Although The Visibility Is Not As Good As
from colourful clouds
Argh! My eye!
from Pulau Hantu
Courtship of the Common Iora
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Wildfacts updates: February and March
from wild shores of singapore
Climate Witness: Mario Roy Magayon, Phillipines
from WWF - Climate Witness stories
Mustafa Shafawi, Sharon See Channel NewsAsia 30 Mar 10;
SINGAPORE: A two-year study by the National Parks Board (NParks) has found that a considerable number of dragonfly species are able to thrive in an urban setting.
Previously, they were more commonly found in the nature reserves and rural areas.
In addition, the study also discovered a rare species, the Pseudagrion rubricep, at Toa Payoh Town Park.
It is closely related to the dragonfly and was first recorded in Singapore as a single species found in the nature reserves in 1993.
Now, it is also found in Toa Payoh Town Park, along with the other common species such as the Crocothemis servilia, a bright red dragonfly.
Other rare species include the Ceriagrion chaoi and the Pseudagrion australasiae, both of which were found in Bishan Park.
For two years, NParks combed 19 parks, nature reserves as well as about 30 water habitats that dragonflies frequent.
"We found 40 species, which is about one-third of all the dragonflies in Singapore living within our parks," said Dr Geoffrey Davison, assistant director (terrestrial) of the National Biodiversity Centre at NParks.
"And why we're doing this - first, we want to find out the facts, secondly, we want to increase the number of dragonflies if we can within our parks so the visitors can see them as one more attraction."
The study found that 40 of the more than 120 species in Singapore are living in park ponds, with the majority found at Bishan Park, Kent Ridge Park, and Toa Payoh Town Park.
Dragonflies are known to play important roles in urban ecology, said Robin Ngiam, the officer-in-charge of the project.
"They are top predators in the insect web. They hunt all sorts of insect pests, including mosquitoes," he explained. "And because their larvae lives in water and requires that the water is unpolluted to survive, we can use them as a good bio-indicator of a good fresh water system."
The study will help NParks further enhance and protect dragonflies, and create new habitats for them.
Davison said that rather than having homogeneous open water, a variety of habitats can be provided in future parks using different plants as well as ponds of different depths to enable dragonflies to thrive.
NParks is currently working on a book to document the findings and share with the public about the dragonfly diversity in Singapore's parks and gardens.
The book will be published by the end of the year.
In addition, NParks will also be publishing "A Selection of Plants for Greening of Waterways and Waterbodies in the Tropics" next month.
The book, which is the first of its kind, features plants suitable for aquatic landscapes in the tropics, including a selection of plants that can attract dragonflies, cleanse the water and absorb specific chemical elements from the environment.
- CNA/yb
Mozzie busters thriving in Singapore
Many more species of dragonflies found
Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times 31 Mar 10;
SINGAPORE'S landscape may be largely built-up, but its natural environs are in fairly decent shape, and a flourishing type of insect provides the evidence.
The first study of dragonflies conducted here has shown that there are 120 species in Singapore, a big increase from decades ago, when there were only around 70 known types.
And since dragonflies flourish only in freshwater sources, this state of affairs is proof that the freshwater ecosystem in Singapore is healthy.
The two-year study, conducted by the National Parks Board (NParks) and which costs around $100,000, also threw up rare species not usually associated with built-up environments like Singapore's.
The study identified 19 parks where as many as 40 different species of dragonflies can be found. Three parks - Kent Ridge, Bishan and Toa Payoh - had the largest concentration.
Traditionally found in forested areas, ponds, marshes and streams where their larvae inhabit, up to a third of the recorded species in Singapore was discovered in freshwater ponds.
In Bishan Park, for example, 33 different species were discovered in three ponds there. Two of them are not common to urban settings.
NParks director of development Yeo Meng Tong said parks built in future, as well as those being renovated, could replicate the design of the 19 parks identified to ensure that they can better attract wildlife.
And because dragonflies are such voracious predators of mosquitoes, increasing their numbers could provide a better defence against dengue.
'They are top insect predators, which means they are able to control the mosquito population and prevent them from breeding further,' said Mr Robin Ngiam, a senior project officer at NParks' National Biodiversity Centre, who led the study.
Other countries such as Israel and Egypt are already ahead of Singapore in introducing dragonflies into water bodies as a means of bringing down the mosquito population.
NParks has started talks with the National Environment Agency (NEA) to assess how such a project could be replicated here.
The key to attracting more of the mozzie busters appears to lie in growing certain types of freshwater plants in the ponds, such as cattails and water lilies, which dragonflies tend to gravitate towards.
Mr Ngiam's team included 15 researchers, volunteers and NParks officers who visited 30 freshwater ponds in parks here. They collected data on the number of dragonflies, the types of plants around them, and water quality in the ponds.
It is not known how big the dragonfly population is here, although experts estimate that the more common species number in their hundreds.
Dr Geoffrey Davison, assistant director (terrestrial) of NParks' National Biodiversity Centre, said that although the region is characterised by a 'high dragonfly diversity', the number of species discovered here is still significant and compared favourably.
Malaysia, for example, is estimated to be home to between 200 and 300 such species.
Dr Davison added that it was intriguing to learn from the study that despite the rapidly expanding concrete landscape, many of Singapore's parks had become a refuge for dragonflies.
'Urban parks do play an important role in dragonfly conservation,' he said.
Potential Lifesaver
Straits Times 31 Mar 10;
This dragonfly could be a lifesaver. Known as a blue dasher, or Brachydiplax jhalybea, it is one of 120 known dragonfly species thriving in parks across Singapore, a number that has grown over the decades. Dragonflies are voracious predators of pests such as mosquitoes, and the authorities hope to grow their numbers and eventually deploy them as a weapon against diseases such as dengue and malaria. That is not all: the presence of so many types of dragonflies here is evidence of a thriving freshwater ecosystem within Singapore?s parks, and shows that even with an increasing urban sprawl, greening efforts here are bearing fruit.-- ST PHOTO: BRYAN VAN DER BEEK
Rare dragonfly species found in Toa Payoh
Today Online 31 Mar 10;
SINGAPORE - Dragonflies have adapted to city life, and that is good news. A two-year study by the National Parks Board (NParks) has found that a considerable number of dragonfly species - previously more commonly found in nature reserves and rural areas - are now able to thrive in an urban setting.
Forty of the more than 120 species of dragonflies in Singapore were found in park ponds, with the majority at Bishan Park, Kent Ridge Park and Toa Payoh Town Park.
Dragonflies are known to play important roles in urban ecology, said project officer Robin Ngiam Wen Jiang of NParks' National Biodiversity Centre.A rare species - Pseudagrion rubricep (picture) - was also discovered at Toa Payoh Town Park.
It was previously known to exist only in the nature reserves, when a single specimen was discovered in 1993. SHARON SEE
NParks' Dragonfly Project Unveils One Third of Total Species Existing in Singapore Sighted at Urban Parks and Gardens
NParks Press Release 30 Mar 10;
Singapore, 30 March 2010 - Despite Singapore's highly urbanised environment, one third of all our dragonflies can still be found in our parks. A recent study by NParks has revealed 40 species living in our park ponds with the majority at key locations such as Bishan Park, Kent Ridge Park, and Toa Payoh Town Park. Historical research on Singapore dragonflies, dating back to the late 1800s, recorded species mainly in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. NParks current finding is significant as it shows that a considerable number of species of dragonflies are able to thrive in an urban setting, when previously they are more commonly found in the reserves and rural areas.
In addition, the study also discovered a rare species at Toa Payoh Town Park previously known to exist only in the nature reserves.
Initiated in 2008, the dragonfly project by NParks was conducted over two years, studying more than 19 parks, as well as the nature reserves, and covered more than 30 freshwater habitats ranging from small ponds to lakes and streams that dragonflies frequent. NParks officers, volunteers and dragonfly scientists conducted surveys to obtain baseline data on the dragonflies by repeated counts, and linked the results to information about plants and water quality at each site. This gives a good picture of the requirements for each species.
Species worldwide and in the region
About 5680 species of dragonflies are known worldwide. The Oriental region, which includes Indo-Malayan, southern China and the Indian subcontinent, is considered to be especially rich with 1665 species. The total number of species of dragonflies ever recorded in Singapore has now reached over 120. This is as large as the number in the whole of Europe. Singapore has a group of experts from the universities, nature society and special interest groups who are now steadily accumulating the information needed for conservation of these fascinating insects.
Discoveries at Urban Parks
A significant discovery of the dragonfly project was made at Toa Payoh Town Park, where researchers found the presence of a rare damselfly species, the Pseudagrion rubriceps. This was first recorded in Singapore by a single specimen from the nature reserves in 1993. 18 species have been recorded in this park.
Other surveyed parks which are rich in dragonfly diversity include Kent Ridge Park, where 31 species have been recorded, and Bishan Park, where 33 species were recorded from three ponds. The latter represents more than a quarter of all known species existing in Singapore. In addition, Bishan Park is the only urban park that harbours two damselflies, Ceriagrion chaoi (first recorded in Singapore in 2005) and Pseudagrion austalasiae, which have previously been known to exist only in the nature reserves.
Over the last few years, NParks has integrated pockets of nature areas in the design and development of the parks to attract wildlife. NParks Director of Development, Mr Yeo Meng Tong said: "The integration of pockets of nature in parks is part of NParks' larger initiative to enhance biodiversity within urban areas. We are heartened that these efforts, including the selection of aquatic plants to attract dragonflies and damselflies, have been successful in attracting wildlife, and bringing nature closer to the community."
Benefits of Dragonflies
Dragonflies are known to play important roles in urban ecology. Their presence indicates a non-polluted water body, hence making them an essential component of the freshwater eco-system. They do not bite or sting and are harmless to humans. They are in fact beneficial to people as they are aggressive predators of smaller insects like the mosquitoes. They are colourful and active, and now form a new type of visitor attraction in the parks.
Helping Dragonflies to Thrive
The dragonfly study will now help NParks further enhance and protect dragonflies, and create new habitats for them. For example, rather than having homogeneous open water, a variety of habitats can be provided in future parks using different plants as well as ponds of different depths, to enable dragonflies to thrive.
Dr Geoffrey Davison, Assistant Director at NParks' National Biodiversity Centre, said:"Singapore is located within a region of high dragonfly diversity. It is particularly exciting when we can see biodiversity in the places where we live or visit for recreation, like parks. We are thrilled to discover that many of the common species have adapted to ponds and wetlands in our parks and gardens. We are even more intrigued to learn that many of Singapore's parks have become refuges for rare species of dragonflies. We believe that the wide spread of parks through Singapore's landscape; the large variety of ponds and other waterbodies inside the parks; and conscientious management of water quality are key reasons for the dragonflies' presence."
He concluded, "Urban parks do play an important role in dragonfly conservation. The results of this two-year study are valuable insights for us in our planning and development of parks, current and future, so that we create suitable habitats where the dragonfly population can thrive. The information will also be relevant to other agencies managing water, drains and ponds in Singapore, or anyone who owns a pond."
New Books and Public Workshops/Talks
NParks is currently working on a book to document the dragonfly project findings and to further share with the public about the dragonfly diversity in Singapore's parks and gardens. This will be published by the end of the year. In addition, NParks will also be publishing "A Selection of Plants for Greening of Waterways and Waterbodies in the Tropics" next month. This book, which is the first of its kind, features plants suitable for aquatic landscapes in the tropics, including a selection of plants that can attract dragonflies, cleanse the water, and absorb specific chemical elements from the environment.
Since last year, NParks has also been sharing interesting details about dragonflies through public workshops and talks.In particular, NParks has worked with Kheng Cheng Primary School to help their students learn about the ecology and breeding of dragonflies and provided guidance to set up a dragonfly pond in the school.
These outreach activities will continue this year as they will be part of the celebratory events in support of 2010 International Year of Biodiversity. The celebrations aim to raise public awareness and appreciation of the rich biodiversity in Singapore. More details can be found on http://www.nparks.gov.sg/IYB2010
Related links
Dazzling Dragonflies of Singapore on the Celebrating Singapore's Biodiversity blog - more about dragonflies and damselflies.
ARC Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies Science Alert 31 Mar 10;
The rise in human emissions of carbon dioxide is driving fundamental and dangerous changes in the chemistry and ecosystems of the world’s oceans, international marine scientists warned today.
“Ocean conditions are already more extreme than those experienced by marine organisms and ecosystems for millions of years,” the researchers say in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE).
“This emphasises the urgent need to adopt policies that drastically reduce CO2 emissions.”
Ocean acidification, which the researchers call the ‘evil twin of global warming’, is caused when the CO2 emitted by human activity, mainly burning fossil fuels, dissolves into the oceans. It is happening independently of, but in combination with, global warming.
“Evidence gathered by scientists around the world over the last few years suggests that ocean acidification could represent an equal – or perhaps even greater threat – to the biology of our planet than global warming,” co-author Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland says.
More than 30 per cent of the CO2 released from burning fossil fuels, cement production, deforestation and other human activities goes straight into the oceans, turning them gradually more acidic.
“The resulting acidification will impact many forms of sea life, especially organisms whose shells or skeletons are made from calcium carbonate, like corals and shellfish. It may interfere with the reproduction of plankton species which are a vital part of the food web on which fish and all other sea life depend,” he adds.
The scientists say there is now persuasive evidence that mass extinctions in past Earth history, like the “Great Dying” of 251 million years ago and another wipeout 55 million years ago, were accompanied by ocean acidification, which may have delivered the deathblow to many species that were unable to cope with it.
“These past periods can serve as great lessons of what we can expect in the future, if we continue to push the acidity the ocean even further,” said lead author, Dr. Carles Pelejero, from ICREA and the Marine Science Institute of CSIC in Barcelona, Spain.
“Given the impacts we see in the fossil record, there is no question about the need to immediately reduce the rate at which we are emitting carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” he said further.
“Today, the surface waters of the oceans have already acidified by an average of 0.1 pH units from pre-industrial levels, and we are seeing signs of its impact even in the deep oceans”, said co-author Dr. Eva Calvo, from the Marine Science Institute of CSIC in Barcelona, Spain.
“Future acidification depends on how much CO2 humans emit from here on – but by the year 2100 various projections indicate that the oceans will have acidified by a further 0.3 to 0.4 pH units, which is more than many organisms like corals can stand”, Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg says.
“This will create conditions not seen on Earth for at least 40 million years”.
“These changes are taking place at rates as much as 100 times faster than they ever have over the last tens of millions of years” Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg says.
Under such circumstances “Conditions are likely to become very hostile for calcifying species in the north Atlantic and Pacific over the next decade and in the Southern Ocean over the next few decades,” the researchers warn.
Besides directly impacting on the fishing industry and its contribution to the human food supply at a time when global food demand is doubling, a major die-off in the oceans would affect birds and many land species and change the biology of Earth as a whole profoundly, Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg adds.
Palaeo-perspectives on ocean acidification by Carles Pelejero, Eva Calvo and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is published in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution (TREE), number 1232.
Humberto Márquez, IPS 30 Mar 10;
CARACAS, Mar 30, 2010 (IPS) - Shortly after it informed the world of the discovery of three new species of frogs, the environmental organisation Fundación Andígena closed its doors in Venezuela this month due to lack of financial support.
"There is a lack of communication with and support and funds for environmental organisations in this extremely biodiverse country, which is currently experiencing water and power shortages linked to environmental questions," anthropologist César Barrio, executive director of Fundación Andígena, told IPS.
Not long before it closed down, the foundation announced the discovery, in the foothills of the Andes mountains in the western part of the country, of three new kinds of frogs, one of which, less than two centimetres long, was named Allobates algorei in homage to former U.S. vice president Al Gore (1993-2001).
The democratic politician was a joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 in recognition of his work raising awareness on environmental issues.
The other tiny frogs, Pristimantis lassoalcalai and Pristimantis rivasi, were named in honour of Venezuelan scientists.
Andígena is the name of a genus of mountain toucans, birds that live in the cloud forests in the northern Andes mountains of Venezuela.
The foundation "emerged in 1999 on the initiative of young students and college graduates keen on raising awareness on the biodiversity in Venezuela, particularly in the Andes (in the southwest)," another of the organisation's leaders, Denis Torres, told IPS.
Andígena began carrying out studies on endangered or threatened species, like the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatos), which lives in the Andes, the Harlequin toad (Atelopus spumarius), the torrent duck (Merganetta armata) and the South American or lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris), and gained support from several zoos and international environmental organisations.
"They were small donations, between 2,000 and 5,000 dollars a year, and some projects received financing for several years in a row, which made continuity possible. But since 2006, many institutions, especially in the United States, stopped supporting us, citing the political situation in the country," said Torres.
Since 1999, Venezuela has been governed by controversial left-wing President Hugo Chávez, who after he was reelected in 2006 stepped up implementation of his "21st century socialism" project, which is based on a broad range of social programmes for the poor, the renationalisation of companies, and a strengthening of presidential power.
Under Chávez, the country has been highly polarised, and the government has been caught up in a constant political and diplomatic confrontation with the United States.
"We received very little support from local organisations, and from the state only the National Institute of Parks (under the Environment Ministry) occasionally gave us logistical support," said Torres. "We did have ties with local communities of small farmers, which would ask us to come in and provide education on environmental issues."
According to Barrio, Venezuela has "a very advanced framework of laws on the environment - more than half of the territory is under some kind of special protection - but they are not fully enforced. If the laws were enforced, environmental problems wouldn't absorb so much attention and funds on the part of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
"We have witnessed the destruction of vast forested areas that had extraordinary biodiversity, including endangered and threatened species. In some cases, government policy has replaced the natural ecosystem with unsustainable agricultural practices that cause irreversible damages," he said.
"Keeping an environmental NGO going in Venezuela today is very difficult because of the conditions in the country, where private companies have many other obligations in other areas and don't put investment in environmental questions on their list of priorities," Diego Díaz, head of the ecological organisation Vitalis, told IPS.
María Eugenia Gil, with another local environmental group, Aguaclara, remarked to IPS that "for the last five years there has been an increasingly explicit policy on the part of state institutions towards NGOs, which are not looked on kindly, or, as some officials say, 'there are NGOs and NGOs'."
"But on what basis do they differentiate between them? I think the innocent are paying for the sins of the guilty," said Gil, pointing to the government's efforts to block foreign - largely U.S. - financing of civil society groups involved in politics and aligned with the anti-Chávez opposition.
Among the results of that policy "is the lack of official information needed by NGOs as an input and the enforcement of laws and standards, for which the government's OK is needed by a company or institution before they can finance this or that project."
In her view, "that is the reason international organisations overlook Venezuela in their support programmes. That's why (the Washington-based) Conservation International left the country last year."
Gil said "there are problems like this in many countries, and perhaps the peculiarity in Venezuela is the exacerbation of a narrow-minded conception of the environment, the most public of all goods." (END)
Susan Cosier, livescience.com Yahoo News 31 Mar 10;
Predicting an earthquake is notoriously difficult, yet before the ground shakes, some animals reportedly jump into action, from birds flying in unusual directions to dogs becoming restless during those pre-quake hours to days.
Most of these tales, however, aren't backed up by scientific data, until now. Breeding toads might be able to notice subtle changes in the environment before an earthquake, allowing them to flee the scene and hop to safety, according to a new study announced today.
The study researchers found that common toads (Bufo bufo) abandoned their breeding grounds five days before an earthquake struck L'Aquila, Italy, in April of 2009. The toads didn't return for a few days after the tremor, something they almost never do.
The team also found that disturbances that occurred in the upper atmosphere before that quake correlated with the toads' movements.
"It's the first time that any study has really documented unusual behavior before an earthquake in a scientific and methodical way," lead study author Rachel Grant, a zoologist from The Open University in the U.K., told LiveScience. "We did it properly and scientifically, and consistently looked at behavior."
A fair shake
The team was studying the effect of the lunar cycle on the toads, which only breed during one month a year in a shallow pool on an Italian lakebed, when they noticed the seismic behavior. Over a 29-day period, Grant and her colleagues had been watching the toads at their breeding site, and got the opportunity to see them before, during, and after the quake.
Five days before the earthquake, after spawning had just begun, the number of male toads at the site decreased by 96 percent. Six days after the last significant aftershock, the toads came back and produced the rest of their spawn.
"So they had two spawning periods, which is really unusual," said Grant.
Toads are highly sensitive to weather changes, yet no odd weather occurred before the earthquake that would have led to the exodus of toads from their breeding grounds. What did change, however, were the Earth's magnetic field and the amount of radon gas in the groundwater, which the planet's crust burped out before the earthquake.
The researchers aren't sure which factor might have caused a disturbance in the upper atmosphere that was detected using very low frequency (VLF) radio sounding. Whatever the cause, the toads' reactions suggest the amphibians can sense the difference and take action to protect themselves.
Quake prediction
An earthquake detector could be particularly beneficial to toads, which move slowly and so can take hours or even days to find an area that won't be affected by a flood or a mudslide. And postponing their breeding to avoid the disaster could result in greater reproduction success, said Grant.
"I was really surprised because I wouldn't think that earthquakes would be that dangerous to toads, but the fact that they disappeared indicates that they are," said Grant.
Determining the exact reason for that response, however, would be extremely difficult because no one knows when earthquakes will happen. The knowledge that toads can anticipate them, however, could prove beneficial in the future, said Grant.
"One day there could be a system involving amphibians as an early earthquake predictor in combination with other seismic indicators," she said.
The study is detailed in a recent issue of the Journal of Zoology.
Toads with a super sensitive side hopped it before L'Aquila quake
Colony of amphibians vanished from Italian lake five days before disaster, then returned to breed when it was safe
Steve Connor, The Independent 31 Mar 10;
The common toad may be ugly, warty and squat, but it is blessed with an extraordinary gift. It has an uncanny ability to predict earthquakes several days before they occur, according to a remarkable study that documents for the first time an extraordinary "supersense" in wild animals.
Scientists studying a colony of breeding toads living in an Italian lake found that they suddenly disappeared en masse five days before a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the town of L'Aquila in central Italy in the early hours of 6 April 2009. Most remarkably, L'Aquila is 74km (46 miles) from the lake.
The researchers behind the observations believe there is no explanation other than the fact that the toads must have been able to detect some changes in their environment which led them to believe that violent tremors were imminent. Within days of the earthquake, the toads had returned to their breeding pool to continue spawning.
Anecdotal reports of animals behaving strangely before an earthquake are not unusual, but most cannot be properly assessed scientifically because they rely on eyewitness accounts after the event. In this case, however, the scientists were monitoring the toads long before the earthquake happened.
"Our study is one of the first to document animal behaviour before, during and after an earthquake. Our findings suggest that toads are able to detect pre-seismic cues such as the release of gases and charged particles, and use these as a form of earthquake early warning system," said Rachel Grant of the Open University in Milton Keynes.
"We looked at the weather and other possible causes of the sudden disappearance of the toads, but nothing seemed to fit. There didn't seem to be any other reason for it except that they had somehow managed to sense that an earthquake was going to happen," Dr Grant said.
The lake where the toads were breeding was being monitored nightly by Dr Grant and her Italian colleagues, who were studying the effect of moonlight on amphibian behaviour. Males of the common toad, bufo bufo, collect in large groups of up to 100 individuals to mate with passing females.
One night, Dr Grant found that the number of males had fallen dramatically, which she thought may be due to cold weather. However, for the next five nights, she failed to find a single toad, which was unprecedented.
"They could have gone back up into the high ground around the lake or they could have dug into the mud – we don't know," she said.
Russian scientists suggested that the toads may have been able to detect the release of radioactive radon gas from the ground, or the presence of charged particles in the ionosphere of the night sky, Dr Grant said. If so, it may be an evolved ability to protect the slow-moving animals from the frequent mud slides caused by earthquakes, she added.
"There could be more evolutionary pressure on them to develop an effective early seismic escape response," she said.
The study is published in the Journal of Zoology.
Animal magic: How they beat humans
* Kestrels can see ultraviolet light which helps them detect voles, their favourite prey.
* Homing pigeons can detect the Earth's magnetic field to allow them to navigate over long distances.
* Lions often hunt at night, because their eyes can see about seven times better in the dark than humans.
* Fish use their skin to detect movement and vibrations in water, in the same way people can feel breezes.
* Sharks can smell a single drop of blood diluted in 100 litres of water.
Hugh Warwick, BBC Green Room 30 Mar 10;
Hugh Warwick was a vocal opponent of the cull of hedgehogs on the Scottish islands known as the Outer Hebrides. However, in this week's Green Room, he argues that sometimes there are compelling reasons to support a cull.
Killing hedgehogs is wrong, isn't it? The public outcry against the cull of hedgehogs in the Outer Hebrides was intense.
So why am I, a devoted fan who helped end the cull of Hebridean hedgehogs, finding it hard to argue against the killing of hedgehogs in New Zealand?
The reason begins back in the mid-19th Century. In retrospect, what happened seems a little foolish. No, more than that, it seems barking mad. New Zealand is still cleaning up the mess that arrived thanks to the 1861 Animal Acclimatization Act.
The Act enabled the establishment of Acclimatization Societies to help ease the pains of being so far from home. There were some pretty obvious species that were shipped over from the UK: deer, rabbits, goats, pigs and foxes, for example.
What could possibly go wrong?
As we now know, these introductions, along with accidental tourists like rats and weasels, have wreaked havoc among the ground-dwelling birds, reptiles and insects who had adapted to a life without such predatory mammals.
Squashed hogs
But there was one species that seemed to fit right in: the hedgehog. Acclimatisation was not just about species to eat and hunt. It was also about making the new residents feel more at home.
Again, what could possibly go wrong? For many years, the sight of hedgehogs squashed on the roads was little more than a curiosity. They were welcomed into gardens. And some zoologists reckoned them to be the most benign of introductions.
Yet even in their homeland, hedgehogs can cause a problem. The Uist hedgehog cull came about because of the deliberate introduction of hedgehogs to the Hebridean islands in the mid-1970s in an attempt to control garden pests.
This act of seemingly green pest-control inadvertently let loose marauding, egg-hungry mammals that emerged each spring from hibernation to a veritable smorgasbord, thanks to the bounty provided by the internationally important populations of wading birds.
The hedgehogs were killed because the conservationists at Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) argued they would suffer "slow and lingering deaths" if translocated back to the mainland.
I was fortunate enough to undertake a study that suggested this was not true, and now SNH is working with the one-time rescuers, ensuring the hedgehogs get re-homed on the mainland.
So when the evidence of a hedgehog problem started to emerge from New Zealand, it would not be unexpected to find me siding with the vocal opposition to lethal control. Especially when reports started to emerge of a new and improved trap that was to be deployed in problem areas.
Backbreaking work
There is something a little disturbing about the effectiveness of the newly improved trap, the DoC 250. It was developed by the Department of Conservation when it was found that existing traps including the Victor Snapback and the Waddington Backcracker failed to meet the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee requirements.
There is a move from the DoC to persuade people to stop seeing hedgehogs as cute and harmless. A report in the Manawatu Standard begins: "Next time a hedgehog snuffles and shuffles its way into your garden, think of it as a rat…" and goes to explain that a "hedgehog Swat team" is being prepared to eradicate the prickly pests from two islands in the Hauraki Gulf.
Rangitoto and Motutapu islands, just a short distance from Auckland, are being targeted for restoration. This will involve removing seven different mammalian pests, cats, rabbits, stoats, brown rats, black rats, mice and hedgehogs.
The problem with hedgehogs in New Zealand is simply that they like to eat some of the more endangered species. CCTV cameras revealed disturbing levels of anti-social behaviour on their part, eating eggs of banded dotterels, black stilts and black-fronted terns.
One hedgehog was found with 283 weta legs in its stomach (and having seen pictures of this insect, you can only concede that this was a brave hedgehog) and scientists have found that hedgehogs also prey on native skinks.
So, what is to be done?
Wildlife management is often portrayed as a purely objective endeavour; you look at the numbers and make your decision. But wildlife management can never be objective.
There is a subjective judgement taken as to which species need to be controlled. We make value judgements about species based on where they are, what they are doing and how difficult it would be to control them.
Uist hedgehogs had the advantage that there was plenty of hedgehog-friendly habitat into which they could be released, back on the mainland. But New Zealand is a very different story. This is an alien species that is upsetting the fragile ecosystem. They could not be released. So what then? Build a hedgehog zoo?
Wildlife management can lead to dangerous sentimentality. If I had found that the Uist hedgehogs had suffered "slow and lingering deaths" on translocation, I would have supported the cull. The rights of animals not to suffer should be considered.
A solution to New Zealand's hedgehog problem may be coming from an unexpected quarter. A recent study has shown that hedgehog numbers are falling at a similar rate to the UK, despite apparently very different sets of pressures.
Perhaps New Zealand's hedgehogs will fade away, or at least become reduced to a residual population that does little harm, allowing wildlife managers to just control the most sensitive areas.
Reaching a compromise between extermination of the charismatic alien and the protection of the endangered natives must surely be a welcome target.
Hugh Warwick is a freelance writer and ecologist. His latest book is A Prickly Affair, My Life With Hedgehogs
The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website
Bernama 30 Mar 10;
KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 (Bernama) -- Malaysia, one of the top 17 mega-biologically diverse countries in the world, should embrace a leadership role in green technology, proposes the New Economic Model (NEM) Report Part 1.
It says the country, which has rainforests covering 60 per cent of its landmass, should become a strategic niche player in high-value green industries and services that play to its competitive advantages.
The report, released today by the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC), says that building on Malaysia's natural resources and biodiversity is central to strengthening the comparative advantages.
"Having such a precious natural heritage is important not only for Malaysia but also the world. Preserving the natural rain forests and marine reefs plays a significant role in the global carbon mitigation strategy," it says.
It says that these natural resources, if properly managed and preserved, have the capacity to reduce the world's carbon emission and help offset the impact of environmental deterioration on sustainable living.
It warns that if mismanaged, Malaysia could face not only irreparable environmental damage but also global sanctions that could have significant economic impact on its future exports and income.
Recalling that Malaysia has already made significant commitments in Copenhagen to deliver a 40 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 (compared to 2005), it says this is a major challenge for the economy.
The report also says that the global focus on environmental considerations will result in large shifts in demand for commodities and manufactured goods, to which Malaysia can adapt and is well positioned to anticipate, deliver and lead, and suggests that Malaysia create clusters of research and development to exploit these leads.
"The commercialisation of our natural biodiversity into high-value products and services will be a major national challenge. But is also an excellent avenue for partnership between the private and the public sectors.
"The major benefit of our green, high income, and inclusive strategy is that future generations of Malaysians (and world citizens) will continue to enjoy the clean air and water, and natural environment that they deserve and work so hard to preserve and enhance," it says.
-- BERNAMA
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post 29 Mar 10;
The West Lampung administration plans to auction the management of the Suoh-Sekincau geothermal power plant next month to help solve energy shortages in the province, says an official.
Regent Mukhlis Basrim said that the power plant was ready for auction following the decision from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry allowing it to be mined.
“With the additional energy supply expected to be generated from the site, hopefully Lampung’s energy crisis will come to an end,” Mukhlis said.
Covering an area of 33,333 hectares, the geothermal site comprises of two blocks — Suoh and Sekincau. It is estimated the blocs have the potential to generate 430 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
“That is just from one geothermal site. We have several others in West Lampung that can be exploited to help fulfill the local demand for electricity and speed up development in the region,” Mukhlis said.
Data from the Lampung Energy and Mining Agency shows there are 13 geothermal sites in Lampung, with a combined potential of 2,945 MW of electricity.
Lampung has the country’s third-largest geothermal potential.
Of the combined potential, more than 800 MW are ready to be developed.
They include Ranau Lake in West Lampung (183 MW), Mt. Sekincau (West Lampung, 100 MW), Suoh Antata (West Lampung, 163 MW), Ulu Belu (Tanggamus regency, 156 MW), and Way Ratai and Kalianda (South Lampung, 194 MW and 40 MW respectively).
He said his administration had signed a memorandum of understanding with the management of the Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (TNBBS) following the central government’s decision to allow the Suoh-Sekincau blocks to be mined.
Lampung Governor Sjachroedin Z.P., said that his administration would keep pushing the regencies to develop geothermal energy.
The move, he said, aimed to ensure that all subdistricts in the province would have electricity in the next three years.
Currently, out of 2,331 subdistricts in Lampung, only 1,533 have electricity networks.
In an effort to reach the target sooner, Sjachroedin said his administration had also been developing micro-hydro power plants in a number of areas across the province, including the Mt. Betung micro-hydro plant.
Electricity shortages have increased in Lampung for the last three years.
With an average demand of 442 MW, it can only produce 325. The remainder is supplemented by the Sumatra interconnection.
The PLTA Batutegi hydroelectric power plant in Tanggamus (90 MW) and the PLTA Way Besai plant (45 MW) in West Lampung, are designated as the main suppliers of electricity for state electricity company PLN, but the plants have been unable to produce enough electricity due to water shortages.
To deal with the problem, PLN is currently developing a number of power plants, including steam-powered electric generators in South Lampung.
New Straits Times 30 Mar 10;
KUCHING: The state government has hired 12 international consultants to conduct studies on the proposed construction of the 12 dams which would generate some 30,000MW of hydropower for Kuching, said Public Utilities Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan yesterday.
He said they would study the social, environment and physical aspects of the dams, including the earth's seismic movements.
Awang Tengah, who is also the second minister of planning and resource management, said based on earlier studies, the construction of the dams was not likely to cause earthquakes although slight seismic movements might occur.
"All aspects must be studied thoroughly by the experts," he told reporters after the opening of Asia 2010 -- the 3rd International Conference on Water Resources and Renewable Energy Development at the Borneo Convention Centre here.
Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud opened the three-day conference which saw the participation of 600 delegates from 46 nations.
Awang Tengah said the hydropower produced by the dams would be used by industries within the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score).
He added the hydropower would be exported to Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Brunei.
Earlier, Taib said Score had attracted some RM30 billion worth of investments.
Score, he added, was expected to contribute between RM70 billion and RM80 billion in gross domestic product by 2020 and RM180 billion by 2030.
Score is one of the five regional economic corridors being developed in Malaysia. Among the energy-intensive industries to be set up are aluminium, glass, steel and oil-based plants and marine engineering.
Located within central Sarawak, Score stretches some 320km along the coast from Tanjung Manis to Similajau and extending to the surrounding areas and the hinterland.
Studies to be conducted on all future dam projects
Sharon Ling, The Star 31 Mar 10;
KUCHING: The state government will conduct social and environmental impact assessment studies (SEIA) on all future hydroelectric dam projects in Sarawak, starting with the Murum Dam.
State Planning Unit principal assistant director (environment and natural resources) Andrew Tukau said this was a new approach adopted by the government to reduce resettlement problems and ensure the smooth implementation of projects in compliance with local and international standards.
“Our approach is to incorporate social impact into the study. For all future hydroelectric projects involving resettlement, we are to implement the SEIA,” he said.
Tukau was presenting a paper themed “Why we need to engage in social research?” at the third Inter-national Conference and Exhibition on Water Resources and Renewable Energy Development in Asia here yesterday.
He said the first SEIA was being carried out for the Murum Dam project by a government-appointed consultant. The 944MW Murum project is scheduled to be completed by 2013.
Besides identifying the environmental impact and mitigation measures related to the dam, the SEIA will include a detailed study on the social aspects of resettlement, such as documenting cultural and archaeological heritage, recommending sites and livelihood options in consultation with the affected villagers and establishing a grievance mechanism.
“Through this approach, there will no longer be involuntary resettlement as was done in previous dam projects.
“Instead, the affected communities will be consulted as to their preferred sites and a resettlement action plan agreed upon for implementation by the government,” Tukau said.
He said the resettlement action plan would include a development package such as housing, utilities, infrastructure and a livelihood restoration programme.
More importantly, he said it would have a monitoring, evaluation and reporting mechanism to ensure the success of the resettlement.
“This is a new thing that we are introducing. If there are no positive results, we will amend the programme so that the community will benefit from the resettlement,” he said.
Report identifies Koch Industries giving $73m to climate sceptic groups 'spreading inaccurate and misleading information'
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 30 Mar 10;
Greenpeace has identified Kansas-based oil firm Koch Industries as a multimillion funder of climate sceptic groups. Photograph: David McNew/Getty images
A Greenpeace investigation has identified a little-known, privately owned US oil company as the paymaster of global warming sceptics in the US and Europe.
The environmental campaign group accuses Kansas-based Koch Industries, which owns refineries and operates oil pipelines, of funding 35 conservative and libertarian groups, as well as more than 20 congressmen and senators. Between them, Greenpeace says, these groups and individuals have spread misinformation about climate science and led a sustained assault on climate scientists and green alternatives to fossil fuels.
Greenpeace says that Koch Industries donated nearly $48m (£31.8m) to climate opposition groups between 1997-2008. From 2005-2008, it donated $25m to groups opposed to climate change, nearly three times as much as higher-profile funders that time such as oil company ExxonMobil. Koch also spent $5.7m on political campaigns and $37m on direct lobbying to support fossil fuels.
In a hard-hitting report, which appears to confirm environmentalists' suspicions that there is a well-funded opposition to the science of climate change, Greenpeace accuses the funded groups of "spreading inaccurate and misleading information" about climate science and clean energy companies.
"The company's network of lobbyists, former executives and organisations has created a forceful stream of misinformation that Koch-funded entities produce and disseminate. The propaganda is then replicated, repackaged and echoed many times throughout the Koch-funded web of political front groups and thinktanks," said Greenpeace.
"Koch industries is playing a quiet but dominant role in the global warming debate. This private, out-of-sight corporation has become a financial kingpin of climate science denial and clean energy opposition. On repeated occasions organisations funded by Koch foundations have led the assault on climate science and scientists, 'green jobs', renewable energy and climate policy progress," it says.
The groups include many of the best-known conservative thinktanks in the US, like Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato institute, the Manhattan Institute and the Foundation for research on economics and the environment. All have been involved in "spinning" the "climategate" story or are at the forefront of the anti-global warming debate, says Greenpeace.
Koch Industries is a $100bn-a-year conglomerate dominated by petroleum and chemical interests, with operations in nearly 60 countries and 70,000 employees. It owns refineries which process more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day in the US, as well as a refinery in Holland. It has held leases on the heavily polluting tar-sand fields of Alberta, Canada and has interests in coal, oil exploration, chemicals, forestry, and pipelines.
The majority of the group's assets are owned and controlled by Charles and David Koch, two of the four sons of the company's founder. They have been identified by Forbes magazine as the joint ninth richest Americans and the 19th richest men in the world, each worth between $14-16bn.
Koch has also contributed money to politicians, the report said, listing 17 Republicans and four Democrats whose campaign funds got more than $10,000from the company.
Greenpeace accuses the Koch companies of having a notorious environmental record. In 2000 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fined Koch industries $30m for its role in 300 oil spills that resulted in more than 3m gallons of crude oil leaking intro ponds, lakes and coastal waters.
"The combination of foundation-funded front groups, big lobbying budgets, political action campaign donations and direct campaign contributions makes Koch Industries and the Koch brothers among the most formidable obstacles to advancing clean energy and climate policy in the US," Greenpeace said.
A spokeswoman for Koch Industries today defended the group's track record on environmental issues. "Koch companies have consistently found innovative and cost-effective ways to ensure sound environmental stewardship and further reduce waste and emissions of greenhouse gases associated with their operations and products," said a statement sent to AFP by Melissa Cohlmia, director of communication. She added: "Based on this experience, we support open, science-based dialogue about climate change and the likely effects of proposed energy policies on the global economy."
Top 10 Koch beneficiaries 2005-2008
Mercatus center: ($9.2m received from Koch grants 2005-2008) Conservative thinktank at George Mason University. This group suggested in 2001 that global warming would be beneficial in winter and at the poles. In 2009 they recommended that nothing be done to cut emissions.
Americans for prosperity. ($5.17m). Have built opposition to clean energy and climate legislation with events across US.
Institute for humane studies ($1.96m). Several prominent climate sceptics have positions here, including Fred Singer and Robert Bradley.
Heritage foundation ($1.62m). Conservative thinktank leads US opposition to climate change science.
Cato Insitute ($1.02m). Thinktank disputes science behind climate change and questions the rationale for taking action.
Manhattan Institute ($800,000). This institute regularly publishes climate science denials.
Washington legal foundation ($655,000) Published articles on the business threats posed by regulation of climate change.
Federalist society for law ($542,000) advocates inaction on global warming
National center for policy analysis ($130,000) NCPA disseminates climate science scepticism.
American council on science and health ($113,800) Has published papers claiming that cutting greenhouse emissions would be detrimental to public health.
Peter Henderson, PlanetArk 31 Mar 10;
The 'cloud' of data which is becoming the heart of the Internet is creating an all too real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and others build data centers powered by coal, according to a new Greenpeace report.
A Facebook facility will rely on a utility whose main fuel is coal, while Apple Inc, expecting its Web-browser iPad launch on April 3, is building a data warehouse in a North Carolina region powered by coal, the environmental organization said in the study to be released on Tuesday.
"The last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power," concluded Greenpeace, which argues that Web companies should be more careful about where they build and should lobby more in Washington, DC for clean energy.
The growing pile of home movies, pictures and business data has ballooned beyond the capabilities of personal computers and even average corporate data centers, spurring the creation of massive server farms with tens of thousands of specialized machines that make up the "cloud".
The report comes in the middle of a new federal debate whether to create caps or other measures to cut use of carbon-heavy fuels like coal and curb climate change.
Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Google Inc all have at least some centers with heavy use of coal power, said Greenpeace. The companies declined to give details of their data centers, but all said they considered the environment in business decisions, and most said they were aggressively pursuing efficiency.
Cheap and plentiful, coal is the top fuel for U.S. power plants, and its low cost versus alternative fuels makes it attractive, even in highly efficient data centers.
Technology companies say they support the environment. Apple releases its carbon footprint, or how much greenhouse gases it produces, and Facebook said it chose the location for its center in order to use natural means to cool its machines.
Microsoft said it aimed to maximize efficiency, and Google said it purchased carbon offsets -- funding for projects which suck up carbon -- for emissions, including at data centers.
Yahoo, which is building a center near Buffalo, New York that Greenpeace saw as a model, will get energy from hydroelectric facilities, but the company said efficiency was the top goal, with a long narrow and tall building that looks like a "chicken coop" and promotes air circulation.
Data center energy use already is huge, Greenpeace said.
If considered as a country, global telecommunications and data centers behind the cloud would have ranked fifth in the world for energy use in 2007, behind the United States, China, Russia and Japan, it concluded.
And the cloud may be the fastest growing portion of technology growth between now and 2020, said Greenpeace.
The group based its findings on a mix of data including a federal review of fuels in U.S. zip codes in 2005 and a 2008 study by the Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, which Greenpeace updated in part with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.
Reuters 30 Mar 10;
(Reuters) - Global installed solar photovoltaic power grew by 44 percent in 2009 on the back of German subsidies now under threat, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association said on Tuesday.
The global industry added a record 6.4 gigawatts new capacity, bringing total capacity to more than 20 gigawatts (GW), the EPIA said, despite tightened credit which has particularly hit infrastructure and energy project finance.
The increase was thanks to subsidies including a price premium for solar-powered electricity called a feed-in tariff.
"This is particularly impressive in light of the difficult financial and economical circumstances during the past year," said the EPIA industry group, adding it expected growth of at least 40 percent in 2010.
Germany was the largest demand market last year, adding 3 gigawatts (GW), followed by Italy, Japan and the United States. Germany would likely remain the biggest demand market in 2010, the EPIA said.
But Germany has proposed cuts to its feed-in tariffs from July, by 16 percent for rooftop solar power and by 15 percent for ground-mounted panels.
The risk from a cut in subsidies is underscored by Spain, which added just 60 megawatts (MW) in 2009, a fraction of the 2,500 MW or 2.5 GW the country added in 2008. The drop was a result of a cap in subsidies which Madrid applied because of a growing liability from its 25-year guaranteed incentives.
Despite strong growth, solar power still provides only about 0.5 percent of global installed electricity capacity, HSBC data show.
One problem for the emerging technology is cost, even in the aftermath of a sharp fall in solar panel prices, following a global glut of the main raw material, solar-grade silicon.
Solar power is far more expensive than rival forms of power generation, according to an HSBC report published in November.
Under the best case scenario in sunny locations, the cost of solar-powered electricity is about 17 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), compared with about 15 cents for offshore wind, 7 cents for coal and nuclear and 6 cents for gas.
Dominic Hughes, BBC News 28 Mar 10;
When the financial crisis first hit about 18 months ago, many politicians claimed "green jobs" would be the answer to reviving economic growth.
In January, President Obama pledged to create 17,000 green jobs - those linked to new environmentally friendly technologies.
In the UK, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said new off-shore wind turbines could create 70,000 jobs.
So what has happened to the green job bonanza?
It turns out plenty of jobs have been created, just not exactly where you would think.
Biggest off-shore wind farm
Looking out to sea from the wall of Ramsgate harbour on England's south east coast, you can just see the huge towers and arms of wind turbines planted in the English Channel.
This is the Thanet off-shore wind farm. When it becomes operational later this year it will be the largest in the world.
But only for a few months - until the next big project is completed.
Because this is just one of a huge number of wind farms being constructed in UK waters.
Coastal lifeline?
For coastal towns such as Ramsgate, the jobs these wind farm projects should bring with them are invaluable.
When the traditional British seaside holiday died a death in the 1960s, many of these towns went into decline and have found it hard to recover ever since.
Unemployment is much higher here - 6.2% in February 2010 - than in the rest of the affluent south east of England where the rate was 3% that month.
Most of the turbines are already up, standing 90 metres above the brown, churning sea. Large, yellow metal stumps stand ready to take the remainder.
The company behind the project, Swedish power giant Vattenfall, has tried hard to work with local contractors.
But even so, skilled staff and almost all the components have had to be brought in from other countries.
Slow to react
Richard Barron is a project manager for Marine South East, a group set up to promote the marine industry.
He admits the Thanet project posed a steep learning curve.
"You need to engage very early with the developers to establish exactly what their needs are," he says.
That means linking up with colleges and schools to make sure local people can get on the right kind of training courses to develop the skills they will need for these new jobs.
"I don't think we've missed out," says Mr Barron.
"But I think we've been very slow on the uptake.
"Europe has been looking at this for 10 years now and they are way ahead of us in terms of having turbine manufacturers in place and in getting training schemes up. But we are doing our best to catch up."
Danish green jobs
When it comes to green jobs, Denmark is ahead of most other countries.
The Danish government has a long track record of supporting wind power, going back more than 30 years.
The country is now a world leader in turbine manufacturing with the creation of thousands of jobs as a result.
The Aalborg experience
In the far north of Denmark lies the town of Aalborg.
Like Ramsgate, its traditional industries, shipbuilding and meat processing, had collapsed.
Unemployment was high.
But then along came the German company Siemens.
It bought up a small engineering firm that manufactured the long sweeping blades that drive wind turbines.
"In December 2004 we were 800 employees," says Thomas Schlenzig, procurement director at the Aalborg plant. "Now we are approximately 5,800 employees."
Mr Schlenzig has an almost evangelical zeal when talking about the factory and his work.
"I definitely believe that renewable energy has created a lot of jobs here in Denmark," he says.
UK jobs lost
But while jobs are being created in Denmark, the picture in the UK is mixed.
Last year, 600 British workers lost their jobs with the closure of the country's only major wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight.
But Brian White, in charge of regeneration for Thanet District Council, the local authority in Ramsgate, says there is more to green jobs than manufacturing turbines.
"The good thing is, there should be engineers required at places like our port in Ramsgate to keep the machines going.
"That provides training and development opportunities for local young people who haven't even left school yet."
Ramsgate plan
And that is the plan in Ramsgate.
They want the port to be the main centre for servicing both the Thanet off-shore wind farm as well as the even larger London Array, which will start recruiting in May 2010.
And there are plenty of companies hoping to get in on the act. Marine suppliers, engineering companies, caterers.
These projects could just be the shot in the arm towns such as Ramsgate need.
Fresh water production increases to 9.5m cubic metres a day – twice the annual flow of the Thames – as one-third of world goes thirsty
Juliette Jowit, guardian.co.uk 30 Mar 10;
Fresh water pumped into a reservoir after being treated at a desalination plant in Carboneras, near Almeria, southern Spain. Photograph: Jose Luis Roca/AFP/Getty Images
The world's unquenchable thirst for clean water drove a record increase in the desalination and reuse of sewage last year, figures show, as water-stressed countries around the world try to build their way out of trouble.
Making fresh water from the sea was once the preserve of cruise ships and oil-rich Gulf states that could afford the huge cost of energy required to remove the salt. But as rivers, lakes and aquifers dry up, rains become less reliable, and the cost of desalination falls, communities in all parts of the world have begun to build and plan plants to turn oceans, estuaries, salty ground water and even sewage into clean water for factories, farms and homes.
The rise in fresh water production was the biggest ever recorded, reaching 9.5m cubic metres a day, the annual report by analysts Global Water Intelligence will say tomorrow. That is equivalent to twice the annual flow of the Thames, or about 10% of global capacity. Those desalinating and reusing water include some of the poorest countries, including Algeria, India and Ghana.
But wet overpopulated cities such as London and Dublin are also investing in the technology.
With water "manufacturing" allowing people to change fundamentally the geography of fresh water on such a large scale, Christopher Gasson, GWI's publisher, talks of "rivers flowing backwards".
"People do desalination when they run out of opportunities, and the problem is the world overall is running out of opportunities: groundwater is overexploited to the extent it's becoming saline and unusable; rivers are being drained; new dams are becoming less and less viable [and] long-distance transfer is expensive and controversial,"he said.
The fundamental reason for the rise of water manufacturing is a simple gap between demand and supply: in 2006 a report from the International Water Management Institute found one in three of the world's population were "enduring one form or another of water scarcity" – such as "when women work hard to get water, [or] you want to allocate more but can't".
Growing numbers of people, richer lifestyles, demand for water-intensive food such as meat, and dwindling supplies are expected to increase that number – to up to half the projected global population or more in the middle of this century. And that is despite an expected doubling of water manufacturing capacity between now and 2016, according to UK-based GWI.
The falling cost of desalination, thanks to technology improvements, is key, and the reuse of water can be cheaper still.
Contracts have been signed to deliver desalinated water in Algeria and Israel for 55-56 cents (36p) a cubic metre, and reuse plants can now turn sewage into drinking water for 40-45 cents a cubic metre, said Gasson. To compare, the average cost of UK drinking water is about 51p a cubic metre, though that also includes piping the water to the tap.
Comparisons between the energy needs of different desalination methods - heating up water for distillation or pushing it through membranes to filter the salt - have also become much closer. Continuing developments in membranes – which one day are likely to be modelled on the "technology" nature uses in kidneys and mangroves – will continue to bring down costs and energy needs, said Gasson. Systems using carbon-free energy are also being tested: nuclear desalination in the UAE, solar power in Australia, and biodiesel from plants at a desalination plant built by Thames Water in London.
Despite the advances, there are still serious objections to manufacturing water. The WWF remains concerned about building facilities in often environmentally sensitive coastal and wetland areas; about the intake of seawater, which is home to millions of tiny species, and discharge of the remaining brine, which can be contaminated with cleaning chemicals and particles from corroding pipes.Concerns about the energy use of plants also still remain, especially where they are still dependent on fossil fuels, or if they could divert renewable resources which could otherwise replace existing carbon-intensive energy supplies. Residents in upmarket Monterey, California, have long objected to a desalination plant being built there because they fear it would encourage more development.
Water worlds
Windhoek, Namibia: toilet to tap
The capital , surrounded by desert,has the world's only system that treats waste water and puts it back into the public water supply, mixed with water from the city's main reservoir. The success of the scheme is credited to a long-standing public acceptance campaign, including advertising, education in schools and an "excellent" water-quality record.
Arizona and Nevada, US : desert desalination
North American states and Mexico share the Colorado river under a treaty signed in 1922. It has been suggested Nevada funds a desalination plant in return for more of Mexico's river water. into the river, allowing upstream towns and cities to keep more of the fresh flow.
London, UK desperate measures in the capital
Despite its rainy reputation, London receives less rainfall than Rome, Dallas or Istanbul. To cope with an expected 800,000 more residents by 2016, Thames Water has built a desalination plant next to its Becton sewage works.
Yahoo News 30 Mar 10;
GENEVA (AFP) – Weather experts said Tuesday that El Nino, the weather anomaly that wrecks havoc around the Pacific and east Africa, has peaked and would disappear by mid-year.
"The most likely outcome by mid-year 2010 is for the El Nino event to have decayed and near-neutral conditions to be re-established across the tropical Pacific," said the World Meteorological Organisation expert Rupa Koumar Kolli.
El Nino is an occasional seasonal warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean that upsets normal weather patterns from the western seaboard of Latin America to east Africa.
According to the UN weather agency, the climate phenomenon may have peaked in November or December.
However, its effects should still be felt through April to June.
"This is because impacts on many climate patterns both close to and remote from the Pacific, can occur even during the decay phase of an El Nino event."
Kolli said that this year's El Nino had a major impact in extreme climate events such as monsoons in southeast Asia and drought in southern Australia.
In February, the Philippines warned that its farming industry could lose about 433 million dollars due to a drought caused by El Nino.
Meanwhile in the Americas, El Nino was blamed for blizzards in the United States, heatwaves in Brazil, killer floods in Mexico and drought in Ecuador which occurred in February.
El Nino To Influence Climate Patterns To Midyear: WMO
Stephanie Nebehay, PlanetArk 31 Mar 10;
El Nino To Influence Climate Patterns To Midyear: WMO Photo: Cheryl Ravelo
The almost completely dried up soil bed of the Magat dam is seen in Ramon, Isabela province, the province most affected by El Nino, north of Manila March 3, 2010.
Photo: Cheryl Ravelo
The El Nino warming the Pacific Ocean since June has peaked, but is expected to influence climate patterns worldwide up to mid-year before dying out, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.
However, the United Nations agency said that forecasting uncertainties meant it could not rule out the possibility that El Nino would persist beyond mid-year.
El Nino, driven by an abnormal warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, can create havoc in weather patterns across the Asia-Pacific region, unleashing droughts in some places and heavy storms in others. It typically lasts from 9 to 12 months.
The most likely scenario is for sea surface temperatures across the tropical Pacific, which rose by 1.5 degrees Celsius at its peak last November-December, to return to normal by mid-2010, WMO said in a statement.
"El Nino is already in a decaying phase. We expect it to fully decay by mid-year and neutral conditions to be established," WMO climate expert Rupa Kumar Kolli told Reuters.
"But this is a period where the predictability of the system is very low. Things could happen very suddenly," he said.
The WMO said that the current El Nino, which can occur every two-seven years, was of a moderate level, "close to or slightly above the typical strength seen in the historical record of El Nino events."
"Even during the decaying phase of the El Nino, expected over the next few months, the conditions associated with a typical El Nino will continue to influence climatic patterns at least through the second quarter of the year," it said.
DRY CONDITIONS
El Nino typically creates dry conditions for western areas along the Pacific Ocean such as South East Asia and Indonesia, and southern parts of western Australia, and wetter than normal conditions in western coastal areas of South America, Kolli told Reuters.
Parts of South Asia experienced drought last year due to a weak summer monsoon season linked to El Nino, and this could happen again if El Nino were to intensify in June, he said.
"That is the typical signature of El Nino," he added.
Warmer sea temperatures along some coastal regions of Latin America had caused higher rainfalls, but these were confined to relatively smaller pockets, and did not wreak havoc, he said.
The last severe El Nino in 1998 killed more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars in damages to crops, infrastructure and mines in Australia and Asia.
"Every El Nino is an individual event," Kolli said.
However, the phenomenon, which means "little boy" in Spanish, referring to the Christ child because it is often noticed mostly clearly in Latin America around Christmas, is also linked to a weaker than normal hurricane season in the northern Atlantic, according to the WMO expert.
The opposite cooling phenomenon, known as La Nina, or "little girl," could also start in the middle of this year, but that scenario is deemed less likely.
(Editing by Jonathan Lynn)
Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post 30 Mar 10;
A Golkar Party senior politician regards President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's idea of making Porong in Sidoarjo, East Java, the area devastated by a continuous mudflow, a tourist attraction as brilliant.
“We can finally show the world that a scary area can be utilized as a beautiful area for tourism,” Golkar's Priyo Budi Santoso told reporters at the House of Representatives in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Priyo said Lapindo, a company affiliated with Golkar chairman Aburizal Bakrie, would do its best to make the dream of making the area into a tourism site come true.
The mudflow started in May 2006, at a time when Lapindo Brantas was running an exploratory drilling program and was drilling in the area.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled there was no evidence Lapindo caused the mudflow, which has displaced 40,000 people from their homes.
In 2008, the government declared the mudflow a “natural disaster”.
Many scientists, however, believe the mudflow was no natural disaster and consider it a massive natural accident caused by human intervention.
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