The Chequered Lancer
Butterfly of the Month on the Butterflies of Singapore blog
Who's the Eggs-pert?
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog
Dubious names
on the annotated budak blog and button blue eyes
Four-Lined Tree Frog
on the Creatures in the Wild blog
Morning at Lim Chu Kang
from wild shores of singapore blog and tricky bruguiera and hoya diversifolia
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch taking a spider
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
School and business hiccups haven't stopped SMU student from planting the seed of his biofuel empire
Ho Lian-Yi, The New Paper 12 Apr 09;
WHILE his peers were dreaming of a cushy job in a bank, Mr Lim Hongzhuang was out in a field, shovelling chicken manure on a plot of land.
It was, hoped the 25-year-old Singapore Management University (SMU) finance and sociology undergraduate, the beginning of his biofuel empire.
'I thought that energy prices are always on the uptrend. I asked my friends, and the easiest way to get in is biofuels,' he said.
He was going to plant Jatropha, a tree that produces oil-bearing seeds, on his farm in Kuala Pilah in Negri Sembilan, Malaysia.
Though still in school (he finishes his final year exams in nine days time, this is already Mr Lim's third attempt at business.
He previously started a mobile value-added services company and a web-hosting business. They didn't work out, but that didn't stop him from looking for other opportunities.
Mr Lim had zero agricultural experience, but that didn't deter him. With a friend, he drove up and down Malaysia, scouting the land.
He said he met a Singaporean businessman in July 2007 who promised to work with him and offer his agricultural know-how.
Ups and downs
In December 2007, he found the right piece of land, buying over the former Singaporean owner's company for $80,000. The land was about 90 acres (roughly the size of 30 football fields), dilapidated, full of weeds, with limited infrastructure.
He set up LX Holdings with his friend and the duo started clearing the land for planting, chopping down the banana trees that the former owners planted.
But in Feb 2007, his businessman advisor pulled out, saying Mr Lim and his friend were not 'established enough'.
Shortly after, his friend also left. He had an internship offer in a multi-national financial company, and decided he wanted to try the corporate world.
Now Mr Lim was straddled with a farm but with no agricultural knowledge.
'We were almost at a dead end,' he said. But he wasn't giving up.
No bank would lend him money for his start-up, so he pulled out the money he saved from his previous ventures and turned to his his relatives for loans. They invested RM1,000,000 ($400,000) in all.
But things really got going when they found a farm manager through a web forum, a Malaysian named Tye Tong Fatt, 45, who had a Jatropha nursery that was merged into LX Holdings.
By last October, the farm entered the black. But it wasn't thanks to biofuels. The recession was in full force and fuel prices were crashing.
To pay the bills, he planted vegetables, just like any farmer - a tag Mr Lim wears proudly. The farm now produces about 500kg of vegetables that he sells to markets in Malaysia and Singapore.
He said the farm makes RM2,000 to RM3,000 in revenue a day at a 60 per cent profit margin. That's about $10,000 a month in profit.
Showing off his richly purple eggplants and sumptious ladyfingers, Mr Lim is clearly pleased with his progress. He brings a basket of fresh produce home for his friends and family every week.
However, he has not given up on his biofuel dreams - he is still offering potential clients samples from his farm. One day, he hopes to be able to power their pumps with their own biodiesel.
Driving to the farm is a three-hour trip from Singapore. Mr Lim has made the trip nearly every weekend. He admitted that his grades 'toppled', but he said he gets by doing school projects related to his work.
Still, running his business wasn't easy.
There are middlemen and labour agents to deal with. One squatter even threatened him with a parang when he tried to evict him from his land, he said.
But most pressing is the labour shortage. Mr Lim has nine workers. Mr Tye estimates they would need around 50 to be able to work the whole farm.
Despite all the problems, he is glad he entered the business. In the past, he had hoped to just join a bank and work his way up. But as one of his potential clients told him, what he has learnt, money cannot buy.
Also, because of the recession, he said one in 10 of his peers hasn't got a job.
'So I was thinking of helping them get jobs,' he said.
Straits Times 12 Apr 09;
How do you move a fish farm the size of half a football field?
Slowly. Excruciatingly slowly.
Last week, three fish farmers, with help from at least eight others in the same business, hauled one such floating platform filled with nearly 70,000 fish across the Johor Strait. It was a distance of just 3km but the move took nearly three hours.
Precision was the operative word.
The trio, Mr Malcolm Ong, Mr Lim Sin Guan and Mr Tay Yong Peng - partners in their company called MPG Trading - needed to wait till the tide was in their favour. Then, they needed 10 boats positioned at intervals around the platform to nudge it forward. They also had to make sure they did not crash into other farms along the way.
Tugboats were out of the question - they could well break up the fragile platform and set all the fish loose.
It was a logistical feat only experienced fishermen like Mr Lim and Mr Tay could pull off.
The two already had farms of their own when Mr Ong, 45, a former chief executive of a French software company, decided to join them two years ago.
Buoyed by the increasing demand in farmed fish, the three spent more than $200,000 to buy a retiring neighbour's offshore farm at Lim Chu Kang.
Last week, they moved the newly purchased farm to their existing one, also at Lim Chu Kang, and are looking at doubling their yearly output of milk fish and mullet to 300 tonnes.
With this new addition, the trio, who have invested more than $500,000, have 30 nets, making them the biggest fish farm operator in Lim Chu Kang and possibly in Singapore.
Each net on the farms contains 8,000 fish.
'You either buy or build. Buying saves time but building means it would be new,' said MrOng, adding that the company is looking for new overseas markets for its produce.
Thijs Westerbeek van Eerten, Radio Netherlands 11 Apr 09;
Four hundred years after the English explorer Henry Hudson discovered 'by chance' what is now known as Manhattan, the Dutch are returning. Henry Hudson was actually trying to find the shortest route to India, but in 2009 the Dutch have a very different mission. They want to protect the island of Manhattan, and the city of New York, from the rising sea water.
New York's sea defences need major reconstruction to bring them up to the present-day standards of those in the Netherlands.
So Rotterdam City Council, the Arcadis engineering firm and Amsterdam's VU University are going to help improve matters. They have decided on a combination of a dam and a flood barrier already in use in the Netherlands.
The plans for the new sea defences in New York's Verrazano Narrows were presented last week and are expected to cost 6.5 million dollars.
Defenceless
New York's present sea defences allow for major flooding once every 100 years, but defences in the Netherlands allow for such floods only once every 10,000 years.
In the few hundred years since New York became a metropolis, it has narrowly escaped disaster a number of times. Rising sea levels make the situation more dangerous, as do the fiercer storms which will result from climate change. If a major storm hits such a big and economically important city, the damage will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Piet Dircke from Arcadis (photo © waterforum.net) illustrates the technical requirements of the new defences:
"It is after all the entrance to the Port of New York and must be able to accommodate the world's biggest ships. At the same time, you have to take care of the bay and maintain its tides for ecological reasons."
Why no dykes?
Jeroen Aerts (pictured right) from the VU University's Institute for Environmental Issues explains:
"The New York coast is enormously long. You could think about constructing dykes all the way along, but that would be hugely expensive because you'd have to start from scratch. What we are proposing is to close off all the openings to the sea with flood defences, in precisely the way it's done here in the Netherlands."
The Verrazano Narrows at 1.6 kilometres are too wide for an ordinary flood barrier, which closes off the opening to the sea with two enormous gates. The system which has been chosen combines the properties of two sea defence systems in the Netherlands: the storm surge barrier and dam at Oosterschelde in the province of Zealand, a huge construction comprising 18 floodgates which move up and down; and the Maeslantkering storm surge barrier near Rotterdam where two enormous gates open sideways.
Expensive?
The plans were enthusiastically received at a recent international conference on protecting coastal cities, but they do call for an investment of 6.5 billion dollars. Jeroen Aerts thinks the money will be found. He even suspects the present economic crisis could actually prove an advantage because of the number of jobs created by this sort of huge infrastructure project.
Mr Dircke also believes in the viability of the project:
"The idea that New York is in real danger has got through since Hurricane Katrina. Policy makers and those in power realise something has to be done. Our plans are very expensive, but doing nothing will end up costing even more. In the end, it's a shrewd economic investment".
Bob Holmes, New Scientist 11 Apr 09;
MUD-SLINGING has broken out among ecologists over a study suggesting that climate change might not spread tropical diseases far and wide after all. When the paper triggered an uproar, editors at the journal Ecology decided to publish not one but six responses alongside the original research. The collection appears in the April issue.
Many disease researchers have warned that rising global temperatures could lead to more disease, for example by allowing tropical diseases to expand their ranges into what are now temperate regions. This is a particular fear for insect-borne diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness.
But the reality is more complex, argues Kevin Lafferty, a disease ecologist at the US Geological Survey's Western Ecological Research Center in Santa Barbara, California. He argues that a warming climate could favour some diseases in certain regions while inhibiting them in others.
Lafferty does not deny that climate change might allow malarial mosquitoes to spread to new areas. However, he believes that hotter and drier conditions may also eliminate mosquitoes from areas where they currently thrive, such as the Sahel region in Africa. If this were the case, he says, there would be little if any net increase in the risk of disease.
In addition, many temperate regions such as southern Europe or the southern US have good sanitation and insect control programmes which, Lafferty says, would prevent diseases from becoming prevalent even if climatic conditions were suitable.
Finally, he argues, climate change could wipe many species off the planet. Infectious pathogens depend on their hosts for survival so they too may become endangered - especially if, like malaria, they rely on more than one host (Ecology, vol 90, p 888).
Lafferty's paper caused such a furore among its reviewers that the editor handling it, Ken Wilson of Lancaster University in the UK, commissioned a series of responses arguing both sides of the debate to publish alongside it.
"I disagree with the whole line of reasoning," says Mercedes Pascual of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She points out that there are large human populations in the east African highlands, just outside of the existing range of malarial mosquitoes, and as temperatures rise, the mosquitoes will reach these areas. This will more than offset any benefits from decreased risk elsewhere, she says (Ecology, vol 90, p 906).
Richard Ostfeld of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, says that while better health infrastructure in developed nations "might be heartening to some, it is far from universal". For instance, several ecologists point out that there is evidence climate change is already increasing the incidence of malaria in the highlands of Ethiopia, where poor health infrastructure will harm any response.
Climate change is probably also causing an increase in non-human diseases. Drew Harvell, an ecologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, says winter warming in the Caribbean is leading to increased rates of disease in corals (Ecology, vol 90, p 912).
Most of the ecologists do, however, seem to agree on one point: predicting where a disease is going to go next involves far more than just climate. No matter how the debate is resolved, they all agree that health concerns should continue to play a critical role in climate policy, and the debate shouldn't be regarded as weakening the case for action on global warming.
Yahoo News 12 Apr 09;
QUITO, Ecuador – Ecuador officials say a volcano is erupting in the Galapagos Islands and could harm unique wildlife.
The Galapagos National Park says La Cumbre volcano began spewing lava, gas and smoke on uninhabited Fernandina Island on Saturday after four years of inactivity.
The park says in a statement the eruption is not a threat to people living on nearby Isabela Island.
But it says lava flowing to the sea will likely affect marine and terrestrial iguanas, wolves and other fauna.
The Galapagos are home to unique animal and plant species that became the basis for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.
Scientists say Fernandina is the island with the most volcanic activity in the archipelago. La Cumbre last erupted in May 2005.
Think-tank study points to the date Britain's ecological debt begins - when the country starts living beyond its means and relying on international imports
John Vidal, The Guardian 11 Apr 09;
Britain is living beyond its environmental means and is increasingly dependent on the rest of the world for its natural resources, a thinktank study has revealed.
The recession may have slowed consumption but the New Economics Foundation (Nef) says we are now drawing deep on the cropland, pasture, forests and fisheries of other countries.
The research also shows that by tomorrow the country will have used the levels of resources it should consume in an entire year if it were to be ecologically self-sufficient.
Andrew Simms, Nef's policy director, said: "We are consuming more and more, and as our ecosystems become more stressed the day in the year on which we effectively go beyond our environmental means, and move into ecological debt, is moving ever earlier in the year. In 1961 it was 9 July, but this year it falls on Easter Sunday."
The UK's ecological debt and reliance on the rest of the world are revealed in our dependence on imports of food and energy, says Nef: "National food self-sufficiency is in long term decline, and we are increasingly dependent on imports at precisely the time when the guarantee of the rest of the world ability to provide for us is weakening."
A combination of global factors such as climate change, competition for energy resources, economic instability and changing consumption patterns are all now compromising Britain's economy. "The impact of our lifestyles is felt worldwide and solutions to problems like climate change are unlikely until greater changes are made here in the UK."
Nef argues Britain is part of a "bizarrely" wasteful system of world trade. "Virtually identical amounts of gingerbread, fresh boneless chicken, chocolate covered waffles, are imported and exported ... In 2007, the UK exported 1.8m tonnes of essential oils, perfumes and toilet preparations, while it imported 1.5m tonnes."
*hiss*
on the annotated budak blog and dealing with lice and fan flower and snailed
A second nesting for the Olive-backed Sunbirds
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
Of breeding Coppersmith Barbet: A chronological summary (Part 9)
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog
How to survive Pulau Ubin on a long weekend
on the wild shores of singapore blog and blooming ubin and Sonneratia ovata and Pongamia pinnata
Supermarkets go LIVE
Move draws eager customers and chains see a spike in sales
Jessica Lim, Straits Times 11 Apr 09;
SUPERMARKETS in Singapore are offering more live food as demand for variety goes up at stores.
Less than three years ago, only two kinds of food were found alive and kicking at local supermarkets: fish and prawns.
Now, consumers can buy more exotic fare - such as bullfrogs, razor clams, oysters, soft-shell turtles and eels - from Singapore's major supermarket chains.
The pickings - killed, bagged and weighed seconds after they are netted from large tanks - are proving to be a big hit.
At Sheng Siong Supermarket, which sells the widest range of live produce, sales have been brisk, said its spokesman, who was unable to provide exact figures.
However, a Straits Times check at some of its outlets showed their sales of live food had increased. At its Clementi West store, about 150kg is sold daily, six times the amount sold last year, said assistant supervisor Wong Nee Kook.
The story is the same at FairPrice, which offers live food at its three hypermarkets in Jurong, Hougang and Ang Mo Kio.
In the first three months of this year, compared with the same period last year, sales of live food increased by 30 per cent, said its spokesman.
In the middle of last year, three Cold Storage outlets started stocking live food as well - first oysters, then lobsters. Since then, demand has seen double-digit growth, said the chain's spokesman.
Customers say going live is the same as going fresh.
'I've tried frozen and chilled, but live is still the best,' said housewife Liew Chiu Hua, 58, who buys all kinds of live fish every day.
Fellow housewife Anna Lee agreed. The 60-year-old, who buys live food twice weekly, used to make trips to Johor Baru to feast on fresh seafood and buy some live food back to cook.
'I'm so happy that supermarkets here have them now. It's so much easier,' she said.
For Madam Tahyijati Mathawi, 43, the greater variety means greater convenience when shopping.
'Nowadays, supermarkets have everything. I can buy live shellfish and toilet paper,' said the housewife, who buys flower crab and gong-gongs (a type of shellfish) once a month from a Sheng Siong outlet that is just a five-minute bus ride from her home. 'I don't have to go anywhere else.'
At Sheng Siong, live food is now sold at all of its 22 outlets, up from just four in 2007.
To meet the demand, the chain is in the midst of upgrading: Over the next five years, all the stores will be equipped with tanks and stainless steel displays, at a cost of about $50,000 a store.
Currently, only three stores are fully equipped, and they sell more than 20 kinds of live produce each.
The other chains are also looking for new products that will extend their range.
Although customers are rejoicing, industry players say this deals yet another blow to wet markets, which are already suffering from dwindling sales.
Mr Chua Ser Keng, the president of The Federation of Merchants' Associations, said wet market business has fallen by about 30 per cent over the past two years.
'More women work and find it inconvenient to shop early in the morning, and supermarkets have everything now.'
This opinion is shared by fishmonger Yeo Lee Kwong, who has operated a stall in Ghim Moh for the past 32 years.
The 68-year-old plans to wind up his 'failing business' next year. He is now dipping into his savings to keep it afloat.
'Business has fallen a lot over the years,' he said. 'There are supermarkets everywhere. They are cleaner and have everything. How can we compete?'
The Singapore Botanic Gardens celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. TAY SUAN CHIANG asks five people what it means to them
Walks and talks
Straits Times 11 Apr 09;
KEITH HILLIER, 80, RETIREE AND VOLUNTEER GUIDE
A volunteer at the Gardens since 2001, he first came to Singapore with the British Army as an officer in 1948. He has been living here since 1970 and is now a Singapore citizen
'My wife and I have always enjoyed taking walks here. Even now, when we are finding a new house, our first criterion is that it must be within walking distance of the Gardens.
'I remember back in 1970, we used to play games on our walks. We would each take turns to guess the names of the trees that we saw. Not only did this improve our knowledge of them, but it also trained our memory. We knew almost every tree then.
'We still enjoy taking walks in the park. For the last nine years, we have been faithfully coming to the Gardens in the evenings for an hour. Sometimes, we walk to the Swan Lake, which is my favourite part of the Gardens. At other times, we walk to the other parts.
'I'm also here every Saturday to take visitors on guided tours. I enjoy being with other volunteers, all of whom have a passion for the Gardens.
'Since I'm here almost every day, I know it like the back of my hand. Yet I am not bored by it. There is always something different. It can be new variety of plants being grown, or even simple pleasures, such as a tree flowering.'
Botanic reveries
Straits Times 11 Apr 09;
MR SAMSURI AHMAD, 73
Herbarium research assistant at the Singapore Botanic Gardens
This sprightly senior joined the Gardens in 1952 as a gardener and has worked as a plant collector since 1968.
'My favourite spot in the Gardens is by the ficus tree near Swan Lake. Even back then, swimming was not allowed in the lake. But when the Gardens' director wasn't around, I would secretly go for a swim. I also enjoyed swinging from the roots of the ficus tree.
'Of course, I did that only during my younger days.
'I met my wife here. It was love at first sight. Her family used to live nearby, and we spent our courtship days strolling in the gardens. We held our wedding here.'
Attacks from monkeys
Straits Times 11 Apr 09;
DR CHIN SEE CHUNG, 62
Director of Singapore Botanic Gardens
The Batu Pahat-born Singapore Permanent Resident has been the Gardens' director since 1996
'I first visited the Gardens as a student during the late 1960s. There were monkeys then, and they were a big hazard. They would grab our schoolbags, and I would hang on to mine tightly.
'There are no more monkeys in the Gardens now. I'm not sure where they went.
'I remember the Palm Valley, the tembusu tree and Swan Lake from my first visit. The look and feel of the Gardens have not changed, but it is definitely busier now. There are more visitors, more plant displays and a greater diversity of plants.
'Back then, there was no place for visitors to get a drink. Now we provide water coolers, and there is a cafe and two restaurants.'
Morning glory
Straits Times 11 Apr 09;
MADELINE LIM, 60, HOUSEWIFE
Madam Lim, who first visited the Gardens 17 years ago, now goes there every Saturday morning to exercise
'My family used to live in Bukit Timah, but somehow we didn't visit the Gardens when I was a child.
'I started coming here regularly only when my youngest daughter, now 26, was in primary school. I would send her to school before heading here for my morning walk. I did this every weekday for nearly 10 years.
'Once in a while, I would bring my three daughters here before going to church on Sundays. We would pack sandwiches, and they would feed the swans and fish in the lake.
'These days, I drive here every Saturday to exercise with a group. There is so much greenery and unusual plants to look at while you do that.'
Tree treats
Straits Times 11 Apr 09;
SHELLEY EE, 53, HOUSEWIFE, AND DANIEL EE, 56, DIRECTOR
She used to visit the Gardens often as a child, as her home was nearby.
He visited the Gardens occasionally
'Our fondest memory of the Gardens was when we were newlyweds. My office was opposite the Gardens, while Shelley's office was in Tanglin Road.
'Two to three times a week, we would pack our lunch and head here. It was very warm at noon, so we would find the shaded areas. It was very lovely, as it was not that crowded then, and we had space to ourselves.
'When our three children were much younger, we also brought them here. Once, two of them got stung by bees.
'Even though the kids are now grown up, as a family we still come here for walks and jogs in the mornings, even though it is quite a drive from our home in the East Coast.'
catch it
Straits Times 11 Apr 09;
BOTANIC GARDENS 150th ANNIVERSARY LINEUP
THIS MONTH
What: The Seed That Changed The World
When: Now on till April 30
Where: Botany Centre.
Info: Exhibition on the history of the rubber plant in Singapore.
NEXT MONTH
What: An Open Conversation With Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew: Greening Of A Nation
Info: MM Lee speaks on the inspiration and challenges for Singapore as a Garden City.
JUNE
What: Green Generation Concert
Info: Secondary school students and other local talent perform to spread the message of conservation.
What: 150th Anniversary Stamp Series
Info: Singapore Post launches a First Day Cover stamp series featuring iconic landmarks in the Gardens.
JULY
What: Darwin & Wallace: Their Stories & Their Expeditions
Info: An exhibition on naturalists Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, who came up with the theory of evolution.
SEPTEMBER
What: Romancing Kangkong & Its Relatives
Info: There is more than one way to cook kangkong besides frying it in sambal. Celebrity chefs demonstrate what else you can do with the popular vegetable.
DECEMBER
What: Rainforests - The Human Challenge.
Info: The Singapore Botanic Gardens, together with Kew Gardens and the Prince's Trust charity group, hosts a worldwide touring photo exhibition of international rainforests.
Gardens through the years
Straits Times 11 Apr 09;
1859: The Gardens is founded at its present site by an Agri-Horticultural Society. Planned as a leisure garden and ornamental park, the society eventually organises flower shows and horticultural fetes.
1874: The society hands over management and maintenance of the site to the Government, which puts Kew Gardens-trained botanists and horticulturists in charge.
1877: Kew Gardens in London sends 22 rubber seedlings to its Singapore counterpart, sparking an economic boom across South-east Asia
Late 1920s - late 1950s: The Gardens becomes a place for flora research. Laboratories are set up for experiments in orchid breeding and hybridisation, laying the foundation for a multi-million-dollar cut-flower industry in Singapore.
Mid-1960s: The Gardens play a part in the greening of Singapore. To meet the need for urban landscapes and recreational areas, the Gardens' staff introduce plants and supply planting material to increase the variety and colour in roadside and park plantings.
Early 1970s: It becomes customary to present Gardens-grown orchids as state gifts and to name orchid hybrids after VIPs in their honour. Among the first dignitaries to have their own orchids was Queen Elizabeth II, when she came to Singapore in 1972.
1989: Master Plan for the Redevelopment of the Gardens is announced. It aims to have better visitor amenities, botanical displays and research facilities.
1995: The National Orchid Garden opens. Located within the Gardens, it contains more than 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids of orchids.
1998: The Visitor Centre, near the junction of Cluny and Nassim roads, opens. Amenities include a shop selling books and souvenirs, car parks, and a cafe, now called Casa Verde.
2005: Evolution Garden, closer to Bukit Timah Road, opens. It traces the development of Earth's flora.
2006: The Botany Centre, near Tanglin Gate, opens. It houses the herbarium and library collections.
2007: The Jacob Ballas Children's Garden opens to educate preschool and primary school children on the importance of plants in fun ways.
Garden trivia
Straits Times 11 Apr 09;
# The 63.7ha Gardens is home to 10,000 species of trees and flowers.
# One of the tallest trees in the Botanic Gardens is the Jelawai (Terminalia subspathulata) located in the Tanglin Core. It is about 50m tall.
# The Tembusu tree (Fagraea fragrans), depicted on the Singapore $5 note, is one of the oldest trees at Lawn E.
# The seeds of the candle-nut tree (Aleurites moluccana) are oily enough for them to be lit like candles. The tree can be found at the Eco Garden in Bukit Timah Core.
# The biggest branching inflorescence (a cluster of flowers arranged on a stem) in the plant kingdom is that of the Talipot Palm (Corypha umbraculifera). Each inflorescence has more than 20 million flowers. It flowers only once in its lifetime, after 30 to 80 years of growth, and then dies. There are mature Talipot Palms in the Palm valley that may flower soon.
# The native Tiger Orchid (Grammatophyllum speciosum) is the largest orchid plant in the world and can weigh as much as 1 tonne. See it at the National Orchid Garden.
Yahoo News 10 Apr 09;
LJUBLJANA (AFP) – Slovenian authorities Friday said they will cull 70 brown bears and 10 wolves this year to maintain a balanced wildlife population, but the hunting quota was markedly less than in the past.
"The current population of both species in Slovenia is rather favourable. They have enough living space and appropriate living conditions without any natural enemies," Environment Minister Karl Erjavec said.
Slovenia's bear population is thought to be about 430 while the number of wolves is estimated at between 70 and 100, according to the environment ministry.
In recent years, the Slovenian government had authorised the culling of around 100 bears annually, provoking strong protests from domestic and international wildlife groups who said the quota was excessive.
LiveScience.com 10 Apr 09;
The production of bioethanol may use up to three times as much water as previously thought, a new study finds, becoming the latest work that could burst the biofuel bubble.
A gallon of ethanol may require up to more than 2,100 gallons of water from farm to fuel pump, depending on the regional irrigation practice in growing corn, according to the study detailed in the April 15 issue of journal Environmental Science & Technology.
But the water usage isn't quite so high everywhere: A dozen states in the Corn Belt consume less than 100 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol, making them better suited for ethanol production, the study found.
"The results highlight the need to take regional specifics into account when implementing biofuel mandates," the authors wrote.
Bioethanol, typically made from plant sources such as corn or switch grass, is often touted as a clean-burning alternative to gasoline or other fossil fuels, which give off significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
Other studies have questioned the benefits of biofuels, noting that they may require more energy in production than they provide; they may not reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as hoped; and the fertilizers required to grow the crops to make the fuel may exacerbate oceanic dead zones as a result of chemical runoff into streams.
Annual production of bioethanol currently sits about 9 billion gallons a year, but many experts expect this number to rise, sparking concerns over water usage in the production process, particularly in areas where there are already water shortages.
Previous studies estimated that a gallon of corn-based bioethanol requires the use of 263 to 784 gallons of water from the farm to the fuel pump. Butt these estimates failed to account for widely varied regional irrigation practices, the authors of the new study said.
For the new study, Sangwon Suh of the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, along with his colleagues, made a new estimate of bioethanol's impact on the water supply using detailed irrigation data from 41 states. The water requirements of the bioethanol produced in 2007 was possibly as high as 861 billion gallons of water from the corn field to the fuel pump, the researchers found.
The study was funded in part by USDA/CSREES and the U.S. Department of Energy and the Legislative Citizen's Commission on Minnesota Resources.
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