First slug on oil-slicked Tanah Merah
from wild shores of singapore
Punggol shore is alive!
from wonderful creation
Life History of the Centaur Oakblue
from Butterflies of Singapore
Bug identification
from Singapore Nature
Dragonfly (43) - Macromia cincta
from Nature Photography - Singapore Odonata
Feeding behaviour of herons: 2. Intermediate Egret
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Eurasian Tree Sparrows sand-bathing
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Why the Marina Coastal Expressway, one of Spore's most ambitious road projects, is now costing $4.3 billion
Venessa Lee Today Online 22 Jan 11;
One of Singapore's most ambitious road projects is being built on land described as being like "toothpaste" and "peanut butter".
The Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE), a 5km, 10-lane artery through which will flow the traffic lifeblood of the new Marina Bay downtown, runs through land reclaimed in the 1970s and 1980s. There are, said Mr Chuah Han Leong, director of the MCE with the Land Transport Authority, "very thick and deep layers of soft marine clay present. The ground is like toothpaste."
This soft terrain is partly why capital costs have ballooned some 70 per cent from initial estimates to $4.3 billion today, with about 10 per cent of the new expressway completed.
Until plans for the 21km North-South Expressway (NSE) were announced on Wednesday, the MCE was Singapore's most expensive road (the NSE is estimated to cost between $7 billion and $8 billion). And no wonder, with engineers having to grapple with not only the challenge of excavating in old reclaimed land, but also reclaiming - and building on - new land from the sea, as well as digging a 420m stretch of tunnel under the very seabed, in a first for Singapore.
In 2007, it was estimated the MCE would cost $2.5 billion to build. "The contract sum to date is about $4.3 billion," Mr Chuah revealed to Weekend Today - another slight increase from the $4.1 billion reported when work on the MCE began in April 2009. He attributed the cost hike to construction prices and the "very challenging ground conditions".
It has had some wondering if the new expressway is worth its price tag. Based on benefit-cost ratio calculations, Mr Chuah said, the tangible benefits of the MCE - such as the reduced travelling time for highway users - outweigh the construction costs by more than a factor of one.
For one, the MCE will optimise the potential of the Marina Bay area, serving as a vital link from the new financial centre, integrated resort and other developments to the rest of the island. Slated for completion by the end of 2013, it will link the East Coast Parkway and Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway in the east, to the Ayer Rajah Expressway in the west.
And while they could have built a viaduct for less than the cost of a tunnel, a viaduct - a long elevated roadway - would prevent the land from being fully utilised. "If you build underground, you can use the land on top for other purposes," added Mr Chuah.
As for whether it'll be a smoother drive, motorists might like to know that "about 10 (ERP) gantries" are being built in anticipation, but "will only be activated when needed", when traffic flow is less than optimal.
MOSTLY MADE UP OF TUNNELS
Tunnels make up 3.6km of the 5km length of the MCE. At one stretch, a tunnel lies about 12m above an MRT tunnel, said Mr Chuah.
Professor Yong Kwet Yew, an LTA adviser and civil engineering academic at the National University of Singapore, said the soft clay on which the MCE stands is "like peanut butter" and that it was "certainly one of the most challenging projects in the world".
Excavation can take place at a depth of 25m, the equivalent of eight storeys. The soft clay can extend downwards more than twice that - up to 59m. By comparison, in constructing the KPE, the depth of the soft clays averaged only 20m.
To improve the ground, cement grout is injected to stiffen the clay, a process that is "about 90-per-cent completed" said Mr Chuah. Temporary walls are erected to support the large tunnel excavations, with massive pipe piles driven as deep as 85m (over 25 storeys) underground. Such safety measures are what have pushed costs up, said Mr Chuah.
Prof Yong, who chaired an investigation panel on the collapse of the Nicoll Highway, said that following the 2004 disaster, the designs of temporary safety structures must have the same "factor of safety" as permanent structures.
In addition new land, about 12 football fields' worth, is being reclaimed from the sea in the Marina Wharf area. The process involves filling the sea bed with sand and earth that compresses the soft material - like "squeezing water out", Mr Chuah said.
It takes "decades" for reclaimed land to fully settle, at a rate of 50mm or 100mm a year; even the land on which ECP is built is "still settling today", he noted, stressing that this was of no danger to the public.
Nor does reclaimed land have to lie fallow for a time before being put to use, said Mr Chuah and Prof Yong. With the MCE, said Mr Chuah: "We can't wait for the land to compress. So we do the section of the road here on piles." This foundation of piles ensures the road does not shift even when the ground does.
What about tremors from quakes in neighbouring countries, such as those felt here in recent years? These "have not affected the MCE in any way", said Mr Chuah, while Prof Yong said they would "not be a problem even when the whole structure is finished".
The challenge of digging under the sea
by Venessa Lee
First, they tunnelled under a river to build the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway. Now, Singapore's road engineers are digging away at a more formidable challenge: Building a tunnel under the sea.
The experience of building part of the KPE under the Geylang River has proved helpful to the work on the Marina Coastal Expressway, which in one section runs below the sea-bed parallel to Marina Barrage.
"It's an extension of our existing technology ... (In terms of scope) when we crossed the Geylang River, it was 120m wide. Now, we are crossing a distance 420m wide," said MCE director Chuah Han Leong.
Building out in the open sea, as opposed to the sheltered waters of a river, is naturally tougher. "Then we have to cater for the effects of the barrage," said Mr Chuah. The double-piled temporary walls have to be impermeable and strong enough to withstand the barrage's maximum discharge of "more than 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools every minute". To prevent the sea bed from being eroded, rock-filled wire-mesh cages were placed on the sea bottom.
Once in operation, emergency and evacuation plans for the tunnel will be similar to those for the KPE, said Mr Chuah. Escape staircases leading up the ground are placed at 500m-intervals. Cross-passage doors will allow evacuation from one bound of the tunnel to the other. "There are also incident detection cameras and electronic signs in the tunnel to help to manage incidents." Venessa Lee
Vision of a tunnel
- The MCE's 420m undersea tunnel lies about 130m from the Marina Barrage.
- It is being built in two parts. Stage 1 on the Marina East side will be completed in the middle of this year.
- In stage 2, water will be diverted to flow above the completed section, which will be sealed off, then work will begin on the tunnel on the western side.
The fate of the ECP ... and the Benjamin Sheares Bridge
The East Coast Parkway has long been the fast route to town and westward for residents in the east.
But when the Marina Coastal Expressway opens, part of the ECP - including the Benjamin Sheares Bridge with its sweeping views over the bay - will be downgraded from an expressway to an arterial road.
The result: The land adjoining the ECP can be put to optimal use. As an arterial road, traffic junctions can be put in; roads can be reconfigured in a more rectangular grid, "in such a way whereby you optimise the land parcellation", said Mr Chuah Han Leong.
"Currently the land parcels are all sort of cut off by the ECP ... that's the strategic value of the MCE. It allows you to redevelop that land."
As to speculation that the iconic bridge, which opened in 1981, could be torn down, Mr Chuah emphatically said there "will be no change".
Multiple agencies join forces and are working overtime to fight sudden surge of insects
Cai Haoxiang Straits Times 22 Jan 11;
THE Bedok insect problem showed little signs of abating yesterday, even as multi-agency efforts were stepped up to tackle the infestation by millions of tiny insects called non-biting midges.
Larvae-spawning grounds around the Bedok Reservoir have been found and are being treated with insecticide. Corridors and void decks of all 33 nearby Housing Board blocks have also been sprayed with the insecticide, which will be effective for at least a week.
Meanwhile, the National Environment Agency (NEA) has taken larvae and water samples in order to analyse the cause of the explosion in the population of midges, which are scientifically known as Chironomidae and are either green or black.
'All agencies are working overtime to solve this problem,' said Aljunied Town Council chairman Cynthia Phua, who visited shops around Bedok Reservoir in the evening with representatives from the town council, National Parks Board, PUB and NEA.
Giving an update on the situation, Madam Phua, an MP for Aljunied GRC, said the infestation had clearly affected businesses, which have been forced to close early at night as the insects are attracted to lights, get into food and inconvenience residents.
'My grassroots leaders will walk around more often to reassure residents that we are trying to reduce the numbers of adult flying insects, as well as larvae,' she said.
Madam Phua's visit came three days after a similar tour of the area by Foreign Minister George Yeo, whose Bedok Reservoir-Punggol ward of Aljunied GRC has been the worst hit by the sudden surge in the midge population since the start of the year.
The main reason behind the infestation has not yet been established, said PUB deputy director Goh Chong Hoon. But the recent cold and rainy weather, or changes to the ecosystem in the area, could be causes.
Mr Goh said that a breakthrough yesterday morning came when PUB and NEA officers found midge eggs and larvae in the mud beneath the stone blocks around the Bedok Reservoir. Since then, steps have been taken to destroy as many larvae as possible.
Eradicating the larvae is key, said NEA senior operations manager Tang Choon Siang: 'The larvae have a life cycle of seven days. Adult flying insects exist only to mate, do not feed, and die after a day.'
NEA staff are also taking water and insect samples from different parts of the reservoir, but laboratory analysis of these samples will take some time.
NParks contractors have also sprayed trees with insecticide and are keeping the grass in the area short, a spokesman said.
Residents at eateries yesterday were seen covering their drinks with tissue paper or bowls. Those interviewed said they were resigned to sweeping up, every few hours, the bodies of the many insects that fly into their homes and die soon after.
Said prawn noodle seller Tan Dian Swee, 49: 'The insecticide-spraying in the afternoon keeps the insects away for a while, but they come back again at night.'
Bedok midges mostly wiped out
Tanya Fong Channel NewsAsia 31 Jan 11;
SINGAPORE: The population of green flies known as midges which has plagued residents of Bedok Reservoir for two weeks, has now been reduced by 95 per cent.
This followed efforts by national water agency PUB and the National Environment Agency (NEA).
Water-based pesticides were sprayed on the reservoir as well as surrounding HDB blocks.
A solid form of the pesticide, known as BTI, was also dropped into the reservoir.
BTI is safe and environmentally-friendly.
The tiny insects are harmless -- they don't bite and do not carry any diseases -- but they annoy residents by landing in clusters, on people and food.
It is still not known what caused their population to surge.
Minister for Foreign Affairs and MP for Aljunied GRC George Yeo went down to the area again on Monday to get an update.
Speaking to reporters, Mr Yeo said he is happy that the situation has improved.
"When I came down (to Bedok Reservoir) 13 days ago, it was at its worst," Mr Yeo said.
"It was so bad and a number of shops had to close by 8pm. Chinese New Year is around the corner and this is when the most business is to be done.
"So I'm glad that things are back to normal. Customers are returning and we'll have a happy new year."
One relieved resident said: "We were worried that the baby may breathe in the flies (so) we are quite relieved that this midge population (problem) is being settled, (and) during Chinese New Year, we can open the doors and windows".
-CNA/wk
Phew, Bedok residents no longer plagued by tiny flies
Andrea Ong Straits Times 1 Feb 11;
FOR almost a week, the Hanis and Rafi restaurant at Block 742 Bedok Reservoir Road had been forced to close at 6pm, three hours early.
Like many shops in Bedok Reservoir estate, it was plagued by swarms of the tiny black and green flies which are drawn to light. These midges do not bite but their horrible sight drove residents to hole up at home at night, in darkness.
The nightmare that struck the estate a fortnight ago prompted the authorities to fog and spray insecticide across the fields, corridors and reservoir over several days, killing the tiny pests.
Yesterday, Foreign Minister George Yeo, looking relieved, said: 'Not a moment too soon because Chinese New Year is just round the corner, and this is when the most business is to be done. I'm glad things have come back to normal.'
The MP of Bedok Reservoir-Punggol ward in Aljunied GRC had seen the worst of the infestation when he visited the area on Jan 18.
Establishments like Hanis and Rafi, however, said business is not back to normal despite the midges having all but disappeared since last Thursday.
Mr Haroun Ripin, 65, who runs the restaurant with his wife, said: 'Business is just at 70 per cent of what it used to be.'
Millions of midges had been found breeding in the shallow waters of Bedok Reservoir.
But separate tests by the Public Utilities Board (PUB) and the National Environment Agency (NEA) recently found the number of midge eggs and larvae had fallen by 95 per cent.
To kill the adult midges, Aljunied Town Council chairman Cynthia Phua said fogging of the estate and reservoir was carried out 'at the same time, from 5pm to 7pm daily, so the midges couldn't escape and hide elsewhere'.
Unlike mosquito larvae, which float near the water surface, midge larvae and eggs stay hidden in the mud and algae surrounding the rocks near the reservoir bank, said PUB deputy director Goh Chong Hoon.
Hence, BTI insecticide, which does not harm humans, was applied to the mud, soil, rocks and water near the reservoir fringes, he added.
The cause of the infestation is still unknown, said Mr Yeo. The NEA will study the problem as Pandan Reservoir in Jurong had a similar outbreak. 'Obviously something in the weather has caused a proliferation of two different species or sub-species in two different parts of Singapore, so we've got to study this,' he added.
Some residents worry the midges may return when the current rainy season is over. Said 32-year-old Kurt Goh, who lives in Block 742: 'In the meantime, I will continue to keep my doors and windows shut.'
Related post
Midges bug Bedok folk Cai Haoxiang Straits Times 19 Jan 11;
Weather woes hit wheat output; supermarkets holding prices for now
Jessica Lim Straits Times 22 Jan 11;
MORE than just dough is rising as a global shortage of wheat whips up the prices of bread, cakes and other flour-based products sold here.
Prima, the only flour miller and the largest flour supplier here, has raised prices for the second time in three months.
The hike last month was between 6per cent and 10 per cent, depending on the type of flour. Last September, the company - which supplies more than half the flour used here - had boosted prices by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent to businesses like bakeries and food manufacturers.
Many of these businesses have in turn raised the prices of their products amid the rising costs of other staples like sugar and soya beans.
Wheat-flour items such as bread are a staple for some people, said nutritionists like Ms Ho Yi Fei of DaySpring Corporate Wellness. 'Flour products such as bread are a cheap source of calories and the least well-off use it to beef up their meals,' she said.
Global prices of many commodities have climbed, with the cost of wheat doubling compared with a year ago. World production of wheat has plummeted since last October, following a drought in Russia. That led to an export ban in the country, one of the world's largest exporters. A spate of bad weather affecting crops in Kazakhstan, the European Union and Canada worsened the situation.
Matters are unlikely to improve any time soon, given the massive floods in Australia.
The impact has led to some of the 100-plus members of the Singapore Bakery and Confectionery Trade Association charging 5 per cent more for their products, said its chairman Liow Kian Huat.
They pay about $32 for a 25kg bag of flour, up from about $29 two months ago. Although shy of the $35 per bag cost during the 2007-2008 food crisis brought about by weather woes, the increase is too much to bear for many small bakers.
He noted too the higher costs of other raw materials like sugar and cooking oil. 'We managed to hold prices during the first round of increases. We cannot absorb it any more,' said Mr Liow, whose bakery in Yishun sells bread rolls at 50 cents each, up from 40 cents last month.
Last week, Jin Seng Confectionery in Ghim Moh raised the prices of 14 of its bread products - the first time it has done so since it opened 22 years ago. A packet of four red-bean buns costs $1.50, up from $1.30.
Chinatown Food Corporation, maker and exporter of the Chinatown brand of frozen foods like roti prata and cream puffs, is billing customers in the United States 5 per cent to 8 per cent more.
Other firms like Pine Garden's Cake and Angie The Choice said it is a matter of time before they roll out higher prices.
Checks with bigger companies, like bakery giants Sunshine Bakeries and Gardenia, as well as supermarkets like Sheng Siong and FairPrice, show that they are holding prices.
Mr Tng Ah Yiam, FairPrice's managing director of group purchasing, merchandising and international trading, said prices of most food products in the supermarket chain have remained relatively stable in the past six months due to the sourcing of food from more places.
Mr Wong Mong Hong, president of the Singapore Food Manufacturers' Association, noted that the big players usually ink long-term contracts with suppliers so they can hold prices. 'These contracts will last a maximum of six months. We will see prices of flour and flour products go up from then on,' he said.
Other commodities cost more too
Straits Times 22 Jan 11;
# Soya beans
Soya beans now cost US$880 (S$1,130) a tonne, up from US$600 a year ago.
The reason: Tighter supplies as weather anomalies hit major soya-producing countries such as Argentina and the United States. Earlier this month, the US cut crop forecasts for the year, sending prices to their highest in 30 months.
Mr Thomas Pek, owner of Tai Hua Food Industries, which makes soya sauce here, said he can maintain prices for the next six months - but it is anyone's guess after that.
# Sugar
Prices have gone up by 30 per cent in the past year to hit the current $70 for 50kg.
The reason: Again, bad weather in major producers. The floods in Australia, for instance, have led to a 25 per cent cut in export forecast.
Yeo Hiap Seng, which makes the Yeo's brand of soft drinks, raised the prices of two items late last year. A six-pack of chrysanthemum tea and soya bean milk now costs $2.50, up from $2.40.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 21 Jan 11;
The Ministry of the Environment says it will push for Indonesia’s ratification of a transborder haze agreement that could see the country receive international help in fighting forest fires.
Arief Yuwono, the deputy minister for environmental damage control, said on Friday that his ministry would try once again to get the House of Representatives to ratify the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, which has already been signed by the other nine Asean nations.
“We’re preparing steps to ratify the Asean agreement on transboundary haze,” he said.
“It’s already been rejected once, but we’re trying to propose it again because we stand to benefit a lot from this agreement.”
The agreement was drawn up by the regional group in 2002 in response to the pollution caused by forest fires used to clear land in Sumatra and surrounding areas.
The pollution created a heavy haze that affected other countries in the region.
The worst of the haze came in the late ’90s. Thick smog drifted as far as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, costing an estimated $9 billion in losses to tourism, transportation and farming.
Indonesia is the only Asean nation that has not yet ratified the pact, with the House stating in 2008 that it threatened the country’s sovereignty.
But Arief said signing the agreement would bring benefits, such as allowing Indonesia to seek support from its neighbors in preventing forest fires.
“It’s also in our national interest, not just theirs, to tackle forest fires, because we’re affected by the haze too,” Arief said.
“It impacts our ability to meet our 26 percent emissions reduction target, and if forest fires get worse, we’ll need to make extra efforts to achieve our targets.” Satya Widya Yudha, a House legislator with the Golkar Party, agreed there were benefits and said he was in favor of ratifying the agreement, but on the condition that Indonesia had full control in handling its pollution.
“The House rejected ratification last time because we feared other countries interfering in our domestic issues. At that time we were also questioning Singapore’s dumping of its waste in our territory,” he said.
Government wants haze agreement ratified
Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 22 Jan 11;
Indonesia, the 2011 ASEAN chair and the only country in the region that has not endorsed the haze agreement, has set a target to ratify the ASEAN haze pollution agreement this year.
Senior officials, including from the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Forestry Ministries, had intensified talks and targeted to ratify the agreement before Indonesia hosts the ASEAN summit this year.
The government had previously tried to seek House of Representatives approval to ratify the haze agreement, but the House rejected the proposal in 2008.
“We will try again,” Environment Ministry deputy minister for environmental damage control Arief Yuwono told reporters after the meeting held at the Foreign Ministry office on Friday.
Arief said the ratification was essential to help strengthen institutional coordination in Indonesia for dealing with prevention of forest fires.
“The cooperation with other ASEAN countries is important, including in forest fires and emergency situations facing the land,” he said. “For us, it would of course be comfortable to mobilize aid [from ASEAN countries] if there is a formal agreement.”
While refusing to approve the ratification in 2008, legislators argued that the draft bill should include illegal logging issues in efforts to reduce the exports of illicit wood, including to ASEAN countries.
Indonesia is the only country in ASEAN that has not ratified the agreement after the Philippines endorsed it last year.
Ten ASEAN countries adopted the trans-boundary haze agreement in 2002 obliging signatory countries to take proactive steps to stop haze pollution from land and forest fires within their territories through strict regulations, heat-seeking satellites and training for firefighters.
The delegation from Indonesia had so far acted as observers in the annual trans-boundary meeting to discuss land and forest fire prevention.
Indonesia will host a ministerial steering committee on trans-boundary haze this year with the first senior officials meeting to be held in March.
Legislator Satya W. Yudha hailed the government plan to ratify trans-boundary haze, but warned the motive should not only be because Jakarta would host the ASEAN summit.
“It is good. We will support it,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Satya warned the government that the ASEAN countries should respect Indonesian sovereignty with the control of aid coming to Jakarta under the hand of the Indonesian government.
“We hope ASEAN countries that have already ratified the trans-boundary haze would also stop dumping hazardous waste into Indonesian water,” he said.
Indonesia is the largest forest nation in the region with 120 million hectares of rainforest.
Forest fires have long been an annual event in Indonesia during the dry season, and have several times shifted haze pollution to Singapore and Malaysia.
The governments of Singapore and Malaysia protested the Indonesian administration over the haze pollution blanketing parts of the two countries last year.
Indonesia has signed bilateral deals with Singapore and Malaysia, with the two countries promising
to help Indonesia stop land and forest fires.
The government promised to cut the number of hotspots by 20 percent per year to meet Indonesia’s pledge to reduce its emissions by 26 percent by 2020.
Haze Pollution Treaty Would Open Up World of Opportunities, Ministry Insists
Fidelis E. Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 25 Jan 11;
Jakarta. The Environment Ministry is continuing to make its case for Indonesia to ratify a regional transborder haze agreement, arguing it could pave the way for more carbon trading projects in the country.
Sulistyowati, the minister’s deputy for mitigation and atmosphere protection, said on Monday that ratifying the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution would mean fewer wildfires and hence more forested area to leverage in carbon-trading negotiations.
“If we can prevent forests getting burned down, we can benefit from REDD [Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation] and CDM [Clean Development Mechanism] schemes,” she said.
REDD schemes essentially reward developing countries for not cutting down their forests, while the CDM allows developed countries to offset their emissions reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol by paying for reduction projects in developing countries.
The CDM also includes Afforestation and Reforestation methods aimed at replanting trees in forests that have been damaged for the past 50 years (Afforestation) and those damaged since 1989 (Reforestation).
“Indonesia has a huge potential to get CDM projects with the Afforestation and Reforestation methods if we can prevent fires,” Sulistyowati said.
“We conducted a study from 2004 to 2005 where we nominated seven candidate [CDM projects] but only had one approved by the government,” she said.
“The process was then stalled because of permit issues with the central government. So we don’t really know what happened to the proposal.”
Agus Sari, a carbon trading expert, said that while Indonesia could benefit from Afforestation and Reforestation projects, they were very complex and could end up being too difficult to implement here.
“Afforestation and Reforestation [projects] have their own definitions and none of them talks specifically about forest fires or the prevention of forest fires,” he said. “It would become too complicated [in the Indonesian context].”
He added that even without bringing in CDM projects, ratifying the haze agreement would have an immediate benefit to local communities.
The agreement was drawn up by the regional bloc in 2002 in response to the pollution caused by forest fires used to clear land, mainly in Sumatra.
The pollution created a heavy haze that affected other countries in the region.
The worst of the haze came in the late 1990s. Thick smog drifted as far as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, costing an estimated $9 billion in losses to tourism, transportation and farming.
Indonesia is the only Asean nation that has not yet ratified the pact, with the House stating in 2008 that it threatened the country’s sovereignty.
Craig Pittman, St. Petersburg Times 21 Jan 11;
Tampa Bay is looking better than it has in 60 years.
Sea grasses, the leading indicator of the health of Tampa Bay, have now expanded to cover more of the bay than at any time since the 1950s.
And part of the reason for the good news may lie with the region's severe economic slump.
Tampa Bay gained 3,250 acres of sea grass between 2008 and 2010 – an 11 percent increase that is the largest two-year expansion of sea grasses since scientists began regular surveys, according to a report released Friday by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.
That means the bay now supports 32,897 acres of sea grasses, which feed manatees and other marine life as well as providing shelter and nursery areas for sportfish such as sea trout, snook, and redfish.
As a result "we've seen an overall rebound in the fish population," said Nanette O'Hara, the estuary program's outreach coordinator and an avid angler. Redfish and spotted sea trout in particular are booming, she said, and even tarpon have come back.
"Tarpon were once our signature game fish in the bay," O'Hara said. "There was a Tampa tarpon tournament every year starting in the 1950s, but they had to stop it in the late '70s or early '80s because there weren't any tarpon around any more. But now the tarpon have made a big comeback in the bay."
All major bay segments showed gains in sea grass growth, according to the report —- even the Old Tampa Bay segment in the northern part of the bay, which has been plagued by algae blooms and an expanding layer of thick, soupy muck near Safety Harbor in recent years.
Why such a vast improvement? For one thing, the Tampa Bay area has suffered through several years of comparatively low rainfall, O'Hara said. That meant less runoff polluted by front-lawn fertilizer was washing into the bay -- something scientists jokingly refer to as "urban slobber."
The other factor may be the slowdown in the region's growth since the mortgage meltdown hit, she said. That has reduced the number of new homes and commercial properties being built, which also reduces the pollution load.
And since air pollution produces 30 percent of the nitrogen that fouls the bay, the recession has helped by cutting back on the number of cars and trucks being driven around the region, she said.
It's still too early to credit any of the improvements to the recent enactment of fertilizer restrictions by local governments, she said, but the new rules may produce even better water quality in the next report.
Despite the good news, Tampa Bay still has 5,103 acres to go to reach the target goal of 38,000 acres of sea grass set by the estuary program, an independent body created by Congress in 1991 to focus on cleaning up the bay.
Tampa Bay is Florida's largest open-water estuary, covering about 398 square miles at high tide. In the 1950s and '60s, dredging created land for development around the bay but wiped out much of its sea grass, hurting commercial and recreational fishing. Polluted runoff killed even more sea grass. By the early '90s, the bay had lost 80 percent of its sea grass, more than anywhere else in Florida.
Changes in local sewer plant operations started the cleanup. Then the region's utilities cut the amount of nitrogen oxide pollution pouring out of their power plant smokestacks.
The data on sea grass growth in the bay was collected by scientists with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, better known as Swiftmud. The results of their studies have been used to track trends in sea grass extent in estuaries throughout Southwest Florida since 1988.
Dr. Merlin D. Tuttle, Honorary Ambassador for the Year of the Bat campaign
UNEP 21 Jan 11;
Bonn, 21 January 2011 - Were you aware that bats are key pollinators in many parts of the world? Pollination is a vital ecosystem service without which many of our key industries such as agriculture and pharmaceuticals would collapse or incur heavy costs for artificial substitution. TEEB has found that in some estimates, over 75% of the worlds crop plants, as well as many plants that are source species for pharmaceuticals, rely on pollination by animal vectors
Furthermore, for 87 out of 115 leading global crops (representing up to 35% of the global food supply), fruit or seed numbers or quality were increased through animal pollination. Bats also provide a wide range of ecosystem services which benefit mankind from insect deterrent to bat guano fertilizer.
Bat Pollinators: Tequila and the Tree of Life
More than 1,200 species of bats comprise nearly a quarter of all mammals, and their ecological services are essential to human economies and the health of whole ecosystems worldwide. Without bats, costly crop pests would increase, forcing greater reliance on dangerous pesticides. We could also lose some of our favorite foods and beverages and suffer the consequences of greatly diminished biodiversity.
Many of our most important foods come from bat-dependent plants. These include bananas, plantain, breadfruit, peaches, mangos, dates, figs, cashews and many more. In fact, in an average tropical food market, approximately 70 percent of the fruit sold comes from trees or shrubs that rely heavily on bats in the wild. Some such as the famous durian, still rely on bat pollinators even in commercial orchards. This king of Asian fruits sells for a billion dollars annually, but could be lost without healthy populations of its bat pollinators.
In East Africa nectar feeding bats are essential to fruit production of the Baobab tree, sometimes referred to as the African Tree of Life due to the exceptional variety of wildlife that depend on it for food and shelter. Recently, it has additionally become known as the Vitamin Tree. Baobab fruits contain six times as much vitamin C as oranges, twice as much calcium as milk, are rich in other vitamins and antioxidants and may soon become a billion dollar a year crop.
In deserts, from the southwestern United States to southern Peru, more than 100 species of cactus and agave plants rely on bats for pollination. Giant, columnar cactus plants, such as the famous saguaro and organ pipe, are heavily relied on for food and shelter by a wide variety of birds and mammals, and agaves are extremely useful in erosion control, as ornamentals and as the source of all tequila liquor. The world's thirsty Margarita drinkers can definitely raise a glass in praise of bats.
Bats: Nature's natural pesticide
Bats also provide an essential ecosystem service known as "biological control." Natural pests and diseases are usually regulated by a wide range of predators and parasites. TEEB has found that agricultural pests cause significant economic losses worldwide. Globally, more than 40% of food production is being lost to insect pests, plant pathogens, and weeds, despite the application of more than 3 billion kilograms of pesticides to crops, plus other means of control. Natural control of pests is to date one of the most effective means of dealing with these threats. Bats are essential predators which keep many damaging insects from destroying crops.
The colony of 20 million free-tailed bats that lives in Bracken Cave near San Antonio, Texas, for example, consumes 200 tons of insects nightly, predominantly crop pests such as corn earworm and armyworm moths. Just one of these bats can catch enough moths in one night's feeding to prevent 50,000 or more eggs from being laid, resulting in local cotton growers saving close to a million dollars annually in reduced need for pesticides.
A single mouse-eared bat (widespread in Europe and North America) can capture 1,000 or more mosquito-sized insects in just one hour. A colony of 150 big brown bats, a number that could live in a backyard bat house, can capture enough cucumber beetles in a summer to prevent them from laying 33 million eggs that would otherwise hatch into corn rootworms, a billion-dollar-a -year pest in the United States.
In many locations, bats can be easily attracted to bat houses to help protect gardens and organic farms. Outstanding success has been reported from Oregon to Georgia in the United States, probably because many of our worst insect pests listen for bat echolocation signals and flee areas where bats are heard. A pecan grower in Georgia reports having become entirely organic since he attracted thousands of bats to extra large bat houses in his orchard. So the next time you think organic, think "bats."
Bat Fertilizer
Bats are also the primary energy producers for many cave ecosystems. Guano deposits beneath their roosts provide energy that sustains thousands of unique life forms, from bacteria and fungi to arthropods and small vertebrates. These organisms are often endemic to a single cave or cave system, but provide a potential treasure trove of biodiversity needed for solving human problems, from production of new antibiotics and gasohol to improved detergents and waste detoxification.
Additionally, extraction of bat guano for fertilizer provides an invaluable renewable resource for whole communities in developing countries from Asia and Africa to Latin America. For example, due to this eco-service of bats, Thailand's Khao Chong Pran Cave has become a major source of income for the local community, as well as a unique tourist attraction. Careful protection and harvest management have allowed annual guano sales to increase from $10,000 to $135,000. Bat guano is big business.
From Terror to Tourist Attraction
As people learn to appreciate bats, these fascinating animals are paving the way for popular tourist attractions. When 1.5 million free-tailed bats began moving into crevices beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin, Texas, health officials warned that they were rabid and dangerous, and local people wanted the bats eradicated. However, through the educational efforts of Bat Conservation International, fears were calmed, and in more than 30 years, not a single person has been harmed. The bats consume roughly 15 tons of insects nightly and attract 12 million tourist dollars each summer, clearly demonstrating the value of bats to our environment and economies.
Year of the Bat 2011-2012
Unfortunately, many people in other locations around the world still misunderstand, fear and persecute bats at great harm to themselves. Too many have heard only of vampires and disease, both of which have been greatly exaggerated by sensational media stories.
Needlessly fearful humans, in Latin America, have mistakenly destroyed thousands, even millions of highly beneficial bats at a time by sealing, burning or poisoning roosts, especially in caves, and many more bats have been lost through simple neglect of their conservation needs.
Ironically, even the common vampire bat of Latin America has proven useful. A new drug, Desmoteplase developed from research on vampire saliva, appears to greatly improve treatment of stroke victims, a potentially enormous contribution to human wellbeing. Who would have thought that a bat - and a vampire, at that - could help save countless lives?
Year of the Bat (2011-2012) celebrations will highlight bat values and needs, providing unique introductions to these incredibly fascinating animals that unfortunately rank among our planet's least understood and most rapidly declining and endangered animals. But as more people learn about and account for the ecosystem services provided by bats, greater conservation efforts will be made to ensure the survival of these fascinating and essential creatures.
For more information:
Year of the Bat 2011 - 2012 is a global campaign to promote conservation, research and education about the world's only flying mammals. Year of the Bat is supported by the United Nations Environment Programme, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species and EUROBATS, as well as numerous partner organizations around the world.
Additional information for this article was provided by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).
Maggie Fox PlanetArk 21 Jan 11;
A new species of giant crayfish literally crawled out from under a rock in Tennessee, proving that large new species of animals can be found in highly populated and well-explored places, researchers said on Wednesday.
The new crayfish should not have been easily overlooked, as it is huge -- twice the size of other species, the team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Eastern Kentucky University said.
But the crustacean is also quite rare, they report in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.
"This isn't a crayfish that someone would have picked up and just said, 'Oh, it's another crayfish,' and put it back," said University of Illinois aquatic biologist Chris Taylor, one of the researchers.
"You would have recognized it as something really, really different and you would have saved it," Taylor added in a statement.
Taylor and Guenter Schuster of Eastern Kentucky University found their first specimen of the new species under one of the biggest rocks in the deepest part of a commonly explored Tennessee creek.
The new species, called Barbicambarus simmonsi, is about 5 inches long and has antennae covered with a sensitive fringe of tiny, hair-like bristles, called setae.
More than half of the 600 known species of crayfish in the world are found in North America, Taylor said.
"This thing had not been seen by scientific eyes until last year," he said.
We spend millions of dollars every year on federal grants to send biologists to the Amazon, to Southeast Asia -- all over the world looking for and studying the biodiversity of those regions," Schuster said. "But the irony is that there's very little money that is actually spent in our own country to do the same thing. And there are still lots of areas right here in the U.S. that need to be explored."
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
Yahoo News 21 Jan 11;
WELLINGTON (AFP) – New Zealand wildlife rangers put down 10 pilot whales stranded in a remote bay after reluctantly determining there was no way to save them, conservation officials said.
The whales were the surviving members of a pod of 24 found early Friday trapped in mud and mangroves at Parengarenga Harbour, 320 kilometres (200 miles) northwest of Auckland, the Department of Conservation (DOC) said.
DOC area manager Jonathan Maxwell said by the time rangers reached the whales they were in poor condition and the weather was deteriorating.
"This meant the chance of successfully refloating the whales was virtually nil," he said.
Maxwell said the decision to put down the whales was difficult but the rangers had no choice.
"If we felt there was a real chance we could have successfully rescued them, we would have," he said.
"Sadly, the current conditions were against these animals. The kindest thing was to end their suffering."
Scientists are unsure why pilot whales beach themselves, although they speculate it may occur when their sonar becomes scrambled in shallow water or when a sick member of the pod heads for shore and others follow.
Pilot whale strandings are common in New Zealand and a pod of about 80 beached in the same area last September, with 14 surviving after they were refloated in the sea.
ScienceDaily 21 Jan 11;
Catalan researchers have studied the marine trophic network in Mauritania, on the north west coast of Africa, which is an extremely heavily exploited fishing area, as well as being home to two of the world's most threatened species of marine mammal -- the monk seal and the Atlantic hump-backed dolphin. The results of the study show that industrial and traditional fishing activities along the coast are putting these mammals and local marine ecosystems at great danger.
The researchers studied the local marine trophic network off the north west coast of Africa, and by analysing stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes were able to verify the distribution and trophic position of 13 mammal species and also that of other species of macro seaweed, marine plants, fish, molluscs, turtles and phytoplankton, which had never been studied before.
The monk seal (Monachus monachus) and the Atlantic hump-backed dolphin (Sousa teuszii) are "the most coastal species of the whole area studied, and are the only ones occupying this marine ecosystem," says Ana M. Pinela, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Barcelona (UB).
The Portuguese scientist says this area, which is so "extremely" over-exploited by both industrial and traditional fishing "should be a conservation priority for these species, which are important for biodiversity. If they disappear, it would be hard for others to take their place." This would cause a "serious" imbalance "at all levels" in local coastal ecosystems, which would remain without two super-predators that are "essential" for them to function properly.
The study, which has been published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, shows the importance of the predators Monachus monachus and Sousa teuszii for the proper functioning of coastal ecosystems in Mauritania.
The killer whale (Orcinus orca), which is also present in Mauritania, feeds at the same trophic level as the monk seal, meaning it feeds on fish, and not on marine mammals as it does off some other coasts. However, "its range is much more pelagic (of open oceans)," says Pinela, who has described the offshore ecotype of the killer whales in this region for the first time.
"Unprecedented" fishing exploitation
"Mauritania contains some of the most heavily-exploited fisheries habitats in the whole world, with one of the world's largest fisheries stocks, which is subject to very little regulation, inspection or control," explains the researcher. Two of the world's most threatened species live off this coast -- the monk seal, which is on the verge of extinction, and the hump-backed dolphin, which has a very limited geographic range and is little known.
The scientists say conservation of these coastal areas should be "a priority." "The Mauritanian Government and international agencies should more strongly monitor both industrial and traditional fisheries exploitation both in deep sea and coastal areas," says Pinela. Over-fishing and the over-exploitation of resources limits the availability of prey for these species and damages ecosystems.
The research team is calling for "more diligent" regulation of such fishing practices, monitoring and control of the fishing fleet, "be it Mauritanian or international," and the implementation of sustainable fishing off the north west of Africa.
In addition, estimates should be made of fish abundance and catches in the entire study area, because it is "a biodiversity hotspot that is home to a great diversity of marine mammals," concludes Pinela.
Elisabeth Rosenthal New York Times 21 Jan 11;
KINANGOP, Kenya — Simon Joakim Kiiru remembers a time not long ago when familiar birdsongs filled the air here and life was correlated with bird sightings. His lush, well-tended homestead is in the highlands next to the Aberdare National Park, one of the premier birding destinations in the world.
When the hornbill arrived, Mr. Kiiru recalled, the rains were near, meaning that it was time to plant. When a buzzard showed a man his chest, it meant a visitor was imminent. When an owl called at night, it foretold a death.
“There used to be myths because these are our giants,” said Mr. Kiiru, 58. “But so many today are gone.”
Over the past two decades, an increasing number of settlers who have moved here to farm have impinged on bird habitats and reduced bird populations by cutting down forests and turning grasslands into fields. Now the early effects of global warming and other climate changes have helped send the populations of many local mountain species into a steep downward spiral, from which many experts say they will never recover.
Over the next 100 years, many scientists predict, 20 percent to 30 percent of species could be lost if the temperature rises 3.6 degrees to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit. If the most extreme warming predictions are realized, the loss could be over 50 percent, according to the United Nations climate change panel.
Polar bears have become the icons of this climate threat. But scientists say that tens of thousands of smaller species that live in the tropics or on or near mountaintops are equally, if not more, vulnerable. These species, in habitats from the high plateaus of Africa to the jungles of Australia to the Sierra Nevada in the United States, are already experiencing climate pressures, and will be the bulk of the animals that disappear.
In response to warming, animals classically move to cooler ground, relocating either higher up in altitude or farther toward the poles. But in the tropics, animals have to move hundreds of miles north or south to find a different niche. Mountain species face even starker limitations: As they climb upward they find themselves competing for less and less space on the conical peaks, where they run into uninhabitable rocks or a lack of their usual foods — or have nowhere farther to go.
“It’s a really simple story that at some point you can’t go further north or higher up, so there’s no doubt that species will go extinct,” said Walter Jetz, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale, whose research last year predicted that a third of the 1,000 mountain birds he studied, or 300 species, would be threatened because warming temperatures would decimate their habitats.
Birds are good barometers of biodiversity because amateur birdwatchers keep such extensive records of their sightings. But other animals are similarly affected.
Two years ago, scientists blamed a warming climate for the disappearance of the white lemuroid possum, a niche mountain dweller in Australia that prefers cool weather, and that was cute enough to be the object of nature tours. Many scientists, suspecting that the furry animal had died off during a period of unusually extreme heat, labeled the disappearance the first climate-related animal extinction.
Since then, biologists have found a few surviving animals, but the species remains “intensely vulnerable,” said William F. Laurance, distinguished research professor at James Cook University in Australia, who said that in the future heat waves would probably be the “death knell” for a number of cold-adapted species.
For countries and communities, the issue means more than just the loss of pleasing variety. Mr. Kiiru regrets the vastly diminished populations of the mythic birds of Kikuyu tribal culture, like buzzards, owls and hawks. But also, the loss of bird species means that some plants have no way to pollinate and die off, too. And that means it is hard for Mr. Kiiru to tend bees, his major source of income.
Current methods for identifying and protecting threatened species — like the so-called red list criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a conservation gold standard — do not yet adequately factor in the impact of probable climate shifts, and the science is still evolving, many scientists say.
Some species that scientists say are at most risk in a warming climate are already considered threatened or endangered, like the Sharpe’s longclaw and the Aberdare cisticola in Kenya. The cisticola, which lives only at altitudes above 7,500 feet, is considered endangered by the international union, and research predicts that climate change will reduce its already depleted habitat by a further 80 percent by 2100.
Other Kenyan birds that are at risk from climate warming, like the tufted, brightly colored Hartlaub’s turaco, are not yet on watch lists, even though their numbers are severely reduced here. A rapid change of climate can quickly eliminate species that inhabit a narrow niche.
On a recent afternoon, Dominic Kimani, a research ornithologist at the National Museums of Kenya, combed a pasture on the Kinangop Plateau for 20 minutes before finding a single longclaw. “These used to be everywhere when I was growing up,” he said.
He added: “But it’s hard to get anyone to pay attention; they are just little brown birds. I know they’re important for grazing animals because they keep the grasses short. But it’s not dramatic, like you’re losing an elephant.”
As the climate shifts, mountain animals on all continents will face similar problems. Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley recently documented that in Yosemite National Park, where there is a century-old animal survey for comparison, half the mountain species had moved their habitats up by an average of 550 yards to find cooler ground.
Elsewhere in the United States, the pika, the alpine chipmunk and the San Bernardino flying squirrel have all been moving upslope in a pattern tightly linked to rising temperatures. They are now considered at serious risk of disappearing, said Shaye Wolf, climate science director of the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco, which in 2010 applied to protect a number of American mountain species under the United States’ Endangered Species Act.
Last year, new research in the journal Ecological Applications and elsewhere showed that the pika, a thick-furred, rabbitlike animal that takes refuge from the sun in piles of stones, was moving upslope at about 160 yards a decade and that in the past decade it had experienced a fivefold rise in local extinctions, the term used when a local population forever disappears.
On the Kinangop Plateau in Kenya, Mr. Kimani exults when he finds a Hartlaub’s turaco, once a common sight, near Njabini town, in a stand of remaining of old growth forest, after engaging local teenagers to help locate the bird. The turaco could lose more than 60 percent of its already limited habitat if current predictions about global warming are accurate, according to Dr. Jetz.
“Even substantial movement wouldn’t help them out,” he said. “They would have to move to the Alps or Asian mountains to find their mountain climate niche in the future.”
Yahoo News 21 Jan 11;
BEIJING (AFP) – China plans to invest $303 billion in water infrastructure projects over the next five years that would give millions of rural residents access to safe drinking water, state media reported.
Severe flooding and droughts across the country last year destroyed crops and drove up food prices, pushing inflation to its highest level in more than two years, prompting the investment.
Beijing will spend more than 20 billion yuan ($3 billion) in 2011 alone to "push forward construction of key projects", a water resources ministry official was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency late Thursday.
The projects include repairing ageing reservoirs and unsafe embankments and building other infrastructure to provide 60 million people with safe drinking water, Zhou Xuewen, in charge of planning, was quoted as saying.
By the end of 2011, 77 percent of the country's rural residents will have access to safe drinking water, the report said.
State media reported last month that China planned to invest $30 billion on water conservation projects in 2011 to reduce the impact of the weather on grain production.
The investment -- up 10 percent on the previous year -- will seek to improve irrigation and protect against natural disasters, the China Daily said, citing water resources minister Chen Lei.
It was not clear if the $30 billion investment was part of the $303 billion allocation announced on Thursday.
Concerned about food security and the threat of social instability from rising costs, Beijing is ramping up investment in water-related projects after spending $100 billion over the past five years.
A leading agriculture expert last year warned that climate change could trigger a 10 percent drop in China's grain harvest over the next 20 years.
Environmental campaign group Greenpeace has also predicted that China's food supply would be insufficient by 2030 and its overall food production could fall by 23 percent by 2050.
Yahoo News 21 Jan 11;
GENEVA (AFP) – Virtually every country in southern Africa is on alert for potentially disastrous flooding, the United Nations said on Friday, as exceptionally heavy rainfall was forecast to continue into March.
"We fear flash floods. It's rather common in the region and this time we are seeing heavier rainfall than in previous years," said Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"Five countries are on alert for flooding -- Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia, -- and South Africa will now declare a disaster."
"All neighbouring countries including Madagascar are on alert," she told journalists.
In South Africa flooding and storms have left 40 dead and forced 6,000 people to flee their homes so far, according to the UN, with reports of damage or casualties in Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Malawi, Angola and Swaziland.
Two of the biggest rivers in the region, the Zambezi and Okavango, are at about twice their normal levels early in the rainy season.
"We could have an extremely major disaster if prevention measures are not stepped up over the next six weeks," Byrs said.
The UN warned of the risk of increased cholera -- which is endemic in some countries -- and malaria in any major flood, as well as the danger of widespread destruction of crops in southern Africa's 'bread basket'.
Regional forecasts have predicted "normal to above normal" rainfall across the area in January to March.
Relief workers fear a repeat of the kind of disaster that struck Mozambique in 2000, when devastating downpours caused massive floods that killed 800 people.
Worst floods in country's recent history have destroyed homes, schools and agricultural land
Karen McVeigh guardian.co.uk 20 Jan 11;
Up to 400,000 children in Sri Lanka are facing a food crisis caused by devastating floods, a children's charity warned as it launched a £1m appeal to help those in the worst-hit areas today.
As the floodwaters begin to recede, many of the 350,000 displaced people driven into temporary refugee camps are returning home only to find that their homes, schools, crops and livelihoods have been wiped out by the rains.
In the worst-affected part of the country, the Eastern Province, the damage to agricultural land could leave up to 1 million people, including 400,000 children, without enough food, Save the Children said.
Sri Lanka's agricultural ministry reported that 21% of the country's rice crop had been destroyed.
The warning came as the UN launched an urgent $51m (£31m) appeal for victims of the floods – the worst in recent history – which have killed dozens and destroyed thousands of homes and vital clean water sources.
More than 1 million people in the country are affected, with over half estimated to be facing food shortages and the threat of waterborne disease.
It is an enormous setback for an area that was only just beginning to recover from the decades-long war and the 2004 tsunami which killed 400,000 people and left 2.5 million homeless.
"The average ten-year-old in eastern Sri Lanka has lived through conflict, the tsunami and now risks facing a food crisis in the coming weeks caused by these floods," Gareth Owen, Save the Children's emergencies director, said.
"It is absolutely essential that the world does not wait until these children are starving to act.
"Many families in affected areas are facing a nightmare scenario in which both their food source and their livelihoods have been washed away by the rains. They need help to survive until the next harvest. It may not have been possible to prevent the floods, but we can avoid a food crisis if help is given to families now."
An estimated quarter of a million acres of agricultural land and more than 240,000 livestock are thought to have been lost when the east of the island was hit.
Children are particularly at risk from a food crisis because they are more vulnerable to disease and other health problems if they suffer from malnutrition and through bad sanitation that floods inevitably cause.
One of the worst-affected districts is Batticaloa, within Sri Lanka's breadbasket region in the east of the country, where up to 80% of the rice crop is believed to have been destroyed by the rains.
Speaking from Batticaloa, Mark Patterson, Save the Children's co-ordinator for the eastern region, said: "In Batticaloa, almost all villages have been affected by the floods. The impact is huge. It is not just the agricultural crop, but many poor families here depend on cash for labour work in the paddy fields.
"If the landowners do not cultivate when the land recovers, then they cannot do the work."
He warned of a child labour crisis 3-6 months timein the near future if families had no regular income and needed to rely on their children to work.
"The government are discussing a package to help, but it will be a long process for the government to intervene," Paterson said. "In three to six months time, if those families do not have a regular income, then you then get children dropping out of school and they may be forced into child labour."
Save the Children has already distributed food, clothing and other essential items to thousands of families living in camps in the worst-affected areas. It is appealing for £1m to scale up its work and ensure that families affected by the floods are given the assistance they need in order to avoid a food crisis.
The UN assistant secretary general for humanitarian affairs, Catherine Bragg, launched an appeal for flood victims "who were desperately vulnerable to begin with" after visiting the east today.
The UN warned that the floodwaters may have shifted unexploded landmines planted during the conflict into areas thought to be safe.
The floods were a once in a century event, according to the UN Global Disaster Alert and Co-ordination System.
Local newspapers reported that, during the period from 1 December to 12 January, more rain fell in Batticaloa than it normally receives in a year.
Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 21 Jan 11;
PARIS (AFP) – Greenland's icesheet, feared as a major driver of rising sea levels, shed a record amount of melted snow and ice in 2010, scientists reported Friday, a day after the UN said last year was the warmest on record.
The 2010 runoff was more than twice the average annual loss in Greenland over the previous three decades, surpassing a record set in 2007, said the study, published in the US-based journal Environmental Research Letters.
Ice melt has now topped this benchmark every year since 1996, according to the paper, derived from long-term satellite and observational data.
Were it to melt entirely, Greenland's icesheet would drive up ocean levels by some seven metres (23 feet), drowning coastal cities around the world.
No credible projections today include a doomsday scenario for the coming centuries. But recent research, including the new study, suggest that Greenland will contribute more to rising seas than predicted only a few years ago.
Based on computer models, Tedesco estimated that runoff in 2010 was 530 gigatonnes, or billions of tonnes, compared to an average of 274 gigatonnes for the period 1958-2009, and 285 gigatonnes for 1979-2009.
"The process is far from being linear, and it is not possible to simply draw a line" into the future, said lead researcher Marco Tedesco, who heads the Cryosphere Processes Laboratory at the City College of New York.
But over the last 30 years "there has been an increase in runoff," he said in an email exchange.
Researchers have thrown up different figures for how much, and how fast, Greenland is shedding its icy mantle, which is up to three kilometres (1.7 miles) thick in places.
They concur, though, that climate change is largely to blame: temperatures in the Arctic region have risen at two to three times the global average over the last 40 years.
In Greenland, summer temperatures in 2010 were 3.0 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above average.
"The capital, Nuuk, had the warmest spring and summer since records began in 1873," Tedesco noted.
Globally, the year was also the warmest ever recorded, as was the decade it brought to a close, the UN's World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Thursday.
The new study focused on surface melt, runoff and the number of days when bare ice, free of snow, is exposed to the Sun's radiative force.
In 2010, "melting in some areas stretched up to 50 days longer than average," Tedesco said.
The study also showed that land area where melting has been observed has been increasing at a rate of about 17,000 square kilometers (6,500 square miles) per year.
Not only do melting snow and ice flow directly into the sea, they also form torrential under-ice streams that lubricate the passage of glaciers toward the ocean.
In assessing the icesheet's total mass loss, melt is only part of the picture, Tedesco said.
"Our calculations do not account for losses due to calving" -- the splitting of large chunks of glacier ice into the sea -- "and ice dynamics, which are as big if not bigger than those due to surface melting," he said.
Nor did they factor in cyclical contributions to the icesheet from snowfall, he said.
Current estimates of the Greenland icesheets net mass loss vary between 130 and 250 gigatonnes per year.
Antarctica is the world's biggest source of land ice after Greenland, but -- with the exception of West Antarctica -- is considered more resistant to any doomsday collapse.
By century's end, Greenland could contribute as much as 50 centimetres (20 inches) to average worldwide sea levels, many experts agree today.
This would double the predictions for overall sea-level rise in the UN climate panel's landmark 2007 report, which factored in glacial runoff and the thermal expansion of the sea, but not the loss of mass from Greenland.
A one-metre (3.25 feet) increase in the global watermark would devastate many island nations, and wreak havoc in heavily-populated delta regions across the planet.
New melt record for Greenland ice sheet
WWF 21 Jan 11;
New York: New research shows that 2010 set new records for the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet, expected to be a major contributor to projected sea level rises in coming decades.
"This past melt season was exceptional, with melting in some areas stretching up to 50 days longer than average,” said Dr. Marco Tedesco, Director of the Cryosphere Processes Laboratory at the City College of New York (CCNY – CUNY), who is leading a project studying variables that affect ice sheet melting.
“Melting in 2010 started exceptionally early at the end of April and ended quite late in mid- September.”
The study, with different aspects sponsored by WWF, the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, examined surface temperature anomalies over the Greenland ice sheet surface, as well as estimates of surface melting from satellite data, ground observations and models.
In an article published today in Environmental Research Letters, Dr Tedesco and co-authors note that in 2010, summer temperatures up to three degrees C above the average were combined with reduced snowfall.
The capital of Greenland, Nuuk, had the warmest spring and summer since records began in 1873.
Bare ice was exposed earlier than the average and longer than previous years, contributing to the extreme record.
“Bare ice is much darker than snow and absorbs more solar radiation,” said Dr Tedesco. “Other ice melting feedback loops that we are examining include the impact of lakes on the glacial surface, of dust and soot deposited over the ice sheet and how surface meltwater affects the flow of the ice toward the ocean.”
WWF climate specialist Dr. Martin Sommerkorn said “Sea level rise is expected to top one metre by 2100, largely due to melting from ice sheets. And it will not stop there – the longer we take to limit greenhouse gas production, the more melting and water level rise will continue.”
Posts
visitors since Nov 07