected so far, only one -- the Indiana bat -- is on the federal endangered list. If white-nose syndrome continues its anticipated blitzkrieg deeper South and into the Midwest, three more species on that list are likely to be imperiled: the gray bat, the Virginia big-eared bat, and the Ozark big-eared bat. Yet even fears that some species could vanish entirely are being overshadowed by the enormity of ordinary bats, like little browns, dying by the tens of thousands. No one can predict the ecological fallout from
1 million dead bats -- some say the actual figure might be double that -- but whenever something is taken out of the ecosystem in large numbers, there are obvious concerns.
“Given that the little brown was so numerous and now has become so rare, the potential for impacts on the insect populations and the rest of the ecosystem is much greater [from its decline] than from the decline of species that were already fairly uncommon,” says Mollie Matteson, a conservation advocate with Vermont’s Center for Biological Diversity.
All the bat species under siege by white-nose syndrome voraciously feast on night-flying insects like moths, beetles, and leafhoppers that damage agricultural crops and defoliate trees. Fewer bats mean fewer insects consumed, which, in turn, could increase the need for pesticides -- which could set off other unforeseen environmental consequences. Bats also devour mosquitoes, and more mosquitoes mean greater exposure to the diseases they transmit, like West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis. (There is no evidence the bat fungus poses risks to human health.)
The insect-eating ability of bats is staggering: Little browns and other species can consume up to half their body weight in insects a night. Kunz estimates that there are 694 tons of insects loose in the environment now that would have been consumed by the estimated 1 million bats that have already died.
* * *
Back At Aeolus Cave, a captured little brown -- turned on her back and chirping -- is clinging to biologist Ryan Smith’s gloved thumb as Kunz pricks a tail-membrane vein with a micro-injection needle, then extracts the blood in glass capillary tubes. Nearby, a third biologist, Susi von Oettingen, gingerly unfolds a just-euthanized little brown’s rice-paper-thin wing on a white cutting board and, using a biopsy punch, removes a dark speck of skin the size of a pepper seed.
As a pall of death hangs in the cool night air, the bat biologists do the tedious, unglamorous work of collecting blood, tissue, feces, and other samples that they and other researchers across the country need to solve this fatal riddle. Six months earlier, biologists monitoring Aeolus were horrified to find the floor carpeted with about 20,000 freshly dead bats.
Though bats loom large in our imaginations and mythology, up close the “Lucys” -- the nickname of little browns, or Myotis lucifugus -- are astonishingly fragile creatures with shiny black, map-pin eyes and black, five-digit feet that eerily resemble human hands but are the size of pencil erasers. They typically weigh less than three pennies.
“We just haven’t studied them enough,” says von Oettingen, who works at the US Fish and Wildlife’s field office in New Hampshire. “They’re not charismatic. . . . We don’t make money off of them. They are not cute and cuddly.”
The struggle to save the bats has been exasperating because scientists knew frustratingly little about bat ecology to begin with. Now, though, the deadly disease is focusing attention on bats -- the world’s only flying mammal -- like never before. Scientists across the country have convened in Austin, Pittsburgh, and other cities in the past year to discuss everything from possible fungicides to bat genetics, and on June 4, US House subcommittees held hearings on the unexplained deaths.
Still, the response to the deepening crisis has been crippled by a lack of funding and coordination -- one critic calls it a “many-tentacled octopus” -- among the more than 52 federal and state agencies, academic institutions, caving and conservation groups, and others working on the problem.
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Officials at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the lead agency on white-nose syndrome, say about $3.3 million has been allocated to date to study the disease’s causes and effects on bats. Two weeks ago, an appropriations bill that earmarks $1.9 million for research this fiscal year became law. However, in a budget request he prepared for Congress, Kunz estimates scientists and wildlife managers need $17.6 million this fiscal year, and $38.3 million more over the next four, for critical research, surveillance, and management.
A biology professor and director of the Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology at Boston University, Kunz has been studying bats for more than 45 years and is uniquely qualified for his leading role in efforts to solve the white-nose syndrome mystery.
Currently, he and researchers in his “bat lab” are conducting studies, among others, focused on how wing damage caused by the disease (and possibly frostbite) affects the little brown bats’ ability to navigate and whether the bats can effectively mount an immune response to Geomyces destructans. Kunz has a brevity atypical of scientists when describing his lifelong passion for bats. “They’re nocturnal. They’re secretive,” he says. “I just found them fascinating creatures to study.”
Before white-nose syndrome, Kunz was perhaps best known for pioneering applications of thermal infrared imaging of bats to assess their impact on agriculture and forest ecosystems. Earlier in his career, he did extensive field work on tropical, fruit-eating bats in India, Ecuador, and other foreign countries, and, in Malaysia, discovered a species of wild bat in which the male lactates.
Last month, Kunz’s lifetime of work was recognized with his nomination for the $100,000 Indianapolis Prize, the world’s top animal conservation award. Has he considered retirement? “No. I’ll probably continue my research on bats until I keel over,” he says, chuckling. “I’m having too much fun.”
The latest research examines a strange new twist. European scientists have begun tracking a fungus similar in appearance to Geomyces destructans that has affected bats (different species than their American cousins) for at least two decades -- but with no attributable deaths. The unnamed fungus had been observed in seven countries, including Germany and Switzerland, as far back as the 1980s but piqued interest after America’s devastating bat losses; genetic tests are underway to determine if the fungi are the same. A match could intensify speculation that European cavers inadvertently carried the fungus to New York bat caves on their gear.
“It would really be helpful to know if they have the same fungus on bats, and, if so, why it’s not killing them,” says Paul Cryan, a research biologist with the US Geological Survey in Colorado.
Some have tried to draw connections between white-nose syndrome and other, equally mystifying wildlife diseases such as the chytrid fungus that has killed off dozens of frog species over the past three decades and the colony collapse disorder that has decimated about a third of US honeybee colonies in the past few years. Scientists have found no links. Still, Scott Darling, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife biologist, wonders if all the phenomena, taken together, serve as some kind of ominous warning.
“This is more than just about bats dying. It’s about a key player in our ecosystem disappearing before our eyes,” Darling says. “It may be a model for the severity of diseases that our native species are going to be confronted with.
“If it’s frogs yesterday, bees two days ago, bats today, and something else in two more years,” he adds, “how long before this system falls apart on us?”
Stacey Chase is a freelance writer in Maine.
Audrey Mcavoy, Associated Press Yahoo News 14 Nov 09;
KAILUA, Hawaii – Jenn Boneza remembers when the white sandy beach near the boat ramp in her hometown was wide enough for people to build sand castles.
"It really used to be a beautiful beach," said the 35-year-old mother of two. "And now when you look at it, it's gone."
What's happening to portions of the beach in Kailua — a sunny coastal suburb of Honolulu where President Barack Obama spent his last two family vacations in the islands — is being repeated around the Hawaiian Islands.
Geologists say more than 70 percent of Kauai's beaches are eroding while Oahu has lost a quarter of its sandy shoreline. They warn the problem is only likely to get significantly worse in coming decades as global warming causes sea levels to rise more rapidly.
"It will probably have occurred to a scale that we will have only been able to save a few places and maintain beaches, and the rest are kind of a write-off," said Dolan Eversole, a coastal geologist with the University of Hawaii's Sea Grant program.
The loss of so many beaches is an alarming prospect for Hawaii on many levels. Many tourists come to Hawaii precisely because they want to lounge on and walk along its soft sandy shoreline. These visitors spend some $11.4 billion each year, making tourism the state's largest employer.
Disappearing sands would also wreak havoc on the environment as many animals and plants would lose important habitats. The Hawaiian monk seal, an endangered species, gives birth and nurses pups on beaches. The green sea turtle, a threatened species, lays eggs in the sand.
Chip Fletcher, a University of Hawaii geology professor, says scientists in Hawaii haven't yet observed an accelerated rate of sea level rise due to global warming.
Instead, the erosion the islands are experiencing now is caused by several factors including a steady historical climb in sea levels that likely dates back to the 19th century.
Other causes include storms and human actions like the construction of seawalls, jetties, and the dredging of stream mouths. Each of these human actions disrupts the natural flow of sand.
But a more rapid rise in sea levels, caused by global warming, is expected to contribute to erosion in Hawaii within decades. In 100 years, sea levels are likely to be at least 1 meter, or 3.3 feet, higher than they are now, pushing the ocean inland along coastal areas.
Fletcher says between 60 to 80 percent of the nation's shoreline is chronically eroding. But the problem is felt particularly acutely in Hawaii because the economy and lifestyle are so dependent on healthy beaches.
The state is doing everything it can to keep the sand in Waikiki, for example, joining with hotels in the state's tourist hub on a plan to spend between $2 million and $3 million pumping in sand from offshore.
Sam Lemmo, administrator of the state's Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, says the state would need a variety of adaptation strategies for different beaches.
It would likely have to abandon hope for beaches in posh Lanikai and suburban Ewa Beach on Oahu because they're already lined with seawalls and are badly eroded.
The same probably goes for shoreline next to highways or other critical public infrastructure, where seawalls already exist or may have to be built.
Seawalls protect individual properties from encroaching waters but they exacerbate erosion nearby by preventing waves from reaching the sand needed to replenish the beach.
For undeveloped shoreline, the state wants to make sure these areas stay pristine. This happened recently when a Florida-based developer announced plans to build luxury homes on sand dunes in Kahuku on Oahu's North Shore.
"We just kind of went nuts, pulled out all the guns on that one, basically got them to back off," Lemmo said. "We're working pretty hard to keep any new development away from these areas."
The University of Hawaii's Sea Grant program is working with a consultant to develop a beach management plan for Kailua that would address how to deal with a 1 meter rise in sea level. The state hopes this will be the first of many site-specific management plans for Hawaii's beaches.
A "triage," strategy could be applied to Kailua, which is lined by multimillion-dollar homes but doesn't have seawalls.
Fletcher proposes identifying areas where a land conservation fund would buy five or six adjoining properties. The state would tear down buildings on these plots and allow the beach to shift inland.
He said when erosion hits more sections of Kailua beach, there's going to be a clamor to put up seawalls.
"That will be a very important moment," Fletcher said. "If we allow the first home to put up a seawall, then we're probably dooming the entire beach over the course of a couple of decades . . .
Ultimately the beach will disappear. Or we could have an alternative to that, to identify now some portions of Kailua shoreline where we want the beach to live."
Philip Lim Yahoo News 14 Nov 09;
SINGAPORE (AFP) – China can become the world's top exporter of "green technology" if it carries out crucial energy and ecological reforms, leading environmental campaigners said here Saturday.
"For China, I am absolutely convinced that it will become the world leader in green tech," Tim Flannery, chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council, told a business forum on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit.
"I think that China is in a position where, as manufacturer to the world, if it goes down that green energy route, it will open up enormous new markets," Flannery said.
The Copenhagen Climate Council is a global collaboration between businesses and scientists which promotes solutions to climate change that would be acceptable to governments and companies alike.
Flannery, regarded as one of the world's most influential explorers and conservationists, said China's green energy industry would also be "critically important" for domestic security.
"It will also secure its own internal stability because the environment problems in China today threaten to overwhelm parts of the country," he said.
Dorjee Sun, chief executive officer of the Carbon Credit Trading Group, said the "Green Wall of China" project could boost the country's chances to become the top green technology player.
The project can spur massive reforestation, energy efficiency and renewable energy development in China, he said.
Carbon credits are derived from the amount of carbon dioxide that will not be emitted through environmentally friendly practices, such as the preservation of forests.
Sun's group serves as a broker between landowners and businesses that want to invest in sustainable development.
The Green Wall of China is the communist state's effort to hold back desertification caused by the neighbouring Gobi Desert by planting forest strips along the borders, and will stretch 2,800 miles when completed in 2074.
US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke also lauded China for recognising the economic opportunities presented by green energy.
"They realise that this is really an economic opportunity that will provide millions of jobs for its people," Locke said at a separate session.
China in May announced that it was planning a stimulus package worth 440 billion dollars to expand its renewable energy use as the country aimed to rely more on cleaner ways to power its growth.
The country has also set a goal to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent and pollution by 10 percent by 2010 from 2005 levels.
Yahoo News 14 Nov 09;
LONDON (AFP) – Less than half of Britons believes that human activity is to blame for global warming, according to a poll carried out for The Times newspaper and published on Saturday.
Only 41 percent accept as an established scientific fact that global warming is taking place and is largely man-made.
Almost a third, or 32 percent, believe that the link is not yet proved; eight percent say it is environmentalist propaganda to blame man and 15 percent believe the world is not warming.
Only slightly more than a quarter (28 percent) think climate change is the most serious problem that the world faces.
The findings of the poll threaten to undermine British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's position at next month's UN conference in Copenhagen where world leaders will attempt to craft a new accord to curb greenhouse gases.
The Times said the scepticism illustrated the difficulty the government will have in persuading the public to accept higher green taxes to help meet Britain's legally binding targets to cut carbon emissions by 34 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.
Some 53 percent of people questioned oppose the idea of increasing the cost of motoring to encourage people to drive less.
The poll was carried out by Populus for The Times by interviewing a random sample of 1,504 adults by telephone on November 6-8.
Only two in five believe climate change caused by human activity
Only two in five British voters believe that climate change is real and is caused by human activity, according to a poll.
The Telegraph 14 Nov 09;
Around a quarter of those questioned (28 per cent) by pollsters Populus for The Times agreed that climate change is "far and away" the most serious problem facing Britain, while a further 51 per cent said it was a serious problem, but not as serious as other issues.
The findings threaten to undermine Gordon Brown's position at next month's UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, when he will push for international agreement to cut carbon emissions.
Mr Brown's hand in negotiations will be weakened if other countries think that he does not enjoy solid public support at home for his stance on global warming.
Some 41 per cent of those taking part in today's poll agreed that it has been established that climate change is largely due to human activity. Around a third (32%) agreed that global warming is happening, but said it had not yet been proven to be man-made.
Climate change denial theories were shown to have very little support among the population, with just eight per cent describing the view that global warming is man-made as environmentalist propaganda and 15 per cent saying that it is not happening at all.
The poll showed an increase in support for new air travel taxes to cut carbon emissions, with 57 per cent in favour and 40 per cent against, compared to a 50 per cent to 46 per cent split in a similar poll in 2006.
There was opposition to increases in the overall cost of motoring on environmental grounds, by a margin of 53 per cent to 44 per cent. But a large majority - 68 per cent against 29 per cent - said that much higher taxes should be imposed on gas-guzzling vehicles.
A very large majority - 87 per cent to 11 per cent - supported new building regulations to require high standards of insulation and use of renewable energy, even if it increases the cost of homes.
Populus interviewed 1,504 adults by telephone between November 6 and 8.
The Apec CEO Summit yesterday also focused on lingering concerns amid the economic recovery, such as climate change and the role of sovereign wealth funds.
Rachel Chang, Straits Times 15 Nov 09;
In the 1970s, California became the first American state to implement energy efficiency standards for refrigerators.
This was enforced despite concerns that manufacturers could not meet the standards and sell refrigerators at prices affordable for consumers.
Today, the average refrigerator in the United States is 10 per cent bigger, half as expensive, and uses two-thirds less energy than before.
The anecdote was cited by US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke yesterday when he argued the need for governments to lead in the development of innovations in clean technology through regulations and investment.
Speaking as a panellist at the Apec CEO Summit on the theme, The Shape Of Things To Come, he noted that the telephone and computer were dismissed as unimportant when they first appeared.
'Who is to say we are not at that junction with clean energy?' he asked. 'If the government sets aggressive standards on clean energy, I have complete confidence in the human spirit, the entrepreneurial spirit to innovate and meet those standards.'
Exxon-Mobil chief executive and chairman Rex Tillerson said, however, that the development and deployment of clean energy technology would be a long and costly process - much longer than policymakers think.
'Policy has to be grounded in reality,' he said, arguing that the consequences of policies to curb emissions must be taken into account by officials.
Singapore Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said countries like Singapore could not make a huge difference on their own.
But what would help is for all governments to have the political will to take measures such as scrapping subsidies in place for fossil fuel use, he added.
The importance of joint action was highlighted by Mr Locke, who reminded the panel that 'Mother Earth will not care who has contributed to this, the industrial nations or the developing countries'.
Other issues raised as looming challenges for the future included the impact of an ageing population on economic growth, and protectionism.
Other panel members were Mr Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and managing director of Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra; Mr Peter Loescher, president and chief executive of mobile phone maker Siemens; and Mr Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia.
Investing in the future: Unconventional wisdom
The Apec CEO Summit yesterday also focused on lingering concerns amid the economic recovery, such as climate change and the role of sovereign wealth funds.
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 15 Nov 09;
How's this for a 'politically incorrect' viewpoint?
A controversial climate expert declared yesterday at the Apec CEO summit that cutting carbon emissions is going to cost countries a lot but achieve fairly little good.
Dr Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, said smarter policies should be adopted to tackle global warming, not 'inordinately expensive' ones that will ultimately have little effect.
'By the end of the century, the cost of cutting emissions would be US$40 trillion (S$55 trillion), and we're not sure it will even work to reduce temperatures,' said Dr Lomborg in an interview with The Straits Times.
Instead, he suggested that countries focus on policies such as spending at least 0.2 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on clean energy research and development.
'The idea is to make clean energy so cheap that everyone will switch over from fossil fuels anyway. When that happens, maybe in the middle of the century, it will make sense to cut emissions. Now, that's a smart investment,' he said.
Dr Lomborg gained international attention in 2001 after publishing The Sceptical Environmentalist, a controversial book which asserts that many of the most-publicised claims and predictions on environmental issues are wrong.
He was among four panellists that spoke in a lively one-hour session yesterday.
The audience also debated the issue of geo-engineering with the panellists.
Geo-engineering is a way of manipulating the earth's climate artificially to counteract the effects of global warming.
While Dr Lomborg supported the idea of geo-engineering, such as marine cloud whitening to reflect more sunlight, others felt that it was a dangerous path to take due to the lack of documented research and understanding of the consequences.
David Fogarty, Reuters 14 Nov 09;
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia Pacific leaders backed away on Saturday from supporting a global halving of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, even as Brazil pledged deep cuts of its own over the next decade.
An initial draft leaders' statement from an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Singapore had said that "global emissions will need to ... be reduced to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050."
But a later, watered-down version stated: "We believe that global emissions will need to peak over the next few years, and be substantially reduced by 2050, recognizing that the timeframe for peaking will be longer in developing economies."
APEC includes the top two greenhouse gas emitters -- China and the United States -- and its meeting is the last major gathering of global decision-makers before a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen in three weeks, meant to ramp up efforts to fight climate change.
Its retreat may further dampen hopes that the Copenhagen meeting can yield a legally binding framework to stave off dangerous levels of global warming that scientists say threaten to bring rising seas and more droughts, heatwaves and floods.
Arguments over targets have been a key stumbling block in U.N. negotiations and at other forums, such as the G8.
BLAME GAME
Developing countries blame wealthy nations for most of mankind's greenhouse gas pollution to date and say the onus should be on them to make major reductions first. Some fear that committing to ambitious targets would choke their economic growth and prevent them catching up with richer states.
The European Union praised Brazil for its pledge on Friday to take its emissions back to 1990s levels by 2020 -- potentially a cut of some 20 percent from the 2.1 million tonnes of greenhouse gases it produced in 2005.
The commitment by Latin America's biggest economy could put pressure on other nations to adopt more aggressive targets.
"This is a potentially decisive step to achieve a global deal in Copenhagen in December and to succeed in the fight against climate change," said Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Union's executive arm, the European Commission.
The cuts, which assume annual economic growth of between 4 and 6 percent, would not hamper Brazil's economy, Environment Minister Carlos Minc said.
"Brazil will grow and develop. We will create more green jobs, more efficient jobs, a cleaner energy matrix, more efficient agriculture," he said.
Brazil, among the world's biggest carbon polluters mostly due to deforestation, has become a major player in climate negotiations after years of rejecting such talks and saying the onus was entirely on rich countries to cut emissions.
But APEC's stance is more significant because its 21 members account for some 60 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas pollution.
Yi Xianliang, counsellor at the department of treaty and law at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is negotiating in the climate talks, said the target of a 50 percent global cut in the original draft APEC statement was "very controversial."
This "might have disrupted negotiations," Yi told a news conference, adding the decision to remove the target was a collective decision.
APEC member South Korea gave the U.N. climate talks a small boost by opting for the toughest of three voluntary emission targets, choosing minus four percent from 2005 levels by 2020, a government source told Reuters in Singapore.
The United States and Japan agreed on Friday they would aim to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 and back a global goal to halve emissions by mid-century.
Apec leaders drop climate target
BBC News 15 Nov 09;
World leaders meeting in Singapore have said it will not be possible to reach a climate change deal ahead of next month's UN conference in Denmark.
After a two-day Asia-Pacific summit, they vowed to work towards an "ambitious outcome" in Copenhagen.
But the group dropped a target to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which was outlined in an earlier draft.
Leaders also vowed to pursue a new strategy for growth after the world's worst economic crisis in decades.
They resolved to conclude the Doha round of global trade talks in 2010.
In a joint declaration issued at the end of their two-day annual summit, they said: "We firmly reject all forms of protectionism and reaffirm our commitment to keep markets open and refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services."
They also agreed to keep stimulus spending in place until a recovery was seen.
'Staging post'
But leaders have failed to agree a target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum.
Officials said the leaders - including presidents Barack Obama of the US and Hu Jintao of China - now viewed the Copenhagen summit as a "staging post", and not an end point, in the search for a global deal to cut emissions of greenhouse gases.
"We... reaffirm our commitment to tackle the threat of climate change and work towards an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen," they said in the final declaration.
"Global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will need to be accompanied by measures, including financial assistance and technology transfer to developing economies for their adaptation to the adverse impact of climate change," the declaration said.
A Chinese official involved in the world climate talks said the 50% reduction target was "a very controversial issue in the world community" which could "disrupt the negotiation process".
US Deputy National Security Adviser Mike Froman said the leaders had reached the conclusion that "it was unrealistic to expect a full, internationally legally-binding agreement to be negotiated between now and when Copenhagen starts in 22 days".
This was unwelcome evidence that the gap between developing and developed nations, between rich and poor, East and West can sometimes be hard to bridge, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Singapore.
Mr Obama later met his Russian counterpart as the clock ticks for the world's two leading nuclear powers to strike a new arms reduction deal.
The deal is meant to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start I), which expires on 5 December.
After the meeting, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he hoped that "as we agreed earlier... we can finalise the treaty by December".
The two leaders also said they were unhappy with the pace of talks over Iran's nuclear programme.
"We are running out of time with respect to that approach," Mr Obama said.
Mr Obama kicked off his week-long Asian tour in Japan on Saturday.
In Tokyo, he pledged Washington's "unshakeable" commitment to the security of the region and said Washington wanted to pursue a policy of "pragmatic cooperation" with China, Asia's rising power.
Following the meeting with Mr Medvedev, Mr Obama will travel to China amid heightened trade tensions between the two countries.
The BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai says the face-to-face talks Mr Obama will have with China's President Hu Jintao will offer an opportunity to take the heat out of some of those trade disputes, and to pursue areas of co-operation, such as technology transfer from the US to help China build a so-called green economy.
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