Dolphins at Semakau, shared by Goh Peihao
from wild shores of singapore
Poaching still going on in Singapore
from Life's Indulgences
Golden penda (Xanthostemon chrysanthus) and nectar feeders
from Bird Ecology Study Group
三月华语导游 Mandarin guide walk@SBWR, March (XVII)
from PurpleMangrove
Riders unfazed by death of tourist last Friday; few wear safety helmets
Elizabeth Soh Straits Times 30 Mar 11;
LESS than a week after a cyclist died from being flung off her bicycle on one of Pulau Ubin's steep slopes, cyclists are traversing the island, ignoring the safety signs.
More than 30 of them, some just metres apart, have been posted along some of the more notorious stretches of road, along with road humps and convex mirrors where there are blind corners.
'Steep slope ahead', 'Slow' or 'Dismount', the signs warn, but cyclists - whether or not they have heard of the death last Friday of Chinese tourist Nao Xue Ping, 45 - are unfazed.
They blaze down the island's hilly, twisty trails with which they are unfamiliar, and few, if any, wear helmets.
Madam Nao, who was also not wearing a helmet, lost control of her bicycle as she was going downhill along Jalan Batu Ubin. Flung forward, she died of head injuries on her way to hospital.
Two Singaporeans died in similar accidents there in 2006 and 2008; Ubin villagers count an average of 10 serious cycling accidents a month, all in the same hot spots - Jalan Batu Ubin, the stretch near Belatok Hut, Jalan Mamam, the road leading to Chek Jawa Reserve and Jalan Wat Siam or 'Cemetery Hill'. All have either steep slopes or abrupt bends.
Bicycle shop owners there say the accidents are almost always the same, caused by ignorance of the dangerous terrain and riders not wearing helmets.
'Most biking injuries occur when the cyclist slams on the brakes in panic while going down a slope fast,' said bike shop owner Sit Chin Chwee, 58, who showed how a sudden engagement of the front brakes would propel the rear of the bike into the air and pitch the rider off.
Operators in the five shops The Straits Times spoke to say that not even one in 10 of those renting bicycles rents helmets; neither do they pay attention to safety briefings by the shop owners.
Mr Harry Yeo, 45, who has run a bicycle rental shop there for more than a decade, said: 'I invested in more than 100 helmets two years ago, hoping to promote safety, but to date, not even five have been rented out.'
Little good came from his playing safety evangelist and handing helmets out free with bike rentals. He said: 'When I give them out free, they don't wear them and lose them. I give up.'
Emergency doctors say a helmet could have saved Madam Nao. Dr Kenneth Heng of Tan Tock Seng Hospital said a helmet can cut the risk of head injury by 88 per cent, and the risk of facial injury by 65 per cent.
But comfort seems to come first.
Polytechnic student Daniel Lee, 20, who cycles up Jalan Wat Siam because the trail there is 'the most exciting', said: 'When I wear the helmet, my head gets hot and sweaty and I can't enjoy the scenery, so what's the point?'
And there are the cyclists who think they take enough precautions.
Mr Albert Soo, 33, who was cycling without a helmet yesterday, said: 'I don't go too fast. To get down the slope, I dismount and push my bicycle when I need to.'
Road signs aside, the authorities have tried raising safety awareness by opening the 45ha Ketam Bike Park near the islands' Ketam Quarry. This park has trails with defined levels of difficulty and signs reminding riders to don helmets.
In February last year, the Land Transport Authority closed Jalan Wat Siam after two cyclists died from head injuries in falls on a steep slope there.
When The Straits Times visited the site, a barrier stood across it and signs barring unauthorised vehicles were up, but the road is still accessible to dare-devils who inch around the barrier.
Cycling associations have called for even more to be done to promote cycling safety on the island.
Mr Alvin Goh, the leader of cycling interest group Joyriders, said: 'It may seem like common sense to get off your bike if you are not fit or confident enough to tackle difficult roads, but many people do not. There has to be proper education and maybe even direct supervision in dangerous areas.'
Mr Kelvin Liew, the team manager of SMUX-tremists, the outdoor adventure wing of the Singapore Management University, advised those going off road on Ubin to wear helmets, gloves and knee guards and avoid the 'more technical' stretches of roads if they are beginners.
They should also carry mini first aid kits and the Ubin map, which has the contact number of the Ubin police post.
Additional reporting by Neo Wen Tong and Rocco Hu
Mustafa Shafawi Channel NewsAsia 29 Mar 11;
SINGAPORE: One worker died and another seriously injured in an incident at Singapore Refinery in Jurong on Monday night.
ExxonMobil in a statement said that the workers were found unconscious at about 7.30pm and were sent to the hospital immediately.
One of them, 34-year-old Indian worker Dakshinamoorthy Vellaisamy who was a specialist technician, succumbed to his injuries and died at about 9pm.
His family has been informed.
The other is in critical condition in hospital.
Both were working for Dialog Systems Pte Ltd, and were carrying out maintenance works in an enclosed space filled with nitrogen, when they were discovered to be unconscious.
Singapore Refinery Manager Darrin Talley said: "We are taking a serious view of this incident. A full investigation is
underway, to determine the cause of the incident."
The company said it is cooperating with the authorities to investigate the cause of the incident.
Meanwhile, as a result of this incident, all work relating to the turnaround at the Jurong Refinery has been suspended.
ExxonMobil said further information will be released as soon as it becomes available.
- CNA/fa/cc
Worker's death at ExxonMobil plant halts work
Another worker in critical condition; duo were working in nitrogen-filled space
Ronnie Lim Business Times 30 Mar 11;
AN incident involving a fatality has stopped all maintenance work at ExxonMobil's 309,000 barrel per day (bpd) Jurong refinery, which had been undergoing scheduled shutdown.
On Monday night, the incident that apparently did not involve an explosion resulted in the death of a contracted worker and has left a second in critical condition.
'Both are contractors and had been carrying out maintenance works in an enclosed space filled with nitrogen, when they were discovered to be unconscious,' the company said.
'We are cooperating with the authorities to investigate the cause of the incident. Meanwhile . . . all work relating to the turnaround at the Jurong refinery has been suspended.'
'The family of the deceased worker, a 34-year-old Indian national, has been notified. We are deeply saddened by their loss and we offer our condolences to his family and loved ones,' the company added.
An ExxonMobil spokeswoman told BT that it was too early to tell when it expects to resume the scheduled nine-week maintenance work there. The turnaround at the refinery started in early-March and was expected to be completed around end-April. As it was a scheduled turnaround, supplies to customers have not been affected.
ExxonMobil, the largest refiner here with a total capacity of 605,000 bpd, also operates a second 296,000 bpd refinery on Pulau Ayer Chawan, and that is running as per normal.
Just over a week ago, the spokeswoman told BT that even as the Jurong refinery was undergoing the turnaround, 'the rest of ExxonMobil's Singapore refinery is making all efforts to maximise production at the Pulau Ayer Chawan site to minimise the impact of the Japan situation to our customers in the region'.
'In addition, EM is leveraging on its regional supply network, which includes refineries and supply systems in Japan and Singapore, to provide Japan with its necessary fuel supplies,' she added.
The ExxonMobil incident is the second which has hit the Singapore oil industry this month.
Shell Singapore had earlier declared force majeure on some of its contracted chemical supplies to customers as a result of 'operational problems' at its upstream ethylene cracker some 11 days ago. The problem occurred when Shell earlier restarted the cracker on the weekend of March 12-13 following a scheduled maintenance shutdown.
The cracker produces 800,000 tonnes per annum of ethylene, 450,000 tpa of propylene and 230,000 tpa of benzene and there has been no official word so far on when the cracker will resume operations, if it hasn't already done so.
One dies, another injured in refinery incident
Jalelah Abu Baker Straits Times 30 Mar 11;
ONE foreign worker died and another was injured while carrying out maintenance operations at an ExxonMobil oil refinery in Jurong on Monday.
Indian nationals Dakshinamoorthy Vellaisamy, 34, and Sornakalai Ravichandran, 35, were found unconscious inside an enclosed space filled with nitrogen at the ExxonMobil-owned Singapore Refinery. They were cleaning a part of a lube plant.
The Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) occupational safety and health division has instructed ExxonMobil to stop all cleaning operations at the site till safety can be ascertained.
The two specialist technicians were taken to the National University Hospital (NUH), where Mr Vellaisamy died of his injuries later that same evening. He had been supporting his wife and their two young children in India.
Mr Ravichandran, who regained consciousness at about noon yesterday, is under intensive care. His condition is said to be stable.
The father of two young children told The Straits Times that the incident was over in just a few minutes.
Mr Ravichandran said he and his colleague wore oxygen masks into what he described as a catalyst tower, when he realised, belatedly, that the oxygen level had not been set.
He then alerted his colleague, who pressed a button on his walkie-talkie to alert other colleagues. 'After that, I don't remember anything because I fainted,' he said.
Associate Professor Malcolm Mahadevan, head of the emergency medicine department at NUH, said an imbalance between oxygen and nitrogen levels in the air would pose a threat to survival.
'When the brain is deprived of oxygen, the person becomes unconscious, and then vital organs like the heart and kidney will start to get affected,' he said, adding that no two people are affected the same way.
Both men had been working for about five years with Dialog Systems, which was contracted for maintenance works. The works started on March 9, and were scheduled to continue for nine weeks.
A spokesman for the company, which provides specialised technical and consultancy services for upstream oil and gas production, said it is making arrangements to send Mr Vellaisamy's body to India.
In a statement, ExxonMobil said other unrelated maintenance works will continue as usual.
The incident comes just after MOM released figures in January showing that workplace fatalities hit an all-time low last year. There have already been at least three this year, including the latest one.
Singapore Refinery manager Darrin Talley said: 'We are greatly saddened by this tragic event and express our deepest sympathy to the families of those affected in this incident.'
MOM is currently investigating the cause of the incident, and the police are also investigating what they have classified as an unnatural death.
NPR 30 Mar 11;
In 1992, a cargo ship container tumbled into the North Pacific, dumping 28,000 rubber ducks and other bath toys that were headed from China to the U.S. Currents took them, and news reports said some may have eventually reached Maine and other shores on the Atlantic.
Thirteen years later, journalist Donovan Hohn undertook a mission: He wanted to track the movements of the wayward ducks, from the comfort of his own living room.
"I figured I'd interview a few oceanographers, talk to a few beachcombers, read up on ocean currents and Arctic geography and then write an account of the incredible journey of the bath toys lost at sea," he tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. "And all this I would do, I hoped, without leaving my desk."
But Hohn's research led him on an odyssey that took him from Seattle to Alaska to Hawaii — and then onto China and the Arctic. He details the journey — via plane, foot and container ship — in Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them.
Some of the ducks, says Hohn, made their way to the coast of Gore Point, Alaska, a remote isthmus at the southern tip of Kachemak Bay State Park. Hohn obtained his own rubber duck after visiting the isthmus with the Gulf of Alaska Keeper, a group of conservationists who wanted to clean up the debris along the coast.
"They set out on a pretty heroic undertaking, because to get this [ocean debris] out of the wilderness required 2 to 3 months of people camping and packing [the debris] up in a bag, and eventually an airlift," he says. "But while I was out there with them, toys were found. I found a plastic beaver. And another beachcomber found a duck and had mercy — he gave it to me."
The Plague Of Plastic In The Ocean
While tracking down the path of the rogue ducks, Hohn also confronted the plague of accumulating plastics in the ocean.
"When I set out following these toys, I didn't expect it to turn into an environmental story, but I very quickly learned ... that unlike the flotsam of ages past, the flotsam of today — much of it plastic — persists," he says. "It lasts visibly for decades and chemically for centuries because it doesn't biodegrade."
There are certain parts of the ocean where currents converge and spiral inward, collecting what's floating on the surface, Hohn says. Called convergence zones or "garbage patches," these parts of the ocean contain trash, plastic and toys — whatever happens to get sucked in while floating past.
"When I first heard the phrase 'garbage patch,' I imagined something dense," he says. "I initially imagined it as a floating junkyard, and you'd have to poke your way through it with a paddle if you're in a kayak. But it's not like that. You can't take a picture of it because that doesn't exist. What does exist is a whole lot of plastic out there, but it's spread out over millions of miles of ocean. And some of it floats on the surface where you can find it. And some of it floats just below the surface. And eventually all of it will photodegrade, so much of it is so small you're not going to be able to see it with the naked eye."
These tiny pieces of plastic — and substances that adhere to the plastics — can then enter the food chain.
"We know that in the marine food web, there is an alarmingly elevated contaminant burden in species at the top of the food web," he says. "What role plastic plays in that is an ongoing area of study."
Pallava Bagla Science Magazine 29 Mar 11;
A new survey by the Indian government reports a 12% increase in the country's adult tiger population. But some tiger experts think the numbers don't really add up.
A 2006 survey estimated that the country was home to 1165 to 1657 tigers. The latest survey counts 1571 to 1875 tigers, almost 60% of the world's wild population, including 70 tigers that were found in the mangroves of the Ganges Delta of the Sundarbans, an area not covered during the last survey, and another 30 from two other areas—the Orang Wildlife Sanctuary in eastern India and the Sahyadari protected area in western India—that were left out earlier. However, tigers are now squeezed into 22% less space than 5 years ago, to some 72,000 square kilometers today.
The data, released yesterday by India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, comes from an 18-month, $2.1 million survey that involved 476,000 people looking for the animals and their scat, some of which was used for DNA analyses. In addition, 800 camera traps caught passing tigers digitally.
Yadavendra V. Jhala, a wildlife biologist at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, who spearheaded the exercise, says he was expecting a drop in population and was pleasantly surprised by the higher tally. Ramesh expressed "happiness" with the results but cautioned, "it is really a mixed bag out there, since the threats to the tiger are very imminent, including poaching and habitat loss." The greatest threat is the loss of corridors that connect the 39 tiger reserves India legally protects, Ramesh noted.
James Leape, an environmental lawyer and director general of WWF International in Gland, Switzerland, calls the results "very encouraging." Leape says they demonstrate that "wherever protection is good, tigers will thrive."
Yet not everybody is buying into this new roar of the tiger. "The habitat of the tiger has only shrunk, poaching has increased, and conservation has been diluted, so how can the numbers of tigers increase?" says P. K. Sen, former director of Project Tiger. He calls the new figures "statistical jugglery." And K. Ullas Karanth, a veteran tiger biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York City, worries that the survey methodology was flawed and that the sample size was too small.
Jhala defends his work, noting that "615 individual tigers were captured in the camera traps, which represent almost a third of the total tiger population, so the extrapolation is not only accurate but statistically robust." The details of the survey will be released in 3 weeks.
Fidelis E Satriastanti Jakarta Globe 29 Mar 11;
A pilot project for forest conservation in Central Kalimantan continues to be plagued by land use violations, an official said on Monday.
Nielson R. Nihin, head of the Lamandau district environment agency, said there were at least 18 plantation firms in the district that were operating without a mandatory environmental impact analysis (Amdal).
He said the companies, mostly oil palm firms occupying 200,000 hectares of land, were also violating zoning regulations.
“There’s a regulation stipulating that nothing may be planted on a 45-degree slope, but you can see that they’ve planted oil palms there,” Nihin said.
The entire province has been made into a pilot project for the REDD Plus scheme, an UN-backed mechanism for forest conservation where countries with large forests will get compensation in return for preserving them.
The project is part of an agreement between Indonesia and Norway, signed in 2010, worth $1 billion.
Nihin said efforts to crack down on the violations were hampered by a lack of coordination between his office and the local forestry and plantations office.
“The forestry and plantations office is the one with the authority to revoke the companies’ permits, but we haven’t been able to see eye-to-eye on the issue,” he said.
“So all that we’ve been able to do is issue warnings.”
He also said his office had issued valid Amdals to five of the companies and was working on three others.
Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said the problem in Lamandau and other parts of Central Kalimantan highlighted the need for regional administrations to amend their spatial planning policies in line with the REDD Plus pilot project.
“There are plenty of cases where no permits have been issued but the land is already being used,” he said.
“In those cases, the status [of the land] is still forest area.
“However, while we can’t just go out there and cut down all the oil palm trees that have been planted, there will be some sort of punishment [for the companies],” the minister went on.
“We’ve discussed the issue with the Forestry Ministry and asked that they stop issuing any more concessions.”
Gusti said that because Central Kalimantan was now a REDD Plus pilot project, there should be no new permits issued to clear forests, including peatlands, anywhere in the province.
A million hectares of high-carbon peatland in Central Kalimantan was converted into rice paddies under an ambitious program by the New Order government of former President Suharto.
Moving 24,000 snakes, lizards and worms is a huge task, and their habitat is not protected
Jon Cranfield The Guardian 29 Mar 11;
My heart sank when I read your report that thousands of "adders, grass snakes, common lizards and slow worms" had been "transported from the east of England to nature reserves in Wiltshire" (24,000 reptiles moved to make way for £1.5bn port, 22 March).
I can see how the immediate harm or killing was prevented by removing the reptiles out of the development site. I just cannot see how the reptile relocation, "thought to be the UK's biggest artificial movement of animals", maintains the conservation status of reptiles around the area where they were based.
Throughout my career as a consultant herpetologist I have always worked with the idea that wholesale translocation of reptiles (and amphibians) over large distances should be avoided. It has been a challenge in my profession: working within legal constraints which only protect individual reptiles; balancing the needs of the client, who wants, quite rightly, to keep costs to a minimum; and actually getting conservation value from these projects.
Looking at the numbers of the different reptiles moved from the Essex oil refinery site – "290 adders, 400 grass snakes, 17,000 common lizards and 6,000 slow worms" – you can see the challenge that can face ecological consultants moving these animals. These figures though are naturally inflated through the young animals born each year. Newborn and younger animals will suffer naturally from high mortality over the winter, and this may be increased by movement to a new site.
You report that "Marcus Pearson, environmental manager for [port operator] DP World, said the move seemed to have been successful. Reptiles that had been moved and then recaptured to check their wellbeing seemed healthy and were doing well."
But how are the reptiles being monitored in their new homes? There was no mention of any form of data being collected (weights, lengths and photographs). The vast number of adult lizards may have made this unworkable, but the few hundred snakes could have easily been tagged, photographed, weighed and measured prior to release. This is what happened with water voles relocated from south Essex to mink-free habitats in Colchester under licence.
Relocation, habitat creation, management and monitoring for newts is strictly controlled through a licensing system maintained by Natural England. No such system exists for the more widespread reptile species. But evidence is emerging which shows that all these reptiles – particularly the adder – would benefit from legal protection of their habitat. Your article yesterday, on the population slump of Britain's only venomous snake, reinforced this (On the slide: adder project looks to halt snake's decline, 28 March).
I do take some comfort that the remaining oil refinery reptiles are being re-homed on the RSPB reserve at West Canvey Marshes. But it is certainly too early to judge whether, in terms of replacing lost habitat and sustaining the relocated reptile populations, the story in Essex has been a "success".
Essex reptiles settle into new Wiltshire home
24,000 adders, common lizards and other species moved from oil refinery site to reserves to make way for London Gateway
Steven Morris guardian.co.uk 21 Mar 11;
They had lived peacefully in their tens of thousands on an old refinery site in Essex.
Now after what is thought to be the UK's biggest artificial movement of animals, 24,000 adders, grass snakes, common lizards and slow worms are settling well into new homes 140 miles away.
The reptiles were transported from the east of England to reserves in Wiltshire to make way for the £1.5bn London Gateway container port and logistics park.
Since 1998 the creatures have been captured by hand and moved in vans – early in the morning so they did not dry out – around the M25 and down the M4 before being released into their new homes.
The reserves in Wiltshire have now been declared full and this year the relatively few remaining reptiles at the Essex site will be rehoused closer to another reserve closer to home.
Marcus Pearson, environmental manager for DP World, said the move seemed to have been successful. Reptiles that had been moved and then recaptured to check their wellbeing seemed healthy and doing well in their new home.
Construction is under way at London Gateway, 25 miles to the east of central London. Once complete the development will allow the world's biggest container ships to berth close to the capital.
But one of the challenges the developers faced was rehousing the animals that had moved on to the site after an oil refinery ceased operating in 1999.
Homes were found nearby for the carefully protected great crested newts.
But no new local habitat could be found for the reptiles so the decision was taken to move them to reserves managed by the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.
DP World also bought a chunk of land to link areas owned by the trust.
It has moved 290 adders, 400 grass snakes, 17,000 common lizards and 6,000 slow worms.
Pearson said finding a new home was tricky because they could not be moved to places where they were already large populations of a particular creature.
The Wiltshire reserves are now judged to be full and the remaining reptiles found on the Gateway site this year will be moved to the RSPB reserve, West Canvey Marsh.
Charles Q. Choi, LiveScience.com Yahoo News 29 Mar 11;
Corals may be dying in tropical areas, but now it appears they are expanding their range poleward, scientists find.
Corals are critical to ocean life, forming reefs that are home to a dazzling array of species. Despite occupying less than 1 percent of the ocean floor — an area about half the size of France — temperate and tropical reefs provide a home for as much as 25 percent of the world's marine species. Only tropical rain forests can compete with the sheer concentration of biodiversity found in coral reefs.
Unfortunately, corals are especially vulnerable to changes in temperature. As the oceans warm due to Earth's changing climate, corals are dying in tropical areas where the warm waters cause them to expel the symbiotic algae that provide them with nutrients — a process called bleaching.
However, this warming could give corals opportunities as well. Scientists find that as temperatures in higher latitudes rise, coral are expanding poleward.
Geographer Hiroya Yamano, at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Japan, and his colleagues investigated 80 years of national records from temperate areas around Japan. Wintertime sea surface temperatures rose by as much as 4.3 degrees Fahrenheit (2.4 degrees Celsius) in those sites during that period.
The scientists found that four of the nine coral species they studied in these areas in the Northern Hemisphere expanded their range northward since the 1930s as quickly as 8.7 miles (14 kilometers) per year. None of the coral species went south toward the tropics.
"I find the speed — 14 kilometers per year — is stunning," Yamano told OurAmazingPlanet.
These findings might be good news for corals, "but for corals only," Yamano said. Other research suggests that warming waters might spur exotic species to invade new areas, which could negatively impact native marine species.
"Further, even if range expansion of corals does occur, the amount of dying corals in tropical areas may be much greater than the new settlements in the temperate regions," Yamano added.
Yamano added this research only looked at occurrence of corals, not at their abundance. The team will launch a monitoring program to examine settlement and growth of corals at a number of sites to get a better picture of how corals are shifting, he said.
Yamano and his colleagues Kaoru Sugihara and Keiichi Nomura detailed their findings online Feb. 17 in the journal Geophysical Review Letters.
Antara 29 Mar 11;
Pontianak, W.Kalimantan (ANTARA News) - Among the 10 ASEAN member countries, Indonesia is the most ready to build a nuclear power plant, a ministry official said.
"However, Indonesia still lags behind Malaysia which will start building a nuclear power plant by 2012," Sri Setiawati, a deputy to the research and technology minister said here Tuesday.
According to her, the preparedness is based on a review of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Indonesia has an adequate expertise, experts, materials and technology in the nuclear field, Sri Setiawati added.
"Not all countries have the things. For example Vietnam, they do not have experts in the nuclear field," Sri Setiawati noted.
Unfortunately, the Indonesian people tend to fear with nuclear technology. Currently, there are three nuclear reactors managed in Indonesia, namely in Yogyakarta, Bandung (West Java) and Serpong (Tangerang).
She asserted, in developed countries, the fear is the impetus to overcome the weaknesses to minimize the possibility of failure.
She pointed out, Japan, although there are earthquakes every day there has 50 more nuclear reactors.
"The events that occurred in Fukushima as the impact of the earthquake and tsunami were larger than predicted," Sri Setiawati said.
During an earthquake in Yogyakarta in 2006, the nuclear reactors in the region were in safe condition, even though the buildings around it were destroyed.
Sri Setiawati said, it showed that the nuclear reactor had been made by considering the condition of natural disasters.
"If there is any failure or disruption, this will be used for an evaluation for the next technology. In essence, how we seek to conquer failures through technology development," Sri Setiawati said.(*)
Editor: Heru
Indonesian experts ready to operate nuclear power plants
Antara 29 Mar 11;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten) has confirmed that Indonesian personnel are ready to operate nuclear power plants as soon as those facilities are built in Indonesia.
"Let me emphasize here that Indonesian human resources will be ready by the time nuclear power plants are constructed in Indonesia," said Bapeten head As Natio Lasman to ANTARA News in an interview here on Tuesday.
Lasman added that the performance of Indonesian nuclear experts was already acknowledged by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). There are now seven Indonesian experts working as supervisors in IAEA.
Those seven nuclear supervisors were on IAEA missions in various countries, including one in Tokyo, Japan, doing his job, Lasman said.
He admitted there is a fear for the presence of nuclear power plants among the Indonesian communities, something that has arisen from lack of the correct information about how nuclear power plants are operated.
Lasman explained that nuclear energy is an energy that can replace fossil energy which is widely in use today provided the utilization is in accordance with strict regulation and control. Whereas fossil energy is depleting fast in the recent years.
Lasman said the most important thing for Indonesia in its plan to build nuclear power plants are connected to the correct choice of the locations as well as the supporting infrastructures. The aspects that are needed to be calculated include among other earthquake- and tsunami free.
The plan of Indonesia to operate nuclear power plants is not new, he said, because Indonesia was one of the initiators of the establishment of the IAEA.(*)
Editor: Heru
Peter Henderson PlanetArk 29 Mar 11;
Big earthquakes over the last 30 years have not triggered global chains of massive seismic activity, U.S. scientists reported on Monday.
But major quakes do trigger other big ones close by and smaller ones far away, researchers said.
The news is reassuring for California and other quake-prone areas wondering if the 9.0 earthquake which has done so much harm in Japan could hasten troubles outside the region.
U.S. Geological Survey and University of Texas at El Paso scientists looked at whether magnitude 7 and higher quakes were followed by magnitude 5 quakes and larger ones in other parts of the world.
"Based on the evidence we've seen in our research, we don't think that large, global earthquake clusters are anything more than coincidence," Tom Parsons, a USGS geophysicist and author of a study appearing in Nature Geoscience, said in a statement.
Big quakes were noted a distance of two times the length of the fault from a major shaking, although smaller quakes could be triggered at great distance, it said.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
Mark Kinver BBC News 29 Mar 11;
Urban areas are set to become the battleground in the global effort to curb climate change, the UN has warned.
The assessment by UN-Habitat said that the world's cities were responsible for about 70% of emissions, yet only occupied 2% of the planet's land cover.
While cities were energy intensive, the study also said that effective urban planning could deliver huge savings.
The authors warned of a "deadly collision between climate change and urbanisation" if no action was taken.
The Global Report on Human Settlements 2011, Cities and Climate Change: Policy Directions, said its goal was to improve knowledge of how cities contribute to climate change, and what adaptation measures are available.
Worrying trend
Joan Clos, executive director of UN-Habitat, said the global urbanisation trend was worrying as far as looking to curb emissions were concerned.
"We are seeing how urbanisation is growing - we have passed the threshold of 50% (of the world's population living in urban areas)," he told BBC News.
"There are no signs that we are going to diminish this path of growth, and we know that with urbanisation, energy consumption is higher.
According to UN data, an estimated 59% of the world's population will be living in urban areas by 2030.
Every year, the number of people who live in cities and town grows by 67 million each year - 91% of this figure is being added to urban populations in developing countries.
The main reasons why urban areas were energy intensive, the UN report observed, was a result of increased transport use, heating and cooling homes and offices, as well as economic activity to generate income.
The report added that as well as cities' contribution to climate change, towns and cities around the globe were also vulnerable to the potential consequences, such as:
Increase in the frequency of warm spells/heat waves over most land areas
Greater number of heavy downpours
Growing number of areas affected by drought
Increase in the incidence of extremely high sea levels in some parts of the world
The authors also said that as well as the physical risks posed by future climate change, some urban areas would face difficulties providing basic services.
"These changes will affect water supply, physical infrastructure, transport, ecosystem goods and services, energy provision and industrial production," they wrote.
"Local economies will be disrupted and populations will be stripped of their assets and livelihoods."
A recent assessment highlighted a number of regions where urban areas were at risk from climate-related hazards, such as droughts, landslides, cyclones and flooding.
These included sub-Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia, southern Europe, the east coast of South America and the west coast of the US.
Time to act
Dr Clos told BBC News that while climate change was a problem that affected the entire world, individual towns and cities could play a vital role in the global effort to curb emissions.
"The atmosphere is a common good, which we all depend upon - every emission is an addition to the problem," he explained.
But, he added: "Consumption is carried out at an individual level; energy consumption is also an individual choice.
"This is why local governments and communities can a big role, even when their national governments do not accept or acknowledge the challenges."
The report called on local urban planners to develop a vision for future development that considered climate change's impact on the local area.
It said that it was necessary to include mitigation measures (reducing energy demand and emissions) as well as adaptation plans, such as improving flood defences.
In order to achieve the most effective strategy, it was necessary for urban planners to seek the views of the local community, including businesses and residents.
However, the UN-Habitat authors said international and national policies also had a role to play in supporting urban areas.
These included financial support, reducing bureaucracy and improving awareness and knowledge of climate change and its possible impacts.
Dr Clos was launching the report on Monday evening at an event in central London, hosted by the London School of Economics.
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