Best of our wild blogs: 7 Nov 18

How can we stop grasscutters from littering nylon strings?
wild shores of singapore

6 Reasons Why You Should Come Join Our Homecoming Event On November 11th
Wan's Ubin Journal

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School tries to keep buildings from ‘killing’ birds, NParks to release design guidelines next year

NEO CHAI CHIN Today Online 6 Nov 18;

SINGAPORE — His Facebook post last month on a beautiful Jambu Fruit Dove that slammed into the glass window of a school computer laboratory went viral, but Mr Jacob Tan did not stop there.

On the very day of the incident on Oct 16, the 33-year-old biology teacher from Commonwealth Secondary School spoke to one of the vice-principals and the school’s operations manager about reducing the risk of bird collisions in future.

Within days, students pasted some paper dots on the third-floor window, where the collision occurred, to reduce its reflective area and for closure.

By Oct 29, a contractor had put up non-reflective stickers on the large glass surfaces on either side of a wetland area on the ground floor. The wetland has plants such as the sendudok that attract birds for feeding.

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Commentary: Dear Singapore, a plastic future is not fantastic

Because plastic poisons our seafood and waters and escalates climate change, moral duty demands we act urgently to eliminate all unnecessary plastic waste and redesign essential usage, says one observer.
Vivian Claire Liew Channel NewsAsia 7 Nov 18;

SINGAPORE: This August, our world had its early Halloween moment.

Amidst the Hawaiian paradise, rising rockstar scientist Sarah-Jeanne Royer discovered significant methane and ethylene gas emanating from oceanic plastic waste.

Given the sheer and escalating volume of plastic waste generated, this discovery of a previously-unaccounted-for driver of climate change means more severe climate change than even the recent United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) update warned of.

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Indonesia: Two children dead in Padang flooding

Ivany Atina Arbi The Jakarta Post 5 Nov 18;

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported that at least two children were killed during floods that swamped Padang, West Sumatra over the weekend.

The children were identified as Jihat Melani, 6, and Pasilah Azhan, 10, the agency has said in a release.

The flood inundated around 1,400 houses in seven districts, including Pauh, Lubuk Kilangan, Lubuk Begalung and Koto Tangah.

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Indonesia: South Sumatra plans restoration of hundreds of hectares of peat land

Antara 6 Nov 18;

Palembang, S. Sumatra (ANTARA News) - Peat land restoration would cover around 594,231 hectares in South Sumatra this year to preserve the environment, a government official said.

The process of peat land restoration is to be completed in 2020, Head of the Regional Peat Land Restoration Team Najib Asmani said here on Tuesday.

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