Monster Marine issue of the Raffles Bulletin of Zoology
from wild shores of singapore
New Year's Eve Shoot
from Life's Indulgences
Crest of the Malayan Night Heron
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Crimson Sunbird and Water Canna
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Special mangrove plants at Pasir Ris
from wild shores of singapore
Barking up the wrong tree
from The annotated budak
Plankton bloom causes losses reaching hundreds of thousands of dollars
Carolyn Quek & Jessica Lim, Straits Times 1 Jan 10
MORE than 200,000 fish - almost the entire stocks of 13 fish farms here - have been wiped out by a plankton bloom in the waters off Pasir Ris Beach.
The problem started about 10 days ago and may get worse. The fish in farms further out at sea, near Pulau Ubin, are beginning to die as well.
Already, fish farmers who spoke to The Straits Times are describing their losses as the biggest in the 10 years they have been in business.
Six farmers say they have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars from these stocks, cultivated over the last two years; the tiger garoupas had been primed for harvest for next month's Chinese New Year.
The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) explained that plankton blooms occur when one species of these drifting marine organisms predominates over others and multiplies quickly.
The rapid increase in the number of these organisms drains the seawater of oxygen, which leads to fish and other animals suffocating.
The fish farmers say this is the first time their businesses have been hit in this way.
Mr James Low, 53, whose farm is about 3km off Pasir Ris Beach, said he knew something was amiss when his fish started surfacing and gasping for air.
Then they started dying in their netcages, which are nets suspended in the sea.
Alerted to the problem, the farmers banded together to come up with ideas to salvage the situation.
Air pumps were placed in the net cages to raise oxygen levels in the water.
The cages, which are usually pitched at a depth of about 3m, were also lowered further into the sea, and medicine was fed to the fish.
In a last-ditch attempt, some farmers released their fish into the sea to raise their chances of survival, but this did not seem to work either.
Earlier this week, The Straits Times reported that about 1,000 dead fish, mainly tiger garoupas, had washed ashore.
Fish farmer Phillip Lim, 47, whose farm is about 1km offshore, said: 'We were taking care of thousands of lives. Now they are gone, just like that.'
The AVA says its investigations show that the current plankton bloom was triggered by a combination of factors:
One is the fickle weather, which has shifted between bouts of sunshine and heavy rain.
Another is seawater becoming enriched by nutrients from the land, which were washed into the sea by the rain.
A third factor lies in the tides. Evidence has surfaced that little water exchange - and thus little flushing - occurs between high and low tides.
The farmers had thought at first that the plankton bloom was the result of the Serangoon Tidal Gates' regulation of the water levels for the upcoming Serangoon Reservoir near the fish farms.
But the Public Utilities Board has since clarified that the tidal gates have not begun operations.
The AVA said its officers were monitoring the water conditions off Pasir Ris, and that it had sent an advisory to all fish farms on measures to take to minimise the effects of the plankton bloom.
The farmers interviewed say they do not have enough capital to rebuild their stocks, and that even if they did, they do not know when it would be safe to start rearing fish again.
Said Mr Low: 'We hope the Government can help us with some of our losses and also tell us when it is safe for us to start refarming.'
The AVA estimates that the 13 affected farms supply 0.5per cent of the fish consumed here each year.
The marine aquaculture industry, comprising 106 licensed coastal floating netcage fish farms in all, occupies 85.5ha of coastal water.
It produced some 3,235 tonnes of fish valued at $11.40 million in 2008, accounting for 4 to 5per cent of the fish consumed here annually.
The target is to raise this to 15per cent or 15,000 tonnes annually.
Related articles
Dead fish on Pasir Ris beach Straits Times 29 Dec 09;
For more details see:
Why are there so many dead fish on Pasir Ris? from wild shores of singapore with a closer look at the dead fishes, also on wonderful creations and singapore nature.
Moh Farhaan Shah, The Star 1 Jan 10;
GELANG PATAH: Some 200 fishermen in Tanjung Kupang village are upset as countless fishes have died in the nearby Tanjung Adang waters.
One of the fishermen who only wished to be known as Ali, 43, said he discovered the dead fishes as he was going out to sea on Monday.
“I was surprised to see not only dead fish floating but crabs as well.
“I usually catch about RM200 worth of fish each day and this incident will reduce my catch,” he said here on Tuesday.
Fellow fisherman, Yaakob Ibrahim, 53, said the dead fishes were also causing a bad stench in the area.
“The smell is terrible and the colour of the water has turned yellowish and murky.
“Fishes can be seen floating along a 5km stretch of the sea,” he said.
Kampung Tanjung Kupang headman Mohd Faidzullah Yusof said that so far, there were no reports of any such incidents from nearby villages such as Kampung Pendas Laut.
“Hopefully the authorities will act fast on this as a lot of the villagers catch fish for a living,” he said.
“This is the first time such a thing has happened.
“We hope that the authorities will conduct a thorough investigation as we do not want this incident to happen again,” said Faidzullah, adding that nearby seafood restaurants would also be affected.
Nusajaya assemblyman Datuk Aziz Sapian visited the area.
“We do not know how many fish have died but from the look of things, it could jeopardise the livelihood of these fishermen.
“Hopefully the Fishery, Marine and Environment departments will carry out tests and find out the cause of this,” he said.
State Environment Department director Dr Zulkifli Abdul Rahim could not be contacted for comments.
Pact signed to ban coating hulls with paint that can harm marine life
Grace Chua, Straits Times 1 Jan 10;
SINGAPORE has signed an international convention that aims to clean up the global shipping industry.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said yesterday that the convention rules that ships cannot use paints containing organotins, a type of metallic compound, to coat a ship's hull.
These paints prevent barnacles and other 'illegal aliens' from hitching a ride, but the chemicals they contain can harm marine life and pollute the environment.
Called the International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems on Ships under the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), it will take effect for Singapore from March 31 this year.
The new ruling applies to vessels registered with Singapore, and also to those calling at its port.
The convention was established in September 2008. Currently, it applies to ships entering or registered to 40 countries, representing more than two-thirds of the world's shipping tonnage.
When barnacles, algae or molluscs attach themselves to a ship's hull, they create drag and slow it down, forcing the vessel to burn more fuel.
And hull fouling can be a way for alien species to travel to foreign waters, sometimes threatening other marine life when a ship makes a port of call.
In the 1960s and 1970s, paints containing the toxic organotin TBT were used to prevent fouling, but this was found to cause deformities in marine organisms.
Now, most ships are coated in copper-based paints that repel or kill barnacles, or silicone paints that make the surface too slick for barnacles to attach themselves to. But the latter are two to three times more expensive than copper paints.
Under the convention, new ships must use non-toxic paints, while ships with TBT paints must add a barrier coating that prevents the chemical from leaching.
'Where Singapore owners are concerned, this is not a problem - they have already taken steps to adhere to the convention,' said Mr Daniel Tan, executive director of the Singapore Shipping Association.
But as one of the world's busiest ports, Singapore places great importance on protecting the marine environment, said MPA chief executive Lam Yi Young.
Besides the anti-fouling convention, Singapore is a party to a number of anti-pollution conventions, including those on oil and chemical pollution.
Dr Serena Teo, from the National University of Singapore's Tropical Marine Science Institute, said organotins might be out, but the additives in copper-based paints were not entirely innocent. For instance, the herbicide irgarol has caused seagrass die-offs in Japan.
But if invasive species are to be controlled, Dr Teo - who is developing a pharmaceutical anti-fouling additive - said ships' ballast water must also be treated so it does not transport alien organisms.
Such treatment systems exist but they must be tested for effectiveness in tropical waters like Singapore's, she added.
The Star 1 Jan 10;
JOHOR BARU: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency has foiled an attempt by a Singapore-registered vessel to smuggle out RM100,000 worth of river sand at Tanjung Piai here.
The agency’s southern enforcement director, Abdul Razak Johan, said they received information regarding the vessel through their operations centre and managed to detain the boat on Wednesday.
“Four of our officials spotted the vessel, Cathay 15 which was hauling a pontoon filled with sand.
“We found that they did not possess the proper permit for exporting sand,” he said.
Investigations revealed that the vessel and the pontoon had left Pulau Carey on Saturday and was scheduled to arrive in Tuas, yesterday.
“We also found that the permit held by the vessel was for exporting cement and not sand. We have detained all eight Indonesian crew aboard the vessel,” he said.
The offence has been classified under Section 426 and 426(1)(a) of the National Land Code for ferrying sand without permit which carries a jail term of not more than five years and a fine of not more than RM50,000 or both.
Boat Held For Attempting To Smuggle Sand Out of Johor
Bernama 31 Dec 09;
JOHOR BAHARU, Dec 31 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) southern region has detained in Tanjung Piai waters a tugboat attempting to smuggle out 3,800 tonnes of river sand estimated at RM100,000.
Johor Baharu maritime district operations director Commander Abdul Razak Johan said the Maritime Operations Centre received information on the presence of the boat, Cathay 15, in Kukup waters.
"At 3.40pm yesterday, the boat and its pontoon laden with the sand were detained by the MMEA with the cooperation of the Pontian District Land Office. It was found that the boat did not have any permit to transport and export rock materials," he said in a statement here on Thursday.
He said investigation showed that Cathay 15, which had a permit to export cement, had departed Carey Island on Dec 26 and was expected to arrive in Tuas, Singapore, today.
Abdul Razak said the boat's eight Indonesian crew, aged between 23 and 40, had been remanded at Pontian police station for further investigation.
-- BERNAMA
Rachel Kelly, Channel NewsAsia 1 Jan 10;
SINGAPORE : Amid the push towards becoming more environmentally conscious, a growing number of retail brands are seeking eco-solutions for their customers.
They have come out with products that are green.
More retail brands are making a firm move to support the green movement by launching green product offerings.
Ladies lingerie brand Triumph for example launched Eco Chic, an eco-undies alternative in Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, and China last year.
And following positive feedback, it is now looking to further expand the brand in the region.
Josephine Wong, assistant product manager, Triumph Singapore, said: "It is part of the niche market that we want to capture, and at the same time as a company, we feel that we have to give back to the environment, give back to mother nature in that sense. And we want to be socially responsible where the environment is concerned. That is why we try to source for natural grown fabrics, we try to look for organic stuff, we use sustainable ingredients to make the products."
The eco-undies are made of natural materials such as corn, cotton and bamboo.
And Triumph said it is looking to add more sustainable manufacturing methods to all of its products going forward.
Meanwhile,Singapore homegrown shoe brand Nuabs is making strides in the eco arena with eco-shoes made of recycled materials such as tyre rubber.
Vernice Chua, founder, Nuabs, said: "We did not start the brand just to capitalise on this trend. We started the brand Nuabs to build a common ground among people by introducing footwear that is designed and worn by farmers in Third World countries and we introduced it to people living in the cities.
"And by default somehow, we just became an eco-friendly brand, because farmers, as we all know, are one of the best role models for eco-living and being green. We are in Singapore the local market, we are in Thailand, and hopefully we will be expanding around the region in the next few years."
While these new products may appeal to those with a heart for Planet Earth, some retailers said that pricing is important. And until the global economy sees a full recovery, shoppers may still opt for the more affordable product, even if it were less green. - CNA/ms
Robert Evans, Reuters 31 Dec 09;
GENEVA (Reuters) - Endangered species from polar bears to giant salamanders, great white sharks to beluga whales and Namibian quiver trees to Cuban crocodiles will have their day on the Internet throughout 2010.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said on Thursday it would issue throughout the coming year an extensive daily portrait of each of the 365 animals, birds and plants most under threat of disappearance.
"It is time for governments to get serious about saving species and making sure it is high on their agenda for next year, as we're really running out of time," said Jane Smart, a biodiversity expert at the Swiss-based IUCN.
"The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis is mounting," Smart said. A third of the some 1.8 million identified species were under growing threat.
Experts believe there could be as many as 6 to 12 million more species as yet unknown to science.
From January 1 2010, declared the U.N. Year of Biodiversity, IUCN will draw on latest research for its annual Red List of endangered wildlife to portray in detail the possibly doomed species of the day.
The material will be posted on the IUCN website (www.iucn.org).
"We will start with some better known species before moving to cover plants, fungi, invertebrates, and more, including less charismatic ones," the inter-governmental body said.
The polar bear, whose fate as the arctic ice-shelf melts has been widely recognized, will have star billing on January 1.
Before December's U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, IUCN said inaction would put the future of some of the world's best-known creatures at risk.
These also included the emperor penguin, the arctic fox, clownfish which were popularized by the hit film "Finding Nemo," Australia's koala bear and almost every species of salmon, both marine and freshwater.
(Editing by Alison Williams)
Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press Yahoo News 31 Dec 09;
WASHINGTON – Fierce as they are, Tasmanian devils can't beat a contagious cancer that threatens to wipe them out. Now scientists think they've found the disease's origin, a step in the race to save Australia's snarling marsupial.
The furry black animals spread a fast-killing cancer when they bite each other's faces. Since the disease's discovery in 1996, their numbers have plummeted by 70 percent. Last spring, Australia listed the devils — made famous by their Looney Tunes cartoon namesake Taz — as an endangered species.
There's no treatment, and little hope of finding one until scientists better understand what's fueling this bizarre "devil facial tumor disease." So an international research team picked apart the cancer's genes, and discovered that it apparently first arose in cells that protect the animals' nerves.
The surprise finding, reported in Friday's edition of the journal Science, has led to development of a test to help diagnose this tumor.
Next, scientists are hunting the mutations that turned these cells rogue, work they hope could one day lead to a vaccine to protect remaining Tasmanian devils, or perhaps treatments.
"The clock's ticking," lead researcher Elizabeth Murchison of the Australian National University said by phone from Tasmania. "It's awful to think there could be no devils here in 50 years because they're dying so quickly."
The devils, known for powerful jaws, fierce screeches and voracious consumption of prey, are the world's largest marsupial carnivores. They don't exist in the wild outside Tasmania, an island south of Australia.
What triggered this cancer, which causes tumors that grow so large on the face and neck that the animals eventually can't eat?
It didn't jump from another species, said Murchison. Tasmanian devils, for unknown reasons, are prone to various types of cancer. This tumor's genetic signature suggests that probably no more than 20 years ago, mutations built up in some animals' Schwann cells — cells that produce the insulation, called myelin, crucial for nerves — until the first devil fell ill with this new type.
Those mutations went far beyond a typical cancer. When one sick animal bites another, it transplants living cancer cells that form a copy of the first animal's tumor. Murchison's team tested 25 tumors gathered from devils in different parts of Tasmania, and found the tumors were essentially identical to one another.
It's one of only two forms of cancer known to spread this way, Murchison said; the other is a sexually transmitted cancer in dogs. (That's quite different than people's transmission of a few cancer-causing viruses, such as the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer.)
The researchers created a diagnostic test, based in part on a myelin-related protein called periaxin that was present in all the facial tumors but not in other cancers.
Also, the team compiled a catalog of Tasmanian devil genetic information. Among the next goals is to determine which of those genes most influence the spread and severity of this cancer.
Scientists Discover Origin of a Cancer in Tasmanian Devils
Carl Zimmer, The New York Times 31 Dec 09;
The Tasmanian devil, the spaniel-size marsupial found on the Australian island of Tasmania, has been hurtling toward extinction in recent years, the victim of a bizarre and mysterious facial cancer that spreads like a plague.
Now Australian scientists say they have discovered how the cancer originated. The finding, being reported Friday in the journal Science, sheds light on how cancer cells can sometimes liberate themselves from the hosts where they first emerged. On a more practical level, it also opens the door to devising vaccines that could save the Tasmanian devils.
“It’s a great paper,” said Katherine Belov, a geneticist at the University of Sydney who was not involved in the study. “Previously, we were stumbling in the dark.”
The cancer, devil’s facial tumor disease, is transmitted when the animals bite one another’s faces during fights. It grows rapidly, choking off the animal’s mouth and spreading to other organs. The disease has wiped out 60 percent of all Tasmanian devils since it was first observed in 1996, and some ecologists predict that it could obliterate the entire wild population within 35 years.
When the tumor disease was discovered, many scientists assumed that it was caused by a rapidly spreading virus. Viruses cause 15 percent of all cancers in humans and are also widespread in animals.
But subsequent studies failed to turn up a virus. Instead, Anne-Maree Pearse and Kate Swift, of the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment in Tasmania, discovered something strange about the tumor cells. The chromosomes looked less like those in the animal’s normal cells and more like those in the tumors growing in other Tasmanian devils.
In 2007, Dr. Belov and her colleagues compared DNA from 26 sick and healthy Tasmanian devils with DNA from the tumors. They found that cancer cells from different animals shared distinctive genetic markers not found in the animals themselves.
A team of Australian and American scientists has now followed up on Dr. Belov’s study, using more powerful gene-sequencing technology to take a closer look at a larger number of Tasmanian devils. To trace the origin of the tumors, the scientists looked at individual cancer cells, recording which genes were active. They found a set of genes normally active only in a type of nerve cell known as Schwann cells. They argue that a single Schwann cell in a single animal was the progenitor of all the devil facial tumor disease cells.
“The lack of genetic variation suggests that the tumors are young,” said a co-author of the study, Tony Pappenfuss, a bioinformatician at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia.
Scientists have found only one other case in which cancer cells naturally spread like parasites, a disease in dogs known as canine transmissible venereal tumor. Comparisons of tumors collected from dogs around the world indicate that they descend from a single ancestral cell that existed several thousand years ago. Ever since, the tumor cells have evolved to move among hosts and avoid their immune systems.
Infectious cancer poses a puzzle for biologists. “It is somehow a new organism,” Dr. Pappenfuss said. “I think of it as a parasite.”
Dr. Pappenfuss and his colleagues are now studying how the tumor cells have evolved from Schwann cells into such successful parasites. Their research may help in the development of a vaccine that could prime Tasmanian devils to fight invading cancer cells.
But Dr. Pappenfuss and Dr. Belov agree that it will take a while to transform the new results into a successful vaccine.
VOVNews 31 Dec 09;
The environment is a hot global issue these days and Vietnam is joining the rest of the world in raising public awareness of climate change, environmental sanitation, and poverty reduction to improve living conditions and save our planet.
As with all such movements, the best way to ensure success is to begin at grassroots level.
The Red River Delta Water Supply and Sanitation Project (RRD WSSP), a two phase World Bank funded infrastructure project, is constructing water supply and treatment systems in several north eastern provinces. Phase 1, funded at USD46.7 million, is being implemented in approximately 120 communes in Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Hai Duong and Ninh Binh provinces from 2005 through 2012. Thang Long Infrastructure Development JSC (Infra-TL), a Vietnamese company based in Hanoi, is developing and consulting for the Project's information, education, and communication (IEC) component, and working with provincial Project Management Units (PMUs) and organisations such as the Vietnamese Women's Union to help the local people connect to the new water supply systems, build hygienic toilets, promote environmental sanitation, and acquire the basic knowledge to improve their health and living conditions.
Proper rubbish disposal is a major problem in Vietnam today, and even more so in advanced industrialised countries. Development and population growth mean an increase in the amount of rubbish produced, particularly non-organic, non-biodegradable plastics so ubiquitous in modern society. Vietnamese people are traditionally outstanding recyclers and should be a model for industrialised societies, but plastic shopping bags and packaging cannot be recycled and they are piling up across the countryside causing an environmental problem it is imperative to solve.
To facilitate this, "Green Saturday" campaigns have got underway in the abovementioned provinces, southeast of Hanoi, to educate local people about the importance of a clean environment and support their efforts in improving their living standards. The main objective is to raise community awareness of the issues and enable people to maintain a clean environment by collecting and disposing of rubbish properly every day, and working together to clean up public areas on "Green Saturdays."
Communes are establishing local rubbish collection teams and the Project provides them with trolleys to collect household rubbish on a regular basis. The trolleys are built locally and officially presented to the rubbish teams at a ceremony to launch the "Green Saturday" campaign in each commune.
The launch ceremony is a gala occasion for everyone in the commune to participate. A stage is set and festively decorated in a central location, and banners with environmental slogans are hung along the streets to encourage people to clean up their villages. Present in large numbers are children wearing their school jackets and bearing flags and signs indicating their village; they enthusiastically beat drums and sing songs to rally support for the clean-up campaign.
After a curtain raiser with songs and dances, the PMU director, commune leaders, and captain of the rubbish collection team make speeches to encourage the people to participate in the environmental campaign. The trolleys are presented to the rubbish team by the PMU director and commune leader, and "christened" by ringing their attached bells that will be used to call people to deposit their rubbish on collection days. Finally, everyone follows the team out into the streets to pick up rubbish and transport it to the communal/village dumping site.
Such ceremonies are only the beginning of a long term effort to improve conditions in the communes. It is hoped that commune leaders and communication boards will continue to encourage and remind people about environmental sanitation regularly, and support the rubbish collection teams in their routine job. The bottom line is that everyone in the community is committed to joining hands and working towards a "greener", healthier and more beautiful Vietnam.
Simon de Bruxelles, Times Online 31 Dec 09;
Like most families, the Strausses have a bin full of rubbish awaiting collection after the festive season. The difference in their case is that it contains all the refuse they have generated in an entire year.
Last new year, Rachelle and Richard Strauss and their eight-year-old daughter Verona made a resolution to recycle as much as possible. By making sure that they buy only products with recyclable packaging, using their own containers when shopping and re-using as much as possible, they have cut their waste to less than 100g (3.5oz) a week.
Most of the waste in the bin consists of empty packets from Verona’s favourite crisps. But even here they have been able to cut down on what they throw away.
Mrs Strauss said: “The shiny silver packets can’t be recycled at present, but what Verona does is buy one big bag of crisps a week, and keep them in an airtight container.” The family’s challenge has led to a successful website www.myzerowaste.com, where readers suggest green ways of disposing of items such as toilet seats, or uses for the dregs of a jar of pesto sauce that does not involve landfill.
The couple, from Longhope, near Gloucester, decided on the challenge after watching a television programme about the danger to wildlife from discarded plastic packaging. Mrs Strauss said: “I started off taking reusable bags when I went shopping, and it just grew from there.
“Most people feel helpless and somewhat disempowered when it comes to helping the environment, but our message is that if everyone in Britain recycled just one can a year, that would still be 60 million fewer cans going into landfill, so it is possible for individuals to make a difference.”
The refuse-free lifestyle begins with making the right choices at the check-out. The family try to avoid buying products that do not come in recyclable packaging. Fruit and vegetables are home-grown or bought loose. Even their choice of shampoo is dictated by the packaging. Clothes come from charity shops and all food left-overs are either eaten or composted.
When an environmentally friendly alternative is not available, they do something about it.
“I could just not buy it. But I would be just one, and there are millions who do, so I will return packaging to the manufacturer with a letter explaining my reasons,” said Mrs Strauss.
“I have also discovered that many stores have access to recycling facilities not available to the public.
“I discovered this when I bought a lampshade that came wrapped in plastic that the recycling facility wouldn’t take. The assistant said they could have it recycled, so I was able to leave it in the shop.”
Even yoghurt pots that are not normally recyclable are sent to a specialist plant. Finding a way to dispose of toothpaste tubes was the subject of lively discussion on their blog. Mrs Strauss then found a company that sold toothpaste in a recyclable aluminium container.
The environmentally friendly lifestyle even extends to lighting and heating their home. Mr Strauss, 53, a water engineer, installed LED lighting powered by a solar panel. They use a wood burner to heat both the house and their hot water, with an immersion heater for summer.
After a year of virtually waste-free living, the family are looking forward to this year’s resolution: to throw away nothing at all in the next 12 months. Mrs Strauss said: “It won’t be easy but I am sure we can do it.”
The family’s under-employed metal dustbin is due to be emptied for the first time in a year on January 13, before it is itself recycled. Mrs Strauss said: “We will be sure to give it a proper send-off.”
Yahoo News 31 Dec 09;
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Residents of the US capital may have to dig a little deeper into their pockets when they go grocery shopping once the city slaps a five-cent levy on each plastic bag issued at the checkout line.
The measure, which takes effect on January 1, 2010 and is the first such initiative in the United States, seeks to make consumers bear the brunt of clean up costs for the bags which currently are dispensed for free with a customer's purchases.
Plastic bags, while popular with shoppers, often end up clinging to tree branches, tangled in power lines, polluting rivers and clogging up storm drains.
"I signed this law in July to cut down on the disposable bags that foul our waterways," said Mayor Adrian Fenty in a statement last month, saying that one particularly urban waterway, the city's Anacostia River, has been particularly befouled by the plastic shopping bags.
"Our research shows that plastic bags are a major component of the trash in the Anacostia River," said Maureen McGowan, interim director of the city's environment department.
"By taking disposable bags out of production and out of the waste stream, everyone who goes to the store can help keep the waters clean," McGowan said.
And Fenty noted that part of the money collected will be spent toward cleanup of the Anacostia.
"We want everyone to know that you can save the river, and five cents, if you bring your own reusable bag to the store instead," the mayor said.
Under the new law, city businesses that sell food or alcohol must charge customers five cents for every disposable paper or plastic carryout bag. The law also requires that these bags be recyclable and carry a message encouraging recycling."
To prepare for the change, the city government has distributed some 122,000 reusable shopping bags to elderly and low-income residents who complain that their limited spending power will be further hampered by the levy.
The measure is opposed by the American Chemistry Council, which says standard issue plastic bags already are reusable and work just fine.
"Most major grocery and retail chains currently offer programs that allow shoppers to bring back plastic bags and all sorts of product wraps for recycling," the group said in a statement earlier this year in which it called the new levy "misguided and unnecessary."
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post 31 Dec 09;
Over 12,000 people in Lampung have reportedly contracted the mosquito-borne chikungunya disease since mid December, the highest recorded number in the last ten years, says the provincial Health Agency.
Although the disease is not deadly, many victims have been forced to stay in bed for a week due to joint pains they said made them feel like they were paralyzed.
“I had to drop my New Year celebration plans thanks to the illness,” Rohadi, 46, of West Tanjungkarang, Bandarlampung, said on Wednesday.
He said that he and his children had gone to a local community health center (Puskesmas) to seek medical treatment, but were still yet to recover from the disease.
Most of the chikungunya sufferers in the province are being treated at home or at the nearest Puskesmas.
So far, Tulangbawang and Mesuji have been reported as the worst-hit regencies in the province, where the disease has affected between 3,000 and 4,000 people in both regions consecutively.
Mesuji is a former transmigration area and the majority of its population comes from Java and Bali, where numerous swamps are left abandoned.
“None of the sufferers in Mesuji are receiving medical treatment at hospital.
“Most of them don’t consider the disease deadly although it tortures them with pain and decreases their ability to work,” said the head of the regency health agency, Anindito.
He added that most of the sufferers had complained of joint and bone pains. Yet, he assured the disease would not paralyze them.
“They will recover by themselves in five to seven days,” Anindito said.
Meanwhile in West Lampung, the regency health agency reported that 930 people were suffering from chikungunya, most of whom lived near or inside the forest.
They are spread across 10 subdistricts in the Bengkunat-Belimbing district, with Penyandingan the worst-hit subdistrict.
The chikungunya virus is contracted through the bite of the aedes aegypti mosquito.
Once infected, victims develop a high fever, reddish spots, joint pains, vomiting, flu symptoms and headaches.
Some call the disease the bone flu in reference to its specific symptoms.
Head of the Lampung Health Agency Reliyani said her office was inventing the number of sufferers across the province and would use the data to help rid the province of the disease.
“Fogging is not the best answer to dealing with the disease.
“A healthy lifestyle and 3M plus practises are a better alternative,” said Reliyani, referring to the abbreviated term of periodically cleaning water containers as a preventive measure.
Ben Webster, Times Online 31 Dec 09;
Global warming has caused a seven-fold increase in cases of malaria on the slopes of Mount Kenya, a British-funded research team has found.
A 2C increase in average temperatures around the mountain in the past 20 years has allowed the disease to creep into higher altitude areas, where the local population of four million has little or no immunity.
The researchers, funded by the Department for International Development (DfID), found that the average temperature in the Kenyan Central Highlands had risen from 17C in 1989 to 19C today.
Before the 1990s malaria was absent from the region because the parasite that causes it can mature only above 18C. However, malaria epidemics began among the population as average temperatures went over the 18C tipping point. The number of people contracting malaria during these epidemics has increased seven-fold in the past decade. In 2005, malaria-carrying anopheles mosquitoes were discovered in Naru Moro, more than 6,175ft (1,900m) above sea level.
The team, from the Kenyan Medical Research Institute, said that while similar outbreaks elsewhere had been attributed to multiple factors, including drug resistance and changes in land use, the only change here had been the rise in temperature.
A DfID spokesman said the research had also concluded that emissions from human activity, rather than natural climate variability, were responsible for the change in temperature. He said: “The seven-fold increase is directly attributable to man-made climate change. One of the problems in making the link between climate change and malaria is that natural factors usually have a part to play.
“For instance some claim that the recent outbreak of malaria around Nairobi has been caused by climate change when in fact this probably has more to do with changes in drainage systems and population expansion. But in the Central Highlands the researchers have been able to rule these out and directly attribute the change to a 2C increase in the average temperature.”
The institute is using climate models to predict when epidemics might occur up to three months in advance, giving authorities time to stock up on medicine and warn the public of dangers. It is also using church meetings and local health clinics to educate people in high-altitude areas on how climate change could be leading to the spread of malaria to their area.
In the West Kenyan highlands, where malaria has been present since the late 1980s, programmes have been providing mosquito nets for people to sleep under. DfID has handed out 14 million bed nets since 2001. But because malaria is relatively new here, fewer than half of those who own bed nets use them, DfID said.
The institute’s work is one of 46 projects across Africa supported by the Climate Change Adaptation for Africa programme sponsored by DfID.
Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, said: “The spread of malaria in the Mount Kenya region is a worrying sign of things to come.”
Climate change increasing malaria risk, research reveals
UK-funded research shows climate change has caused a seven-fold increase in cases of malaria on the slopes of Mount Kenya
Press Association guardian.co.uk 31 Dec 09;
Rising temperatures on the slopes of Mount Kenya have put an extra 4 million people at risk of malaria, research funded by the UK government warned today.
Climate change has raised average temperatures in the Central Highlands region of Kenya, allowing the disease to creep into higher altitude areas where the population has little or no immunity.
The findings by a research team funded by the UK Department for International Development (DfID), showed that seven times more people are contracting the disease in outbreaks in the region than 10 years ago.
The team from the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (Kemri) said that while similar outbreaks elsewhere have been attributed to multiple factors including drug resistance and changes in land use, the only change on Mount Kenya is a rise in temperature.
The average temperature in the Central Highlands was 17C in 1989, with malaria completely absent from the region. This is because the parasite which causes malaria can only mature above 18C.
But with temperatures today averaging 19C, mosquitos are carrying the disease into high altitude areas and epidemics have begun to break out among humans.
Kemri is using climate models to predict when epidemics might occur up to three months in advance, giving authorities time to stock up on medicine and warn the public of the dangers.
The institute is also using church meetings and local health clinics to educate people in high-altitude areas on how climate change could be leading to the spread of malaria into their area.
In the west Kenyan highlands, where malaria has been present since the late 1980s, programmes have been providing mosquito nets for people to sleep under - with DfID providing 14m bed nets since 2001.
But because malaria is a relatively new phenomenon, less than half of those who own bed nets use them, DfID said.
In areas where researchers have been encouraging people to use them the incidence of malaria has dropped markedly and epidemics have been all but eradicated.
The international development secretary, Douglas Alexander, said: "The spread of malaria in the Mount Kenya region is a worrying sign of things to come.
"Without strong and urgent action to tackle climate change, malaria could infect areas without any experience of the disease.
"That's why we need to make sure vulnerable, developing nations such as Kenya have the support they need to tackle the potentially devastating impacts of climate change."
Yahoo News 31 Dec 09;
HANOI (AFP) – The Red River that divides Hanoi is at its lowest level in more than a century, and global warming could be a factor, a Vietnamese official said on Thursday.
"The level of the Red River was measured at only 0.66 metres (2.2 feet) on Tuesday morning, the lowest level in more than 100 years," said Le Thanh Hai, deputy director of the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.
Vietnam is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, the United Nations says.
The drying out of the Red River, spanned by several bridges, has left fishing boats stranded and exposed much of the river bed.
"There isn't yet clear scientific proof to say that this phenomenon is linked to climate change but I think there is a link between the two," Hai told AFP.
He blamed the low water levels on the year's short rainy season, warming because of the El Nino weather effect, and construction of hydro-electric projects on rivers in southern China and northern Vietnam.
"I think that the dryness which is hitting several rivers in northern provinces of Vietnam could continue at least until March or April 2010," Hai said.
Yahoo News 31 Dec 09;
BEIJING (AFP) – China is set to become the world's third largest wind power producer in 2009, state media reported, as the Asian giant seeks various ways to expand energy supply to power its economic boom.
The country's installed wind power capacity will reach 20 gigawatts this year, said Shi Lishan, vice director of the National Energy Administration's New Energy Department, the Xinhua news agency said Wednesday.
That will lift China to surpass Spain and become the world's third biggest wind power producer after the United States and Germany, the report said.
The United States had 25.2 gigawatts in installed capacity of wind power in 2008, or 20.8 percent of the world's total, compared with China's capacity of 12.2 gigawatts, figures from the Global Wind Energy Council showed.
At the end of last year, Spain had 16.8 gigawatts of installed wind power, the council said.
China, which relies on coal for more than 70 percent of its energy, is the world's largest emitter of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
But it has set a target of generating 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources -- mainly wind and water -- by 2020.
The country was criticised for obstructing the adoption of a treaty on climate change during an international summit in Copenhagen earlier this month.
However, in a move signalling its commitment to cutting emissions, the nation last week adopted a law supporting the renewable energy industry by obliging electricity grid firms to buy all the power produced from renewable sources.
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