Best of our wild blogs: 31 Jan 10

Life History of the Two-Spotted Line-Blue
from Butterflies of Singapore

Of Red Eyes & Orange Bellies
from Black Dillenia

Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher casting pellet
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Cycling paths: Hikers need space too

Sunday Times 31 Jan 10;

I refer to the LifeStyle article, 'Cycle of strife' (Jan17), on clashes between motorists and cyclists on their right to use Singapore's roads.

My husband and I are avid hikers and cross-country runners who enjoy using the trails in public parks such as the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and out towards Chestnut Drive, where there are lots of trails shared by hikers, nature photographers, birdwatchers and cyclists - and where there is also a mountain biking course for people who want rough riding.

The Bukit Batok-Dairy Farm Road area also has an extensive network of bicycle trails.

In recent time, we have seen cyclists becoming increasingly disrespectful of pedestrians' rights on sidewalks and in nature parks.

We have had to jump out of the way for cyclists on paths in the nature reserve and Chestnut Drive area. Some cyclists could not be bothered to ring a bell or call out a warning, or even slow down, to allow for safe sharing of the paths.

The path from the nature reserve at Bukit Timah's Hindhede area - all the way around the park - has been prioritised for cyclists, so hikers and other pedestrians now face greater risk of getting injured by thoughtless cyclists.

However, over the last two years, I have seen more pedestrian than bicycle traffic on these trails.

So why are the parks being lost to bicycle traffic?

I think there must be a better solution. Pedestrians like me just like a safe and fair solution.

Rather than making cyclist-only paths - telling pedestrians to 'walk at your own risk' - couldn't we set aside perhaps four hours each Saturday and Sunday for the cyclists, keeping the pedestrians off the path during those hours, and at all other times, encourage safe and courteous sharing of the paths in our public parks?

Martha Stemberger (Ms)

Hikers, cyclists get their own space
Sunday Times 7 Feb 10;

We thank Ms Martha Stemberger for her feedback last Sunday, 'Cycling paths: Hikers need space too'.

Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is a popular destination among nature lovers and outdoor enthu-siasts. While we try to meet the different needs of our visitors, we are also mindful not to disturb the natural environment.

The mountain biking trail was built at the fringe of the reserve so that cyclists can enjoy their activity without impacting the core

forests or getting in the way of hikers. For safety concerns, hikers are advised not to use the mountain biking trail.

There are four walking trails within the reserve, offering different experiences for hikers.

Over the years, we have also added more walking trails in the surrounding area, including a Kampong Trail, which connects Bukit Timah and MacRitchie Reservoir Park.

Last year, we launched Dairy Farm Nature Park, which offers three nature trails, and the Western Adventure Park Connector Network, which links several parks in the north-western region.

We thank Ms Stemberger for her suggestion and hope she will continue to enjoy exploring the walking trails in our parks.

We also encourage all visitors to keep to the designated trails for safety and to protect the flora and fauna.

Members of the public are welcome to contribute their feedback or queries to the National Parks Board's 24-hour Quality Service Manager (QSM) Helpline on 1800-471-7300, or e-mail us at nparks_public_affairs@nparks.gov.sg

Sharon Chan (Ms)
Assistant Director
Central Nature Reserve
National Parks Board

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Three charged over sand smuggling to Singapore

New Straits Times 29 Jan 10;

JOHOR BARU: Three government servants -- two from the Customs Department and one from the State Land and Mines Office -- were charged at the Sessions Court yesterday with offences related to sand smuggling.

Johor Customs technical services personnel Kamarudin Ismail, 49, pleaded not guilty to three charges of accepting bribes totalling RM3,500 on three occasions last year to expedite and facilitate an application for the classification of items by Zacharias Kho.

Judge Salawati Djambari set bail at RM5,000 with one surety and fixed trial on May 10 to 12 next year.

In another court, Assistant Customs enforcement officer Syahrol Md Zain, 31, claimed trial to two charges of receiving a total of RM5,600 from Sendry Anak Ugi, 34, as inducement for him not to take action against lorry drivers who smuggled sand into Singapore.

Syahrol, of Taman Pulai Emas, Kangkar Pulai, was alleged to have received a RM2,400 from Sendry, 34, at Room 1252 of Hotel The Zon at Jalan Ibrahim Sultan here about 1.15pm last July 10 and RM3,200 from the same person at the Trevi Lounge at the Grand BlueWave Hotel here about 7.37pm last Aug 5.

State Land and Mines Office worker Johairi Ahmad, 41, was charged before with accepting RM800 on Aug 6, last year from Sendry as inducement for him not to take action on four lorries which smuggled sand into Singapore on Aug 6 last year.

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Facebook groups for the environmental and other causes in Malaysia

Striking up a group
Louisa Lim, The Star 30 Jan 10;

Welcome to the world of Facebook, where the number of hobbyist groups is astounding, and their creators even more so.

When news of 15-year-old American student Tess Chapin’s being grounded for five weeks broke out in The New York Times several weeks ago, people were flabbergasted.

It wasn’t because Chapin’s sentence far outweighed her mistake for missing her 11.30pm curfew.

It was because she had, with the help of Facebook, started a “teenage rebellion, electronic style — peaceful, organised and, apparently, contagious.”

Her group, “1,000 to get Tess ungrounded”, gathered enough support within just a few days of its start-up. Though it did not help Chapin’s campaign by any measure (her parents are sticking by their plan), it did propel this once-little known teenager to international infamy. Stranger still, people actually felt for her.

Now, a burgeoning number of people (and not to mention businesses) are taking their causes and obsessions to Facebook, where there are no rules (prompting various websites to generate their own list of “Facebook Etiquette’) and no boundaries (nine-year-olds to 90-year-olds are welcome).

This mushrooming of Facebook groups has evidently caught on even in Malaysia, where a simple search yields an astonishing stream of results from the serious (Malaysia Travel Network, Social Singles Society) to the not so serious (Malaysians Against Nasty Cabbies, Ramly Burger Appreciation Society) and the downright hilarious (Petition to Import Men to Malaysia, Why Malaysian Chinese Drama Sucks?).

While the virtues (and pitfalls) of Facebook have been trumpeted to death, many still do not know that it is also the ultimate place to take your passions further.

As enthusiasts begin to snub conventional forums in favour of Facebook, a myriad of hobbyist groups have started appearing on the site. Devotees band together from all over the world, discussing everything from wine to cameras (posting up videos and pictures to emphasise their point) with a sprinkle of light banter and mindless musings in between.

Although it’s somewhat difficult to find a group that remains active (with weekly postings and events) months after their formation, they are out there, like jewels in the rough.

That said, we are on a quest to find some of the more interesting Facebook groups created by locals for locals. Here is a list of the top five, certified as 100% original and credible by us.

Eco Warriors

Some things have the power to leave an impression on you forever: a stranger you met, a country you visited, a book you just read. For 42-year-old Matthias Gelber, it was an obscure German town where he grew up.

“Lippe was this little kampung with 500 inhabitants,” says the eco entrepreneur who has been living in Kuala Lumpur since 2005 under the Malaysia My Second Home programme.

“It was a town surrounded by nature. We’ll get snow for four months every year, and it was beautiful. But thanks to global warming, we hardly ever get snow anymore, and even if we do, it’s only for a couple of days. I could see the damage global warming was doing to it, and I knew I had to do something."Since then, Gelber has tirelessly campaigned for the environment by changing the way he lived. He gets around on public transport and promotes the use of green technology. He also made a pledge to plant 1,000,000 trees to make up for his carbon footprint.

All his efforts were documented on YouTube, earning him the title of “Greenest Person on The Planet’’ from the Canadian environmental organisation 3rd Whale.

But these achievements weren’t quite enough for the go-getting Gelber, who wanted to get others to walk the talk.

In November 2008, he created a Facebook group with a mission to “deliver fast and comprehensive positive environmental change in Malaysia, because Copenhagen has shown that there’s only so much governments can do.” It has amassed over 3,000 members since, although this figure is rising by the day.

“One of our members has managed to organise a simultaneous planting of 85,000 trees in the Raja Musa Peat Swamp near Kuala Selangor,” he says. “We’ve also managed to recruit 10,000 volunteers to plant trees on World Forest Day.”

Aside from tree planting activities, the group also conducts recycling campaigns in condominiums, awareness programmes through educational trips to nearby rainforests and swamps as well as environmental symposiums. Their next big project? Garden makeovers for children’s homes.

“We’ll be visiting Bandar Harapan Children’s Home in Ara Damansara, KL, to turn the garden into a sustainable organic farm so that the children can learn how to grow and cultivate their own vegetables.”

But perhaps Gelber’s biggest claim to fame is that he is interested in the outcome, rather than financial or political gains.

“That’s the problem with most NGOs these days,” he says. “They’re too obsessed with being visible. I just want to get things done.”

Scubaholics Anonymous

“Alcoholic, shopaholic . . . we’re just as hardcore as the other ‘holics’,” jokes founder of the group Mohan Thanabalan, 35.

“That’s why I came up with the name. I have to scuba dive at least once a month. Ever since I was certified in 2004, I’ve been an incurable addict.”

It all started when he was a young kid.

“My uncles were certified divers. Each time I went to visit them, I would put on their tanks and flippers and waddle around their house. I thought it was the coolest thing.”

Today, Mohan, who has a day job as a marketing supervisor, says everyone (colleagues included) knows that his motto is “dive now, work later”.

Even before Facebook was a faint glimmer of an idea in someone’s head, the enterprising lad had begun organising diving trips to the islands of Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia for his friends — all for a fee.

“More and more people started joining us because solo dives are no fun,” he says. “Then I created the Facebook group in early 2008 to expand our network of divers.”

To date, the group has over 350 members, 50 of whom are active and have accompanied him during recent diving trips to Mabul and Sipadan off the coast of Sabah, as well as Komodo Island in Indonesia. They’ve also had a gathering called the “Wild Teh Tarik Party” recently, to share and reminisce about diving trips in 2009. Next on their list: three days in Padang, Indonesia.

Non-divers, however, are always welcome to join the group.

“I’ve planned certification trips through Facebook for people who want to learn how to dive. Some are terrified, but seeing the thrill on their faces makes it worth my while. Of course, the most basic requirement is that you need to be a good swimmer,” he says.

To many, Mohan is already living his dream. But he has more long-term plans up his sleeve.

“I plan to take Scubaholics Anonymous international someday and get foreign scuba divers to explore the islands in Malaysia. After all, I’ve dived in many countries but Sipadan remains my favourite stop because of its sheer beauty,” he says.

“I’d also like to open my own scuba centre and resort one day so I can do it 24/7.”

Volunteer for Volunteers (V4V)

Always wanted to volunteer but don’t know how? The same predicament drove political science student Kim Manta-Khaira, 22 to start a group on Facebook aimed at “making the world a better place.”

Here’s how it works: V4V serves as a medium for volunteers, as well as NGOs and other establishments that are in dire need of volunteers like old folk’s homes, orphanages and even understaffed and under-appreciated charity gigs or theatre troupes. Prior experience is optional.

“My dad told me that no man is an island,” says Kim, whose parents are both lawyers.

“They have always encouraged my siblings and I to get involved since we were little. Today, my sisters regularly help out with NGOs, my brother works for human rights group Suaram, and I’ve been contributing to different causes, like participating in the international coastal clean-up day or becoming a facilitator for a youth conference, in between my studies. I suppose activism runs in our family.”

The idea was so simple that it’s a wonder why no other group like this existed earlier. Not surprisingly, it took off when the group was founded some time in 2008, but membership numbers (230 to date) and wall postings have stagnated since last year. Kim has since then moved on to bigger things.

“I’m currently doing something else for my university. It’s called the Green Team, and we also have a Facebook group. We’re in the midst of collecting shoes for Africa. Somebody else is handling V4V now. Many people have joined V4V but I’m not sure if anything is being done,” she says.

However, no one can deny that a group like V4V is still, by all means, necessary. All it takes is a little nudge for the group to get going once more.

As Kim puts it: “Perhaps I’ll form another group once I’ve gained more experience in social work. What matters most are, after all, concrete outcomes. And if V4V does that, then I can’t be happier.”

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Rescued Kites Fly Free Over Indonesian Island Home

Angus Thompson, Jakarta Post 29 Jan 10;

Gojele, a Brahminy Kite, can often be seen soaring above the tropical getaway of Pulau Kotok, part of the Thousand Islands cluster just north of Jakarta and now a rehabilitation center for kites and other birds.

He was one of eight juvenile kites seized at Jakarta’s international airport in 2004 as traders tried to smuggle them out to a private collector in Saudi Arabia. He was one of the first sea-eagles to be successfully rehabilitated, and released into the wild.

“Their feathers were really damaged when they came in. We had to work on them for almost six months,” said Femke den Haas, the cofounder of the Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN) which is committed to reintroducing Brahminy Kites to the area.

JAAN took a run-down resort and transformed it into a sanctuary from which 56 formerly captive birds have now been freed.

The proud mascot of the nation’s capital, Brahminy Kites are protected eagles and have been under threat in the Thousand Islands as they were captured and sold illegally as status symbols.

The Forestry Ministry conducts raids on Jakarta’s notorious Pramuka bird market, but acknowledges there is still work to be done.

“We are aware there are still breaches of this law but we are continuing to work on the problem,” said forestry spokesperson Masyhud, who claims the ministry has reduced the trade over the last five years.

However, JAAN says smuggling is on the rise again.

A popular tourist destination, Pulau Kotok boasts a diverse wildlife population, including Barker Deer, Water Monitors and Clown Fish. And a short stroll from the island’s Alam Kotok resort, the squawks of 29 Brahminy Kites, White-Bellied Sea Eagles and a solitary Christmas Island Frigate ring out amongst dilapidated bungalows on the eastern side.

Because of wing and leg injuries sustained in captivity, 19 of the birds can never be released.

However, those kites released — usually on neighboring islands — have now bred successfully, including Gojele, who has fathered two chicks.



Reuters

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More than half of Indonesia's biodiversity `unrecorded'

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 30 Jan 10;

More than half of the biodiversity across the archipelago remains unrecorded due to lack of knowledge coupled with poor awareness by local authorities to halt unprecedented destruction of biodiversity.

As of 2010, only 20 of the more than 400 regencies have begun to catalog the species in their area.

"Indonesia is one of the 17 largest biodiversity hotspots on the planet, but we have not recorded most of it," the deputy assistant of biodiversity conservation at the State Environment Ministry, Utami Andayani, told The Jakarta Post.

She said Indonesia was still vulnerable to biodiversity loss, brought about mainly by human population growth, deforestation, illegal trade in plants and animals and human-induced climate change.

"It is difficult for us to complain if other countries exploit our biodiversity for commercial purposes such as medicine because of the lack of data to prove the species are from Indonesia," she said.

She warned that biodiversity loss would pose a significant threat to the country's food security.

The government has long claimed that Indonesia has 12 percent (515 species) of the world's mammal species, the second-highest level after Brazil, and 17 percent (1,531 species) of total bird species, the fifth-highest in the world.

It said that the country was also home to 15 percent (270 species) of amphibian and reptile species, 31,746 species of vascular plants and 37 percent of the world's species of fish.

Biodiversity-related issues are among key environmental matters this year as the UN has named 2010 the International Biodiversity Year.

Indonesia ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1994.

The State Environment Ministry was the national focal point for biodiversity issues and has set up a clearing house mechanism to ensure all parties have access to biodiversity information.

Environmental ministers from around the world will gather in Bali next month to discuss biodiversity, among others topics, and its contribution to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The meeting, organized by the United Nations Environmental Programs (UNEP), will also discuss the economy of biodiversity and ecosystem services, including marine biodiversity.

The Bali meeting is expected to lead to a result echoing the Nusa Dua declaration, which has already been drafted and agreed to by ministers and heads of delegations attending the planned meeting on Feb. 26, 2010.

The deputy minister for environmental damage control at the Environment Ministry, Masnellyarti Hilman, said the Bali meeting would discuss the plan to set up an expert team on biodiversity issues.

"We will negotiate on the establishment of an Intergovernmental Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service *IPBES* in Bali," she said.

She said Indonesian delegates wanted the IPBES to be placed under the CBD, thus limiting those eligible to be in the team of experts to signatories to the convention.

The US is not party to the CBD.

A number of countries have proposed that the IPBES should be an independent team of experts who would advise the convention on biodiversity issues.

"We will reject any proposition if non-parties to the CBD are included in the IPBES," she said.

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Sabah close to achieving permanent forest cover

Daily Express 30 Jan 10;

Kota Kinabalu: Sabah is close to achieving the permanent forest cover it has envisaged for posterity.

Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun, on Thursday said it had already achieved 49 per cent of the 55 per cent target.

"We will continue to work towards making the other six per cent a reality," he said, explaining these logged-over forests were now being rehabilitated.

Once under permanent forest cover, he said, they will be preserved without any sort of development therein so that this national treasure will not disappear.

Masidi was officiating at a Professional Administrator in the Globalised Era seminar here.

Illustrating his point about the need to protect the forest, he pointed out that 64 per cent of the remaining mangrove swamps in the country are in the State.

Masidi said hence the reason why Tourism, Culture and Environment are under one ministry in Sabah.

"In Sabah, our tagline is eco-tourism, and this tagline alone is enough to explain why we have merged all three aspects into a ministry," he said.

In Sabah, he said there are many beautiful places, vast seas, islands, land and animals, and all these, should the environment be not protected, will one day disappear due to development.

"We have all these gifts, and all these are also one of the main tourist attractions and therefore must be safeguarded," he said.

Apart from that, Masidi said the diverse culture and beliefs of people here is also another reason why tourists, domestic and foreign alike come to Sabah.

"So we can say that, culture and the environment is a huge part in tourism and all has to be maintained and balanced," he stated.

On other developments, he said participants of the seminar, mostly from the peninsula, must take the opportunity to learn more about Sabah and see for themselves the difference between East and West Malaysia.

The seminar, organised by Universiti Putra Malaysia's Administration Association, will end on Jan 30.

It is aimed at generating and getting new ideas from professionals in management, academic and corporate sectors in the country.

"It is also to identify challenges and strategies of good management practices, to fulfil the needs of today's society," said PPUPM Chairman, Jamsari Tamsir.

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Italy halts bluefin fishing for a year: EU

Yahoo News 30 Jan 10;

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Italy is to stop fishing for bluefin tuna, the lucrative but over-exploited species beloved of Japanese sushi fans, for 12 months, the European Union said on Saturday.

The move, enabled by financial aid from Brussels set aside for the forced tying-up of boats, comes weeks ahead of a European decision on whether to back calls for the fish to be officially listed as an endangered species.

Italy's intention is to pressure neighbouring Atlantic and Mediterranean fishing giants France and Spain into doing likewise, to allow the world's remaining stocks of the luxury fish to be replenished.

It may however result in the price of bluefin shooting even higher. A 232.6-kilogramme (512-pound) fish sold for 16.28 million yen (176,000 dollars or 127,000 euros) at auction in Japan earlier this month.

"Member states can do a voluntary freeze on fishing for a year if they want to," said European Commission agriculture spokesman Michael Mann.

"There is a possibility in the European Fisheries Fund to give fishermen money if they are required to stop fishing for a particular type of fish.

"That's what's happening here. The moratorium applies to the big guys who are catching a lot of tuna.

"It's not new money -- its an existing mechanism," he underlined.

Italian fisheries minister Antonio Buonfiglio said Rome has "decided to tie up the boats because the situation was untenable from an ecological and economic point of view."

The Italian fleet runs to 49 huge trawlers, with almost 700 fishermen's livelihoods at stake, and Buonfiglio said they "will receive European aid in exchange" for staying put for a year.

"We are anticipating a unified (European) position, notably on the part of Spain and France," he also told France's Liberation daily.

European leaders have to decide whether to back environmentalists, supported by scientists, who want bluefin added to a global list of threatened species agreed by international governments.

"The decision on whether or not we apply for a listing is probably going to be taken by the end of February, by the new commission," added Mann.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meets in March in Doha, Qatar.

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Indonesia pledges to `feed the world'

Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post 30 Jan 10;

Indonesia has reiterated its commitment to becoming a major global food producer by boosting the production of 15 key food commodities.

Fransiscus Wilerang, head of the Permanent Committee for Food Resilience at the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), said Friday that the successful implementation of the program could contribute at least US$101.5 billion to the country's revenues for the 2010-2014 period.

The 15 food commodities, Fransiscus said, included four "strategic" ones - rice, corn, sugar and soybeans - and six "key" commodities, consisting of palm oil, tea, coffee, cocoa, tuna and shrimp.

Other categories are "nutritious" (beef and poultry), and "local popular" products (mangos, bananas and oranges).

The 10 strategic and key commodities are part of the government's 2009-2014 road map for food development.

The plan aims to, among others, allow domestic crude palm oil (CPO) producers to expand their plantations from the total 7.9 million hectares as of the end of 2009, to 9.7 million hectares by 2015.

The expansion is expected to help boost CPO production to 36.6 million tons.

Production of another key crop, coffee, is expected to reach 737,000 tons this year, or 142 percent more than domestic consumption.

Under the road map, the 433,000-ton surplus will be exported.

Coffee exports are expected to increase by 4.69 percent annually until 2020, when 636,000 tons of the total production of 973,000 tons is expected to be exported.

"Considering Indonesia's potential to achieve food self-sufficiency, we have to see the global food crisis as an opportunity and participate in efforts to supply food for the world," Fransiscus told hundreds of participants at the "Feed the World" seminar, organized by Kadin.

"We've agreed to develop the idea into a concept of food self-sufficiency and supply food for the world, or *Feed the World'."

At a press conference after the seminar, Kadin deputy chairman Franky Widjaja said the revenue from the 15 commodities could amount to $101.5 billion.

"If we manage to promote this at the downstream level in the next five years, this could more than just a dream," he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who officiated the seminar and subsequent expo, said it was important for Indonesia to help address the world's food security issues, pointing out the consequences for not doing so could include the incitement of conflicts, as with water or energy issues.

He said to help achieve the "Feed the World" goal, the government would continue the first wave of its farming, plantation and fishery revitalization programs, lasting from 2004 to 2009, with the second phase set for the next five years.

Yudhoyono added that while Indonesia needed to maintain self-sufficiency in rice and corn production, it needed to achieve the same self-sufficiency in sugar production while reducing its dependence on imported soybeans.

He also reminded businesses not to neglect demand from the domestic market for the sake of more lucrative markets overseas.

"Why feed the world if we still have problems with food supplies and price instability at home," he said.

"The program **Feed the World'* should be understood as *Feed Indonesia, then feed the world'."

Investment Coordinating Board chairman Gita Wirjawan told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the government would categorize main staple foods such as rice and corn among the types of commodities that foreign interests would be restricted from investing in.

"These commodities are key to our national security, so it is within our interests to protect them," he said.

Environmental problems threaten food security program
The Jakarta Post 30 Jan 10;

Various environmental problems have put the government’s bid to maintain food security at risk, a minister says.

Agriculture Minister Suswono said Saturday limited water supply resulting from rampant illegal logging activities and conversion of productive land into commercial use were among the major challenges facing the government in its effort to meet the national rice production target.

"We must work hard to prevent agricultural land from being affected by industrial development," he said.

The government has enacted the 2009 law on protection of agricultural land to curb conversion of rice fields the country needs to ensure its food resilience.

The national rice production this year has been set at 66 million tons, up by 3.2 percent from the 2009 mark.

Suswono urged regional governments to support the move to expand rice fields in accordance with the national food self-sufficiency program by 2014.

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Eye in the Sky Pinpoints Papua Environmental Degradation

Anita Rachman, Jakarta Globe 29 Jan 10;


Images of Timika city taken from satellite in 1988, left, and 2003. The images show the changes to the form of the river that has been widened and damaged by mining activities. (Photo courtesy of Lapan and Skytruth)

Images of environmental destruction in the easternmost province of Papua have recently been captured by the Lapan-Tubsat, the Indonesian-built video surveillance satellite that went into orbit in 2007, the National Aeronautics and Space Agency said on Friday.

Toto Marnanto Kadri, chief of the Aerospace Electronics Technology Center run by the agency, also known as Lapan, said the damage in Papua could be “read” in the images. “The data still needs to be studied thoroughly by experts.”

Mochammad Ichsan, chief of Lapan’s Space Vehicle Observation Unit in Biak, Papua, said an area near Timika’s airport showed quite noticeable changes judging by a comparison of recent images and those captured in the late ’80s. Mochammad said a small “line” earlier indicating a river appeared to be a “much wider line today, up to five times wider.”

“All the trees along the riverbank are gone,” he told the Jakarta Globe.

The micro-satellite carries a high-resolution color video camera with coverage of 3.5 kilometers wide and a low-resolution color camera with a swath of 81 kilometers. The cameras have a resolution of five meters and 200 meters, respectively.

The satellite carries telemetry and telecommand transmission systems, as well as an altitude control system allowing it to receive commands from various ground stations, including the one built last year in Biak.

Weighing 57 kilograms, the satellite can be used for real-time monitoring of forest fires, volcanic activity and flooding. The satellite is currently focusing on forested areas as well as the cities of Biak, Timika, Sorong and Manokwari. Mochammad said the satellite could also cover western Indonesia and Singapore, as well as areas of Darwin, Australia.

Mochammad said the satellite and the ground station in Biak were both performing very well to date, but changing weather in Papua made it hard to consistently rely on the clarity of images it delivered.

“The camera usually only captures images of clouds, since it is pretty cloudy at the moment,” he said.

Besides the ground station in Biak, Lapan also has two other stations in Rancabungur and Rumpin, both in Bogor, all built by US-based engineering firms. The agency has plans to build another station in Kototabang, West Sumatra.

Lapan claims that the satellite is still in its good condition even though it has been orbiting for three years. The satellite has obtained images from western Indonesian regions and can cover from Singapore to Bali. Last year it was used to monitor the construction process of the Suramadu Bridge in East Java and toll road projects outside Java.

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240,000 short of water in southern China drought

Yahoo News 30 Jan 10;

BEIJING (AFP) – Officials warned Saturday that 240,000 people were suffering from water shortages in a mountainous region in southern China that has been hit by a five-month-long drought, state media reported.

Western and northwestern parts of the Guangxi region have had little rain since August, forcing villagers to travel kilometers (miles) to fetch water, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"Local governments have been sending water trucks to those villages that suffer severe shortages," a spokesman at the drought relief headquarters was quoted as saying.

"We are organising local residents to dig wells and divert water from elsewhere to the drought-hit areas," the spokesman said.

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

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

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

Meanwhile, the provinces of Hubei, Hunan, and Guangdong also suffered droughts, as they have been hard hit by a combination of low rainfall and higher than normal temperatures, reports said.

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Monster tides smother Torres Strait islands

The Sunday Mail (Qld) 31 Jan 10;

RISING sea levels drove king tides across vulnerable island communities in the Torres Strait, causing damage to homes and infrastructure.

Monster tides swept through Australia's most northern island of Saibai yesterday, flooding homes, sewage treatment works, water supplies, crops and sacred cultural sites.

"What baffles me is the Federal Government can give $150 million to the Pacific Islands for climate change, but it won't fix up our back yard when we are being inundated right now," Torres Strait Regional Authority chairman Toshie Kris said.

"We have tried many ways to bring this to the attention of the Prime Minister. We have invited him to the islands to see first-hand, but we have had no response."

There are 100 islands between Cape York and Papua New Guinea. Only 14 are inhabited. About 5000 people live on the outer islands.

The land belongs to the islanders, but the State Government owns the houses and there are millions of dollars' worth of government infrastructure in the region.

The six islands most at risk are Poruma, Iama, Masig, Warraber, Saibai and Boigu.

James Cook University Associate Professor Kevin Parnell said scientists agreed sea levels were rising.

"People will be able to live through it with suitable infrastructure, but events like this are going to happen," he said.

The State Government's Climate Smart 2050 strategy last year did not mention the Torres Strait Islands.

A spokeswoman for federal Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the Government had provided some funding for research and investigation in the past two years, but "there has not been a comprehensive climate change risk assessment in the Torres Strait".

She said Mr Kris was invited to the National Climate Change Forum in Adelaide next month to discuss the challenge of preparing Australia's coastal communities to manage risks from climate change impacts.

The spokeswoman confirmed the Government had given $150 million unconditionally to the Pacific Islands for climate change, with none of that money available to the Torres Strait Islands. But funds had been given to the Torres Strait Islands for sea walls and to secure clean water. A TSRA spokesman denied this.

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White Roofs Could Reduce Urban Heating

livescience.com Yahoo News 30 Jan 10;

To help combat global warming and urban heating, we might just need to paint the town white.

A new modeling study simulated the effects of painting roofs white to reflect incoming solar rays and found that it could help cool cities and reduce the effects of global warming.

The feasibility of such an initiative for cities remains to be seen, researchers caution, but the idea has been backed by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and other policymakers. And now there's some science behind the political support.

"Our research demonstrates that white roofs, at least in theory, can be an effective method for reducing urban heat," said Keith Oleson, the lead author of the study and a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. "It remains to be seen if it's actually feasible for cities to paint their roofs white, but the idea certainly warrants further investigation."

Cities are particularly vulnerable to climate change because of a phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect. The asphalt roads, tar roofs and other artificial surfaces that permeate cities absorb heat from the sun, making temperatures in urban areas on average 2 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 3 degrees Celsius) higher than in rural areas.

"It's critical to understand how climate change will affect vulnerable urban areas, which are home to most of the world's population," said NCAR scientist Gordon Bonan, a co-author of the study, which will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Reflecting light

White roofs could reflect some of that heat back to space and cool temperatures, because white surfaces reflect most of the light that hits them, while black surfaces absorb most of that light. (The amount of light that a surface reflects is known as its albedo.)

Oleson and his team used a newly developed computer model to simulate the amount of solar radiation absorbed or reflected by urban surfaces. The model simulations, which are idealized representations of cities, suggest that, if every roof were entirely painted white, the urban heat island effect could be reduced by about a third.

Such a reduction would cool the world's cities by an average of about 0.7 degrees F (0.4 degrees C), with the cooling influence more noticeable during the day, especially in the summer.

Real world

White roofs could also cool temperatures inside buildings, which could change the amount of energy used for space heating and air conditioning. This in turn could affect the consumption of fossil fuels, which generate many of the greenhouse gases responsible for Earth's warming. Depending on whether air conditioning or heating is affected more (as you might have to turn up the thermostat due to cooling temperatures), this effect could either magnify or partially offset the impact of the roofs.

"It's not as simple as just painting roofs white and cooling off a city," Oleson said.

The location of the city, the density of roofs and the construction of a building could also affect how much cooling would occur with white roofs.

The researchers also note that their results are a hypothetical look at cities and that the actual cooling effect in the real world could be slightly less, because dust and weathering would cause white paint to darken over time and parts of roofs would remain unpainted due to openings such as heating and cooling vents

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Indonesia May Miss Climate Accord Deadline

Fidelis E. Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 28 Jan 10;

Despite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s ambitious pledge on the world stage to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the government has found itself in danger of “embarrassment” by failing to meet a deadline to disclose voluntary steps it will take to combat global warming, a nongovernmental organization said on Friday.

By way of contrast, other developing nations, including China, Brazil, South Africa and India, are likely to meet Sunday’s deadline, established during the recent UN climate change talks in Copenhagen.

Giorgio Budi Indrato, coordinator of the Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice, said that missing the deadline, despite Yudhoyono’s eagerness to be one of the driving forces behind the global fight against rising temperatures, could tarnish the country’s hard-fought green credentials.

“The only consequence would be embarrassment in the world’s eyes because we have made it this far to build our image,” he said.
During last year’s G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, Yudhoyono promised to cut the country’s emissions by 26 percent by 2020 and said that with international assistance, Indonesia would aim for a reduction of 41 percent.

Rachmat Witoelar, executive head of the National Council on Climate Change, said on Thursday that Indonesia would send its notification to be a part of the Copenhagen Accord, but would deliver emission details at a later date.

“The submission deadline on the accord is a soft deadline. We’ll say that we will associate with the accord, but our details will follow later,” he said, adding that developing countries were not obliged to submit any details concerning their emissions cuts.

Eka Melissa, deputy chair of a council working group on international negotiations, said there were no sanctions if parties were not able to submit by Jan. 31.

“Based on the accord, developed countries are supposed to submit their targets for emissions cuts, while developing countries only have to submit their action plans for mitigation,” Eka said.

“However, we have just finished meeting with the coordinating ministers and just received the national plans from Bappenas [National Development Planning Board], so it will take time to coordinate with each sector [about the details],” she said.

Eka said the council would try to meet the deadline, but still needed the approval of the cabinet before submitting the details to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

“We are also still pursuing the UNFCCC on the mechanisms of the submission, but we’re serious [about the cuts],” she said. “However, we won’t be giving that many details at this stage.”

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UN climate panel based claims on student essay: report

Yahoo News 31 Jan 10;

LONDON (AFP) – The UN climate change panel based claims about ice disappearing from the world's mountain peaks on a student essay and an article in a mountaineering magazine, a British newspaper reported Sunday.

The claims risk causing fresh embarrassment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which had to apologise this month over inaccurate forecasts about the melting of Himalayan glaciers.

In a recent report, the IPCC stated that observed reductions in mountain ice in the Andes, Alps and Africa was caused by global warming and it referred to two papers as the source of the information.

But The Sunday Telegraph said one of the sources quoted was actually an article published in a magazine for mountaineers which was based on anecdotal evidence about the changes they were witnessing during climbs.

The newspaper said the other source was a dissertation written by a geography student who was studying for a master's degree at the University of Bern in Switzerland that quoted interviews with mountain guides in the Alps.

The IPCC rejected as "baseless and misleading" a report this month from another British newspaper, The Sunday Times, raising doubts about the evidence behind its claim that global warming is linked to worsening natural disasters.

Scientists have defended the IPCC since it admitted to errors over the Himalayan glacier claim, insisting its work is balanced and its conclusions are sound.

UN climate change panel based claims on student dissertation and magazine article
The United Nations' expert panel on climate change based claims about ice disappearing from the world's mountain tops on a student's dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.
Richard Gray and Rebecca Lefort, The Telegraph 30 Jan 10;

The revelation will cause fresh embarrassment for the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which had to issue a humiliating apology earlier this month over inaccurate statements about global warming.

The IPCC's remit is to provide an authoritative assessment of scientific evidence on climate change.

In its most recent report, it stated that observed reductions in mountain ice in the Andes, Alps and Africa was being caused by global warming, citing two papers as the source of the information.

However, it can be revealed that one of the sources quoted was a feature article published in a popular magazine for climbers which was based on anecdotal evidence from mountaineers about the changes they were witnessing on the mountainsides around them.

The other was a dissertation written by a geography student, studying for the equivalent of a master's degree, at the University of Berne in Switzerland that quoted interviews with mountain guides in the Alps.

The revelations, uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph, have raised fresh questions about the quality of the information contained in the report, which was published in 2007.

It comes after officials for the panel were forced earlier this month to retract inaccurate claims in the IPCC's report about the melting of Himalayan glaciers.

Sceptics have seized upon the mistakes to cast doubt over the validity of the IPCC and have called for the panel to be disbanded.

This week scientists from around the world leapt to the defence of the IPCC, insisting that despite the errors, which they describe as minor, the majority of the science presented in the IPCC report is sound and its conclusions are unaffected.

But some researchers have expressed exasperation at the IPCC's use of unsubstantiated claims and sources outside of the scientific literature.

Professor Richard Tol, one of the report's authors who is based at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin, Ireland, said: "These are essentially a collection of anecdotes.

"Why did they do this? It is quite astounding. Although there have probably been no policy decisions made on the basis of this, it is illustrative of how sloppy Working Group Two (the panel of experts within the IPCC responsible for drawing up this section of the report) has been.

"There is no way current climbers and mountain guides can give anecdotal evidence back to the 1900s, so what they claim is complete nonsense."

The IPCC report, which is published every six years, is used by government's worldwide to inform policy decisions that affect billions of people.

The claims about disappearing mountain ice were contained within a table entitled "Selected observed effects due to changes in the cryosphere produced by warming".

It states that reductions in mountain ice have been observed from the loss of ice climbs in the Andes, Alps and in Africa between 1900 and 2000.

The report also states that the section is intended to "assess studies that have been published since the TAR (Third Assessment Report) of observed changes and their effects".

But neither the dissertation or the magazine article cited as sources for this information were ever subject to the rigorous scientific review process that research published in scientific journals must undergo.

The magazine article, which was written by Mark Bowen, a climber and author of two books on climate change, appeared in Climbing magazine in 2002. It quoted anecdotal evidence from climbers of retreating glaciers and the loss of ice from climbs since the 1970s.

Mr Bowen said: "I am surprised that they have cited an article from a climbing magazine, but there is no reason why anecdotal evidence from climbers should be disregarded as they are spending a great deal of time in places that other people rarely go and so notice the changes."

The dissertation paper, written by professional mountain guide and climate change campaigner Dario-Andri Schworer while he was studying for a geography degree, quotes observations from interviews with around 80 mountain guides in the Bernina region of the Swiss Alps.

Experts claim that loss of ice climbs are a poor indicator of a reduction in mountain ice as climbers can knock ice down and damage ice falls with their axes and crampons.

The IPCC has faced growing criticism over the sources it used in its last report after it emerged the panel had used unsubstantiated figures on glacial melting in the Himalayas that were contained within a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report.

It can be revealed that the IPCC report made use of 16 non-peer reviewed WWF reports.

One claim, which stated that coral reefs near mangrove forests contained up to 25 times more fish numbers than those without mangroves nearby, quoted a feature article on the WWF website.

In fact the data contained within the WWF article originated from a paper published in 2004 in the respected journal Nature.

In another example a WWF paper on forest fires was used to illustrate the impact of reduced rainfall in the Amazon rainforest, but the data was from another Nature paper published in 1999.

When The Sunday Telegraph contacted the lead scientists behind the two papers in Nature, they expressed surprise that their research was not cited directly but said the IPCC had accurately represented their work.

The chair of the IPCC Rajendra Pachauri has faced mounting pressure and calls for his resignation amid the growing controversy over the error on glacier melting and use of unreliable sources of information.

A survey of 400 authors and contributors to the IPCC report showed, however, that the majority still support Mr Pachauri and the panel's vice chairs. They also insisted the overall findings of the report are robust despite the minor errors.

But many expressed concern at the use of non-peer reviewed information in the reports and called for a tightening of the guidelines on how information can be used.

The Met Office, which has seven researchers who contributed to the report including Professor Martin Parry who was co-chair of the working group responsible for the part of the report that contained the glacier errors, said: "The IPCC should continue to ensure that its review process is as robust and transparent as possible, that it draws only from the peer-reviewed literature, and that uncertainties in the science and projections are clearly expressed."

Roger Sedjo, a senior research fellow at the US research organisation Resources for the Future who also contributed to the IPCC's latest report, added: "The IPCC is, unfortunately, a highly political organisation with most of the secretariat bordering on climate advocacy.

"It needs to develop a more balanced and indeed scientifically sceptical behaviour pattern. The organisation tend to select the most negative studies ignoring more positive alternatives."

The IPCC failed to respond to questions about the inclusion of unreliable sources in its report but it has insisted over the past week that despite minor errors, the findings of the report are still robust and consistent with the underlying science.

Climate chief was told of false glacier claims before Copenhagen
Ben Webster, Times Online 30 Jan 10;

The chairman of the leading climate change watchdog was informed that claims about melting Himalayan glaciers were false before the Copenhagen summit, The Times has learnt.

Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it. He failed to act despite learning that the claim had been refuted by several leading glaciologists.

The IPCC’s report underpinned the proposals at Copenhagen for drastic cuts in global emissions.

Dr Pachauri, who played a leading role at the summit, corrected the error last week after coming under media pressure. He told The Times on January 22 that he had only known about the error for a few days. He said: “I became aware of this when it was reported in the media about ten days ago. Before that, it was really not made known. Nobody brought it to my attention. There were statements, but we never looked at this 2035 number.”

Asked whether he had deliberately kept silent about the error to avoid embarrassment at Copenhagen, he said: “That’s ridiculous. It never came to my attention before the Copenhagen summit. It wasn’t in the public sphere.”

However, a prominent science journalist said that he had asked Dr Pachauri about the 2035 error last November. Pallava Bagla, who writes for Science journal, said he had asked Dr Pachauri about the error. He said that Dr Pachauri had replied: “I don’t have anything to add on glaciers.”

The Himalayan glaciers are so thick and at such high altitude that most glaciologists believe they would take several hundred years to melt at the present rate. Some are growing and many show little sign of change.

Dr Pachauri had previously dismissed a report by the Indian Government which said that glaciers might not be melting as much as had been feared. He described the report, which did not mention the 2035 error, as “voodoo science”.

Mr Bagla said he had informed Dr Pachauri that Graham Cogley, a professor at Ontario Trent University and a leading glaciologist, had dismissed the 2035 date as being wrong by at least 300 years. Professor Cogley believed the IPCC had misread the date in a 1996 report which said the glaciers could melt significantly by 2350.

Mr Pallava interviewed Dr Pachauri again this week for Science and asked him why he had decided to overlook the error before the Copenhagen summit. In the taped interview, Mr Pallava asked: “I pointed it out [the error] to you in several e-mails, several discussions, yet you decided to overlook it. Was that so that you did not want to destabilise what was happening in Copenhagen?”

Dr Pachauri replied: “Not at all, not at all. As it happens, we were all terribly preoccupied with a lot of events. We were working round the clock with several things that had to be done in Copenhagen. It was only when the story broke, I think in December, we decided to, well, early this month — as a matter of fact, I can give you the exact dates — early in January that we decided to go into it and we moved very fast.

“And within three or four days, we were able to come up with a clear and a very honest and objective assessment of what had happened. So I think this presumption on your part or on the part of any others is totally wrong. We are certainly never — and I can say this categorically — ever going to do anything other than what is truthful and what upholds the veracity of science.”

Dr Pacharui has also been accused of using the error to win grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

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Stern report was changed after being published

Information was quietly removed from an influential government report on the cost of climate change after its initial publication because supporting scientific evidence could not be found.
Richard Gray, The Telegraph 30 Jan 10;

The Stern Review on the economics of climate change, which was commissioned by the Treasury, was greeted with headlines worldwide when it was published in October 2006

It contained dire predictions about the impact of climate change in different parts of the world.

But it can be revealed that when the report was printed by Cambridge University Press in January 2007, some of these predictions had been watered down because the scientific evidence on which they were based could not be verified.

Among the claims that were removed in the later version of the report, which is now also available in its altered form online, were claims that North West Australia has been hit by stronger tropical typhoons in the past 30 years.

Another claim that southern regions in Australia have lost rainfall due to rising ocean temperatures and air currents pushing rain further south was also removed.

Claims that eucalyptus and savannah habitats in Australia would also become more common were also deleted.

The claims were highlighted in several Australian newspapers when the report was initially published, but the changes were never publicly announced.

A figure on the cost of US Hurricanes was also changed after a typographical error was spotted in the original report. The original stated in a table the cost of hurricanes in the US would rise from 0.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 1.3%.

The later report corrected the error so the increase was from 0.06% to 0.13%. A statement about the correction appeared in a postscript of the report and on the Treasury website.

The Stern Review has been instrumental in helping the UK government draw up its climate change policies while it has also been cited by leading organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its assessment reports on climate change.

Details of the changes, which have not been publicly detailed before, have emerged as the IPCC is under fire for errors on the melting of Himalayan glaciers that appeared in their most recent assessment report because of a failure to check the sources of the information.

A spokesman for Lord Stern, who headed the review and is now chair of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, said that the changes to the statements about Australia were made following a quality control check before the report was printed by Cambridge University Press.

He said: "Statements were identified in the section on Australia for which the relevant scientific references could not be located.

They were therefore, as a precaution, omitted from the version published by Cambridge University Press and they were deleted from the electronic version on the HM Treasure website.

"These changes to the text had no implications for any other parts of the report.

"It is perhaps not surprising that in a report of more than 700 pages a few typographic errors and minor but necessary clarifications to the text were identified in November and December 2006 after its launch.

"However, none of these corrections and changes affected the analysis or conclusions in the Stern Review, which is rightly regarded as an important contribution on the economics of climate change."

Professor Roger Pielke, from the centre of Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado who has been a long term critic of the Stern Review, described the changes to the report as "remarkable".

He said: "In any academic publication changes to published text to correct errors or to clarify require the subsequent publication of a formal erratum or corrigendum.

"This is to ensure the integrity of the literature and a paper trail, otherwise confusion would result if past work could be quietly rewritten.

"Such a practice is very much a whitewash of the historical record.

"One would assume – and expect – that studies designed to inform government (and international) policy would be held to at least these same standards if not higher standards."

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