Best of our wild blogs: 6 Dec 18



Volunteer manager wanted for Pulau Hantu dives
Celebrating Singapore Shores!


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Malaysia: Pulau Kukup may lose its protected status

mohd farhaan shah and venesa devi The Star 5 Dec 18;

JOHOR BARU: Pulau Kukup, one of the few remaining pristine wetlands in South-East Asia, may stop being a fully protected national park as the state government is said to be de-gazetting a law that gives it the status.

Concerns were sparked by a gazette dated Oct 25 that has gone viral on social media notifying that the state authorities will cancel the whole area as a national park under subsection 3(3) of the National Park Environment Enactment (Johor) 1989.

According to sources, the decision was made by the state government in October to de-gazette Pulau Kukup National Park.


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Save millions of lives by tackling climate change, says WHO

Global warming and fossil fuel pollution already killing many, UN climate summit told
Damian Carrington The Guardian 5 Dec 18;

Tackling climate change would save at least a million lives a year, the World Health Organization has told the UN climate summit in Poland, making it a moral imperative.

Cutting fossil fuel burning not only slows global warming but slashes air pollution, which causes millions of early deaths a year, the WHO says. In a report requested by UN climate summit leaders, the WHO says the economic benefits of improved health are more than double the costs of cutting emissions, and even higher in India and China, which are plagued by toxic air.

“The global public health community is getting very impatient,” said MarĂ­a Neira, WHO director of public and environmental health. “If you don’t think you need to take action for the sake of climate change, make sure when you think about the planet you incorporate a couple of lungs, a brain and a heart. It is not just about saving the planet in the future, it is about protecting the health of the people right now.”

The damage caused by coal, oil and gas pollution is “outrageous”, she said. “There are words not included in the documents at [the climate summit]: asthma, lung cancer, stroke, heart disease – they need to be incorporated in all the decision-making processes.”


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Cars and coal help drive 'strong' CO2 rise in 2018

Matt McGrath BBC 6 Dec 18;

A booming global market for cars has helped drive CO2 emissions to an all-time high in 2018, say researchers.

The main factor in the near 3% rise has been coal use in China, driven by government efforts to boost a flagging economy.

But emissions from cars, truck and planes using fossil fuels continue to rise in all parts of the world

Renewables have also grown this year, but are not keeping pace with the CO2 rise.

The research, carried out by the Global Carbon Project (GCP), says that this year's "strong" rise is projected to be 2.7%.

That's much bigger than 2017's 1.6%. This will worry scientists as they had seen CO2 emissions relatively flat for the three years before.

So what's caused the rise?


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