Best of our wild blogs: 11 Dec 11

#82, Toddycats Engage Today!
from NaturallYours

Venus Trail On 19 Nov
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Feather stars and commensals at Little Sisters
from wonderful creation

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker taking Viscum ovalifolium fruits
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Cool monitor lizard耍酷的巨蜥
from PurpleMangrove

Review by Dr Albert Orr of A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore from Butterflies of Singapore

Massive family fun at Chek Jawa!
from wild shores of singapore

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More hands on deck for Bukit Brown

290 people join effort; new advisory panel to include representatives from heritage groups
Yen Feng Straits Times 11 Dec 11;

Work to record some 5,000 graves at Bukit Brown may have started more than a week ago, but the exercise has now grown from an initial 10 to 290 field workers, and with new technological tools to boot.

A new historian has also come on board to record the oral histories of the area's former residents. These, when compiled, will be available at the National Library from 2013.

The Government yesterday also unveiled a new advisory committee for the project. The 11-member panel comprises representatives from government agencies and heritage groups. Its chairman is Mr Ng Lang, chief executive of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

The committee is there to help the documentation team gain access to the various interest groups when needed.

The authorities, meanwhile, are looking beyond heritage experts to cemetery and Chinese cultural advisers, concerning the graves that a new road might cut into. It is understood this would enable the Government to find a path that would leave the least impact on the graves.

Such efforts to balance preservation and redevelopment in this new consultative climate are unprecedented - something civil servants and civic society both acknowledge. When Kwong Hou Sua and Bidadari cemeteries were dug up between 2001 and 2009, precious little of their records was stored.

In Bukit Brown's case, however, the body of knowledge about its graves has grown with time.

Yesterday, the cemetery's appointed documentarian, Dr Hui Yew-Foong, announced that the exercise would now include collecting the global positioning system points of the affected graves, to allow a three-dimensional mapping of the cemetery.

He was also given $250,000 by the URA to do the job, and work began on Dec 1.

For the two former cemeteries, there was no budget, and attempts to record its graves - if any - were done on a smaller scale, said Dr Hui, 39, who worked on documenting Kwong Hou Sua for a year in 2008.

The anthropologist said of his efforts back then: 'It was amateurish. I was still trying things out.'

Over the last three months, the Government has also helped to open doors for him at its various ministries for the documentation work.

'If I want maps, I get it. Information is available,' Dr Hui said.

Significantly, the state has put forward Minister of State for National Development, Mr Tan Chuan-Jin, who led the rail corridor talks, to clarify the Government's position on Bukit Brown.

He has, in turn, drawn the top brass from various government agencies - including the URA and Land Transport Agency (LTA) - to meet and field questions from both interest groups and the media about the area's redevelopment plans.

Dr Chua Ai Lin, a historian and committee member of the Singapore Heritage Society (SHS), recalled one such meeting last month where five SHS members, including herself, met more than 20 ministry officials to talk about Bukit Brown's future.

The meeting lasted over two hours. 'We asked them so many questions... Nothing like this has ever happened before,' she said.

Officials said they also monitor closely online exchanges about Bukit Brown.

Mr Tan himself often posts comments, and replies to questions from heritage activists, on Facebook.

Responding to The Sunday Times' queries about these new channels of dialogue, the minister said that while it is true that such efforts were carried out to a lesser degree for other cemeteries, he hopes the Bukit Brown issue can 'refresh' the perspectives of both the Government, and cemetery and heritage conservationists.

'My colleagues in URA and MND (Ministry of National Development) share a similar belief in the importance of preserving our heritage and history... This effort with Bukit Brown Cemetery is important,' he said.

According to survey data from LTA, the proposed road may cut into the cemetery's hilly areas, where the remains of many of the country's pioneers lie.

Many who oppose the road works have argued that these should be kept for their historical and educational value.

Mr Charles Goh, 43, a cemetery guide, said it would be impossible if one had to choose one pioneer over another to be moved.

'If you curve (the road) left, you affect Nee Soon and Chong Pang. Curve right, and it is Kheam Hock and maybe Eng Neo.

'So, how do you decide who to dig up?'

LTA said it is unable confirm the road layout as its engineers are still investigating the area.

While it looks like the Government is making major concessions this time to make sure it meets the expectations of the various interest groups, some political observers and heritage leaders put all the effort down to a matter of public relations.

Law professor Eugene Tan said because the decision to develop Bukit Brown seemed to be 'firmly made' when it was announced, consultations have struck many as a case of 'damage control'.

And while its public relations may have improved, the fact is that the Government continues to 'arrogate to itself decisions on key policies', said Mr Derek da Cunha, a political commentator.

Striking a more sympathetic tone, Dr Shawn Lum, president of the Nature Society (Singapore), said he found the Government to be sincere in balancing development and heritage pressures.

'To be fair to the planners, they have really agonised over this.'

Bukit Brown will be a 'test case of sorts' for state and civil society relations, said sociologist Tan Ern Ser.

In the end, he said, the issue has to be decided 'by the people, in partnership with the Government, and for the people'.

Historian joins project team
Straits Times 11 Dec 11;

Dr Loh Kah Seng, an independent historian, will record the oral histories of the area's caretakers and former residents to reconstruct a sociocultural map.

The committee for the Bukit Brown documentation project has added a new member, Dr Loh Kah Seng, to its team of heritage experts.

Dr Loh, 39, an independent historian, was recruited by the group's team leader, Dr Hui Yew-Foong, last month.

Dr Loh said his job in the committee was to record the oral histories of Bukit Brown's caretakers and former residents, in order to reconstruct a 'sociocultural' map of the cemetery that detailed where its kampungs, or villages, and religious spaces used to be.

He said that while some people might think it was unusual to include real-life interviews for a cemetery project, that only showed the need to encourage the viewpoint that the living and dead were not 'separate'. Bukit Brown Cemetery, he said, was a case in point.

'The cemetery encouraged the settlement of villages to provide services, such as tombstone engraving, for visitors, and jobs such as grass cutting and tending to the graves,' said Dr Loh. 'In turn, these services provided by the village played a role in reinforcing family and cultural relationships.'

Dr Loh, who is married, received his PhD in history from Murdoch University in 2009. He has lectured in various universities and is a former junior college teacher.

His research interests are in social history and memory.

Dr Loh said he hoped his work at Bukit Brown would inspire people to see that efforts to document a cemetery are not an 'alien' idea.

'It's not just a burial ground that we are documenting. Cemeteries are part of the history of living.'

Anyone who has information about Bukit Brown's former residents can call Dr Loh on 8198-1172.

Yen Feng

561 graves documented so far
Straits Times 11 Dec 11;

A volunteer documenting the graves at Bukit Brown. It is back-breaking work - field workers have to first clear tombs of leaves and scrub their facades. -- ST PHOTO: TED CHEN

Over seven days, 561 out of some 5,000 graves said to be affected by a new road into Bukit Brown have been successfully documented.

The graves are in the Seh Ong cemeteries located at the gates of Bukit Brown, between Sime Road and Kheam Hock Road.

Dr Hui Yew-Foong, the anthropologist tasked by the Government to do the job, gave this update at a media tour of the site yesterday.

He said that the documentation work began on Dec 1. On average, field workers clocked in about 100 graves a day. But the first two days yielded considerably fewer graves due to rain. They work from Tuesdays to Saturdays.

Dr Hui has until March next year to complete all 5,000 graves. He said the team was maintaining a 'reasonable pace'. As long as the weather holds up, the project would be on schedule, he added.

But it is back-breaking work. To document the graves, field workers set out in pairs, in the morning. First, they clear the tomb of brush and fallen leaves, then proceed to scrub its facade with water.

After it is cleaned, one person records the tomb's inscriptions; the other takes photographs from various angles.

A regular-sized grave can take up to 30 minutes to document.

Graves that are typical of a certain style - Teochew, Hokkien, for example - or of exceptional design will also be copied and archived.

In the afternoon, field workers return to review their data and check for errors.

Some 300 people have signed up to help. Most are volunteers.

Mr L.N. Chua, 35, said he decided to pitch in since he was between jobs. 'I'm just doing something I think is useful,' he added.

For university student Goh Chye Kim, 24, it was an opportunity to learn more about Chinese heritage, said the Chinese studies student from the Nanyang Technological University.

Meanwhile, a new bilingual petition, SOS Bukit Brown, to halt construction works in the cemetery was launched online last Monday by a group who said they are artists, educators and writers.

Signatures have to be submitted by post, or e-mail. Its aim, said its creators, was to collect 100,000 signatures - 'one for each grave', by the end of the month.

Yen Feng

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Poly develops fish farming system for local use

Wendy Wong Channel NewsAsia 11 Dec 11;

SINGAPORE: A local polytechnic has developed a farming system that can potentially benefit fish farmers.

The common problems cited by fish farmers include a lack of technical know-how, high fish mortality rates and no control over water quality.

"Based on my last experience about two years ago, we lost about $10,000 worth of fish. I realised that the environmental factors are not under my control," said Lee Van Voon, owner of Fish In Motion.

But things might soon change with the new development.

Over the past year, researchers and students from the Singapore Polytechnic have developed a commercial system that allows high-density fish farming by having 36,000 fish in 120 bulk containers.

This allows for further productivity in a limited land space. The individual bulk containers also have an auto-feeding system.

The system also makes use of existing technologies for water treatment to take place naturally.

- CNA/ir

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Proboscis monkeys losing habitat to palm oil plantations

The Star 10 Dec 11;

KINABATANGAN: Sabah’s proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) population is declining due to habitat loss as riparian forests are continually destroyed to plant oil palm while mangrove areas are reclaimed for development.

“Proboscis monkeys, or monyet Belanda as they are more commonly known in Malay, are declining in numbers because we have plantations planting oil palm all the way down to the river banks.

“In areas closer to towns, we have also seen their habitat being lost as the mangrove areas they occupy are reclaimed and built upon,” said a very concerned director of the Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD), Dr Laurentius Ambu, in a press statement

“To make matters worse, only an estimated 15% are living within protected areas, which means preventing the conversion of non-protected areas is also crucial.

“The palm oil industry does not have to plant all the way down to the river edge.

“They should leave the riparian forests that border waterways with a buffer of preferably 1km for wildlife and also as a measure to protect our waterways, as the water is also used for human consumption,” he said.

“The state government is committed to reforestation and we are working closely with community groups, NGOs and even private companies, but the palm oil industry on the whole has been very slow to replant riparian areas although they talk a lot about it.”

He also vented his frustration at seeing areas that are unsuitable for oil palm plantations due to semi-annual flooding being planted with the crop and then destroyed by floods.

“These marginalised land, which you see in the Lower Kinabatangan, particularly areas close or adjacent to Lots 3 and 6 of the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, should be replanted by palm oil companies with native species of trees that survive floods instead of just being abandoned and the soil washed out into the river during flooding,” he said.

The SWD estimates there are only 6,000 proboscis monkeys left, with five viable populations in Sabah.

“We have one population on the West Coast, one in the South and three on the East Coast including the Lower Kinabatangan where the palm oil industry has had a dramatic effect on a variety of Sabah wildlife, including this large-nosed monkey,” said Laurentius.

Monitoring carried out by the NGO HUTAN under the Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Programme (KOCP) from 2008 to 2010 along a 15km stretch along the Lower Kinabatangan found the area losing 10% of the proboscis monkey population each year.

A similar pattern has been observed in the vicinity of SWD’s Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC).

“This is why we have been continuously pushing for forest corridors, particularly along riparian areas. They are crucial not just for primates, but all wildlife, particularly in the Lower Kinabatangan, which is heavily broken up between protected and non-protected areas.

“The proboscis monkey is at direct risk when riparian areas are lost as they are mainly confined to riversides within swamp, mangrove and lowland forests.

“These same forest types are also the most threatened, not only in Sabah, but within the whole of Borneo, which is the only place they are found in the wild.

“The only way to stop this decline and to ensure the survival of the eco-tourism industry that also benefits the local community is to stop all forest conversions even if it is a small area and continue with the various tree-planting projects,” he added.

Like the orang utan, the proboscis monkey has been listed as endangered since 2000 under the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.

The Red List also puts the figure for proboscis monkeys in Sarawak at 1,000 individuals.

This means Sabah, besides being the stronghold of the Malaysian orang utan population, is also the stronghold for the proboscis monkey population — Bernama.

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Malaysia: Hot on trail of elephant with broken tusk that killed tourist

Roy Goh and Avila Geraldine New Straits Times 11 Dec 11;
Team from Wildlife Department scours the 120,000ha reserve on foot

THE search for an elephant with a broken tusk that gored an Australian tourist to death continues at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve here.

A team from the Wildlife Department's wildlife rescue unit was on alert, conducting foot patrols within the 120,000ha reserve, to search for the bull elephant.

If found, the elephant is expected to be translocated to an elephant sanctuary.

On Wednesday, Australian tourist Jenna O'Grady Donley, who was due to graduate as a veterinarian on Friday from Sydney University, died after she was attacked by the elephant not far from the Tabin Wildlife Resort.

Her friend, Ashley Kelly, and a guide from the resort escaped unhurt in the attack.

They had earlier gone to the mud volcano in the reserve before veering off from the main trail, which was normally used by the resort's guests, into the forest where the incident occurred.

Following the fatal incident, Tabin Wildlife Holidays Sdn Bhd has stopped guests from trekking to some parts of the resort, including preventing them from walking the elephant trail.

The resort also forbids its guests from venturing alone and too far from the resort.

Tales of the elephant making occasional appearances within the reserve have also surfaced among the small number of people who work in the area, about 50km from the town centre.

Akilan Amsaludin, 57, who works as a foreman maintaining the road and drainage system in the area, said he had had several encounters with elephants since he first arrived at the reserve in August.

The experience working deep in the jungle has made him cautious about getting too close to the animals, especially those that roam on their own.

"If they are tunggal (solitary male elephants), I will keep my distance," said Akilan, who claimed to have seen the elephant with the broken tusk twice before the attack happened.

In his last encounter, Akilan took a photograph of the elephant using his mobile phone and revealed that he even "spoke" to the animal, asking it for permission to be in the area.

He believed in "communicating" with animals and had even sacrificed chickens and goats to appease the wildlife in the reserve.

"This place is panas and it's part of my beliefs to do these things," he said, adding that he and 10 other workers had never been attacked.

John Toledo, 55, who does maintenance work in the reserve, said encounters with wildlife, including elephants, was a regular occurrence for him and his colleagues.

"We have even strategically positioned two containers to protect us in case the elephants appear," he said.

About 1,500 tourists visit the Tabin Wildlife Resort nature trails every year and about 80 per cent are from abroad.

Going in search of wild elephants has always been the highlight at Tabin although it also offers the best bird-watching site in Borneo.

Witnesses: Killer elephant was in musth
Muguntan Vanar The Star 11 Dec 11;

KOTA KINABALU: The Borneo pygmy elephant that gored Australian tourist Jenna O'Grady Donley to death at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve on Dec 7 was said to be in musth.

(Musth is a state or condition of violent, destructive frenzy occurring with the rutting season in male elephants, accompanied by the exudation of an oily substance from glands between the eyes and mouth.)

Witnesses had observed that the bull elephant was discharging the oil-black substance from its ears which, experts said, was a secretion known as temporin (a thick tar-like secretion).

“It looks like Donley was just in the wrong place. It was unfortunate that this particular elephant was in musth and was aggressive,”' a source here told The Star.

He said elephants in musth, including those in captivity, have attacked humans before.

Sydney-based veterinarian Donley, 26, was gored by the bull elephant while she was taking pictures of the animal during a morning outing at the wildlife reserve with her friend Ashley Kelly and a guide from the nearby Tabin Wildlife Resort.

The other two managed to flee from the angry animal. However, Donley, who arrived in Malaysia on Nov 26 for a holiday in Sabah, had no time to escape.

Donley recently completed a thesis on renal failure in big cats and was due to graduate with first class honours on Dec 16.

Sydney University veterinary science faculty dean Prof Rosanne Taylor said Donley was a dean's list prize winner and a future leader of the profession.

“She was very much the face of Australian veterinarians of the future ... she will be very much missed.”

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Mekong nations put brakes on controversial Laos dam

An Dien Thanh Nien News 9 Dec 11;

Construction of the US$3.8-billion Xayaburi dam will be suspended pending further impact studies to be done by Japan, the four countries that share the lower reaches of the Mekong River agreed Thursday.

Environment ministers from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand agreed to defer a decision on the 1,285-megawatt, 810-meter (2,600-ft) dam after a meeting held under the auspices of the Mekong River Commission (MRC), the organization established to coordinate dam projects on the river, in the Cambodian town of Siem Reap.

The riparian countries “agreed in principle to approach the Government of Japan and other international development partners to support the conduct of further study,” the MRC said in a press release.

“Further study will provide a more complete picture for the four countries to be able to further discuss the development and management of their shared resources,” Lim Kean Hor, chairperson of the MRC Council and Cambodia’s minister of water resources and meteorology, said.

MRC chief Hans Guttman said the scope and details of the future studies were not discussed at the meeting.

“We haven’t identified all the details yet,” he said. “Who and how varied agencies will be involved is not decided but it will be within the MRC cooperation framework.”

In April the four Mekong nations agreed at a meeting that the decision on the Thai-financed dam would be elevated for consideration at the ministerial level. Vietnam had even called for a 10-year moratorium on all 11 dam projects proposed on the 4,900-km Mekong, which also runs through Myanmar from its source in the Tibetan plateau.

The project opponents fear the 1,285-MW dam would unleash massive ecological changes on a river that sustains around 60 million people. Scientists also warned it would devastate the flow of vital fish population and nutrient-rich silt to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

Environmentalists warned further that the dam would set the stage for a building spree involving the 10 other dams proposed on the river’s lower mainstream, which, if approved, will only provide 6-8 percent of Southeast Asia’s power needs by 2025.

The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand is planning to sign a deal with the dam’s developer, Ch. Karnchang Pcl, Thailand’s third-biggest construction company by market value, to buy 95 percent of the electricity to be produced by the dam. Four Thai banks are also financing the project.

A study released this week revealed that power from Xayaburi and other mainstream dams is not needed to meet Thailand’s energy demand, and that cheaper and cleaner options exist that would lower electricity bills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

With a population of around six million and a gross domestic product of $5.6 billion, land-locked Laos has promoted the Xayaburi project as a potential source of income and investment that will help spur its economy.

A report issued by the Asian Development Bank last April said that hydropower and mining activities would underpin the country’s economic growth in the next two years.

Relief and caution

The suspension of the giant dam has provided relief to some but caused doubt to others.

“Today the Mekong governments responded to the will of the people of the region,” Ame Trandem of International Rivers, a California, US-based environmental NGO, said.

“We welcome the recognition that not nearly enough is known about the impacts of mainstream dams to be able to make a decision about the Xayaburi dam.”

Nguy Thi Khanh, coordinator of Vietnam Rivers Network, a Vietnamese environmental group, said: “The Mekong governments made the right decision today, but it is only the beginning.

“We hope the Lao government will act in good faith and immediately halt all construction activities at the dam site and withdraw all construction equipment.

The countries are bound by the 1995 Mekong Agreement to hold inter-governmental consultations before building dams, but none have veto powers and Laos will have the final say, although considerable diplomatic pressure can be exerted on it.

“While the governments have agreed to a delay, they will eventually need to make a final decision on whether to proceed with the dam,” Chhith Sam Ath, executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, said.

“The Mekong governments have succeeded at this first test of regional cooperation, but we cannot stop and rest yet.”

Food security key issue in mekong dam debate
Not only is the waterway home to millions of people, but the freshwater fish it supplies is a major food source for the people of four different countries
Bangkok Post 11 Dec 11;

The ministerial meeting to decide the fate of the controversial Xayaburi hydropower dam in Laos ended last week without a clear decision on whether member states of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) would oppose the project.

This could open the way for the Lao government and the Thai construction company Ch Karnchang to continue work on the dam without facing the criticism that it has breached the 1995 Mekong Agreement which requires consensus from its member states: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

The ministers, after a three-day meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia, concluded that further study on sustainable development for the Mekong and the likely impact of dam development was needed. They said they would approach Japan to help with the task.

It sounds like a wise decision, and was praised by several experts at the Mekong Forum, which was being held in Phnom Penh at the same time. Nearly 200 experts had gathered to come up with recommendations on how best to balance development and conservation to ensure sustainable development for the region.

But the MRC's decision raises questions about how seriously Mekong River countries are taking steps to ensure that development will be in harmony with the millions of people who earn their livelihoods _ mainly from fishing.

For years, experts have studied the health of the Mekong ecosystem and discovered that it has played a significant role in the richness of biodiversity of river species. However, unlike the Amazon, which is the world's most biologically diverse river, the areas around the Mekong are densely populated.

Dr Eric Baran is a senior scientist of the WorldFish Centre, which helped conduct the project's environmental impact assessment and developed the MRC's environmental assessment for hydropower development on the Mekong. He says that food security is the most critical issue.

''The combination of a high proportion of migratory fish and high dependency of people on river fish is unique, making the Mekong a place where dam development is most critical to regional food security,'' he said. ''So it is not just about environmental conservation and displaced villages. The issue is much bigger than that. The trade-off between hydropower development and regional food security in the Mekong is probably unique in the world.''

Dr Baran, along with other scientists from the centre, has been studying fish in the Mekong for years. They have discovered that the Mekong has 781 fish species, second after the Amazon, which has 1,217. Dr Baran believes that the Mekong has more species, as 28 new one have been discovered, on average, each year during the past decade. Mekong fishermen catch about 2.1 million tonnes of fish each year, around one sixth of the world's freshwater catch.

Communities in Lao's mountainous areas, Thailand's Northeast, Vietnam's south and all of Cambodia depend the most on fishing for their livelihoods.

In Cambodia, studies have found that freshwater fish account for 90% of the country's total fish supply, and 81% of its protein supply.

According to Dr Baran's studies, more than one third of the 2.1 million tonnes harvested each year are migratory fish that need to travel to feed and breed. Dams will block that migration.

One scenario in the MRC's environmental assessment shows that if all 88 dams are built, by 2030 up to 81% of the Mekong Basin will not be accessible to migratory fish. But scientists also agree that the dam projects can possibly coexist with other activities essential to people's livelihoods.

To lessen the impact, one of their suggestions is to build the dams on the river's tributaries instead. Also as the river tends to be more biologically diverse downstream, it would be preferable to build the dams upstream.

Dam planners also need to be more adaptable.

While dam developers tend to build dams for optimum use, Dr Baran says they need to strike a compromise in their designs to ensure that the river's other possible uses are not impeded.

The height of dams should not exceed 30m to allow the construction of effective fish passes. According to his team's study, the Xayaburi dam would block migration of at least 70 fish species.

He also suggested constructing dams on man-made canals rather than natural waterways to lessen the impact of these projects, a practice which has become common in Europe, especially France.

Dr Baran said that dams should be planned as multi-purpose structures and prior to them being built, a thorough assessment should be made of the trade-offs between power generation and environmental and social costs.

Due to the potential losses of food security and millions of people's livelihoods, the Mekong countries made a wise decision last week to take a further look at sustainable development in the region.

It would also be wise for the dam developers and the Lao government to take a stand by stopping construction and conducting further studies of their own to ensure the project is in harmony with people's lives.

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Japan uses tsunami victims' cash to shield whalers from activists

£19m from fund set up to rebuild coast stricken by triple disaster is diverted to help fishing fleet
David McNeill The Independent 9 Dec 11;

Japan caused outrage yesterday as authorities confirmed it is diverting millions of pounds tagged for the reconstruction of its tsunami-devastated coast to protect its annual Antarctic whale-hunt.

Roughly 2.28bn yen (£19m) from a reconstruction fund for areas badly hit by the crippling 11 March earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear disaster will be used to beef up security for the Japanese whaling fleet, which left port under heavy guard this week.

The money is part of about 500bn yen in "fisheries-related spending" green-lighted by parliament last month. Japan's Fisheries Agency justified the decision by saying that "safer hunts" would ultimately help whaling towns along the coast to recover.

"Many people in [those areas] are waiting for Japan's commercial whaling operations to resume," said the agency's spokesman Tatsuya Nakaoku. The agency said that some of the money is earmarked to allow the fleet to "stably carry out its whaling research".

Conservationists immediately condemned the plan. "Not only is the whaling industry unable to survive without large increases in government handouts, now it's siphoning money away from the victims of the 11 March triple disaster, at a time when they need it most," said Junichi Sato, executive director of Greenpeace Japan. "This is a new low for the shameful whaling industry and the callous politicians who support it".

Japan was forced to suspend commercial whaling in 1987 but exploits a loophole in international rules to launch what it calls "scientific whaling expeditions" to the Southern Ocean. The meat from the roughly 1,000 whales killed during the cull is sold to partly pay for the expeditions. A further $10m in public money is used to support the campaign every year.

The whalers cut short their hunt this year after weeks of harassment by the US-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which claimed a major environmental victory. The whalers returned to port reportedly with about a fifth of the planned catch. Japan also blamed its reduced haul of 507 whalesduring its 2009-10 Antarctic hunt on the harrying of its fleet.

The whaling boats left in secrecy on Tuesday from Shimonoseki in southern Japan, guarded by an unspecified number of coast guard officers, a patrol ship and other "security measures," according to local media reports. The fleet's target catch is said to be about 930 minke whales. Sea Shepherd is preparing to again confront the fleet and warned of an "escalation". "Last year we chased them all the way to South America and that's when they decided to go home early," said Paul Watson, head of the society. "We've already defeated them economically. Now we have to defeat them politically."

Mr Watson said the money being used to protect the fleet came from public donations to help the victims of the earthquake and tsunami, a claim denied by Japan's government, and Green-peace Japan.

Read more!

Why the Haiti earthquake may not have been a natural disaster

Steve Connor The Independent 10 Dec 11;

Deforestation and extreme weather may later cause earthquakes, scientists believe.

Their findings suggest that cutting down trees on steep slopes may increase the risk of not only landslides but earthquakes in heavily deforested places such as Haiti, which suffered a devastating magnitude 7 quake in 2010.

Geologists have previously discounted the idea that low atmospheric pressure associated with tropical cyclones can influence the timing of earthquakes. But the new study suggests a different mechanism based on changes to the weight of soil and other ground material bearing down on a geological fault under seismic stress.

"Very wet rain events are the trigger. The heavy rain induces thousands of landslides and severe erosion, which removes ground material from the Earth's surface, releasing the stress and encouraging movement along faults," said Shimon Wdowinski of the University of Miami in Florida.

"The 2010 earthquake in Haiti occurred... 18 months after the same area was hit by two tropical storms and two hurricanes," he said. "It can happen in other mountainous areas affected by cyclones, such as Japan, the Philippines, and maybe Central America," he told the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

The idea the weather can play a role in triggering earthquakes is controversial. But Dr Wdowinski said an analysis of the timing of earthquakes and cyclones in Taiwan over the past 60 years has demonstrated a statistical correlation, with a significant number of quakes bigger than 6 occurring within four years of major cyclones – known as typhoons in the Far East.

Taiwan was hit in 1969 by Typhoon Flossie, then a 6.2 quake hit Taiwan in 1972. In 2009, Typhoon Morakot was followed by a 6.2 quake in the same year, and a 6.4 quake in 2010. Typhoon Herb, in 1996, was followed by a 6.2 quake in 1998 and a 7.6 quake in 1999.

Dr Wdowinski said rapid soil erosion on steep slopes caused by tropical cyclones changed the stress on the geological fault over a period of months or years, which can trigger an earthquake.

"Statistical analysis showed that the timing of the earthquake is above the expected. It is way above background. If it was a random process and there was no relation between earthquakes and cyclones... there was less than 1 per cent probability of this occurring," he said.

"It is not that it happens during a cyclone but that there is a delay, and the delay of between three months and three years is due to the ground erosion. The delays can be due to the time it takes for the erosion to wash the material to the ocean," he said.

An independent analysis of ground movements caused by summer monsoons in the Himalayas also suggested a link between extreme weather and earthquakes.

A study by Thomas Ader of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena found that earthquakes were more likely to occur in dry winter months after the monsoon period.

Read more!

Billion-Dollar Disasters 'Harbinger' of Future Extreme Weather: NOAA

Wynne Parry | LiveScience.com Yahoo News 11 Dec 11;

SAN FRANCISCO — The 12 $1-billion-plus disasters that hit the United States this year are most likely not simply a matter of the stars aligning against us, according to the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who implicated climate change as a contributor.

Climate change, caused by carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases humans have emitted, is expected to increase certain types of extreme weather, leading to more disasters, according to a report being assembled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

"The report that was released by the IPCC on extreme events suggests that what we are seeing this year is not just an anomalous year, but a harbinger of things to come for at least a subset of the extreme events we are tallying,"said Jane Lubchenco, NOAA's administrator, during a press conference held here this week at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting.

A summary of the report released in November predicts an increase in certain types of extreme weather, including daily high temperatures, heat waves, heavy precipitation and droughts, in some places. [Photos of Devastating Texas Drought]

Costly disasters

With this increase in extreme weather there will likely be an associated uptick in costs. Earlier Wednesday (Dec. 7) the agency announced that this year, so far, had broken the record for costly, weather-related disasters,including drought, wildfire, tornados, flooding, a blizzard and a hurricane. She noted that the agency is still tallying costs related to Tropical Storm Lee and the unseasonable snowstorm in the Northeast that occurred over Halloween weekend.

"I believe there are probably four reasons why we are seeing an increase," said Lubchenco, referring to the number of costly events. "One is there are more extreme events, period, but it is more complicated than that," Lubchenco said, adding that the country now has more people, who have more stuff to lose in disasters, and more people and their stuff now reside in harm's way, such as along the coasts. More people also have insurance that pays for their losses, magnifying the costs associated with a disaster.

The previous record, for nine $1-billion-or-more weather-related disasters was set in 2008.

Climate-change connection

Of the types of extremes that battered the country this year, only certain large-scale phenomena among them —such as heat waves, droughts and heavy precipitation —have links to climate change.

"We are likely to see more and more of them down the road as climate continues to change," she said.

The connection between small-scale extreme events, such as a localized hailstorm or a tornado, and climate change is less understood, she said.

Since about 1970, NOAA's Climate Extreme Index —which tracks the percentage of the country affected by climate extremes over time —has shown an upward trend that is notably different than the activity in earlier decades, she told an audience of scientists at a talk earlier in the day.

This trend is driven by daily highs and lows, availability of water and heavy precipitation in a single day. Most notably, since 1970, more of the country is experiencing unusually warm nights, with less of the country experiencing unusually cool nights. This particular shift is significant, she said: "Warm overnight lows are related to heat stress in both people, and plants and animals; they never get a chance to cool off."

Likewise, while the country has had periods of severe drought, such as during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, it has never become drier and wetter at the same time, as has happened in the last decade, she said.

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