Nature in Singapore: Intertidal Molluscs of Pulau Semakau
from wild shores of singapore
A "Grand Spine for the Park Connector System" - NSS' proposal for KTM Railway land from Habitatnews
World's Largest Jumping Spider? Perhaps...
from Macro Photography in Singapore
Vimita Mohandas Channel NewsAsia 2 Nov 10;
SINGAPORE: The National Environment Agency (NEA) said community-led outreach effort, along with enforcement and enhancements to infrastructure, have helped reduce litter.
The agency said at the 20 litter hotspots it monitors, litter count has fallen to 11 pieces of litter for every five square metres of space in October, from 17 pieces of litter in June.
The number of tickets issued for littering has also dropped almost 40 per cent to 19,570 in the first nine months of this year, compared to the same period last year.
NEA also said the Clean & Green Singapore (CGS) campaign has seen an increasing number of youths and community groups participating in environmental initiatives.
A recent survey it conducted showed a high proportion of youths being environmentally conscious.
80 per cent of respondents aged 15 to 29 years old said that individuals could make a difference in sustaining a quality environment for Singapore, particularly in the areas of waste minimisation, recycling and dengue prevention.
Youth participation in NEA's Youth Environment Envoy (YEE) programme over the past five years has also grown.
To date, some 400 youths have received training from NEA to strengthen their knowledge on environmental issues.
That's 10 times the number when the YEE programme was first introduced in 2005.
"There's another 500 Litter-Free Ambassadors from the youth. They helped us to convey the anti-littering message and as a result, situations in hotspots have improved," said Tan Wee Hock, director of 3P Network Division, NEA.
Several youth volunteers have also spearheaded their own environmental projects for the community.
Since June, some 480 youth Litter-Free Ambassadors have also gone to kindergartens to educate preschoolers on the impact of littering.
The five Community Development Councils (CDCs) will also be organising activities to encourage Singaporeans to care for and protect the environment.
And the theme for this year's Clean and Green Campaign is "A Lively and Liveable Singapore".
The campaign will be launched this Saturday and it aims to instil in the community a sense of pride and ownership of the environment.
-CNA/wk/ls
40% drop in litterbugs nabbed
Amresh Gunasingham Straits Times 3 Nov 10;
THE number of litterbugs caught in Singapore has fallen by almost 40 per cent, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) yesterday as it unveiled plans to install more bins.
About 19,500 people were nabbed in the first nine months of the year, down from 32,258 in the same period last year, after more uniformed NEA officers were put on the streets.
The agency revealed the figures as it announced that it would work with town councils, which look after housing estates, to add 34 new bins in its latest move to tackle the anti-social habit.
Already, the town councils at five estates in Tampines, Sembawang, Marine Parade and Jurong have installed new bins in a bid to stamp out littering. Another 10 town councils will do so by the middle of next year.
As well as the 34 new ones, several bins will be relocated to busy areas such as shopping centres and bus interchanges, where litter, including cigarette butts, plastic cups, tissue paper and food wrappers, is commonly found.
Mr Satish Appoo, director of the environmental health department at NEA, said the agency hopes the additional bins will persuade a group of people known as 'situational binners' to litter less.
Situational binners were referred to in a sociological study released in June, in which a third of the 4,500 people interviewed said they would seek a bin to dump their rubbish only when it was convenient.
'It is easier to tackle littering around ATMs and bus interchanges just by changing where the bins are located,' said Mr Appoo.
He added that the location of bins in housing estates was previously determined by cleaners employed by the town councils. This meant they may not have been put in the right places to deter litterbugs.
'Now, they (the agencies) will first observe the areas with high human traffic and place the bins there accordingly,' he said.
The drop in the number of litterbugs caught came after the NEA increased the number of uniformed officers on patrol. It also changed the way that Corrective Work Orders (CWOs) are carried out to make sure persistent offenders are publicly shamed.
Since July, when the changes were implemented, about 700 people have performed their CWOs in areas such as shopping centres, where they are in full view of the public.
The measures appear to have had an impact. A survey of 20 litter hot spots was carried out in June and October, in which the areas were surveyed 25 sq m at a time.
It found that the amount of litter, which could be cigarette butts or food wrappers, had fallen to 11 pieces for every 25 sq m last month. This was down from 17 pieces in June.
The Clean and Green Singapore 2011 campaign and carnival will be launched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Saturday.
Joyce Hooi Business Times 3 Nov 10;
ENERGY efficiency will be the main thrust of Singapore's strategy to combat climate change, given the limitations faced by the country on the alternative energy front, said Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, at the Clean Energy Expo yesterday.
'Singapore's geographic location and small size have placed severe constraints on the use of alternative energy,' the minister said. 'Improving energy efficiency is thus our key strategy towards climate change mitigation and sustainable development.'
In this respect, Singapore has made some headway, according to Edwin Khew, chairman of the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore. Mr Khew said yesterday that various government measures have led to an improvement in efficiency of 19.4 per cent over 2005 levels.
Even then, Singapore will continue to grow the clean energy sector through a mix of funding and initiatives.
'However, despite our constraints, we are not turning a blind eye to the clean energy sector. In fact, we view the clean energy industry as a strategic growth area for Singapore,' said Dr Yaacob.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) also launched a new 'Policy Pathway' series for energy efficiency in buildings yesterday, as part of the Clean Energy Technologies Symposium in Singapore.
The series will help governments put in place energy efficiency policies by providing practical guidelines on the matter.
'If you give a country an energy efficiency recommendation, you hold their attention for a day. Help a country to implement the recommendation, and you can launch energy savings that last for years,' said IEA executive director Nobuo Tanaka at the symposium.
The second of the IEA's 'policy pathways' to be launched, the newly launched one is titled Energy Performance Certification of Buildings.
Singapore currently has the Green Mark scheme and Energy Smart Building Scheme in place to encourage energy efficiency in buildings.
'The building sector is an area of interest. It is one of the largest in terms of energy consumption,' said Lawrence Wong, chief executive of the Energy Market Authority (EMA), at the symposium yesterday.
'I think one of the things that we will need to focus on will be existing buildings. For new buildings, we have seen movement and higher take-up. For the retrofitting of existing buildings, I think it will be more challenging.
Mr Wong added that they would be studying the best practices of other countries as well.
The efforts in the field of energy efficiency in buildings might soon be paying off for Singapore.
The Zero Energy Building on Braddell Road - which was set up as a test-bed for energy efficiency - might have outdone itself.
'The raw results from the trials seem to show that we have generated more power than we consume,' said Lee Chuan Seng, chairman of Beca Asia Holdings and president of the Singapore Green Building Council.
Beca Asia Holdings - which provided Green Mark consultation and project management for the building - is part of New Zealand-based Beca Group Ltd, an engineering and consultancy services firm.
It will nearly double the capacity of Jurong Island terminal now being built
Victoria Vaughan Straits Times 3 Nov 10;
SINGAPORE will add a third liquefied natural gas (LNG) tank to its upcoming terminal as more power companies switch to the relatively green fuel.
The move will nearly double the capacity of the terminal being built on Jurong Island.
This could boost regional trade in the gas and lead to global business opportunities as firms such as BP and Gazprom establish LNG trading offices here.
Experts said the move will also enhance Singapore's fuel security. The third tank will take the capacity of the terminal, to be ready by 2013, from 3.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 6mtpa.
The move was announced yesterday by Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, and Education S. Iswaran at the opening of the Power-Gen Asia conference at Marina Bay Sands.
Singapore power plant companies have recently raised their requests for LNG from 1.5mtpa to 2mtpa between them as they seek to expand into the sector and replace fuel oil, which produces more carbon dioxide when burnt.
These firms include Senoko Energy, PowerSeraya, Tuas Power Generation, SembCorp Cogen, Keppel Merlimau Cogen and Island Power Company.
For example, PowerSeraya last month launched its 800MW Co-Generation Combined Cycle Plant, which uses natural gas and replaces three of its oil-fired generation plants.
PowerSeraya chief executive John Ng said: 'As we are primed to be a significant purchaser of LNG, we will be able to take full advantage of the opportunities the sector will yield.'
He added that an increase in gas storage capacity in Singapore will enhance the fuel security of the LNG network.
Singapore gets 80 per cent of its energy from piped natural gas from Indonesia and Malaysia.
LNG can be shipped from all over the world, helping to secure Singapore's energy supply. The terminal will initially get LNG from Trinidad and Tobago, and Egypt, but will eventually move to sources closer to home such as Australia.
Mr Iswaran said the extra capacity will 'enhance our energy security by allowing industry players to enter into commercial contracts for back-up supplies of LNG'.
The minister added that, with firms such as ConocoPhillips and Shell setting up LNG trading offices here, the new terminal will kick-start business opportunities.
Mr Michael Dolan, senior vice-president of Exxon Mobil Corp, welcomed the third tank, which will be ready by 2014.
'These types of opportunities are always helpful and we welcome the additional capacity. Of course the commercial details are yet to be determined but it sounds like a very nice flexibility to be added to Singapore,' said Mr Dolan, who is also a member of the International Advisory Panel on Energy.
Experts on the panel, chaired by Mr Iswaran, said the abundance of natural gas, new technology to mine it and its relatively low carbon emissions mean it is a growth market.
Lord Ronald Oxburgh, former chairman of Shell Transport & Trading Company, said: 'If you are concerned about greenhouse gas emissions in the local environment, gas is much more attractive and much less expensive than using coal. If gas prices behave as they are expected to, I think we will see gas replacing coal in almost all markets.'
The panel made the comments at a press conference yesterday following the conclusion of their three-day meeting, which aims to advise Singapore on its energy masterplan. Nuclear power and renewable energy were also hot topics.
Mr Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network, supported Singapore's 'watch and wait' policy regarding nuclear power.
'I think the watch will go on for five to 10 years or longer. It's not an urgent decision as gas supplies are abundant so it becomes a question of making sure you can act in a timely way and have the capability domestically to make intelligent choices among the options being developed,' he said.
He said that Singapore will not see a nuclear power plant for least 10 to 20 years.
$400m extra investment to expand LNG terminal
Decision triggered by stronger-than- expected demand from gencos, industries
Ronnie Lim Business Times 3 Nov 10;
(SINGAPORE) The Republic has decided to invest a further $400 million to boost its initial $1.5 billion LNG terminal development.
This follows stronger- than-expected gas demand from power generating companies (gencos) and industries here to fuel their utilities plant expansions, plus keen user interest expressed by international traders and liquefied natural gas producers.
The surprise move comes barely seven months after the groundbreaking in March of the first-phase 3.5 million tonnes per annum (tpa) LNG terminal on Jurong Island.
S Iswaran, Senior Minister of State (Trade & Industry and Education), announced yesterday at the Power-Gen Asia conference that 'we will accelerate the expansion of the LNG terminal by building a third storage tank which will increase the terminal's capacity to 6 million tpa'.
'Expanding the terminal now will allow Singapore to seize opportunities in the global LNG market and establish us as a centre for LNG trading in Asia, while meeting the growing needs of our domestic market,' he said.
Singapore LNG Corporation's chief executive Neil McGregor told BT in an interview that SLNG is currently sorting out the EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract for the additional tank, which is likely to cost around $200 million.
It will be built in tandem with the first-phase terminal and will likely be operational in 2014, shortly after the expected first LNG deliveries here in April-May 2013.
'Additionally, we will spend another couple of hundred million dollars to build a second jetty,' Mr McGregor said, with this serving as a back-up to its first jetty, which will be able to handle about 10 million tpa of LNG.
'We are getting ready to build this in Q1 next year,' he added, saying that the second jetty will provide security as well as flexibility, enabling the terminal to handle the increased domestic gas needs, as well as international trading opportunities. 'The fact that we are now expanding even before the first-phase terminal is up and running proves the government is on the right track,' he added.
In his speech, Mr Iswaran disclosed that a push factor has been the stronger uptake for LNG by the six gencos here which will need it to fuel their announced 3,600 megawatts of new capacity to meet electricity demand growth here.
With economic recovery, average electricity demand here jumped 11 per cent in the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year, and the forecast is that electricity demand here will rise by up to 3 per cent annually until 2018. Gas demand will similarly increase, Mr Iswaran added.
From an earlier indication of 1.5 million tpa, the gencos have now committed to purchase an initial 2 million tpa from aggregator BG Group, he disclosed. This represents a sizeable baseload of throughput for the first-phase 3.5 million tpa terminal.
Furthermore, international traders have also expressed interest in trading spot cargoes through the Singapore terminal. Thus the additional third tank will allow Singapore to tap this growing market for spot and short-term LNG contracts, Mr Iswaran said. Already, companies like BP, ConocoPhillips, Gazprom and Shell have set up LNG trading offices here to capitalise on this.
'We've had approaches from many traders as well as LNG producers, including from outside this region, to use the Singapore terminal for transhipment of cargoes throughout the region,' added SLNG's Mr McGregor.
'Now we have to get the commercial framework ready, likely within a year, on how the tanks are to be utilised as an unregulated, commercial business.'
In the longer term, SLNG's masterplan provides for a 9 million-plus tpa terminal at the 40-hectare Jurong Island site - with potential for future activities like LNG bunkering and even an LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) terminal to bring in the feedstock for petrochemical plants here.
Third LNG tank to be built on Jurong Island
Chris Howells Channel NewsAsia 2 Nov 10;
SINGAPORE: Singapore LNG (SLNG) will add a third liquefied natural gas tank to its Jurong Island facility, which is currently being built.
The new tank will bring the total LNG handling capacity in Singapore to six million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), from the initial 3.5 million Mtpa.
The additional Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tank in Singapore would mean greater flexibility for the country to meet its future gas opportunities and pursue new business opportunities in the LNG market.
The investment, announced on Tuesday by Senior Minister of State for Trade & Industry and Education S Iswaran, is a 180,000 cubic metres LNG tank to be built in Singapore.
Mr Iswaran, who was at the POWER-GEN Asia Conference, said: "Expanding the terminal now will allow Singapore to seize opportunities in the global LNG market and establish ourselves as a centre for LNG trading in Asia while meeting the growing needs of our domestic market".
As demand for liquefied natural gas is heating up in Asia, SLNG said the region will need 100 million tonnes of supply annually in the next 10 years, which is currently 50 per cent of the world trade in the gas.
The government is ramping up the new LNG facility to seize on opportunities in the global LNG market.
Lawrence Wong, Chief Executive, Energy Market Authority, said: "There are opportunities for the LNG terminal not just to provide a service to bring in LNG to Singapore but also to provide storage and reloading, storage and exports, transshipment of LNG because there is interest among companies to use the LNG terminal as a site for LNG trading.
"This offers a new business opportunity. SLNG corp is looking at how best to take advantage of that and the availability of a third tank will certainly help SLNG make full use of these business opportunities."
The decision to add a new tank to the LNG facility was prompted by growing demand from power companies.
SLNG said it could increase its capacity if demand warrants and it has space for up to seven tanks, potentially taking the total LNG handling capacity to nine million tonnes.
The six power companies here will now procure two million tonnes of gas annually from UK's BG Group, up from 1.5 million tonnes that they initially contracted.
Neil McGregor, CEO, Singapore LNG Corp, said: "The petrochemical sector here and the refineries also need gas in the long term, but a number of those players are also significant gas producers.
"For instance, they could bring their own gas in here and there is a framework for allowing that. So we could see them on both sides of the equation, one as a significant user of our services but also as a significant trader."
The first phase of the Singapore LNG terminal is due for completion in 2013. - CNA/wk/fa
Joanne Chan Channel NewsAsia 2 Nov 10;
SINGAPORE : Singapore is unlikely to have a nuclear power plant for at least the next 10 to 20 years, said one advisor to the local energy sector.
On Monday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singapore needs to diversify its energy sources and is studying the option of nuclear power.
"We're talking about a process here that's decades, not years, if you think about how long it takes to develop these technologies, and ultimately deploy them. I think the watch will go on for probably another 5 or 10 years or longer, before one actually makes a decision," said Peter Schwartz, chairman of Global Business Network.
"And you won't see a nuclear power plant in or around Singapore for at least something in the order of 10 to 20 years or even longer than that," he added.
Schwartz is also a member of the International Advisory Panel on Energy, set up by the Trade and Industry Ministry in 2008 to provide insights on emerging energy trends.
Another option being explored by Singapore is solar power, which has become more cost effective over the years.
Renewable Energy Corporation has chosen Singapore to develop one of the world's largest integrated solar manufacturing plants.
The S$2.6 billion facility will be officially opened by PM Lee on Wednesday. - CNA /ls
No N-power for next 10-20 years, says MTI adviser
But Singapore should start ball rolling, tackling safety and lack of engineers
Lynn Kan Business Times 3 Nov 10;
ALTHOUGH technology is evolving quickly to come up with safer, smaller and more efficient nuclear reactors, Singapore is unlikely to get a nuclear power plant for another 10-20 years, says a member of the Ministry of Trade and Industry's International Advisory Panel on Energy (IAP).
At a news briefing to wrap up the IAP's three- day meeting, the chairman of Global Business Network, Peter Schwartz, said that the 'process of tracking nuclear power technology and developing the capabilities of understanding that technology' will take decades.
As such, he expects 'Singapore will not make a decision about this for about 5-10 years or longer, and you won't see a nuclear power plant in or around Singapore for at least, in the order of 10-20 years or longer than that, because of the time frames involved'.
The consensus among IAP members is that diversifying into nuclear power is not urgent for Singapore, which for now has arranged for sufficient gas supplies to meet its power needs.
But Claude Mandil, former executive director of the International Energy Agency, said that it would be a mistake for Singapore to sit back. 'Things have to be started immediately because they are lengthy processes,' he said. For one, a strong safety culture must be developed, which should be started now if Singapore wants a nuclear power plant by 2020.
'Singapore must hammer out what is needed to make sure and convince the public that nothing serious will happen with a nuclear power plant,' he said. 'That needs quite a culture - and it's not too early to start.'
Mr Mandil also said that Singapore should not passively watch developments in nuclear power. Rather, it should develop skills and R&D so it can participate in these developments.
Another panellist, Lord Ronald Oxburgh, former chairman of the Shell Transport and Trading Company, pointed out that Singapore lacks nuclear engineers. 'Fundamentally, Singapore is going to need nuclear engineers if it wants to think seriously and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of adding nuclear to the mix,' he said. 'You don't magic up engineers overnight out of the air - they have to be trained, learning safety procedures.'
Mr Mandil said that having a core of nuclear engineers would also help produce solutions best suited to land-scarce Singapore.
'Singapore should wait a little bit to see what is the new kind of reactors, and that's why it should also participate in developing them,' he said. 'If Singapore could improve the safety issues of running a plant - which are already good now - it could even build a plant near the city centre, which would be suitable for Singapore's needs.'
Manufacturers say this will encourage drivers to make switch
Jessica Cheam Straits Times 3 Nov 10;
LEADING car manufacturers yesterday urged governments, particularly those in Asia, to play a key role in kick-starting the electric vehicle (EV) revolution.
This means giving monetary incentives to encourage consumers to buy these green cars rather than traditional ones that run on fossil fuels.
When the adoption of such vehicles becomes widespread, the incentives can be removed and costs of EVs would have decreased too, said experts at a panel discussion on the opening day of the Clean Energy Expo Asia.
EVs are considered more environmentally friendly as their greenhouse gas emissions are lower, while also addressing the issue of over-dependence on fossil fuels.
French car maker Renault's Asean and Japan area operations manager Arnaud Mourgue said existing markets, such as Singapore's, need to provide significant incentives at the start for EVs to take off.
In Singapore, for example, an EV could be sold to a consumer by next year for about $70,000 to $80,000 - comparable to the price for a conventional mass market car, said Mr Mourgue.
But that is dependent on the authorities relaxing the current tax regime, which would now make an EV cost nearly $200,000 to the average consumer.
Renault is in talks with the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to bring in a fleet of these cars by next year for Singapore's EV pilot project.
Under a current government programme, the Transport Technology Innovation and Development Scheme (Tides), taxes are waived for electric cars, but only for companies and organisations. Private car owners are not included in this test phase.
The LTA has a Green Vehicle Rebate scheme - set up in 2001 - which encourages the take-up of green vehicles. The scheme, which offers a rebate of up to 40 per cent of a car's Open Market Value, will run its course by the end of next year. The authority said yesterday it will review the scheme when the time comes.
But industry experts say more can be done, like allowing schemes similar to Tides to be made available to consumers to get things moving.
'Incentives are a necessity to reach a certain volume to get the economies of scale. After a few years, we won't need those incentives. Infrastructure of the network, mindset of our customers and production efficiency will be there,' said Mr Mourgue.
Managing director David Chou of EV World, which converts existing cars into EVs, agreed.
'Such incentives will help win the consumer over to EVs, and we will see more EVs on the road. Technology improvement will also constantly be bringing the costs down,' he added.
The Star 3 Nov 10;
GEORGE TOWN: Come Jan 1, plastic bags will be practically banned state-wide.
The move – an extension of the current “No Plastic Bag Day” in shopping centres and hypermarkets on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays – means that no plastic bags can be used every day by almost all business sectors.
The ruling will cover all hypermarkets, supermarkets, departmental stores, pharmacies, fast food restaurants, nasi kandar outlets, convenience stores including petrol kiosks and chain stores.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the move would reduce the state’s carbon footprint.
“Mini markets and sole proprietorship businesses will have to adhere to the ruling on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in order to ensure the renewal of their licences.
“Previously, they only had to adhere to the ruling on Mondays,” he said when tabling the 2011 Budget at the state legislative assembly yesterday.
Lim’s two paragraph announcement on the wide-ranging plastic ban was buried inside his 27-page budget speech, apparently catching many by surprise.
To promote the “No Plastic Bag Day” ruling, the state will distribute 500,000 brochures to create public awareness besides erecting educational billboards.
On July 1, last year, Penang became the first state to implement a “No Plastic Bag Day” ruling in shopping complexes and hypermarkets every Monday, before it was extended to Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well from Jan 2.
From July 1, 2009 to Oct 28, a total of 32.5 million plastic bags were saved under this campaign.
Shoppers who did not bring their own reusable bags were charged 20 sen for each plastic bag when making purchases.
The money collected from the sale of plastic bags went to the “Partners Against Poverty” Special Fund to help the state’s hardcore poor.
The Star 3 Nov 10;
THE Consumers Association of Penang and Sahabat Alam Malaysia are very disturbed by the Government’s approval for the release of genetically-modified (GM) mosquitoes for field testing.
The risk assessment and regulatory experience for GM insects worldwide is still immature. The World Health Organisation is only now developing guidelines for countries to use as the basis for developing their own regulations for the field testing and release of GM insects.
The approval process for the GM mosquitoes will set a precedent for all future field trials and release of genetically-modified organisms in the country.
If the National Biosafety Board and the Biosafety Department does not set the bar high for meaningful public feedback – detailed study of socio-economic and environmental impacts, solid science, risk assessment, risk management, transparency, liability and redress – it will mean a lack of scrutiny for other GM crops, food, feed and processing in the future.
We are against the release of GM organisms as there is still no scientific consensus on their safety and there are many uncertainties related to genetic engineering, making assessment of their risks difficult.
In fact, the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, endorsed by 58 governments, states: “The impacts of transgenic plants, animals and micro organisms are currently less understood. This situation calls for broad stakeholder participation in decision making as well as more public domain research on potential risks.”
Two court cases in the United States suggest that environmental oversight of genetically engineered crops is grossly insufficient. Likewise, we are concerned that there might be an oversight in the application for the release of GM mosquitoes in Malaysia.
However, as the pubic does not have access to the application dossier, it is impossible to assess whether all issues have been adequately and satisfactorily addressed by the applicant.
There is a dire need for a much wider public debate on the issue of GM mosquitoes than there has been to date, with further means of ensuring meaningful and effective public participation.
All information must be made available to the public, including the location of the specific release sites within Bentong and Alor Gajah districts, given the significance of the proposed experiments.
Malaysia, as a party to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Convention on Biodiversity, must fulfil its obligations therein to ensure that activities related to these GM mosquitoes are undertaken in a manner that prevents or reduces the risks to biological diversity, taking also into account risks to human health.
Malaysia’s field release experiment is also coming under intense international scrutiny, as this is one of the first such releases of GM mosquitoes in the world.
As there are doubts about the safety of these GM mosquitoes, the precautionary principle must apply. In our view this is best met by the Government withdrawing the approval and not to release the GM mosquitoes in the light of public health and environmental concerns.
S.M. MOHAMED IDRIS,
President,
Consumers’ Association of Penang and Sahabat Alam Malaysia.
LiveScience.com Yahoo News 2 Nov 10;
One third of the sharks, rays and skates on Earth are threatened with extinction, according to a new study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The dramatic numbers are part of a larger, comprehensive IUCN study of the state of the planet's vertebrate populations. The study found that roughly one-fifth of vertebrates are threatened. Among those are cartilaginous fishes, a group that includes sharks, rays and skates.
Previously, more localized shark studies indicated that along the U.S. eastern seaboard alone, populations of some shark species have been cut in half, and some have dropped by a staggering 90 percent.
The newly issued reports are based on an ongoing appraisal of the IUCN Red List, the worldwide standard for assessing the conservation status of species. Red List categories run from "least concern" to "near threatened," "vulnerable," "endangered," "critically endangered," "extinct in the wild" and "extinct."
Placement in a category reflects a species' abundance, reproductive rate, geographic range and other such factors.
Jack Musick, emeritus professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, oversaw the Red List assessment of sharks, skates, and rays by an international team of more than 100 experts.
His group's work suggests 345 of the 1,044 species of cartilaginous fishes studied, or 33 percent of them, are "threatened," a broad grouping that includes species in the "vulnerable," "endangered" and "critically endangered" categories.
Musick cautioned that assessing the exact threat level for cartilaginous fishes is made difficult by a large number of species for which there aren't enough data - a reflection of the difficulty and high cost of sampling these underwater creatures.
The assessment shows that threats to cartilaginous fishes (and other vertebrates) occur mainly in the tropics - regions where large numbers of species with relatively confined distributions coincide with intensive fisheries.
To reduce the threat to cartilaginous fishes, Musick and his co-authors call for a number of conservation actions. These include habitat protection, management of harvest and trade, adoption of new law and policy measures, and enhanced awareness and education campaigns.
Maggie Fox PlanetArk 3 Nov 10;
Toxic chemicals at levels high enough to kill sea animals extended deep underwater soon after the BP oil spill, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
They found evidence of the chemicals as deep as 3,300 feet and as far away as 8 miles in May, and said the spread likely worsened as more oil spilled.
The chemicals, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs, can kill animals right away in high enough concentrations and can cause cancer over time.
"From the time that these observations were made, there was an extensive release of additional oil and dispersants at the site. Therefore, the effects on the deep sea ecosystem may be considerably more severe than supported by the observations reported here," the researchers wrote in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
The Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded in April, killing 11 workers and spilling about 4.9 million barrels or 185 million gallons of crude oil.
Terry Wade of Texas A&M University, Steven Lohrenz of the University of Southern Mississippi and Stennis Space Center and colleagues began testing the waters around the spill soon afterwards.
Environmental experts were most worried about the PAHs because they are so toxic, but not much was known about how long they could last in the water or how long it would take them to dissipate.
The initial tests showed they were at high levels very deep under the water, the report shows.
"Based on our findings, subsurface exposure to PAH resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil release was likely to be associated with acute toxicity effects in discrete depth layers between 1,000 and 1,400 meters in the region southwest of the wellhead site and extending at least as far as 13 km," the research team wrote.
PAHs include a group of compounds, and different types were at different depths, they said.
It is possible they dissipate quickly, but no one has yet showed this, they added.
"Our findings suggest that toxicity effects of the subsurface PAH compounds could have extended at least as far as 13 km from the wellhead site," the researchers said.
In September a team at Oregon State University said they found alarming levels of PAHs in the region, 40 times higher than before the area was affected by the oil spill.
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said testing had helped confirm that chemicals used to disperse oil from the BP spill have not made their way into fish, crabs, shrimp or oysters from the Gulf of Mexico.
(Editing by Jerry Norton)
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