Best of our wild blogs: 11 Jan 10

New guide books from the Singapore Science Centre: Mosses and Sponges from Habitatnews

Ubin
from Singapore Nature

Dead Fish Patrol: Chek Jawa, Pulau Ubin
on the wild shores of singapore with mud slinging mudskippers, frenzied fiddler crabs and marvellous mangroves

Bitten by a Bittern
from Biodiversity Singapore

Paradise tree snake @ Ubin
from sgbeachbum

Long-tailed Shrike impales lizard
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Tanah Merah Beach
from encounters with nature

Cry naught
from The annotated budak

Monday Morgue: 11th January 2010
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

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Plankton bloom monitored by AVA

Straits Times Forum 11 Jan 10;

I REFER to the letters, 'Set up body to handle food crises' (last Tuesday) by Mr Liu Fook Thim, and 'A wake-up call for Singapore' (last Friday) by Mr Winston Lee.

Plankton blooms can happen very quickly if the conditions are right. For example, a combination of factors like sudden shifts in the weather between bouts of sunshine and heavy rain; nutrients from the land washed into the sea by the rain; and little water exchange from rising and ebbing tides.

While the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) already has in place a programme to monitor the water quality in coastal fish farming areas regularly, there are currently no foolproof methods that can accurately predict an impending bloom.

The monitoring programme has to be complemented by good aquaculture practices, including preventive measures to minimise fish kills during incidents of plankton bloom. Such practices include avoiding overstocking of netcages under normal situations, and, in the event of a bloom, the capacity to lower stocking densities even further and having aerators and pumps to disperse the plankton bloom and increase oxygen in the water.

In the recent case of plankton bloom, AVA was alerted about fish deaths in the Pasir Ris Beach area on Dec 26. Investigations were conducted immediately and fish farmers were quickly advised on mitigation measures for plankton bloom. AVA officers were also at the farms daily to monitor water conditions and give technical advice to the farmers.

AVA will continue to work with experts and agencies to develop an early alert system that is tailored to local conditions to strengthen our monitoring system. We will also work with the farmers to strengthen their contingency plans, such as putting in place appropriate aeration systems to prepare for similar situations.

Goh Shih Yong
Assistant Director, Corporate Communications
for Chief Executive Officer
Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority
Ministry of National Development

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Python no threat: Police response

Straits Times Forum 11 Jan 10;

'Police will respond if there is danger to the public.'

DSP PAUL TAY, assistant director, media relations, Public Affairs Department, Singapore Police Force: 'I refer to last Monday's letter by Mr Robert Shen, 'Police just asked her to call the pest controllers. Aren't they here to protect?'.

The police will respond to all cases of wild animals found in public areas if there is imminent danger to the public. Similarly, when an animal found in a private compound poses an immediate danger to life, the police will also respond.

However, in this case, the police operator who received the call rightly assessed that there was no immediate danger posed by the python. That was why the caller was advised to contact a pest control company.

The 999 Call Centre is an emergency call centre. It is not feasible for the 999 officers to contact the pest control company on behalf of members of the public, as the centre handles a large number of emergency calls on a daily basis. In this security climate, the police must prioritise and deploy scarce resources to tackle the twin challenges of crime and terrorism.

Diverting resources to assist requests such as helping to contact pest control or other vendors will mean a reduced capacity to attend to incoming urgent calls.'

Python scare
Straits Times Forum 4 Jan 10;

'Police just asked her to call the pest controllers. Aren't they here to protect?'

MR ROBERT SHEN: 'I refer to last Thursday's report, 'Help... there's a snake in my room'. I was shocked to read that when the Canadian woman called the police to report a python in her house, the police just asked her to call the pest controllers. Aren't they here to serve and protect? At the very least, the police should have contacted the experts, got them to deal with the situation and sent a patrol car to her house to see if everyone was safe.'

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Dengue cases in Singapore fall for third straight year

Ng Lian Chong/Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia 10 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE: The number of dengue cases in Singapore has fallen for the third consecutive year.

4,452 people caught dengue last year, of whom eight died, according to the Ministry of Health. There were 6,754 cases in 2008 and 8,637 in 2007.

During a dengue epidemic in 2005, there were nearly 14,000 cases and 25 deaths.

Research on the virus suggests the number of dengue cases tends to spike every six to seven years. Hence, Singapore is likely to see a surge in cases within the next two years.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) says it will continue to target dengue hotspots, especially in outdoor areas like construction sites. It is confident it will be able to control the dengue fever situation in Singapore.

NEA's CEO, Andrew Tan, said: "So long as we keep up the vigilance, we will be able to keep the incidents low. Going forward, we will continue to have these strategies where we have to tackle the problem at the source. There is a lot of public education that needs to be done."

- CNA/ir

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Estate to get recycling bin at each block

Admiralty Drive pilot project part of efforts to achieve 60% national recycling rate by 2012
Straits Times 11 Jan 10;

RESIDENTS in Admiralty Drive will have a recycling bin at every HDB block as part of a pilot project to get more people to recycle.

The six-month-long project by the National Environment Agency (NEA), recycling company SembWaste and Canberra constituency will involve 14 HDB blocks.

The current arrangement for such bins in HDB estates is for five blocks to share one bin, which is emptied by waste collectors every week.

MP for Sembawang GRC Lim Wee Kiak said at the launch of the programme yesterday: 'Some residents complain that it's now too far away for them to walk, so we hope having one bin under every block will solve that.'

He asked the National Development Ministry to consider including recycling chutes when building new flats, and making it a building requirement in the future.

The pilot project in his constituency, said Dr Lim, would be a small step towards helping to achieve the goal of a national recycling rate of 60 per cent by 2012. The current rate is 56 per cent.

Residents at Admiralty also had the option of keeping their recyclable items in their homes for two weeks before collectors came around fortnightly. This option will be suspended during the pilot scheme period to better assess how many residents prefer recycling bins.

Admiralty Drive resident Bernadette Sayson prefers making the trip downstairs to deposit her recycling instead of keeping it at home for two weeks.

Said the industrial engineer: 'Sometimes we have so many things we want to recycle. It gets too much such that we can't wait for them to come and collect it, so we just throw it out as garbage.'

The 29-year-old added: 'Having a bin downstairs would be much more convenient than having to walk a few blocks away.'

The extra recycling bins should also solve the problem of overflowing bins, said Dr Lim. SembWaste estimates that increasing the number of recycling bins will raise its costs by 10 to 15 per cent, but believes the extra recyclable material collected will make up the difference.

If the project proves to be a success, it could be rolled out to other neighbourhoods islandwide, said Dr Lim.

MARIA ALMENOAR

Sembawang pilot project to improve recycling habit
Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia 10 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE: A six-month pilot project to improve the recycling habit by increasing the number of recycling bins in the neighbourhood kicked off in Sembawang on Sunday.

Singapore generated nearly six million tonnes of rubbish in 2008. Of this, just over half was recycled. But steps are underway to help more residents go green.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak, MP for Sembawang GRC, said: "The target of 60% recycling rate by 2012 is something we have to work towards together. Some residents complain it's too far for them to walk (to the recycling bins). So to entice them further, (it's) better to bring the recycling bins closer (to them)."

The pilot project covering 14 HDB blocks in Sembawang will see one recycling bin for each block, instead of the usual one bin for every five blocks.

Currently the recyclable materials in this precinct are collected door to door fortnightly. However, for the period of the pilot phase, this will be suspended.

This is in order to gauge the effectiveness of the pilot project and the willingness of the residents to come down from their flats and deposit their recyclables in the new bins.

Residents' reactions to the changes are mixed.

"If they put the bin just near the lift or near the block, it's no problem (for me to deposit the recyclables)," said a resident.

"It's much better if they can collect from my door. The bin is always full, from what I see. And, sometimes people will dig into the bin and mess up the whole place," said another.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) said getting residents to recycle properly is still an issue.

Tan Puay Cheow, executive engineer for NEA's Waste Minimisation Section, said: "Sometimes, we do have residents who deposit recyclables around the bin instead of inside the bin. It can cause rodents problem. We have residents who deposit food waste which can contaminate the recyclables, making all these recyclables rubbish or waste."

Still, Dr Lim hopes that with public education, things will improve. If the pilot scheme works, he hopes to push for it to be extended nation-wide.

While there is no cost involved for now, SembWaste estimates that increasing the number of bins to one per block and adding more manpower - if the project is expanded - will correspondingly increase cost by about 10 to 15 percent. This could be reduced if they generate more revenue from the additional recyclable materials collected.

And, Dr Lim hopes that flats or condos could have a separate rubbish chute for recycling bins. "That will make recycling a breeze and a way of life," he said.

- CNA/ir

Recycling is just a ride down in the lift
Alicia Wong Today Online 11 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE - Going greener is just a lift ride away.

Residents in Canberra constituency used to haul their recyclables to a bin that could be located a few blocks away. Now, they need only bring them downstairs.

A six-month pilot project now provides for one recycling bin per Housing and Development Board block instead of one for every five blocks.The first of its kind in Singapore, it was launched yesterday by the constituency, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and SembWaste.

It involves about 1,500 units in 14 blocks in Admiralty Drive.

But there is a trade-off - the fortnightly door-to-door collection of recyclable rubbish within the blocks has been suspended for the same period to gauge residents' willingness to bring their items down for recycling.

Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC Lim Wee Kiak said he does not expect many complaints. Residents like to get rid of their recyclables as soon as possible, rather than collecting them for two weeks.

"We want to increase the recycling rate. The current (national) rate of 56 per cent is very good, but the target of 60 per cent recycling rate by 2012 is something we all have to work together," said Dr Lim.

"Some residents complain it's too far for them to walk (to the bins). So to entice them further, (it's) better to bring the recycling bins closer."

Dr Lim said he will push for the project to be a national programme if NEA's evaluation shows the pilot project to be successful.

An additional 10 bins plus more manpower is now required and these will increase costs by up to 15 per cent, said SembCorp Environment's senior vice-president for asset management C K Lim.

A corresponding 15 to 20 per cent increase in recyclables is needed to generate more revenue as the company is not charging extra for its service.

For now, one challenge is to educate residents on which items can be recycled.

The bins can be contaminated by food waste which turn all the recyclables into "rubbish", said Mr Tan Puay Cheow, NEA's executive engineer for waste minimisation.

Resident Oh Ah Moy, 70, said, "It's very convenient to have the bins downstairs ... (going to the bins) is like exercise."

Having a recycling bin under each block might also increase their awareness. Mdm Li, a resident for 10 years, did not even know there were such bins in her estate. ALICIA WONG

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"Amazing race" participants use public transport to spread green message

Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia 10 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE: You can reduce your carbon footprint by as much as 91 percent if you opt to take the MRT train instead of your car. That's according to the South West Community Development Council.

And to spread the message of going green, some 500 youths took part in an "amazing race"-type event using public transport.

While having fun, they also raised money for charity.

Every kilometre they travelled was sponsored by South West CDC and public transport operator SMRT, raising $30,000 for the transport expenses of the needy elderly.

Sunday's event comes against a background of a drop in the number of Singaporeans using public transport - from 63% in 2004 to 59% in 2008.

- CNA/ir

Destination: A greener Earth
Straits Times 11 Jan 10;

Some 100 youths including 23-year-old Brian Kek took to the streets yesterday to persuade people to reduce their carbon footprints by taking public transport more.

Through this campaign, the South West Community Development Council and SMRT hope to get more Singaporeans to use public transport instead of driving.

The two-week campaign also aims to raise $30,000 to help 300 needy senior citizens with their transport expenses.

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More Singaporeans have weekend homes in Iskandar, Johor

Four in 10 residents in south Johor special zone are Singaporean
By Kimberly Spykerman & Teh Joo Lin, Straits Times 11 Jan 10;

AFTER a leisurely lunch on his patio, Mr Zulkifli Mansor can walk out to a putting green and practise a few strokes of golf - and he doesn't even have to leave his home.

From his balcony, Mr Tio Hong Tjoen sometimes casts a reel into the stream winding around his home. The Singapore permanent resident has caught fish weighing up to 3kg.

Mr Zulkifli, a 47-year-old civil servant, and Mr Tio, 53, who is in the furniture business, are among an increasing number of Singaporeans and permanent residents buying high-end homes across the Causeway, mainly as weekend residences.

From his doorstep, Mr Zulkifli can point out eight other properties belonging to Singaporeans in a neighbourhood of about 170 homes.

'In fact, the first group to welcome us to the neighbourhood was Singaporean,' he told The Straits Times. He bought his home about three months ago as a holiday retreat for his wife and son. His mother-in-law and sister-in-law live there permanently.

His two-storey house is in a gated estate fronted by burly security guards - a far cry from the days when Singaporean-owned homes in Johor Baru made headlines as prime targets for burglaries.

And with relatively few restrictions on home ownership in Malaysia - the houses have to be at least two-storeys high and until recently had to cost a minimum of just RM250,000 (S$103,000)- Singaporeans are finding it a breeze across the border. The minimum cost has just doubled to RM500,000.

Mr Zulkifli's roomy 2,140 sq ft house sits in a lush garden and cost him RM298,000 - much less than what he would have had to fork out for a three-room HDB flat here.

'Every month I pay a $630 instalment on the house which is less than the $800 I pay for my car - and I can't live in my car!' he quips.

Mr Zulkifli's house is on an estate known as Nusa Idaman, one of at least four sprawling housing estates within South Johor's Iskandar Malaysia project, which is being touted as a high-class resort area.

The Iskandar Regional Development Authority, which oversees the development of the 2,217 sq km area, says Singaporeans occupy about four in 10 homes there. Another three in 10 are occupied by other foreigners, mainly expatriates working in Singapore, with the remainder owned by Malaysians.

Iskandar Malaysia was designated as a special economic zone in Johor in 2006. Besides upmarket housing, plans are in the pipeline to build universities, top-notch medical facilities and theme parks.

The residential estates are none too shabby either, and home owners say the construction quality is good.

Homes in the luxurious Horizon Hills are set against a private golf course. Residents in the nearby Leisure Farm Resort have horse-riding facilities, and at Nusa Idaman, there is a kindergarten on the estate.

The fear of being a target of burglars has by and large been put paid to as well, with developers cottoning on to the concerns and touting high-levels security features to reel Singaporeans in.

Back in 2006, 37 Singaporeans launched a petition to the Malaysian High Commission for Singapore, asking for help following a spate of burglaries in a condominium in Bandar Seri Alam in Johor. Their units were completely ransacked and stripped of electrical wiring and light fixtures.

Mr Tio, who bought a weekend home in Leisure Farm Resort, says: 'It's very safe. Security is one of the reasons I bought a unit here.'

The neighbourhoods are fenced in and have several levels of security, such as CCTV monitoring and former Nepalese army guards on 24-hour patrol.

Developers Mulpha International even paid for a manned police station to be built just outside the main entrance of the the Leisure Farm estate.

'We have had a few attempted break-ins in the past 12 years but with no harm, casualties or monetary loss. We are trying our level best to keep our record low and as close to zero as possble,' a spokesman added.

With the promise of better security and property prices soaring at home in the last few years, Singaporeans have been looking northwards, charmed by the prospect of open space and quiet.

Developers say that interest has grown stronger in the past two to three years with the 'aggressive promotion of Iskandar Malaysia'.

There are advertisements in local newspapers, roadshows in hotels and even charter buses to take interested Singaporeans to South Johor - a 15 minute drive from the Second Link - to view the developments.

Mr Zulkifli makes the hour-long drive from his home - a flat in Jurong East - whenever he is on leave and his son is on vacation from school.

Sometimes he goes to the nearby kampung, a 15 minute drive away, for a walk to unwind.

Mr Tio, an Indonesian who is now a Singapore permanent resident, said: 'I come here with friends to eat and drink. In Singapore, where can you unwind?' He lives in a bungalow in the MacPherson area with his two daughters.

But there are drawbacks to living life far from the bustling city. The nearest supermarket is a 10 minute drive away. Many Singaporeans say that they prefer to live and work in Singapore,and have a weekend home to escape to.

Mr Zulkifli's wife, part-time wedding caterer Madam Amidah Ahmad, 47, said: 'Back in Singapore, I step out of my house and there is an NTUC there already.'

And home repairs are not always undertaken speedily.

Said 68-year-old remiser Tan Hui Nam: ' 'The system here is different, the work ethic and culture are different. You have to learn to be more patient.'

Also, while the estates are not far from the Second Link, the cost of driving back and forth can add up, with the tolls on both sides of the Causeway. A round trip can cost almost $20.

'I cannot live here on a full time basis because it's just too expensive to be driving in and out of Malaysia every day!' added Mr Tan.

Singaporean Arif Tan, 62, is shopping around for contractors to have a bungalow built to his specifications in Johor.

The owner of a transport company has made trips up to various showflats in the region and says he hopes to make the move with his wife and three grown children within three to five years.

It is part of his retirement plan, he says, adding: 'The cost of living in Singapore is just too high.'

Property experts say that buyers of property in the Iskandar Malaysia project should see their purchases as long-term investments, as the area is still in its developmental stages and not expected to realise its potential within the next five to 10 years. These properties are better off as holiday homes, they add.

Said PropNex chief executive Mohamed Ismail: 'There will be a continuous supply of more land and property, so new buyers will have a choice between resale homes and new properties. It will take some time for the development to attain maturity and for the resale market to become buoyant.'

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The end of consumerism: Our way of life is 'not viable'

New report says we must embrace a basic future to survive
Jonathan Owen, The Independent 10 Jan 10;

Ditch the dog; throw away (sorry, recycle) those takeaway menus; bin bottled water; get rid of that gas-guzzling car and forget flying to far-flung places. These are just some of the sacrifices we in the West will need to make if we are to survive climate change.

The stark warning comes from the renowned Worldwatch Institute, a Washington-based organisation regarded as the world's pre-eminent environmental think tank.

Its State of the World 2010 report published this week outlines a blueprint for changing our entire way of life. "Preventing the collapse of human civilisation requires nothing less than a wholesale transformation of dominant cultural patterns. This transformation would reject consumerism... and establish in its place a new cultural framework centred on sustainability," states the report.

"Habits that are firmly set – from where people live to what they eat – will all need to be altered and in many cases simplified or minimised... From Earth's perspective, the American or even the European way of life is simply not viable."

Nobel prize winner and microfinance expert Muhammad Yunus, writing in the foreword, describes the report as calling for "one of the greatest cultural shifts imaginable: from cultures of consumerism to cultures of sustainability".

Almost seven billion people are demanding ever greater quantities of material resources, decimating the world's richest ecosystems, and dumping billions of tons of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

And any actions taken by governments, or scientific advances to deal with climate change, are doomed to failure unless individuals get back to a basic way of life, concludes the report – which recommends things like borrowing books and toys from libraries instead of buying them, choosing public transport over the car, and growing food in community gardens. In addition, all products should be designed to last a lifetime and be completely recyclable.

A seismic shift in thinking is needed, according to senior researcher Erik Assadourian, project director of the report: "Making policy and technology changes while keeping cultures centred on consumerism and growth can only go so far. To thrive long into the future, human societies must shift their cultures so sustainability becomes the norm."

But the report's findings were attacked last night by Dr Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation. "Let's face it, by 2050, the combined population of China and India alone will have grown to three billion. By then, most Chinese and Indians will have adopted an urban lifestyle. This... makes demands for radical curbs in consumerism and CO2 emissions utterly unrealistic."

People need to be persuaded of the benefits of tackling climate change, rather than be presented with a "defeatist and doomsday scenario", according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). "Questions around consumption are not so much about the rate of it, but the fact that the full environmental impacts are not yet fully reflected inwhat is consumed... until environmental impacts are fully factored in, we need behaviours and/or production methods to change," said a DECC spokes-man.

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Look out! Abandoned terrapins about

Discarded pet turtles are turning up in urban ponds across the country – with devastating consequences for indigenous wildlife

Cahal Milmo, The Independent 11 Jan 10;

Normally, it begins with the unexplained absence of frogspawn. Then comes the slow but steady disappearance of dragonfly larvae, fish and ducklings. In extreme cases, there are vicious attacks on small dogs.

Around Britain, the placid calm of urban ponds and watercourses is being disturbed by a rapacious new menace – legions of abandoned pet terrapins.

Conservationists have issued a warning that hundreds of boating lakes, canals and waterways in towns and cities are infested with terrapins and small turtles which were bought as pets while brightly-coloured babies barely bigger than a 50p coin but dumped by owners unable to cope as they grew to mature carnivorous adults the size of a dinner plate.

The trend began in the early 1990s when thousands of red-eared terrapins, each capable of living up to 30 years, were bought by young fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoon. But ecologists have warned of a more recent second wave of releases which is seeing additional species, including the aggressive snapping turtle, dumped in the wild.

Although native to warmer climes such as America's Mississippi valley, the terrapins and turtles readily take up residence in Britain's parks and wetlands where they have a ready food supply, including young waterfowl.

Experts have seen examples of ponds stripped of wildlife by a population of just two or three terrapins.

Such is the scale of the problem that 51 terrapins and turtles, from five different species, were recently removed from a single pond in a north London park after the local authority called in a specialist trapper. Two years ago, a colony of 150 of the creatures was removed from the 25 ponds on Hampstead Heath and re-homed at a sanctuary in Tuscany.

The result is a double headache for conservation groups as they try to control the problem by trapping and removing the unwanted invaders but struggle to find new homes for the captives because of their longevity (some species can live for up to 50 years) and the costs of running a dedicated aquarium. One sanctuary receives unwanted animal at a rate of six a week.

John Baker, of the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) Trust, said: "When these animals are bought as babies they seem attractive pets. But they grow to a significant size and people think it is OK to take them to their nearest body of water and release them into places where they prey on native species and can spread disease.

"The additional problem is what to do with them once we find them. The law says they cannot be returned to the water and sanctuaries are often reluctant to take them. Caring for a terrapin is a major undertaking – they live for decades and we don't want to see them put down. People really need to be more responsible about buying them in the first place."

As committed scavengers without natural predators in Britain, terrapins and turtles find themselves at the top of the food chain in urban ponds and watercourses, chomping their way through a menu of native species that includes newts, fish, toads, frogspawn, larvae and, for the largest and most aggressive specimens, the occasional duckling or juvenile moorhen and coot.

Of particular concern is the common snapping turtle, a powerful American species, which has a vicious bite and is known for its aggression. One of the creatures was captured in the trawl of Clissold Park in Stoke Newington, which netted 51 critters, while another was suspected of carrying out attacks on several dogs and a Canada goose in east London.

Rebecca Turpin, London officer for the ARC Trust, said: "We should not underestimate the impact that these animals can have. They can decimate a pond. I personally know of several where there is no wildlife left because of a few resident terrapins.

"They can go through the native species pretty quickly if the conditions are correct."

The influx of red-eared terrapins to Britain in the early 1990s was halted by legislation banning imports of the species, but it has been replaced in the pet trade by a number of new types, including the yellow-belly slider, the Cumberland, the diamondback and the European pond turtle. Individual specimens can be bought for as little as £10.

Experts have consoled themselves with the fact that Britain's climate means that although the terrapins and turtles can survive, they are unable to breed because cooling temperatures in the autumn do not leave fertilised eggs enough time to hatch.

But the evidence in recent years is that a small numbers of juveniles has survived and prospered, raising the prospect of an established population across the British Isles.

Wayne Rampling, a terrapin expert who runs a trapping service and sanctuary in Essex, carried out the week-long operation to clear the pond at Clissold Park. He said: "In many ways they are beautiful creatures. But they are in the wrong places and they are extremely adaptable. In London we found several babies which suggest very strongly that they are beginning to breed. When you add to that the fact that every female can have three sets of five-to-35 eggs, the implications are obvious."

Escaped: The captives who now run wild

*Ring-necked parakeets, London

The lyrical screech of these iridescent-green Himalayan birds is now familiar across London and the south-east of England, where there is an estimated population of 40,000. One roost in a Surrey sports ground sometimes holds several thousand birds.

Legend has it that the first parakeets escaped from Shepperton Studios during filming of the 1951 film The African Queen, starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. Natural England, facing concerns that the population is damaging native wildlife and crops, lifted a ban on shooting the birds.

*Burmese pythons, Florida

The Everglades is now home to between 5,000 and 14,000 specimens of one of the world's largest snakes, left. Having escaped or been released by pet owners, these natives of Indian sub-continent have flourished in the Florida marshlands, there's now a bounty on all specimens hunted and killed.

*Giant African Land Snail

Measuring up to 20cm in length, these popular pets are responsible for widespread damage to crops in tropical and sub-tropical climates. Populations have been found in Hawaii, French Polynesia, India and Florida, where it is blamed for annual losses running into millions of pounds.

*American Mink, across Britain

Thousands of mink bred in captivity for the fur trade have been released in raids by animal rights activists in recent decades. Although many of them last only weeks in the wild, some have survived to form feral populations.

Read more!

Spain begins to flood park with peat fire

Harold Heckle, Associated Press Yahoo News 10 Jan 10;

MADRID – Hoping to save a dried Spanish wetland from an underground peat fire, the government has unleashed floodwaters onto an expanse of the marsh now under threat due to past water mismanagement.

The wetlands of Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park are recognized by UNESCO as environmentally valuable because of their importance to both resident and migrating birds.

Over the weekend, waters diverted 150 kilometers (93 miles) from the Tagus River began pouring from an underground pipe onto the wildlife sanctuary, in the central Castilla-La Mancha plain.

Environment Minister Elena Espinosa said while visiting the park on Saturday that the action was necessary "for the good of biodiversity."

The EU-protected park's wetlands have been drying for decades, and its lagoons now show just 1 percent of the surface water they did in 1981.

But much of the damage has been done in recent years, Espinosa said, as local farmers sank unauthorized wells to leech water from an underground aquifer maintaining the grasslands, while too much water has also been drawn from the Guadiana River that feeds the park's two main lagoons.

In August, an underground peat fire ignited spontaneously amid intense summer heat, sending smoke drifting up from the parched landscape too hot for any bird to want to land. Normally, the park is visited by Black-necked Grebes, Squaccos and Purple Herons, among others.

Following an EU investigation, Spain said it would divert 20 million cubic meters (700 million cubic feet) of water from the Buendia reservoir, on the Tagus. To avoid water loss through evaporation and ground seepage, the government also cleared the use of the pipeline, which normally carries Tagus water to La Mancha residents.

"This spring is going to be spectacular at Las Tablas, there is going to be plenty of water and many birds," said Jose Maria Barreda, president of the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha.

No one has been punished for illegally draining water from the park, some 185 kilometers (115 miles) south of Madrid. The Environment Ministry said in October it would seek to buy nearby land to halt water being drawn from wells.

Fire safety expert Dr. Guillermo Rein, of Edinburgh University, said heavy winter rains may also help douse the peat. "This water comes at a time when heavy rains in the region will help to reduce the water losses," he said Sunday.

Rein warned, however, that putting out an underground peat fire was not easy, and that the embers could smolder for another few months after the water transfer. He said it had taken three months of flooding to control a similar fire at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina in 2008.

___

On the Net:

Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park, http://www.lastablasdedaimiel.com

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Making e-waste recycling non-toxic

Oladele Ogunseitan, Straits Times 11 Jan 10;

ONE troy ounce (31g) of gold is now selling for approximately US$1,150 on the open market. The equivalent weight of platinum sells for US$1,450. High prices encourage more mining, but they don't begin to cover the cost to human health - and to the earth itself.

For example, thousands of children in China's Henan province are sick from lead poisoning because they live near a facility operated by Henan Yuguang Gold & Lead Company, one of the world's largest mining conglomerates.

But high prices are also encouraging many more people to extract precious metals from existing products - at great danger to themselves and others. Indeed, the world's population throws away nearly 10 ounces of gold and five ounces of platinum for every tonne of cellphones discarded in landfills or incinerated.

Other precious metals that are teased from the earth - including indium, gallium, palladium and ruthenium - are being discarded in much the same way as other forms of electronic waste (e-waste). So is tantalum, the essential constituent of the capacitors used in cellphones. Approximately 37 per cent of the world's supply of tantalum comes from Central Africa, where its mining has been linked to devastating wars and environmental pollution.

It can be argued that getting rid of high-tech e-waste in landfills is just another way of returning these precious metals to the earth where, millennia from now, it will have merged with the substrata, becoming just like any other ore.

But, along with the precious metals, e-waste also contains potent toxic chemicals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and brominated flame retardants. The short-term consequence of using landfills, shallow pits or incinerators to get rid of e-waste is the release of these noxious chemicals.

For more than a decade, the precious metallic component of e-waste has been fuelling a polarised international trade in potentially hazardous materials, with defunct electronic products exported to countries where labour is cheap. There, the prospect of recovering a fraction of an ounce of gold or platinum entices communities to discount heavily the risks and health effects of chronic exposure.

Compounding this problem is the diversity of national and international regulatory policies in place or being developed to manage e-waste.

The Basel Convention on the control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal is meant to level the playing field between countries that produce toxic waste and those that potentially consume it. Essentially, it seeks to neutralise sentiments such as those expressed in a memo attributed to Mr Lawrence Summers, former Harvard University president and now director of US President Barack Obama's National Economic Council: 'I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.'

The Basel Convention, now 20 years old, has struggled to keep up with new technologies, unpredictable loopholes and clandestine economic transactions involving hazardous waste. At its inception, no one could have predicted that, within two decades, electronic products would become a 50-million-tonne global problem looking for local solutions.

If sustainable solutions to the global e-waste problem are to be found, conscientious international cooperation will be needed.

Most proposals for managing e-waste fall into one of two major categories. One category calls for managing e-waste at one of the handful of sophisticated smelters that can recover precious metals from discarded electronic devices. For example, the Umicore Group in Belgium advertises itself as the world's largest recycler of electronic scrap, cellphones and laptop computers.

For numerous reasons, not every country can afford to build smelting facilities that operate at the high level claimed by Umicore. Hence, this strategy will require some cross-border shipment of e-waste. The major challenge, however, is the difficult work of collecting unwanted devices at the street level, and sorting and coordinating collected items for international distribution and processing.

The second major category of e-waste management strategies is to decentralise recycling while keeping the environmental impact of small-scale facilities at an acceptable level. In a way, this is already happening through cottage industries in countries such as China, Ghana, India and Nigeria, which employ ill-equipped artisans who are not sufficiently trained to avoid harmful procedures that contaminate the environment and end up harming themselves and their neighbours.

To work effectively, electronics manufacturers must assume some responsibility for training recyclers, in developing small-scale facilities that can operate at the regional level as well as in working with regulators to ensure appropriate safety and environmental monitoring schemes for such operations.

Ultimately, effective strategies for managing e-waste require the development of local infrastructures, aggressive coordination of community participation and international regulations that encourage sustainable manufacturing practices without stifling innovation.

The writer is professor of public health and of social ecology at the University of California, Irvine.

PROJECT SYNDICATE

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"Garbage Dreams" A Green Success Story

Frank Scheck, PlanetArk 11 Jan 10;

NEW YORK - Shortlisted for this year's feature-documentary Oscar race, "Garbage Dreams" is poised to benefit from the current passion for going green.

This portrait of the Zaballeen, the "garbage people" who for years have handled the mountains of trash produced by the city of Cairo, is an evocative examination of the clash between tradition and modernism in the handling of an age-old problem.

For decades, Cairo has not had organized sanitation service, relying instead on the Zaballeen, who garner their income not from the city but rather from recycling. Based in a nearby village, they have a "green" record that modern societies can only envy, reportedly recycling about 80% of the garbage they collect.

Director Mai Iskander, who also produced and photographed, concentrates on three teenagers who represent their breed. A colorful and photogenic lot, they are Adham, who specializes in mining soda cans for their valuable aluminum; Nabil, who dreams of having a wife and family; and Osama, the prankster of the group.

The film's central conflict concerns Cairo's decision to hire foreign multinational corporations to handle their ever-growing sanitation issues. Suddenly, the Zaballeen see their way of life threatened, though Osama, for one, decides to go to work for one of the interloping companies because of the economic security it provides. The most interesting segment concerns a sponsored trip to Wales undertaken by Adham and Nabil to study modern recycling practices. The latter is unimpressed, sniffing that the waste centers boast plenty of technology "but no precision."

Championed by Al Gore and the spur for a million-dollar donation by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, "Garbage" could ride its sociological importance to Oscar recognition.

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Global economy headed up...and so are food prices

Policymakers under pressure as signs of inflation emerge
Fiona Chan Straits Times 11 Jan 10;

ECONOMIC growth has yet to make it back to a firm footing, but policymakers in Asia are already being confronted with another emerging challenge: inflation.

Oil prices have been rallying in line with the global recovery, hitting levels above US$83 a barrel earlier this week, near a 15-month high.

Food prices are also rebounding from their 2009 lows, potentially increasing price pressures in Asian countries that are already seeing asset bubbles build up.

This has led economists such as Action Economics' David Cohen to predict that central banks in the region will have to start tightening monetary policy by the middle of this year.

This could include raising interest rates or appreciating their currencies.

Inflation recently peaked here at about 7.5 per cent in mid-2008. Runaway inflation, if it takes hold, can cripple an economy as too much cash, worth less and less, chases too few goods and services.

'Countries like South Korea and India are more likely to tighten policy earlier as they are facing higher inflationary pressures,' he said.

Mr Cohen thinks the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) may tighten policy - in Singapore's case, this is done by letting the Singapore dollar return to a path of gradual appreciation from the current policy of zero appreciation - only in October.

Unlike other central banks, MAS does not set interest rates. 'Inflation seems reasonably contained here right now, and the MAS may want to wait and see what other central banks are doing first,' Mr Cohen said.

But Barclays economist Leong Wai Ho believes that inflation in Singapore may start rising more sharply in the second quarter of the year, raising the probability that MAS will move to let the Singdollar appreciate earlier, in April.

MAS reviews its monetary policy twice a year, in April and October.

Mr Leong believes inflation will hit 4 per cent for the whole year, above the Government's forecast of 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.

The official forecast may not have factored in the risks of rising food prices, he said. Food makes up about a quarter of Singapore's consumer price index (CPI), the key measure of inflation. 'Singapore is more open than most countries and almost everything we eat is imported,' Mr Leong said.

One major example is Thai fragrant rice, the price of which has surged by 26 per cent since Nov 1, thanks to storms in the Philippines and drought in southern China, he said. 'At these levels, we're starting to see physical hoarding take place among Thai rice exporters, which means they probably have expectations that rice prices will go up even higher.'

And it is not just rice. Soya beans and edible oils like palm oil are also seeing a rise in prices, which in turn may make livestock more expensive since these crops go into animal feed.

While inflation still looks benign now - Singapore's CPI in November inched up 0.4 per cent from October but slid 0.2 per cent from a year earlier - price pressures are likely to increase in the coming months, Mr Leong said.

Already, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation has said that global food prices are on the rise again, as its food price index rose for a fourth straight month in November and hit its highest level since September 2008.

In India, food price inflation has been rising almost 20 per cent over a year ago, coming close to an 11-year high, said a report by Bloomberg last Thursday. Monsoon rains in the June to September period, India's main source of irrigation, were the lowest in almost 40 years, reducing production of rice, pulses and wheat.

Food prices are also rising in China - prices of vegetables shot up by as much as 10 per cent last week in some areas - as extreme cold weather damages crops and transportation problems hamper delivery.

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Largest U.S. farm group rallies against climate bill

Charles Abbott, Reuters 10 Jan 10;

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The largest U.S. farm group will oppose aggressively "misguided" climate legislation pending in Congress and fight animal rights activists, said American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman on Sunday.

In a speech opening the four-day AFBF convention, Stallman said American farmers and ranchers "must aggressively respond to extremists" and "misguided, activist-driven regulation ... The days of their elitist power grabs are over."

Stallman's remarks held a sharper edge than usual for the 6 million-member AFBF, the largest U.S. farm group and often described as the most influential. Its convention opens a string of wintertime meetings where farm groups take positions on public issues.

Climate legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives aims for a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared to 2005 levels. Senators are expected to draft a similar bill this year. Both envision a cap-and-trade system to curb emissions from factories and power plants and to allow the purchase of offsets.

Vast amounts of farmland could become carbon-capturing woodlands under cap-and-trade, "eliminating about 130,000 farms and ranches," said Stallman. One federal analysis says 8 percent of crop and pasture land could be turned into trees by 2050 because trees would be more profitable than crops.

Four dozen climate scientists wrote Stallman last week to argue AFBF divorce itself from "climate change deniers." AFBF opposed the House bill.

Animal rights activists would "destroy our ability to produce the meat that Americans want to eat," Stallman said, by barring modern production methods.

The Ohio Farm Bureau led a successful referendum last fall to create a 13-member state board, with strong farm representation, to set livestock handling rules. The vote pre-empted an expected drive this year to ban practices that activists regard as cruel.

Seven states have moved to ban sow gestation crates, including Michigan in 2009. Action against the cages began in Florida with a referendum in 2002. Five states have acted against veal crates and two bar "battery" cages for hens.

"Ohio's Ballot Issue 2 was a big win and one we must duplicate far and wide," said Stallman.

(Reporting by Charles Abbott; Editing Bernard Orr)

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