A day in the life of a Body collector
from Raffles Museum News
Fishes alive! At Pasir Ris
from wild shores of singapore and wonderful worms
mywaterbottle Campaign in Singapore
from Green Future Solutions
Hooded Pitta rescued in Ipoh, Malaysia
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Monkey Roadkill
from Crystal and Bryan in Singapore
A Hooded Pitta visits Joyce’s backyard
from Bird Ecology Study Group
red crinoid @ Pulau Hantu
from sgbeachbum
Wildfacts updates: April Stars!
from wild shores of singapore
Looking high and feeling low
from The annotated budak and signs of ignorance
A day to celebrate (and save) the world's amphibians
the 2nd Annual Save the Frogs Day from Mongabay.com news
Farming snails to save the world's rarest gorillas
from Mongabay.com news
'No Pulau Ubin for me.'
Straits Times Forum 29 Apr 10;
MS TAN LEE KHENG: 'My vision of a retirement village is a place where I can live on my own yet when I step out of my home, there are people (eventually friends) of my age to socialise with. Like-minded people who think nothing of telling the same stories over and over. Stories our children are sick of hearing yet again. Play mahjong or computer games, or line-dance with friends, happily laughing at our mistakes, arthritic fingers and stiff bodies. We will be in our league. I expect to be able-bodied, and perhaps take a bus or train to visit my children when I feel like it. Maybe go window shopping or have lunch with friends outside the retirement village. Maybe baby-sit occasionally. A retirement village should give me and my grown children privacy and freedom, and accessibility to each other and facilities. A 365-day dose of beach and nature would be suffocating. So no Pulau Ubin for me.'
'Why not Sentosa?'
MS TAN ENG LIAN: 'Pulau Ubin reminds me of Alcatraz. The one-time island prison off San Francisco, California, was a place where hardcore criminals were banished, ultimately dying a lonely death. If we want a retirement village, why not Sentosa? It is a resort island and who else deserves it more than our senior citizens? While there is peace and quiet in such a village, senior citizens can access a resort brimming with life and bright lights as well. The aged will cherish their golden years even more. Their children and grandchildren will have good reasons to visit them too. A retirement village must be a place where people can look forward to living happily, not a forgotten island where they may feel they have been dumped. Better still, if we provide comfortable homes for the aged, rebuilt and renovated, at all suitable void decks, those who do not live in retirement villages can enjoy the option of living nearer their loved ones.'
'HDB estates should incorporate retirement villages.'
MR SAY KIN TONG: 'I am 52 years old and when I retire I would prefer to live in a retirement village within an HDB estate. As one ages, one prefers living in a community of all ages, not alone with a group of elderly people waiting to see who dies first. HDB estates should incorporate retirement villages so elderly people can live among young families, particularly their own. The villages need not be complicated. The first few levels of blocks in an estate can be designated the village. When elderly citizens are ready to move in, the change will not be traumatic because they will still be in a familiar neighbourhood. The Government will save on land resources as well.'
Retirement villages not best way for Singaporeans
Straits Times Forum 29 Apr 10;
MR JEFFREY Tan ('Retirement village: Pulau Ubin an ideal choice') and Miss Angeline Elysia Tan ('The hope') meant well on April 19 about introducing retirement villages for senior citizens.
Certainly, more can be done for senior citizens to have a meaningful and wholesome life in their twilight years.
But the idea and concept of placing them on an island or in a village is not one that should even be considered, no matter how well we develop such a place with easy accessibility for visits thrown in.
At a time when we are encouraging our young to be filial and look after their ageing parents, conveniently packing their parents off to an island or village is not the solution. Spending quality time with their parents and looking after their welfare is.
And because many today are all too often busy with their career and own family, it makes more sense to live with, or at least be near, their parents.
It may be true that senior citizens will benefit from the peace and tranquillity of an island or a village.
However, by the same token, it will ultimately detach them from their family and the Singapore they worked so hard to help build.
Victor Khoo
Study shows males in 17 to 29 age group racked up most fines last year
Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times 29 Apr 10;
TEENAGE boys and men aged from 17 to 29 are the biggest culprits when it comes to littering in parks - they make up 44 per cent of those fined last year for thoughtless disposal of rubbish.
Men aged 30 to 40 are the next most guilty group, accounting for 28 per cent of offenders. On the whole, men exceeded women by far in summonses for littering: Of the $2 million dished out in fines last year, 85 per cent was levied on men.
Altogether, 8,300 fines were meted out last year, nearly twice the 4,500 in the previous year. National Parks Board (NParks) director Nigel Goh said the jump came from a step-up in enforcement, not a worsening of the littering problem.
The statistics from NParks, the custodian of the more than 50 parks and four nature reserves here, are the result of a study that for the first time examined littering culprits by gender and age.
Dr Goh said: 'It's not older people who are less educated who are littering; it's actually the young people. We are not sure why they are littering more.'
Mr Howard Shaw, director of the Singapore Environment Council, said: 'Cigarettes are a large part of litter and that's probably why the statistics point to young men... A cigarette butt is not something you put in your pocket, and its small size makes it likely that people would drop it on the ground instead of carrying it to a bin.'
He suggested that, on top of a health warning, cigarette packs should also carry a pro-environment message.
Besides butts, the rubbish commonly left behind in parks is made up of barbecue leftovers, food wrappers, tissue paper and plastic bags. At East Coast Park, about 200 tonnes of rubbish are picked up every month - the most among parks here - and nearly two in five fines are issued there.
Only 3 per cent of fines are issued at the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. The most common litter there: discarded soles of sports shoes.
NParks has launched an anti-littering drive with a mascot and the tagline: 'Love Green: Just Bin It!'
A competition to find the best YouTube video with an anti-littering message is also on. Citizens and residents here have until June 27 to upload entries, each clip being between 30 seconds and two minutes long.
The top prize is $10,000 and the $20,000 prize purse comes from littering fines collected. Winners will be chosen by public vote, to take place between June 30 and July 20.
To enter the competition, visit www.nparks.gov.sg/justbinit
Under the anti-littering drive, a big bin will be parked at one of the barbecue pits in East Coast Park for two months to test its effectiveness against the problem of larger bags of rubbish being left outside existing bins.
The National Environment Agency will launch a nationwide anti-littering campaign in June.
Over 8,300 fines slapped on park litterbugs, mostly men
Lynda Hong Channel NewsAsia 28 Apr 10;
SINGAPORE: Over 8,300 fines were issued last year to litterbugs in parks.
This number is nearly double that of about 4,800 for 2008.
Close to 40 per cent of the fines were for littering offences committed at East Coast Park, the largest park in Singapore with over seven million visits a year.
The two biggest groups of culprits are aged from 17 to 29 years, and from 30 to 40 years.
The majority of offenders are men.
Common litter found in parks include cigarette butts, rubbish left at barbecue pits, food wrappers, tissue paper and plastic bags.
- CNA/jy
Christopher Tan, Straits Times 29 Apr 10;
THE drive to put electric cars on Singapore's roads has moved up a gear, with the Government seeking proposals from vendors for a network of charging stations to be ready by end-November.
The invitation was posted on the government e-commerce site Gebiz last Friday.
In it, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) - the lead agency of an electric vehicle trial here - is looking to build up to 63 charging stations across the island, with three of them capable of quick charging.
Quick charging stations refer to those that can recharge an electric car within 30 minutes, as opposed to six to 12 hours for 'normal' charging kiosks.
The EMA is looking to have the first 20 normal stations and one quick-charging station up and running by November this year. The rest will be rolled out progressively over the next couple of years.
The Government has set aside $20 million to study the robustness, cost-effectiveness and environmental impact of electric- powered vehicles in a tropical environment such as Singapore's.
For the trial, registration taxes and certificates of entitlement for these vehicles have been waived. The tax break, which is extended to other new-tech vehicles such as plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell cars (with the number capped at 1,300), is expected to cost $75 million in tax revenue.
The EMA's request for proposals is the first concrete step towards rolling out the trial since it was announced last May. Back then, the agency envisioned the first cars to be running by the middle of this year.
The agency expects to award a tender to build the charging network by June. It is looking at costs involved in developing the system, including maintenance expenditure up to the end of 2016. By then, the network is to be handed over to the EMA.
It is exploring various types of charging systems and billing systems. For the latter, users may be billed monthly, or on the spot, via smart cards such as the CashCard and ez-link card.
Industry players welcome the EMA's move.
Mr Oliver Risse, managing director of electric vehicle charging infrastructure provider Greenlots, said: 'It took a bit of time, but it's good to see there is now traction.'
He said Greenlots is keen to take part in the exercise.
Mr Risse said charging stations in Germany typically cost $5,000 to $10,000, and expects expenditure here to be in the same ballpark. Greenlots has already set up 10 electric vehicle charging points in Singapore. Locations include Parkway Parade, Singapore Polytechnic, Ikea Tampines, Alexandra and Swiss Club.
They are used by five motorbikes and one car - the only electric vehicles here so far. Currently, owners use the points for free 'because there aren't many electric vehicles here', explained Mr Risse.
Mr Michael Magura, managing director of new tech consultancy group Clean Tech Agency, described the request for proposals as 'an important first step'.
Mitsubishi dealer Cycle & Carriage, which is supplying the first batch of trial electric cars here, is also looking forward to the charging stations.
'They'd be just in time for the arrival of the cars,' said C&C senior manager Edmund Gin, adding that the company has placed a tentative order for 30 Mitsubishi i-MiEVs, a small hatchback capable of 140kmh and a range of around 100km.
EMA team will look into technical, economic feasibility
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 29 Apr 10;
(SINGAPORE) Singapore is starting to assemble a team of experts to study the option of using nuclear energy here eventually. This follows last month's announcement that the Trade and Industry Ministry will lead the multi-agency effort starting this year.
'It's still early days,' said one source when asked about the components of the team and how big it will be, although preparations are already underway.
At the Energy Market Authority end - whose regulatory role was recently enlarged to include energy industry development - recruitment of analysts/sen- ior analysts and engineers/ senior engineers for the study has begun. The engineers are required to have paper for either nuclear engineering, nuclear/atomic science or nuclear/atomic physics.
Their job description: they will be 'responsible for planning and managing the conduct of a technical and economic feasibility study on nuclear energy, with a view to enhancing Singapore's understanding of it as a possible long-term energy option'.
Their work will involve 'liaising with relevant stakeholders within the energy sector, and working with independent consultants and international organisations to perform environmental, safety, security, financing, legal, regulatory and other relevant analyses in support of the study'.
Reinforcing the multi-agency approach, the EMA analysts and engineers will also 'be responsible for interfacing and coordinating with a range of government agencies in Singapore for the feasibility study, and drawing up appropriate policy implications for Singapore'.
Further afield, 'they will need to build contacts and relationships with the relevant energy companies and regulatory bodies in the nuclear sector, in order to accelerate Singapore's understanding of the industry'.
Underlining this, the Singapore government said in its position paper at the summit on nuclear security in Washington earlier this month that 'Singapore has not ruled out nuclear energy to meet our needs and will soon embark on a feasibility study which will entail a careful and rigorous examination of the technical, economic and safety aspects of nuclear energy.'
'This process is still at a preliminary stage, but we will enhance our cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and nuclear suppliers as our study progresses,' the paper issued by the Foreign Affairs Ministry added.
In an interview with BT last September, EMA chief executive Lawrence Wong also said that while nuclear is clean from a carbon point of view, there are several issues to be addressed.
'Safety is one. Where do we locate the plant and make sure it's safe?' he asked.
The second is scale, he said. 'Current nuclear plants are in the region of 1-2 gigawatts. Singapore's entire (electricity) demand is only about 6 gigawatts. So when you have a plant that is one-sixth to one-third of demand, how will our small electricity market be able to accommodate such a sizeable plant? What happens when the plant goes on maintenance? Where do you find the back-up to it?'
On a positive note, recent reports have indicated that smaller, safer and cheaper nuclear reactors are starting to be developed in countries like the US, Russia, Japan and South Korea, and these could potentially be suitable for use here.
DNV executive sees Singapore in key role to promote short-sea LNG shipping
Vincent Wee, Business Times 29 Apr 10;
USING liquefied natural gas (LNG) as fuel is the way forward for shipping in Southeast Asia, a clean energy expert said yesterday.
In line with the Martech 2010 conference and exhibition's theme of 'new frontiers', environmental matters came very much to the fore during the opening ceremony.
In his keynote address Bjorn Tore Markussen, managing director of classification society DNV's Clean Technology Centre, spoke on the potential of LNG. Meanwhile, container line APL launched a partnership with the Singapore Maritime Academy (SMA) and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore to raise awareness of green issues through a Maritime Environmental Awareness multimedia e-learning project.
The pioneer project aims to ensure that employees of maritime organisations are more aware of environmental trends and challenges, as well as the commitment of their institutions to adopt sound practices. The project will be available through SMA, first in Singapore and subsequently to maritime organisations and educational institutions worldwide.
In his keynote address, Mr Markussen said developments in the LNG sphere are of particular interest to Singapore and South-east Asia because of a combination of factors. He cited a recent World Bank report as saying about US$80 billion a year is needed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in Asia. With LNG's properties of cutting almost all NOx, SOx and carbon dioxide emissions, it seems a natural choice as a fuel for the future, he said.
The fact that South-east Asia is a major supply and distribution hub for natural gas, with a large intra-regional trading pattern, means the potential for short-sea LNG shipping is promising, he said.
The structure of projected growth in intra-regional transported goods and the high average age of the fleet serving this trade suggests the potential for a shift to an LNG-powered fleet, Mr Markussen added.
Densely populated areas with active short-sea shipping, such as South-east Asia, are ideal for the development of small-scale LNG applications, he noted.
Joint and coordinated efforts by national authorities, ports, gas suppliers and the shipping community are the most effective way to accelerate LNG use, he said, adding that small-scale LNG will have to be part of the solution to reach ambitious emission targets set by national, regional and international authorities and bodies.
While admitting that the development of small-scale LNG applications has been limited so far, Mr Markussen cited his native Norway as a leading light in this field. The reasons for its success there are the provision of infrastructure, plus tax incentives, he said.
Given Singapore's regional leadership in shipping and LNG, the island's maritime cluster and associated agencies are perfect candidates to take on a leadership role in unleashing the potential of short-sea LNG shipping, Mr Markussen said.
The technology, concepts and safety standards are established but will need to be developed as experience is gained, while infrastructure needs to be built and similar tax incentives to Norway would be a plus, he added.
Singapore needs to act fast if it wants to capitalise on these opportunities and make money from them, Mr Markussen said. 'There are already countries close to Singapore, like Vietnam, which are actively looking at this as a solution to meet the increasing demands of land transport between North and South, for example,' he said.
DNV is currently calling for expressions of interest from the industry to take part in a project aimed at defining an LNG shipping roadmap for Singapore and South-east Asia, he added.
Ridzwan A. Rahim, New Straits Times 28 Apr 10;
Avid scuba diver RIDZWAN A. RAHIM thinks there may be merit in limiting the number of visitors to Redang.
I feel like a water-baby these days. I love snorkelling and scuba diving. And even the simple pleasure of jumping off jetties and boats to swim in the clear waters of our islands.
And I do prefer paying less for my island holidays.
But I can understand why the authorities are looking to increase the cost of staying in Redang Island.
Recently, the Terengganu State government announced that from now on, only five-star resorts and hotels will be allowed to operate on the island.
What that means in ringgit and sen is this: Expect to pay some RM1,600 a night for your future Redang getaway.
That’s a quantum leap from the few hundred ringgit that you can get from budget resorts currently operating on the island. Lots of people have already started moaning.
The reason for the move, according to Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said, is to protect the island’s fragile natural beauty, especially its coral reef and marine life.
Because of the affordable accommodation, too many people are visiting Redang, he said. As a result, pollution and environmental damage have gone out of control.
“We want to turn Redang into a niche market to control the number of visitors. We are concerned about the environmental damage that is happening on Redang,” he added. Redang is widely regarded as one of 10 most beautiful islands in the world.
It is so beautiful that in the late 90s, a Hong Kong production team chose the island as the location site for the film, Summer Holiday, starring Richie Ren and Sammi Cheng.
The screening of the film in 2000 gave the island a huge amount of publicity and created a surge in both local and international visitors.
And they have not stopped coming since, in particular because a trip here is very affordable.
Businessman Neoh Jiun Yih came to Redang with his wife, child and five of his staff.
He paid for everything, including airfare, to reward the staff for hitting their sales target.
“I’m very happy for my staff. Some of them had never been on an island trip before, never taken the plane before,” he said when met recently in the island.
“I spent a total of RM5,500, including flight tickets and three days, two nights full accommodation for seven. That’s the great thing about this place.
“But if we go with what the State government is suggesting — that is, RM1,600 per night for a single person — this trip will be impossible for a small business owner like me,” said Neoh.
Protecting Redang’s Natural Treasures
For me personally, Redang has a special place in my heart. This was where I overcame my fear of water and other obstacles and completed my Padi Open Water diver certification.
One of my most memorable dives was at the Bahagia shipwreck, a cargo ferry that lies 15m under the sea. It has been there for the past six years. You can swim through the ship’s small toilet without having to pay 30 sen.
More recently, my friends and I chanced upon a brand new shipwreck in Redang. The two Vietnamese boats, each about 30m long, were at a dive site called Sandy Bottom.
Our dive master said we were the first to visit the shipwreck as the boats sank only about two days earlier. It was a pleasant surprise.
But, as I mentioned earlier, I can understand if the government wants to somehow control the number of divers coming to the island.
Ever since taking up scuba diving more than a year ago, I am more aware of how interaction with humans can have an adverse effect on the fragile marine environment.
One of the misconceptions people have about the marine life is that they are there for touching.
If they find a turtle, for example, they would try and see if they can ride on it.
They think the whole point of taking up scuba diving is so that you could go down there and touch things or ride on things — something you can’t do when snorkelling. This is wrong.
As a scuba diving student, I was taught from very early on that diving is a passive activity. You are free to observe the marine creatures but never to touch them.
In fact, our instructors told us to keep our arms folded most of the time, and to move slowly and silently so as not to disrupt the natural rhythm of the marine life.
We were also forbidden from wearing gloves, because with gloves, you are more likely to touch things.
I follow these rules religiously.
However, things can still go wrong. For example, during underwater photography.
I am not a photographer but I now see that if you intend to dabble in underwater photography, you must have good buoyancy control — the ability to suspend in mid-water.
Without this skill, a photographer will constantly kick, scull or wave to stay in place or worse, hold on to or step on a coral.
Sometimes, the photographer gets too engrossed in the activity without realising that his gauge has gotten unclipped and is dragging across the coral reefs, destroying them.
Of course, some allowances can be made. For example, when there’s strong undersea current, you have no choice but to hold on to something.
The point is, accidents can and will happen. We cannot design a system that does not allow people to make mistakes.
But we must do all we can to minimise mistakes, to tell people that they must avoid contact with the sensitive marine life.
That is why the use of fins (or flippers) for snorkelling is banned in Redang. There have been instances in the past where snorkellers used their fins to rest on the corals.
Making It Really Special
We want people to enjoy our country’s beautiful islands but we want them to do it responsibly. Otherwise, our children and their children may not get to enjoy what we have today.
Now about the proposed pricing. Most of the visitors to Redang are locals and personally, I don’t know anyone who can afford a RM1,600-per-night stay.
So it must be not for Malaysians.
Redang risks losing tourists to alternative destinations like Pulau Perhentian, or even Pukhet or Bali, which have become affordable now with cheap AirAsia flights.
I don’t think people are not willing to pay, but it has to be substantiated.
Perhaps packages can be tailored for different segments of the market.
The problem with scuba divers, though, is that we are typically not fussy. We are happy with a decent room, decent buffet meals and Internet access.
We don’t need LCD TV, Astro or mini-bar. We don’t spend much time in our rooms anyway. Which is what budget (RM320 for 3D/2N) accommodations like Redang Pelangi Resort where I stayed at, is already offering.
So it’s going to take a lot — A LOT — of imagination on the part of the resort and the State government to come up with something that will make us pay RM1,600 a night.
One idea is underwater videography. Based on my experience, resorts can make a handsome profit from this.
On a diving trip in Sipadan last year, someone approached our group, offering to shoot videos of our dives, edit them and burn them to DVD.
Guess what? We agreed. We paid him RM1,000 on top of the RM2,000-plus per person that we had already paid for accommodation. But we got a nice little something to bring home.
People on holiday want to relax. They don’t want to have to fiddle with anything, much less cameras or video editing. But they want to bring back memories. If the place is special enough, and if the price is right, they will be more than willing to pay.
MAN not the only ones to blame
ALL it takes is just one careless act by an irresponsible holidaymaker to destroy reefs that take hundreds of years to form.
But human interaction is not the only cause of damage to the fragile marine environment. There are a host of other factors as well, many of which are beyond our control.
Corals are sensitive to water temperature and global warming has a catastrophic impact on coral reefs. Corals bleach and die when their upper temperature threshold is exceeded.
The El Nino phenomenon of 1998 destroyed much of the world’s coral reefs through mass bleaching. Some of these corals are still in recovery process now.
Other natural threats include storms and, on this side of Malaysia, monsoons. They bring about powerful waves that can damage corals and churn up seabed, causing sedimentation that can block sunlight needed by the coral.
And then, there’s disease. Bacteria, fungi and virus may attack coral polyps and kill them.
There is also damage by reef animals. Crown of Thorn starfish is among the biggest natural predator of corals. A single starfish can devour as much as six square metres of coral a year. Therefore, an outbreak in their number can destroy entire reefs.
Which is why, during ocean clean-up exercises, divers hunt for the Crown of Thorn.
Other threats include damage caused by fishermen through destructive fishing practices (using cyanide or explosives) and fishing boats that anchor on coral reefs.
Daniel Bateman, The Cairns Post 29 Apr 10;
COMPLAINTS about illegal fishing nets are falling on deaf ears, with Cairns Regional Council demanding the State Government do more to protect dugongs and turtles.
Councillors yesterday called for a tougher stand against illegal hunters and poachers as Queensland Fisheries revealed only 2 per cent of complaints it received over the past two years about illegal netting across the state resulted in illegal unattended nets being retrieved and destroyed. Most nets were retrieved from Cairns.
Conservationists, traditional owners and the fishing industry agree not enough is being done to prevent dugongs and turtles from being killed in Far North Queensland’s waters.
Three dugongs were killed after they were trapped in a net off Cairns last Friday.
A fourth dugong trapped in the net and still alive was released back into the water.
The black net appeared to be a fishing net which, given the tide and wind, was presumed to have drifted from the Cairns harbour.
Queensland Fisheries has received 646 complaints about illegal fishing nets since 2008, all relating to size, areas of use and nets not being attended.
During this time, the department has retrieved and destroyed 15 illegal unattended nets, nine of which were found in Cairns.
A Fisheries spokeswoman said not all complaints could be substantiated, as there was not enough detail for each matter to be investigated.
The council passed a motion yesterday that it would write to the State Government requesting more vigorous enforcement of the existing laws in relation to fishing nets, illegal hunters and poachers of dugongs and turtles.
Cr Dr Forsyth said it did not appear enough was being done to prevent the needless deaths.
WWF Australia policy manager Cliff Cobbo said increased capacity was needed in areas such as Cairns to conserve threatened marine species and police activities such as the
illegal harvest of turtles and dugongs.
Traditional owners have the right to hunt dugong through traditional means but netting is banned.
Leichhardt LNP candidate Warren Entsch, who had seized a net used for the illegal capture of dugongs, said there was too much confusion about which authority was responsible for patrolling illegal netting.
"It’s not under the same realm as regulation of recreational fishers," Mr Entsch said.
Jade Chan, The Star 29 Apr 10;
FIVE local personalities will be “baring it all” in a Tiger Show as they compete to be named the WWF-Malaysia Tx2 Tiger Ambassador.
The Tx2 Double or Nothing Tiger Show will see entertainment artistes Aishah Sinclair, Rina Omar and Sazzy Falak, RedFM DJ Jeremy Teo and Mooky of pop punk outfit One Buck Short raising awareness on the dwindling number of Malayan tigers and threats to their existence, while competing for the ambassador title.
The ambassador hunt is part of the Tx2 Tiger Conservation Campaign that was launched in February with the aim of doubling the number of wild tigers in Malaysia and the world by the next Year of the Tiger in 2022.
It is one of the many activities planned throughout the year to highlight the plight of the tigers through www.tx2.my.
WWF-Malaysia executive director and chief executive officer Datuk Dr Dionysius SK Sharma said the tiger was at the tipping point of its existence.
“At the beginning of the 20th century, it was estimated that 100,000 tigers roamed the Earth. Barely a century later,we have lost more than 97% of the tiger population we used to have.
“We now have as little as 3,200 tigers in 13 countries,” he said.
What is more amazing, he said, was that Malaysia had the second largest tiger population in the world, with an estimated 500 wild tigers.
“These 500 tigers are still threatened by rampant poaching and illegal trade, forest conversion and land clearing, overhunting of their prey and conflict between tigers and humans for the same resources,” Dionysius added.
“Our campaign aims to reduce these threats faced by tigers, by raising the emergency funds to put more men on the ground and building an immense hype on the conservation of tigers.”
Dionysius said apathy was a big problem among the public with a certain unwillingness to understand the plight of the animals, which was why the celebrities were roped in to maximise their creativity in highlighting the campaign.
He added that all the necessary elements had been identified under Malaysia’s Tiger Action Plan that was launched in 2008, and hoped that the plan would get the resources it needed under the 10th Malaysian Plan.
Rina said all five of them had something in common — they each had a passion for the cause, with some she described as “nerds who read obsessively about animals” — like herself.
“A lot will be bared in our videos. We’ll be working hard to create awareness and direct more traffic to the website, particularly by engaging social media sites like Twitter and Facebook,” said Aishah.
Teo expressed his desire to help get rid of people’s apathy by making them see that everyone can play a role and make a change.
“I didn’t know anything about tigers before the whole campaign started, but the more I learnt, the more intrigued I got. Thus the more we learn, the greater the awareness,” Mooky added.
As an animal person and WWF-Malaysia fan, Sazzay said she would do anything she could to support the cause and believed the campaign would be a good experience for everyone.
The public is invited to vote for their favourite celebrities from April 26 to May 22 either online or via SMS.
Five new video clips by the five celebrities will be featured each week to further highlight the campaign.
For details on the ambassador hunt and campaign, visit www.tx2.my.
Arti Ekawati & Nivell Rayda, Jakarta Globe 28 Apr 10;
Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan on Wednesday tried to distance his ministry from the rash of illegal logging cases and the so-called logging mafia, saying they also involved rogue provincial officials and legislators.
“Don’t blame it on the Ministry of Forestry because the ministry only processes requests from district governments,” Zulkifli said at a meeting of the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force.
“There is a whole process that needs to be gone through. After the district makes a request, an Environmental Impact Analysis is conducted and the House of Representatives issues a permit. The best we can do [to combat illegal logging] is to revoke logging permits.”
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has told the task force to focus on illegal logging because of the environmental damage and lost income involved.
The president also has told the task force to evaluate the legal process involved in combating illegal logging, as well as allegations of bribery in the logging permit process.
The task force took a special interest in a 2008 case in Riau.
Riau Police dropped their investigation of 14 pulp and paper companies after 22 months of work, saying there was a lack of evidence.
Environmental groups claimed the decision was an indication the government was not serious about tackling illegal logging.
According to estimates from Jikalahari, a forest protection network, the country lost Rp 2.8 trillion ($310 million) from the activities of the 11 companies involved in the investigation.
Task force secretary Denny Indrayana said it was examining the decision to drop the case.
“We will look at anomalies, especially if we feel that the police had enough of a case to continue to prosecution. However, we need clear evidence that bribery occurred,” he said.
Zulkifli said such cases were common. “The government has lost so many cases. Our burden had been eased now that the task force is examining the legal process,” the minister said. “In 10 years only one major company was found guilty but law enforcers did not try to execute the court sentence.”
Mas Achmad Santosa, a task force member, said the ministry needed to review existing regulations that overlapped and contradicted other regulations.
“There has to be transparency in the permit process and an effective system to take public complaints and evaluate irregular permits,” he said.
Zulkifli said another problem was that many heads of subdistricts did not understand the issues involved.
“Up until now, about two million hectares [of forest] have been illegally encroached upon by mines and plantations,” he said.
Zulkifli said his ministry was probing a big case in Padang Lawas, North Sumatra.
Activists warn that continued illegal logging could spell an environmental disaster for the country. Indonesia has 42 million hectares of primary forest, 40 million hectares of degraded forest and 48 million hectares of irretrievably damaged forest areas.
Forest of Problems Hinders Illegal Logging Fight
Fidelis E Satriastanti, Jakarta Globe 28 Apr 10;
The illegal logging cases in Riau in 2008 are an indicator of widespread forestry-related crimes in a country where for years an estimated four of five trees were allegedly cut down illegally with the sanction of officials and law enforcers, activists say.
The activists filed a report on April 22 with the Judicial Mafia Task Force, saying the illegal logging cases in Riau involving 14 paper and pulp companies were suspended by the police in 2008 due to lack of evidence. The contentious legal decision sparked anger among activists at the time. Located on Sumatra, Riau has the most extensively degraded forests in the country, mostly due to industrial and urban development.
Hapsoro, program director at environmental group Telapak, said on Tuesday that illegal logging has continued to spread.
“The difference [in the scale of illegal logging in specific areas] depends on the range of forest cover and also the quality of the wood,” Hapsoro said. “For instance, on Java Island, forest coverage is not that vast and timber values are not also worth much, so not many loggers would eye Java Island,” he said.
“[Illegal logging] threats are actually threatening eastern parts [of the country], such as Papua or Sulawesi, because of lack of monitoring and supervision in the areas results in loggers being able to conduct their operations freely,” he said.
However, he said Java still played a part in the trade. It serves as the main gateway to receive illegally logged timber through ports at Jakarta, Semarang and Surabaya.
Data from various environmental groups shows that between 2000 and 2004, the illegal logging rate in Indonesia stood at a staggering 80 percent, meaning that four out of five trees cut down were cut down illegally. Indonesia’s forest losses hit the roof during this period of time, reaching around 2.8 million hectares per year.
In 2005, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono launched a crackdowns on illegal loggers in Papua. The operations, dubbed collectively the Hutan Lestari Operation II, utilized 1,500 personnel with a budget of Rp 12 billion ($1.3 million) and identified 186 suspects, comprised of 172 Indonesians, 13 Malaysians and a Korean, and secured almost 400,000 cubic meters of illegally harvested timber. But only 13 suspects — none of them major players — were convicted. The toughest punishment handed out was a two-year prison sentence for one of the offenders.
Julian Newman, campaign director at the Environmental Investigation Agency, said: “It would be good to re-examine the evidence including the reason for stopping the case. But the [Mafia Eradication] Task Force should not be restricted to Riau. Other cases include the suspicious acquittal of Adelin Lis.”
Adelin is believed to be the owner of a palm oil company linked to illegal logging and suspected of money laundering.
There are many laws relating to forest management and the timber industry in the country. Felling trees is not allowed in protected areas, logging can only take place in authorized areas within forest concessions and export of raw logs is banned.
“It is when these laws are broken that illegal logging is said to occur. The main problem is that relevant forestry laws only usually catch the people at the bottom of the chain, such as chainsaw operators or truck drivers. The powerful people behind illegal logging are not touched, although there have been efforts to use anti-money laundering and corruption laws against them, but so far with little success,” Hapsoro said.
He stressed that curbing illegal logging required “good governance starting from local to central governments.”
“Such efforts involve a lot of people, starting from villages, subdistricts, districts, central governments and even the police force.”
“It also doesn’t just revolve around the forestry sector but also [involves] trade and commerce agencies, customs and even politicians and political parties because illegal logging has high value, so no wonder that members of the House of Representatives are also involved. Illegal logging is very political,” he said. “As long as there is no good intention to deal with this issue then illegal logging will just keep on going.”
Mas Achmad Santosa, an environmental law expert, said that the definition on illegal logging was clear, although there were differences between the 1999 Law on Forestry and the 2009 Law on Environmental Protection and Management Law.
“The forestry law is much more lenient than the environmental law, which has stricter sanctions on corporate crimes and acknowledges corporate crimes in this case” he said. “However, on the implementation level coordination [to uphold these laws] has not gone anywhere, for instance, between prosecutors and investigators.”
There was also the problem of judges’ understanding of the definition of forests, with most of them considering forests as “just standing trees” and not as natural resources with economic or aesthetic value.
Over 2 million hectares of forests illegally shifted to plantations
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 28 Apr 10;
Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan said on Wednesday that over 2 million hectares of forests had been converted illegally into oil palm plantations in the country.
Zulkifli made the statement during his meeting with the Anti Judiciary Mafia Task Force at the forestry ministry’s office.
He said that the illegal plantations firms were operated both in protected forests and conservation areas.
“We have mapped the areas of illegal plantations operated in forest areas,” he told the task force.
Task force head Kuntoro Mangkusubroto with all members attended the meeting.
Minister warned that any delay of law enforcement on the illegal oil palm plantations would further accelerate forest damages.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the task force to root out mafia in forestry sector.
Thomas Hubert, PlanetArk 29 Apr 10;
United Nations peacekeepers in Congo have used helicopters to airlift endangered baby gorillas to a sanctuary after they were rescued in a conflict zone where they faced being captured or eaten.
The animals ferried to safety are eastern lowland gorillas, a species that only lives in Democratic Republic of Congo and is classified as "endangered" on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) red list.
The four gorillas, which had been rescued from traffickers in various parts of Congo's rebel-infested east, were flown by helicopter on Tuesday from Goma to the Kasugho Sanctuary in North Kivu province.
"If you use vehicles, there is a great risk of losing the animals because they are traumatized. We used aircraft because we really wanted to reduce their stress level," Benoit Kisuki, Conservation International's country director, told Reuters.
Kisuki said the air transfer was part of a wider project to combat the illegal trade in baby gorillas, which has intensified in recent years with the proliferation of armed groups and constant insecurity in eastern Congo.
"The objective is to reintroduce them in their natural environment," he added.
The gorillas are often caught, trafficked and sold for thousands of dollars on the world market as exotic pets. Others are killed and sold locally as "bush meat."
The research center in Kasugho has developed a two-hectare (4.9 acre) area where scientists can monitor young gorillas as they prepare to be released into the wild.
Six other individuals, currently under protection in Rwanda, are due to be flown in on June 10 to "socialize" with the first group and "form a family of 10," Kisuki said.
The gorillas could be a valuable asset for the future economic development of east Congo, after the animals became a major tourist attraction in Uganda and Rwanda, raising several million dollars in revenues.
There is no accurate data for eastern lowland gorilla populations. But Congo's gorillas have weathered years of warfare in the east and more than 150 rangers have been killed trying to protect the area's five national parks from poachers.
A U.N.-backed report last month said gorillas may become near-extinct in Africa's Greater Congo Basin by the mid-2020s unless action is taken to stop poaching and protect their habitat.
(Editing by Tim Cocks, David Lewis and Mark Trevelyan)
Martin Hickman, The Independent 29 Apr 10;
Faced with a choice between normal cleaning products and more expensive "green" alternatives, many shoppers pay more to do their bit for the environment.
But store chains and specialist manufacturers may be exaggerating some of their claims for "eco" cleaners and washing powders, a process dubbed "greenwashing". according to a survey by a consumer group today.
The claims of 14 "green" household cleaners, laundry tablets, nappies and baby wipes were put to the test by a panel of experts assembled by Which?.
While all the products made by the likes of Ecover, Green Force and Tesco did some good for the planet, almost half of them made claims that seemed not to be justified.
Which? assembled a panel of experts including Dr John Hoskins, a toxicologist and former adviser to the Commons Environment Select Committee, and Dr John Emsley, a chemist who has written extensively about the impact of chemicals in everyday life.
While they gave a thumbs-up to disposable nappies and wipes made by Sainsbury's, Asda, Earth Friendly and others, they disputed some of the claims made for laundry tablets and, especially, lavatory cleaners.
The world's biggest ecological cleaning product company, the Belgian Ecover, came in for some of the heaviest criticism. Of its lavatory cleaner and laundry tablets, Which? said: "Some claims are greenwash". Its panel "found no convincing evidence" to show that the cleaner had a different impact on aquatic life once it had been through a waste treatment plant. The scientists levelled the same charge at its laundry tablets, and those made by another company, Simply Active Eco Smart.
On Green Force's lavatory cleaner, the scientists had reservations about the claim "formulated to limit the impact on the environment" and said there was no convincing evidence that it was kinder to fish and other aquatic life than the market leader. While Sainsbury's Cleanhome cleaner claimed it was biodegradeable and kinder to the environment, the experts said some claims lacked evidence, again saying there was no convincing evidence it was kinder to aquatic life.
Some of Tesco's claims for its Naturally lavatory cleaner "lacked evidence" – particularly the claim that it contained no phosphates and left no chemical residues, since, the panel pointed out, this did not apply to normal cleaners either. Although they did not criticise the products, Which? said it was unclear whether the clean planet logos on Ariel Actilift and Persil Bio tablets related to environmental action by the manufacturer or shopper. Which? questioned the "greenness" of several other, bigger products. Tests showed the eco steam setting of the Bosch Sensixx Eco iron used the same energy as a low setting on a normal Bosch iron, and the Ainsley Harriott Eco Express Kettle was no quicker or more efficient than a normal kettle. There were many more fuel efficient cars on the market than the Ford Focus 1.6 Econetic, which did 49 miles to the gallon in tests.
Eco labels disputed the findings of the survey. Ecover said its lavatory cleaner and laundry tablets surpassed environmental laws, saying: "Our products are fully degradeable in anaerobic and aerobic conditions, going further than legislation and differentiating Ecover from market leaders."
Green Force said its sugar-based detergent was less toxic than soap and 20 times better than a typical alternative. Sainsbury's said its cleaner was endorsed by the Government-backed Ecolabel scheme. Simply said its Eco Label status showed it met toxicity criteria "which most, if not all, the leading brands cannot meet".
Tesco agreed to remove the claim about phosphates but stuck by its line on hazardous residues, saying that in the case of accidents citric acid and naturally derived detergents were "much kinder to the skin" than acids found in other products.
Reuters 28 Apr 10;
(Reuters) - A giant oil slick from last week's deadly offshore drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico threatens wide-scale coastal damage for four states.
Following are some possible impacts from the spill on the Gulf environment, commercial fisheries, wildlife and tourism.
FISHERIES
- A number of fisheries could suffer as a result of the spill. The Gulf menhaden fishery -- a species harvested mostly for fish meal and fish oil -- is America's third largest and in some seasons its second largest, according to Greenpeace. Menhaden are filter feeders and so they could be badly affected by the spill, as they pass tainted water through their filtering system. The season for Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi just opened on April 19th.
Omega Protein Corp -- which relies on the fishery for its core business -- said in a statement on Wednesday that: "We believe that the impact, if any, on our Gulf of Mexico fishing operations will be minimal."
- The northern Gulf of Mexico is a crucial spawning ground at this time of the year for the Atlantic population of bluefin tuna, which is critically endangered. Their eggs float near the surface and the larvae also stay near there after they first hatch. So, the spill has occurred at a critical time in their life-cycle.
"We expect a spill like this could dramatically decrease the amount of bluefin tuna larvae that are surviving," said John Hocevar, the Oceans Campaign director for Greenpeace USA.
- Losses could also be inflicted on the shrimp and oyster industries in Louisiana. Oysters are filter feeders and cannot swim to escape the slick. The prime oyster-gathering season in Louisiana starts on May 1.
BIRDLIFE
- Several areas that are important to bird populations could be potentially affected.
According to the National Audubon Society, places it has designated as "Important Bird Areas" or IBAs that could be threatened by the slick include, Chandeleur Islands IBA and Gulf Islands National Seashore IBA in Louisiana and Mississippi; also in Louisiana, the Delta National Wildlife Refuge and Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area.
Species at risk include, Louisiana's state bird, the brown pelican, which was only removed from the U.S. Endangered Species Act last year. They nest on barrier islands and feed near shore. Their breeding season has just started.
Other species that would not fare well, especially if the slick comes ashore, include the American oystercatcher and Wilson's plover.
TOURISM
- Depending on where the slick goes, a number of beaches could be adversely impacted in areas such as the northwestern part of Florida, which has been running televised ads aimed at attracting tourists to the area.
OTHERS
- Several species of sea turtles are currently moving through the Gulf, as their spring nesting seasons commences and they need to surface to breathe, so the slick at the water's top could damage their populations.
US oil burn begins as wind turns for the worst
Allen Johnson Yahoo News 29 Apr 10;
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AFP) – Crews began controlled burns Wednesday of a giant oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, but a cruel wind shift raised fears the spill could hit Louisiana's fragile shores by the weekend.
The leading edge of the crude was about 16 miles (26 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast by Wednesday evening and winds were expected to strengthen and crucially change direction on Thursday to start coming from the southeast.
Two skimming vessels dispatched by the US Coast Guard and energy giant British Petroleum (BP) swept the thickest concentrations of oil into a 500-foot (150-meter) fire resistant boom.
They then towed it to a five mile "burn zone" set up inside the slick roughly 50 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi where it was set alight a few hours before nightfall.
"They lit it with a little float that has a fuel source on it that floats into the oil and ignites. It did successfully ignite," Coast Guard petty officer Cory Mendenhall told AFP.
The decision to start burning the slick, which has a 600-mile (965-kilometer) circumference, gained even greater import when the US government's weather service warned that the previously kind winds were about to shift.
"Stronger southeast winds are forecast to persist from Thursday night through Saturday night," a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast chart presented to journalists showed.
"These onshore winds will move floating oil towards the delta with possible shoreline impacts by Friday night."
If large quantities of the crude, which is leaking from the debris of a rig that sank after a deadly explosion last week, drift into Louisiana's marshy wetlands, mopping up would be next to impossible.
It would be disastrous for natural parks full of waterfowl and rare wildlife and could also imperil the southern state's 2.4-billion-dollar a year fisheries industry, which produces a significant portion of US seafood.
As miles of inflatable booms were set up to protect the Louisiana coast, Governor Bobby Jindal evoked memories of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated his southern state in August 2005.
"As I've said many times before, we must hope for the best and prepare for the worst," Jindal said, after a flyover of the spill. "We're approaching this situation just as we would do before a hurricane comes ashore."
"We're doing everything we can to protect the livelihood of our citizens who make their living in the fishing industry and the wildlife that grace our coastal areas."
Oil, at the rate of 42,000 gallons a day, is spewing from the riser pipe that connected the Deepwater Horizon platform to the wellhead before the rig sank last Thursday, two days after a huge explosion that killed 11 workers.
The widow of one of the dead has filed a lawsuit accusing the companies that operated the rig -- BP, Transocean and US oil services behemoth Halliburton -- of negligence.
The accident has not disrupted offshore gulf oil production, which accounts for more than a quarter of the US energy supply.
BP, which leased the semi-submersible rig from Houston-based contractor Transocean, has been operating four robotic submarines some 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) down on the seabed to try and cap the well.
They have failed so far to fully activate a giant 450-tonne valve, called a blowout preventer, that should have shut off the oil as soon as the disaster happened but only partially reduced the flow.
As a back-up, engineers are frantically constructing a giant dome that could be placed over the leaks to trap the oil, allowing it to be pumped up to container ships on the surface.
Another Transocean drilling rig is also on stand-by to drill two relief wells that could divert the oil flow to new pipes and storage vessels.
But that would take up to three months and the dome is seen as a better interim bet even though engineers need two to four weeks to build it.
Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry, who is leading the government's response to the disaster, warned on Tuesday that if BP fails to secure the well it could end up being "one of the most significant oil spills in US history."
Coast Guard sets oil slick ablaze
Chris Baltimore, Reuters 28 Apr 10;
HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday set a "controlled burn" to battle a giant oil slick from last week's deadly offshore drilling rig explosion, as the spill threatened wide-scale coastal damage for four U.S. Gulf Coast states.
The leaking well, 5,000 feet under the sea off Louisiana's coast, has created an oil sheen and emulsified crude slick slightly bigger than the U.S. state of West Virginia, the Coast Guard said.
Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead after the worst oil rig disaster in almost a decade. Swiss-based Transocean Ltd's Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22, two days after it exploded and caught fire while finishing a well for BP Plc about 40 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River.
The burn began at 5 p.m. CDT (2200 GMT), an agency spokesman said. Workboats were to pool segments of the spill inside a fire-resistant "boom," essentially a floating corral, to be towed to a remote area for burning, the Coast Guard said.
The agency said it planned "small, controlled burns" of several hundred gallons each lasting about an hour and invisible from shore.
BP, which owns the well, is spending millions of dollars a day on what it has called the largest oil spill containment operation in history, involving dozens of ships and aircraft.
"We will not rest until we have done everything to bring this under control," said Andrew Gowers, head of group media for London-based BP, likening the spill's consistency to "iced tea" with the thickness of a human hair.
'VERY SERIOUS'
At midday Wednesday, the edge of the spill was 23 miles off the Louisiana coast, near fragile estuaries and swamps teeming with birds and other wildlife. A shift in winds could push the spill inland to the Louisiana coast by this weekend, according to forecasters at AccuWeather.
Tarballs and emulsified oil streamers could reach the Mississippi Delta region late on Friday, said Charlie Henry, an expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Along with a large seafood industry, the area contains key wildlife habitats in the Pass-A-Loutre Wildlife Management Area and Breton National Wildlife Refuge on the Louisiana coast, which are teeming with nesting birds.
"It's premature to say this is catastrophic," said Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry, who is heading the federal cleanup effort. "I will say this is very serious."
The spill could be devastating for fishermen and oystermen that rely on estuaries and swamps along the Mississippi River for their livelihood. For a factbox of potential environmental impacts, follow the link.
"We're sitting here half praying and half with our fingers, toes and everything else crossed," said Byron Encalade, president of the Louisiana Oysterman Association in Pointe A La Hache, who lost five boats when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.
As the oil spill grows, so does the chance that it will affect efforts by the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama to open more offshore areas to limited oil and gas drilling.
"This brings home the issue that drilling despite all the advancements in technology is still a risky business," said Athan Manuel of the Sierra Club, an environmental group.
Preparations were underway to deploy thousands of feet of floating booms in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama in an attempt to contain the oil slick, the Coast Guard said.
The Louisiana accident is the worst oil rig disaster since 2001, when a rig operated by Petrobras off the Brazilian coast exploded and killed 11 workers.
The spill is not nearly as big as the Exxon Valdez disaster, which spilled about 11 million gallons (50 million liters) of oil into the Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989. BP's well is spewing about 42,000 gallons (190,900 liters) of oil a day into the ocean, the Coast Guard estimates.
(Additional reporting by Kristen Hays in Houston and Pascal Fletcher in Miami; Editing by Mary Milliken and David Gregorio)
Adam Hadhazy, livescience.com Yahoo News 29 Apr 10;
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is pushing current oil cleanup technology to its limits, but also serving as a testing ground for futuristic decontamination methods.
Some cutting-edge imaging techniques that let responders size up slicks better, as well as novel engineering solutions such as a deep-water oil containment dome could see use in the Gulf of Mexico in coming days and weeks, experts say.
But other long-touted measures, such as oil-eating microbes, however, are not yet ready to fight large spills.
Responders have their hands full
As the Deepwater Horizon cleanup effort is demonstrating, many of the current methods of cleaning up oil spills are decidedly low-tech.
At least 70 response vehicles have fanned out in the Gulf and are using conventional physical containment methods such as floating tubes called booms and skimmers that slurp up mixed oil and water from the sea surface.
Tens of thousands of gallons of chemicals called dispersants that break the crude oil down into fine droplets for dilution (and eventual breakdown by oceanic microbes) have also been sprayed thus far.
Dispersants have proven far more effective than skimmers, which may only be able to soak up 10 percent of the spill, the Coast Guard said today.
Controlled burns of patches of oil are also set to start tomorrow, an approach sometimes adopted when containment and recovery become impossible.
Beneath the ocean, robots are trying but so far failing to fix the valve that would shut off the oil leaking from pipes that once connected to the Deepwater Horizon rig that caught fire on April 22.
BP, owner of the rupturing oil reservoir under the ocean floor, has said it will begin drilling an 18,000-foot (5,486 meters) relief well tomorrow, in part to relive pressure from the main well. But the $100 million operation will take months.
Gerald Graham, president of Worldocean Consulting, a marine oil spill prevention and response planning firm based in British Columbia, described the response as a "full-court press."
But despite the Herculean efforts, cleanup crews may not prevent the dangerous oil slick, now spanning 600 miles (about 970 kilometers), from making landfall in areas along the Gulf Coast in several days.
Envisioning the slick
Conventionally, responders fly over slicks in aircraft and report back information to a command center about a spill's extent. Recently developed multispectral and thermal imaging sensors have aided in this effort by seeing slicks in ways human eyes cannot.
Oil and other hydrocarbons look different than water, both in the light that our sees and also in infrared, or "heat" signatures.
Two NASA satellites with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument onboard have already given responders a multispectral "God's-eye" view of the spreading blemish of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
But the distant satellites cannot glean important information of slick thickness, which is crucial for knowing where skimmers can do the most good in gobbling up hefty, floating deposits.
"With this particular spill, it is so large they can use satellite imagery to get a gross outline, but they are not able to get thickness variations," said Judd Muskat, an environmental scientist the Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) at the California Department of Fish and Game.
For that, responders will likely turn to OSPR's special, portable multispectral sensing equipment for use on aircraft. Muskat said he and his colleagues expect to be deployed to the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days to assist with the disaster effort.
A benefit of the OSPR multispectral and thermal imaging system is that it helps takes human subjectivity during flyovers out of the equation, Muskat said.
In the future, Muskat hopes that multispectral systems will be incorporated into unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to beef up coverage and data collection.
Digitizing the disaster plan
Another computerized method for fighting the Deepwater Horizon spill is special software programs such as ADIOS2 (Automated Data Inquiry for Oil Spills).
Developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), ADIOS2 helps responders make real-time decisions about where to deploy their cleanup resources.
With ADIOS2, "you just key in all the details of the parameters of the spill, from the type of oil to wave conditions, winds, sea temperatures, what have you, and the software tells you the fate of the oil over an extended period," said Graham, who has worked on software solutions for oil spills.
These and other programs will improve as they incorporate more data from different sources, including satellites, and each spill is a learning experience, Graham said.
Putting a lid on the spill
Among the innovative options under consideration for quashing the Deepwater Horizon spill at its source is a giant underwater containment dome being investigated by BP and the Minerals Management Service of the United Sates Department of the Interior.
The dome would cap the leaking wellheads and then funnel the captured oil to the Gulf's surface for collection.
The Coast Guard has said that such collection domes have been used in the past, but never at the considerable depth of 5,000 feet. Details remain sketchy about the dome's specifications and how it might work, though the Coast Guard has admitted it will likely take two to four weeks to finish construction.
Microbes to the rescue?
For decades now, an area of great promise in the remediation side of cleanups has been microbes that break down oil and remove it from the environment. Many thousands of organisms do this in the wild and efforts using microbes to fix up toxic sites have succeeded on land.
However, breeding legions of oil-eating microbes and shipping them to the site of an emergency spill at sea is not really practical yet, said Larry Nies, a professor of civil engineering at Purdue University
For starters, the chemical composition of crude oil or other hydrocarbons spilled in waterways varies widely, depending on the oil's geological origin, and some of those compounds take longer for microbes to digest - if they are even edible at all.
"In a spill situation, time is of the essence," Nies said. "Even in the best of circumstances, [biological breakdown] is not an instantaneous process."
Plus, floating crude oil on the water does not readily lend itself to biological degradation, because the organisms cannot penetrate into the crude oil; rather, they munch at the boundary where water and oil meet.
For the foreseeable future, spill response will still rely on trapping the oil just as it does today, said Nies. "Physical means are generally most effective if you get there in time [and are] the first line of defense."
As the spreading slick in the Gulf of Mexico is still some 20 miles (32 kilometers) offshore, it's still possible that response crews can corral the spill before it reaches land. But the window of opportunity to do so is rapidly closing.
"If [the responders] are thinking about setting this thing on fire, they must be getting desperate," Nies said.
Denise Chow contributed to the reporting of this piece.
Yahoo News 28 Apr 10;
PARIS (AFP) – The huge die off of bees worldwide, a major threat to crops depending on the honey-making insects for pollination, is not due to any one single factor, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said Wednesday.
Parasites, viral and bacterial infections, pesticides, and poor nutrition resulting from the impact of human activities on the environment have all played a role in the decline, the OIE said.
At normal times, bee communities naturally lose around five percent of their numbers.
But with the syndrome known as colony collapse disorder (CDD), a third, half -- sometimes even 90 percent -- of the insects can be wiped out.
In the United States, government figures released last month showed a 29 percent drop in beehives in 2009, coming on the heels of declines of 36 and 32 percent in 2008 and 2007.
The mysterious decimation of bee populations in the United States, Europe, Japan and elsewhere in recent years threatens agricultural production worth tens of billions.
"Honey and royal jelly are examples of precious food that we owe to bees but foremost we owe them abundant harvesting of fruits and vegetables since they contribute to pollinate the flowers which will produce the harvest," said Bernard Vallat, the OIE's Director General.
"Bees contribute to global food security, and their extinction would represent a terrible biological disaster," he said in a statement.
By some estimates, around a third of the food on our plates gets there thanks to Apis mellifera.
The global review conducted by OIE experts concluded that "irresponsible use" of pesticides may damage bee health by increasing their susceptibility to different diseases.
Inadequate "biosecurity" -- especially protecting against invasive species -- and climate change also likely play a role, the experts said.
"Resources to establish increased surveillance and registration processes, inspection, diagnoses and research capacity are missing in many countries and regions of the world," Wolfgang Ritter, chair the expert panel said.
Earlier research has shown that different bee parasites are active in different parts of the world.
Culprits already identified include a blood-sucking mite called Varroa and a single-celled fungal parasite called Nosema cerenae that causes bee dystentery.
In Europe, a recent intruder -- the Asian hornet, Vespa velutina -- lurks near hives and captures honey bees in mid-flight, devouring them.
Another suspect is poor nutrition. Mega-farms stripped of hedgerows and wild flowers, along with spreading suburbs, are thought to be depriving bees of a decent diet.
More recently a new pathogen, Varroa jacobsoni, has attacked Apis mellifera in Oceania, and now presents a new threat to beekeeping globally.
Vallat called for more research and adherence to OIE guidelines on biosecurity in trade of bees between countries, a major cause of global contamination.
Yahoo News 28 Apr 10;
ROME (AFP) – The UN food agency called Wednesday for stepped-up surveillance for food-and-mouth disease after three outbreaks in Japan and South Korea.
"In the past nine years, incursions into officially FMD-free countries... have been extremely rare, so to have three such events in four months is a serious cause for concern," said the chief veterinary officer of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
"We are worried because the rigorous biosecurity measures in place in the two countries were overwhelmed, pointing to a recent, large-scale weight of infection in source areas, very probably in the Far East," Juan Lubroth added.
"Under the circumstances we consider that all countries are at risk and a review of preventive measures and response capacity would be welcome," he said.
"Even one small outbreak in a previously FMD-free country can cause millions of dollars of losses as global markets close and disease control measures are enforced," Lubroth warned.
Foot-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals including cows, sheep, goats and deer. It is rarely transmitted to humans but spreads easily between animals, causing them pain and often killing young animals.
Global Water Intelligence analysts expect the water supply market to grow about 20% in the next five years
Juliette Jowit, guardian.co.uk 28 Apr 10;
Private companies are poised for a surge in demand to take over water supplies, despite widespread opposition to privatisation of what is seen as a life-giving public service.
Global Water Intelligence analysts expect the water supply market to grow about 20% in the next five years, and demand is especially strong in North Africa, the Middle East and China, GWI's publisher Christopher Gasson told the Guardian.
Another big growth area is likely to be the US, where "hundreds" of public water authorities thought to be talking to private operators, said Dan McCarthy, president and CEO of the global water division of engineering group Black & Veatch.
Renewed growth is being driven by poor services and the need for huge investment to repair and expand supplies, which in a recession is even harder for governments and municipal authorities to fund, said Gasson. It is also encouraged by less historical opposition to private suppliers in much of the big-growth regions, and the continuing "marketisation" of China, he said.
"There's been a move towards private sector finance and operation because of this failure to deliver," said Gasson. "If you have a contractor and the contractor doesn't deliver you can beat him over the head, but if you have a public employee who's got a job for life it's much more difficult to demand performance."
Private companies are seen as a source of finance, and a useful scapegoat to raise bills to help pay for the investment, because the decision would be made by state regulators rather than local politicians, said McCarthy: "It takes a bit of pressure off the local officials if they can shift that to somebody who's less impacted by the politics."
Despite huge controversy over privatisation of water suppliers in the last couple of decades – most famously violent protests in Bolivia over huge big bill increases – a World Bank report last year showed the population served by private companies has continued to expand, from almost zero in 1991 to more than 160m in 2007.
GWI's annual market report forecasted private company spending on water supplies would rise from about $45bn (£30bn) last year to nearly $70bn in just five years' time, and private finance of other water infrastructure more than double from about $30bn to more than $70bn.
However, still only about 10% of the world population is supplied by private operators, although more than four out of 10 people have no network supply at all.
The resurgence of privatisation interest, and continuing controversy over the issue, prompted GWI to chose it as the theme for the main debate at its major annual industry meeting in Paris this week.
AquaFed, the private industry lobby group, defended the continuing growth of public supplies, citing the World Bank study of 36 contracts in Africa, Latin America and Asia, which found private operators improved continuity of service and water quality, reduced leaks, and did not charge prices higher than public managers under the same conditions.
"Everybody needs access to water and sanitation in a way that's affordable," Gérard Payen, Aquafed's president, told the debate, referring to calls for water to be treated as a human right. "[But] the right which is recognised but not effective for people is useless."
Many delegates described the debate as "sterile", "pointless", or a "red herring"; they argued there were good and bad examples of water operators from both public and private sectors, and private suppliers could be controlled by good regulation.
Passionate opposition remains however, and not everything is going the private operators' way: officials in Gary, Indiana, in the US, want to terminate their private contract early, claiming they can do the job for half the price; and the concession to supply 2 million residents in central Paris was recently awarded to a public authority, after 25 years of private operation.
Maude Barlow, chair of Food & Water Watch campaign group, told delegates that although private companies could help build networks and big infrastructure, they should not be able to make a profit from supplying water.
"I don't think anybody should be making money from delivering water because it can be done in the public sector on a not-for-profit basis," said Barlow. "No corporation can survive on that basis ... You make decisions about life and death because you have to make a profit, and that's the issue here."
Oxfam said it was concerned about big private operators "cherry picking" the most profitable customers, and suing governments if they tried to terminate contracts for poor performance or exorbitant prices – as Bechtel tried to do in Bolivia.
"Market-led solutions have often undermined the provision of essential services and have had a negative impact on the poorest and most vulnerable communities," said a spokesman. "Water privatisation is the most notorious example."
PlanetArk 29 Apr 10;
The world's floating ice is in "constant retreat," showing an instability which will increase global sea levels, according to a report published in Geophysical Research Letters on Wednesday.
Floating ice had disappeared at a steady rate over the past 10 years, according to the first measurement of its kind.
"It's a large number," said Professor Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds, lead author of the paper, estimating the net loss of floating sea ice and ice shelves in the last decade at 7,420 cubic kilometers.
That is greater than the loss of ice over land from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets over the same time period, highlighting the impact of warming oceans on floating ice.
Ice melt ebbs and flows from winter to summer. The report's calculations referred to the net loss over the past decade.
"There's a constant rate of retreat (annually)," said Shepherd. "It's a rapid process and there's no reason why it won't increase over the next century."
NORTH POLE ICE-FREE BY 2050?
The study did not shed new light on how soon the North Pole may be ice-free in summer, which many climate experts say could happen by 2050, perhaps even earlier.
Melting of floating sea ice and ice shelves adds little to sea level rise, because their entire mass is already in the water. By contrast, ice on land which melts into the sea will add to levels according to the equivalent of its entire weight.
If all the world's floating ice melted it would add about 4 centimeters to sea levels. But this could have a bigger effect by unblocking glaciers over land, which could then slide faster into the sea, and also because open water reflects less sunlight than ice, warming the local area.
If all the world's polar ice melted it would raise sea levels by about 70 meters, scientists estimate. "We're moving into an era where the sea ice and ice shelves are being eroded away because of temperature rise," said Shepherd.
Floating ice adds very little to sea levels, because it does not add to the total weight of water already in the sea, but it does add a little because ice contains no salt and so dilutes the ocean as it melts, causing the sea to expand in volume.
Melt of floating ice in the past decade had increased the volume of the world's seas by 193 cubic kilometers in this way, said Shepherd. Directly, that would add to sea level rise by the width of a few human hairs, he added.
Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 28 Apr 10;
PARIS (AFP) – Melting sea ice has dramatically accelerated warming in the Arctic, where temperatures have risen faster in recent decades than the global average, according to a study released Wednesday.
The study, published in the journal Nature, also suggests that current forecasts underestimate the degree to which the polar region could heat up in the future.
"It was previously thought that loss of sea ice could cause further warming. Now we have confirmation this is already happening," said James Screen, a researcher at the University of Melbourne and co-author of the study.
While itself a consequence of climate change, the shrinking Arctic ice cap has contributed to a "positive feedback loop" in which global warming and loss of ice reinforce each other on a regional scale.
"The sea ice acts like a shiny lid floating on top of the Arctic Ocean, reflecting most of the incoming sunlight back into space," Screen explained by email.
But when the ice melts, more heat is absorbed by the darker water, which in turn heats the atmosphere above it.
"What we found is this feedback system has warmed the atmosphere at a faster rate than it would otherwise," he said.
From 1989 to 2008, global temperatures climbed on average by 0.5 Celsius (0.8 Fahrenheit), whereas the Arctic has warmed by 2.1 C (3.4 F) -- the most rapid increase of any place on the planet.
Up to now, scientists have sharply disagreed on the main causes of this discrepancy.
Using the most recent observational data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting, Screen and co-author Ian Simmonds uncovered a nearly perfect season-by-season match during the 20-year period analysed between surface warming trends and reductions in sea ice cover.
The findings show that the main driver of so-called "polar amplification" -- warming in excess of the global average -- is shrinking ice cover, and not increased cloudiness or changes in ocean and atmospheric circulation, as others have argued.
Models used by the UN's top scientific authority, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), seriously underestimated the recent loss of Arctic sea ice, Screen pointed out.
"They may also underestimate future sea ice loss and warming, but only time will tell for sure," he added.
At the end of northern hemisphere summer 2007, the Arctic ice cap shrank to the smallest size on record, 40 percent below the average 7.23 million square kilometers (2.8 million square miles) observed in 1979-2000, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).
The sea ice pack thawed to its second smallest size in 2008, followed by the third smallest in 2009.
NASA satellite data has also shown that Arctic sea ice has thinned considerably.
During the period 2004-2008, the ice diminished in thickness by some 2.2 feet (67 centimeters).
Yahoo News 28 Apr 10;
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Rich and poor nations need a "clean energy revolution" in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global warming, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said here Wednesday.
"We cannot achieve the (poverty-reduction) Millennium Development Goals without providing access to affordable modern energy," he said as he opened a day-long energy conference.
Noting that 1.6 billion people around the world lack access to electricity while two to three billion still rely on traditional energy sources such as firewood, peat or dung, the UN boss said access to energy must be expanded "in the cleanest, most efficient way possible."
Ban spoke as he launched a report by his advisory group on energy and climate change that calls for "universal access to modern energy services" by 2030 and stresses the need to cut energy intensity by 40 percent also by 2030.
Energy intensity is measured by the quantity of energy per unit of economic activity or output.
"The aim of providing universal access should be to create improved conditions for economic take-off, contribute to attaining (the development goals by the 2015 target) and enable the poorest of the poor to escape poverty," the report said.
It added that curbing global energy intensity would require developed and developing countries to strenghthen their capacity to implement effective policies, market-based mechanisms, investment tools and regulations with respect to energy use.
The report said these ambitious goals can be achieved due to technology innovation through adoption of appropriate national strategies and international finance, including innovative financial mechanisms and climate finance.
It said 35 to 40 billion dollars in capital would be needed on average per year to achieve basic universal access to modern energy services (for cooking, heating, lighting, communication and education) by 2030.
The study also said participation by the private sector was essential to meet those goals.
It pointed out that energy access has been dramatically expanded in countries such as China, Brazil and Vietnam while dramatic improvement in energy efficiency has been recorded in China, Denmark, Japan, Sweden and California.
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