No quick fix on warming, says new UN climate chief

Richard Ingham Yahoo News 9 Jun 10;

BONN (AFP) – The UN's incoming chief on climate change cautioned on Wednesday it could take until 2050 to build the machinery that will ultimately tame greenhouse gases.

In an interview with newswire reporters on the sidelines of UN talks in Bonn, Christiana Figueres said she was approaching her new job with optimism tempered by hard-edged realism.

"I continue to be confident that governments will meet this challenge, for the simple reason that humanity must meet the challenge. We just don't have another option," said Figueres.

But, she warned, political progress on climate change would lag behind scientific warnings for many years to come -- and those who expected a quick fix would be disappointed.

"I don't believe that we will ever have a final agreement on climate... in my lifetime," she said. "Maybe in yours," the 53-year-old added.

Figueres explained: "Building the regime is going to require an effort, a sustained effort of those who will be here, over the next 20 to 30 to 40 years...."

"We have to understand that this is an incremental process, this is a gradual process and that whatever we do is not going to be enough, we still have to hold the bar very high."

An experienced and highly regarded negotiator for Costa Rica who was educated in Britain and the United States, Figueres takes the helm as executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on July 8.

She succeeds Yvo de Boer, a Dutchman, who resigned in the wake of the stormy UN climate summit in Copenhagen last December.

The marathon was supposed to deliver a historic pact on greenhouse-gas emissions from 2012 and channel billions to poor countries exposed to worsening drought, floods, storms and rising seas.

But it was marred by backbiting and nitpicking, with some 120 attending heads of state and government watching in shock.

In the event, a couple of dozen leaders huddled in the night to craft an 11th-hour document, the so-called Copenhagen Accord, in order to save face.

Hedged with non-binding promises to hold additional warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), it was savaged by green groups as a fudge, by advocates for the poor as betrayal and by left-leaning Latin American countries as a violation of UN democracy.

Figueres upbraided those who would describe the outcome of Copenhagen as a "train wreck."

But she acknowledged the meeting had been "full of mistakes, full of errors, from which we are all learning," especially on informing other countries about negotiations taking place in a small group.

The Bonn talks, taking place among senior representatives, conclude on Friday after a 12-day effort to make headway on a negotiation blueprint.

Developing-country delegates on Wednesday said that trust had been badly damaged at Copenhagen and still had to be restored before the next grand UNFCCC meeting, taking place in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10.

Some countries are lobbying for a legally-binding deal to be completed in Cancun, but most are quietly admitting this is unrealistic. A better bet would be agreement on some big issues, leading to an overall accord in South Africa in 2011, they say.

Figueres refused to be drawn on whether Cancun would deliver the coveted treaty or not.

But in any case, she said, Cancun had to be about turning the Copenhagen pledges -- on help for poor countries and preventing deforestation, especially -- into solid action.

"If we can't deliver (an agreement) at Cancun and if we are shown the road to Cape Town or any other cities, it will be... a Holocaust," warned Bangladesh negotiator Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, who said his country, threatened by rising seas, was "ground zero" in the onslaught by climate change.

New climate chief: 'no option' but to take action
Verena Schmitt-roschmann, Associated Press Yahoo News 9 Jun 10;

BONN, Germany – World nations have no choice but to join forces to stop global warming, but achieving a legally binding treaty this year should not be the only focus, the new U.N. climate chief said Wednesday.

Christiana Figueres said that "governments will meet this challenge, for the simple reason that humanity must meet this challenge."

"We just don't have another option," said Figueres, who replaces Yvo de Boer next month as head of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Her comments came as another two-week climate meeting in Bonn was nearing its end without much visible progress toward reaching a comprehensive global climate deal. These were the first full-fledged climate negotiations since the disappointing December summit in Copenhagen which came up only with a nonbinding political declaration.

The Bonn meeting is to pave the way to the next U.N. climate summit in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year which some countries hope will provide a breakthrough.

Figueres did not say if she thinks a deal is possible in Cancun.

"It is too simplistic to focus on: Do we have a legally binding treaty and if so by when," she said.

Even if a treaty is agreed on, "I don't believe that we will ever have a final agreement on climate, certainly not in my lifetime."

Her predecessor de Boer, who had struck a pessimistic note on Monday saying in his final speech to Bonn delegates that he had given up on ambitious short-term climate goals, said he was hopeful for the long term.

"We are on a long journey to address climate change," de Boer said.

While at this point the goal to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) is in danger, the issue "takes more than one round of negotiations," he said.

"I am confident that in Cancun you will not only try but succeed" in setting up a stucture for the fight against climate change, he said.

Scientists say industrial countries need to cut their emissions by 25-40 percent as compared to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050. So far, pledges to cut greenhouse gases only add up to about 13-14 percent by 2020.

Nonetheless, Figueres said industrial countries could still meet the tough cuts needed, as their governments acknowledge the gap and are working on improvements.

"I am also confident that we'll see technology breakthroughs to also fill this gap," she said.

Alden Meyer, of the U.S.-based group Union of Concerned Scientists, said expectations of Figueres were high.

"She has the personality and she has skills" to facilitate progress, Meyer said, noting Figueres' 15 years as a Costa Rican climate negotiator.

Figueres said no one should mistake her for naive in her optimistic outlook.

"I have been through the ups and downs of the process," she said. "I am fully aware that we are not there yet. This is a long-term process."

She insisted the Copenhagen summit had yielded some positive results, despite ending with a nonbinding political declaration that disappointed many. Specifically, she noted rich countries' commitments to provide billions in aid to poorer nations as well as voluntary pledges for emissions reductions.

The upcoming Cancun summit will be the "time for delivery" on these promises, she said. "I am convinced that Cancun is going to be very productive, that it is going to be successful."

In Bonn, however, delegates from 185 nations seemed caught up in technical questions without making much headway on the crunch issues, said May Boeve of the climate group 350.org.

Experts were discussing a rough draft of a document that could become the core of the climate treaty. For now, it still leaves all of the major issues open — particularly questions about which countries should have to cut emissions and by what amount, and how to generate funds to help poor nations fight climate change.

"We are still looking for breakthroughs" before the talks end Friday, Boeve said.

New UN climate chief calls for more ambition
Richard Black, BBC News 9 Jun 10;

The incoming head of the UN climate convention has said rich nations must pledge bigger emission cuts if climate change is to be tackled effectively.

But Christiana Figueres said she was confident that leaders would meet the challenge "because humanity has to meet it - we don't have another option."

Ms Figueres was speaking at a two-week session of UN negotiations in Bonn.

She said the mood was "constructive"; but major differences are evident between different groups of countries.

In particular, some developing countries are angry at what they see as western nations' attempts to insert new loopholes into regulations on how emissions from land use change are accounted for, which could allow western nations to cut actual emissions by less than they have pledged.

Developing countries are also once again asking for more ambitious cuts from the west.

Analyses suggest that pledges made in Copenhagen, if implemented fully, would put the Earth on course for 3C or even 4C of warming since pre-industrial times, rather than the 2C that many countries say they want to stay below.

"[The pledges] are not ambitious enough to protect the most vulnerable of the Earth, and they need to grow," Ms Figueres told reporters.

"Let's admit the glass is not half full yet; but is starting to fill again."

Ms Figueres, a Costa Rican diplomat and 15-year veteran of the UN climate process, takes over from the current UNFCCC executive secretary Yvo de Boer early next month.
Confidence shaken

Mistakes had been made, she said, at December's Copenhagen summit, which was intended to provide a comprehensive package of measures to combat the causes and impacts of climate change - the conclusion to a commitment made by all governments at the 2007 summit in Bali - but which ended with no such thing.

In particular, she said, negotiations in the final days, between small groups of nations chosen by the Danish host government and some important nations from the developed and developing worlds, lacked transparency and inclusiveness.

"What we need to be mindful of is that all interests that will be there among parties of the UNFCCC are represented," she said.

"That did not happen in Copenhagen."

The European Commission's Laurence Graff said events in Copenhagen had damaged public confidence in the UN process.

"From the public side, there was such a wide gap betwen the expectations at Copenhagen and what it delivered that it was very damaging indeed.

"There is a trust issue in relation to the process - and hence the need, here and later, to show that the process is delivering."

She also acknowledged the effect on public opinion of questions that have been raised over the integrity of climate science, but said the science was solid, and that negotiations should move ahead on that basis.
'Holocaust' warning

Looking ahead to this year's summit in Cancun, Mexico, Ms Figueres said it was wrong to think in terms of achieving or not achieving a legally-binding treaty.

Instead, she said, the summit should be about delivery - following through on pledges to curb emissions, and - on the part of the rich - to provide money to help developing nations adapt to climate impacts.

Agreements on issues such as reducing deforestation could be an important part of this, she noted.

But it is clear that developing countries want more.

Quamrul Chowdhury, principal negotiator for Bangladesh, emphasised that his country and its allies were looking for nothing less than "a legally-binding, ambitious, fair and balanced" agreement.

"At Bali, we had the mandate to complete our task at Copenhagen," he said.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't deliver at Copenhagen; and if we can't deliver at Cancun... it will be unfortunate, it will be tragic, it will be a holocaust."

This meeting ends on Friday, and will be followed by one or two more sets of negotiations before the Cancun summit in November and December.


World At Risk Of "Red Card" Over Climate: De Boer
Reuters 10 Jun 10;

Climate negotiators gave a standing ovation to the outgoing head of the U.N. climate change secretariat Wednesday even after he told them they would be at risk of a red card in a soccer match for wasting time.

Dutchman Yvo de Boer, who steps down from July 1 after four years in the job, said governments were doing too little to stick to a promise to limit a rise in world temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) above pre-industrial times.

In a farewell address at 185-nation climate talks in Bonn, he noted that the world failed to agree a binding treaty at a Copenhagen summit in December. The next major ministerial meeting is in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29-December 10.

"To move toward World Cup imagery: we got a yellow card in Copenhagen and the referee's hand will edge toward the red one if we fail to deliver in Cancun and beyond," he said.

De Boer raised the profile of negotiations with straight-talking about climate change that is likely to hit the poor hardest. "You gave a voice to the vulnerable countries," Leon Charles of Grenada told him during a ceremony.

After a standing ovation for de Boer, his successor, Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, presented him with a pair of shoes and showed a photograph of how small her feet were in comparison.

Greenpeace said: "Figueres...said she has big shoes to fill. Greepeace recommends running shoes."

Read more!

Majority of Americans Still 'Believe' in Global Warming

LiveScience.com 9 Jun 10;

Three out of four Americans believe our planet has been warming as the result of human activity, down from the 84 percent who said so in 2007, according to survey results released today.

"Several national surveys released during the last eight months have been interpreted as showing that fewer and fewer Americans believe that climate change is real, human-caused and threatening to people," said Woods Institute Fellow Jon Krosnick, of Stanford University. "But our new survey shows just the opposite."

With funding from the National Science Foundation, Krosnick conducted the survey from June 1-7, including telephone interviews with 1,000 randomly selected adults.

When asked if the Earth's temperature probably had been heating up over the last 100 years, 74 percent of the respondents said yes. And 75 percent said that human behavior was substantially responsible for any warming that has occurred.

Behind the shifts

As for the decline between 2007 and now, Krosnick said it is "attributable to perceptions of recent weather changes by the minority of Americans who have been skeptical about climate scientists."

In terms of average Earth temperature, 2008 was the coldest year since 2000, Krosnick said, adding that these year-to-year fluctuations in temperature aren't meaningful in the overall picture of Earth's climate trends.

Even so, "people who do not trust climate scientists base their conclusions on their personal observations of nature," Krosnic said. "These 'low-trust' individuals were especially aware of the recent decline in average world temperatures; they were the ones in our survey whose doubts about global warming have increased since 2007."

The decline in those who support the idea that global warming is occurring is just temporary, Krosnic said, adding that if the temperatures on Earth increase again, so will this group's leaning with the large majority who agree our planet is on a warming trend.

Climate skeptics

The so-called climategate controversy, in which e-mail messages were hacked from the computer system at the University of East Anglia in England and characterized climate scientists as colluding to silence unconvinced colleagues, made headlines in December 2009 and had many suggesting it would negatively impact the public's view of the validity of climate-change science.

That didn't bear out in this survey, with only 9 percent of respondents saying they knew about the East Anglia e-mail messages and believing they indicate that climate scientists should not be trusted. Only 13 percent said the same about the controversial Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports. There was some controversy over a few errors in the reports that scientists have said are minor in the grand scope of climate science and do not change the fundamental findings of the report.

"Overall, we found no decline in Americans' trust in environmental scientists," Krosnick said. "Fully 71 percent of respondents said they trust scientists a moderate amount, a lot or completely."

Results also suggest Americans support government action to combat global warming, including:

* 86 percent of respondents said they wanted the federal government to limit the amount of air pollution businesses emit;
* 78 percent opposed taxes on electricity to reduce consumption, and 72 percent opposed taxes on gasoline;
* 84 percent favored the federal government offering tax breaks to encourage utilities to use more alternative energy sources, such as making electricity from water, wind and solar power;
* 4 out of 5 respondents favored the government requiring or offering tax breaks to encourage the production of cars that use less gas (81 percent), appliances that use less electricity (80 percent) and homes and office buildings that require less energy to heat and cool (80 percent);
* And only 14 percent said that the United States should not take action to combat global warming unless other major industrial countries, such as China and India, do so as well.

However, a recent survey by esearchers at Yale and George Mason universities found that while most Americans like the idea of conservation, few practice it in their everyday lives.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 9 Jun 10

Athyrium accedens: New Record of Fern for Singapore
from Flying Fish Friends

Been to Cyrene: Succulent Drumstick and Mystery Tentacles
from Cyrene Reef Exposed!

Raffles Museum Treasures: Clown anemonefish
from Lazy Lizard's Tales

Seagrass-Watch Magazine Issue 40 March 2010
from teamseagrass

Paddyfield Pipit’s failed nesting
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Read more!

Sand dredgers back in Koh Kong, Cambodia

Vong Sokheng The Phnom Penh Post 9 Jun 10;

Ships have reportedly bolstered operations in area, and there are also concerns on the Mekong

SAND-DREDGERS have resumed large-scale operations in Koh Kong province’s salt-water estuaries since June 2 after a drop-off in dredging activities as a result of a sand-export ban last year, local fishermen said Tuesday.

Matt Sen, a 47-year-old fisherman from Village 4 in Smach Meanchey district’s Dong Tung commune, said Tuesday that about 10 transport ships are now waiting in the ocean to transport sand offshore.

He added that fishermen were using around 8 litres of gasoline per day in order to access deepwater areas where the fish are still plentiful, and blamed the dredgers for fish declines in shallow areas.

“I don’t know about the environmental impact. I only know that when there are sand-dredging companies in the sea there are no fish,” he said.

Last month, London-based watchdog Global Witness released a report on Cambodia’s sand trade that said that up to 796,000 tonnes of sand was being removed from Koh Kong each month.

The group estimates that the annual value of these shipments is US$28.7 million in Cambodia and $248 million once the sand reaches Singapore, and that the trade is being conducted with little regard for international standards or local laws.

Last month, fishermen and local officials told the Post that dredging – including one large-scale operation run jointly by Hong Kong’s Winton Enterprises and the local LYP Group – had stopped in the area following the sand-export ban, which was announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen in May and July of last year.

Pech Siyon, director of the Koh Kong provincial Department of Industry, Mines and Energy, also said last month that only one company, Udom Seima Trading, was dredging in the area. He added that the LYP/Winton operation had shut down pending the renewal of its sand-export licence.

When contacted Tuesday, he denied the fishermen’s claims that dredging had increased, saying the situation remained unchanged.

“I have no information about whether the company will have its licence for export renewed or not, but the sand-dredging companies are still operating as normal,” he said.

Fresh dredging concerns have also been raised by villagers living along the Mekong River in Kandal province’s Khsach Kandal district.

On Sunday, around 200 villagers from Chong Koh village protested against operations that they say are eroding riverbanks and threatening farmland.

Khsach Kandal Governor Kong Sophon said an unnamed sand company had received a dredging licence from the government, but that some of its operations had been undertaken in areas where dredging was not permitted

“Our local authorities, village representatives and the company will meet tomorrow to resolve the complaints filed by the villagers,” he said.

Read more!

Ensuring Singaporeans don't go hungry

Ex-AVA chief working on project to create vast food bowl in China
Chang Ai-Lien, Straits Times 9 Jun 10;

YOU'D think Dr Ngiam Tong Tau has had enough on his plate over the past 30 years given his job to ensure the food we eat is safe, but that mission is small beer compared to his new project.

It is, to put it simply, to create a vast food bowl in China that can produce a reliable source of healthy veggies, fruit, milk and meat for the ever-demanding palates of Singaporeans far into the future.

As national initiatives go, this one deserves a seat at the top table.

The multi-billion-dollar undertaking will involve creating an agricultural space twice the size of Singapore that can churn out everything from pork, beef and milk to rice, strawberries and ginseng.

Dr Ngiam, the former chief of the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), tells The Straits Times: 'From production and processing to research and safety, the idea is that we will be turning out food that's ready to market, whether it's fresh, frozen or canned.

'It's our most ambitious project to date; it could well fill a very significant portion of Singapore's future food needs.'

If that is not enough to digest, the proposed 1,450 sq km food zone in Jilin in north-eastern China can serve another purpose as well - as a showcase for Singapore's renowned standards in food hygiene and its embrace of all things high-tech.

Dr Ngiam, 67, says that while Jilin's wind-swept grasslands are fertile, technology could help boost yields.

This could mean using better-quality seeds and merging small farms through cooperatives to create economies of scale.

And animal waste would be put into 'biodigestors' to produce methane for cooling and heating and to generate the farm's electricity. Any excess would go into China's national grid.

This would also prevent pollution of the waterways, adds Dr Ngiam, who is a senior consultant to Singbridge International Singapore, a Temasek Holdings subsidiary and one of the key local agencies involved in the effort.

Singapore's tough approach to disease control would be used to create an area free of foot-and-mouth disease and other livestock scourges.

Bio-security checkpoints would be set up to ensure that people disinfect their hands, clothes and footwear when going into or out of farms.

'Singapore is well known the world over for its tough safety regime and Jilin is very keen to replicate this,' he says. 'They have had sporadic outbreaks and the problem is that once this occurs, it's a big blow because you cannot export for at least six months.

'For us, sourcing for beef, pork and mutton has been very difficult precisely because our meat sources have been limited by such outbreaks.'

Turning a vision into reality

THE scope and scale of the agri-vision are certainly impressive and no one underestimates the difficulty of turning it into reality.

And so far, a vision is all there is. Work is still being done to study whether the China Jilin (Singapore) Modern Agricultural Food Zone, as it will be called, can be commercially viable, he says.

An ongoing feasibility study will take about nine months and if the project gets the nod, Singbridge and the Jilin municipal government will jointly invest in the food zone, which will take 15 years to build.

Chinese officials have said they will invest $22.7 billion in the venture. Singapore has not indicated how much it will fork out.

The project will see the Jilin city municipal government collaborating with local agencies such as the AVA and local firm Singapore Food Industries, which has taken the lead by signing a $32 million deal to set up a pig farm in the area over the next six years.

Singapore Food Industries aims to be able to produce a million pigs each year for Singapore - more than half the pork eaten here - by as early as 2020.

The Jilin project has a special resonance for Dr Ngiam, who for decades has been lobbying for Singapore to buy farmland overseas to widen its food safety net. His efforts to purchase overseas plots in the 1990s, whether Australian farmland or Argentinian pastures, fell flat because investors were uninterested. And the AVA, as a regulator, could not invest in farms.

It left him worried that when it came to the crunch, Singaporeans would go hungry.

'We needed to have an area large enough and to secure this food source for Singapore in times of a worldwide shortage,' says Dr Ngiam, a Colombo Plan scholar and a veterinarian who spent 36 years at the AVA.

'Farming is a long-term proposition. If you get the basics right, it can be sustainable for a very long time, but it's not for those looking for fast returns.'

He likens the land in Jilin to the prairies of Canada, and Iowa in the United States.

While the province is snowed under four months of the year, its rich soil and vastness make it ideal for growing all the animal feed needed for the livestock, which means lower transport costs and a smaller carbon footprint in meat production.

Jilin also has a good track record in logistics and is near the port of Dalian. The mountains in the east and south and wetlands and rivers in the north make it easier to control diseases.

One area of possible concern is China's poor reputation in food safety but Dr Ngiam is confident that will not tarnish the Jilin project.

'This problem can be overcome because we're going to enforce Singapore's stringent safety standards and give it the Singapore mark of safety and quality. That's how people will trust us.'

While this could be its biggest overseas project, the AVA is not one for putting all its eggs in one basket.

It has thrown its food security net far and wide, netting fish from Namibia, harvesting rice from Vietnam and eggs from the US to complement the usual regional sources.

The food watchdog has also been working to provide Indonesia with the technology to produce vegetables for export to Singapore, to add to its traditional food sources such as Malaysia and Thailand.

Besides Jilin, Dr Ngiam is also in negotiations to use a 70 sq km area in Sichuan, one-tenth the size of Singapore, to produce cheap organic fruit, vegetables, milk, herbs and even tea for another Singapore-based supermarket chain here.

The food safety adviser for NTUC FairPrice, who helped the supermarket chain develop its own successful brand of Pasar Organic vegetables ranging from sweet potato to kangkong sourced from Thailand, says: 'It's all about giving people a wider choice for their food.'

But this has been possible because of his sustained efforts over the years in setting up a rigorous inspection structure to check for contamination and react to any animal disease outbreak.

'With disease, it's all black and white, because if you allow for grey areas then something will slip in, not only bird flu but other threats as well,' he says.

'We put in such stringent checks because it's much easier to anticipate or prevent an outbreak than to deal with it after it happens.'

Funding agricultural research

NO ONE is happier than him to see more money now being pumped into agricultural research, which he feels is as important as biomedical research because it could lead to potential money-spinners like quick tests for contaminants to new me-thods of harnessing small spaces to maximise yields.

The AVA has set up a $5 million food fund to support people here who venture into farming, particularly to produce chicken, pork, fish, eggs, leafy vegetables or rice.

It will also help pay for feasibility studies on investments in overseas food zones, contract farming and sourcing from places that are not major exporters to Singapore.

The aim of all these is to eventually help Singapore meet its goal of raising local production of fish from 4 per cent of domestic demand now to 15 per cent, eggs from 23 per cent to 30 per cent and leafy vegetables from 7 per cent to 10 per cent.

Dr Ngiam is confident these quotas can be met and exceeded.

'What we need is a multi-pronged approach, to bring engineering companies here to work with our farms to develop efficient land-based 'fish factories' or come up with treatment facilities for poultry to convert waste into fertilisers, minus the stench.

'I believe we can do enough so that even if our outside supplies are cut off, we will have enough to live on for six months in terms of fresh vegetables, eggs and fish at least.'

Veteran veterinarian
Straits Times 9 Jun 10;

VETERINARIAN Ngiam Tong Tau has been at the forefront of Singapore's agriculture and veterinary developments for the past 26 years.

Dr Ngiam, 67, worked at the Primary Production Department (PPD) and the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) for 36 years.

He joined PPD in 1969 and was appointed director of primary production in 1984.

He became chief executive officer and director-general when PPD was restructured into a statutory board, AVA.

Dr Ngiam established a food safety programme to ensure a safe and sustained food supply and was instrumental in developing agrotechnology parks and aquaculture in Singapore.

He also helped build up Singapore's lucrative ornamental fish and orchid industries.

His efforts were instrumental in keeping Singapore free of exotic infectious diseases in plants, animals and fish, such as rabies and bird flu. He retired in 2005.

A Public Administration Meritorious Medal winner, he was adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore's school of biological sciences from 1993 to 2005.

He now sits on the boards of five food and agriculture-related companies, and chaired the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee - the national GM watchdog - from 2000 to April this year.

Dr Ngiam is executive vice-president (special projects) at United Engineers, a listed environmental engineering and construction company.

He also provides consultancy and technical support services in areas such as veterinary medicine, food safety and agrotechnology, and waste management and treatment to five companies in Singapore, Vietnam and China.

These include integrated food company Singapore Food Industries and Temasek Holdings subsidiary Singbridge International Singapore.

He is the younger brother of former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow, 73. His wife, Nina, is a housewife, and they have two children: a daughter, 38, a doctor, and a son, 35, an architect.

Of cats and dogs
Straits Times 9 Jun 10;

Q Speculation is rife as to whether Singapore allows in genetically modified (GM) foods and why. Care to explain?

Yes, it does, mainly corn and soya beans and products made from them. I think most Singaporeans accept GM produce here is safe.

So far we have not seen any reports pointing to GM foods causing harm to human beings; in the United States, people have been eating such crops for 20 years.

Q Are bird flu and other such diseases a thing of the past now?

The threat is always there; that's why biosecurity is so important in Singapore.

It hasn't always been easy.

During the bird flu outbreak, we initially had to work very hard to persuade the chicken farms just to provide netting so that wild birds could not enter.

Now they have done much more to ensure the farms are safe, such as perimeter fencing and restricting visitors.

Having said that, diseases are unpredictable. Now and then, they strike even countries with very strict measures in place.

Q Why are cats still not allowed to be kept in HDB flats?

If we want to do so, then owners will need to have the discipline to make sure the cats do not get out and create a nuisance to their neighbours.

If they can do that, then why not?

My feeling is that cats, in that sense, are no different than other pets such as dogs, which also cause problems because of barking. It all boils down to educating people and being considerate.

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Coral bleaching in the Andaman Sea: Rains come to coral's rescue

Bangkok Post 9 Jun 10;

Coral bleaching in the Andaman Sea is expected to ease with the arrival of the rainy season, officials say.

Wannakiat Thubthimsaeng, director of the Phuket Marine Biological Centre (PMBC), said the average sea temperature in the Andaman Sea had fallen because of the influence of the southwestern monsoon that brings cooler water from the Gulf of Bengal.

The decreasing sea temperature would ease the coral bleaching in the area, he said. Coral normally lives at temperatures of between 28C and 29C.

Severe bleaching in the Andaman began to be noticed early last month when temperatures jumped as high as 31C.

Coral reefs in the Andaman Sea off Phangnga, Krabi and Phuket, including popular diving sites such as the Similan, Phi Phi and Surin islands, have been damaged by the phenomenon.

Between 50% and 90% of coral reef inside the marine national parks boundary has been bleached.

The affected national parks include Had Chao Mai and Mu Koh Lanta in Trang province and Petra and Tarutao in Satun.

"Forty percent of coral reef in the affected area has already died," Mr Wannakiat said.

"But it doesn't mean that we will lose the coral reef forever. If the ecological system returns to normal, there is a high chance it will recover."

In a bid to allow the bleached coral to recover, the PMBC has asked for the cooperation of diving operators to avoid organising trips to the affected sites to reduce disturbance to marine life.

"We do not worry much about coral reef inside marine national parks because the parks will be closed during the monsoon season, but coral reefs outside the protected area are prone to human disturbance," he said.

If the bleaching was not too severe, the coral would take at least four months to recover, but in serious cases, it might take up to five years, he said.

A PMBC survey found coral species hardest hit were staghorn, mountain, mushroom, boomerang, ring, fine spined and cauliflower corals.

Read more!

Great Barrier Reef In Brunei

Ubaidillah Masli Brunei Direct 9 Jun 10;

Bandar Seri Begawan - What the largest coral reef formation in the world boasts, Brunei has, in just 50 square kilometres or 0.12 per cent of its waters, The Brunei Times learned yesterday.

"You have as many species of coral as the Great Barrier Reef," said Dr Lyndon DeVantier, a freelance coral ecologist who has carried out marine reef studies for various countries in the Indo-Pacific region for more than 25 years.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef, which stretches some 2,300km along the Queensland coastline is home to about 350 to 400 species of soft and hard coral, supporting a rich, complex system of marine biodiversity. Meanwhile, a past study on Brunei's waters found that the Sultanate's coral reef cover, although comparably smaller, had over 400 species living in an ecosystem so bountiful that the country was invited into the multi-nation Coral Triangle Initiative.

Dr DeVantier, who was involved in Brunei's marine biodiversity research carried out in 2008 and 2009, and is currently a consultant for the Department of Fisheries, said in an interview yesterday that the living, calcium-carbonate structures faced threats such as coral bleaching, being preyed upon by carnivorous starfish and damage from fishing activities.

The coral ecologist was among the experts on hand to show and explain to a delegation of senior officials from the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources the state of some of Brunei's reefs at Two Fathom Rocks, located about five nautical miles off the Sultanate's shores. The viewing of the reefs via a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) and scuba-divers was among the activities organised by the Fisheries Department to commemorate World Oceans Day.

Dr DeVantier said that the reefs in the area were "very representative" of Brunei's reefs. with the high diversity of reef species and the good, high coral cover.

He said that they had observed a "small" amount of coral bleaching, or whitening of the coral indicating the loss of the living counterpart of the symbiotic system, which was likely due to high water temperatures.

This is a big problem in Thailand and part of the Philippines, but not so much in
Brunei as yet," he said.

There was also an issue of coral deaths from the crown-of-thorns starfish, a large, venomous spine-covered sea star which preys upon coral polyps. Dr DeVantier said that the problem was found throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Although at the moment the coral ecologist said that it was mostly Brunei's offshore reefs that were affected by the starfish.

He also stressed the need to restore fish stock in the reefs, which, he noted, the Department of Fisheries have been actively pursuing.

This included initiatives such as placing temporary fishing bans at reef areas where fish numbers were low, implementing a quota system and issuing fishing licences to
control fishing in these areas as well as zonation of Brunei's sovereign maritime territories.

The Two Fathom Rocks itself has also been the site of reef rejuvenation operations. The Fisheries Department has had the assistance of the Brunei Shell Petroleum Company Sdn Bhd in sinking a total of seven decommissioned oil platforms in the area to serve as artificial reefs or "reef duplicates".

"These reef duplicates perform similar function to their original (counterparts) in enriching marine life sources in the waters of Brunei Darussalam. They also function as barricades for commercial fishing boats (from) entering the restricted areas such as Zone 1 (located three nautical miles from the shore)," the Fisheries Department said in a statement.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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No moratorium on dugong hunting in Australia

Brisbane Times 8 Jun 10;

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett will not support a moratorium on killing dugongs, believing better policing and education will stop the gentle animals being hunted to extinction.

Mr Garrett was in Cairns today to commit $15 million to measure water quality improvements made through a federal program that supports farmers to cut the amount of nutrients that leave their farms and flow into the Great Barrier Reef.

Calls for a crackdown on illegal dugong netting in far north Queensland have been growing since the bodies of three of the endangered creatures were discovered near Cairns in April.

Only one could be saved.

Former federal Liberal MP Warren Entsch, who is contesting the next election, believes indigenous people have taken advantage of laws that allow them to hunt dugong and have set up a lucrative dugong meat industry.

Traditional owners can hunt the animals using traditional means, but netting is banned.

Conservationist Bob Irwin, father of the late "crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin, is calling for a moratorium.

But Mr Garrett said it was unnecessary at this point.

Compliance officers and training programs to ensure dugongs were hunted in sustainable numbers would take time to have an effect, he said.

"I am confident that if we put those measures in place and see them through then it's an issue that can be properly addressed without a moratorium," Mr Garrett told reporters.

Traditional land owners would welcome the support, Mr Garrett said.

"We recognise that some indigenous people have specific rights, they are cultural rights, they are not commercial rights," he said.

"It is just a question of making sure that everybody understands what their rights and responsibilities are and make sure that they put them into practice."

AAP

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World Oceans Day - Our oceans: opportunities and challenges

UNEP 8 Jun 10;

8 June 2010, World Oceans Day – Billions of dollars and thousands of lives can be saved if we address the loss of marine and coastal biodiversity and ecosystem services through improved governance. This is a key theme of World Oceans Day, celebrated on 8 June 2010 for the second year running.

In his message for World Oceans Day, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "If we are to safeguard the capacity of the oceans to service society's many and varied needs, we need to do much more. On this second annual commemoration of World Oceans Day, I urge Governments and citizens everywhere to acknowledge the enormous value of the world's oceans - and do their part in ensuring their health and vitality."

Ocean ecosystems are under great stress from multiple challenges including exposure to land and marine based pollution, habitat loss and fragmentation, climate change, unsustainable harvests and the introduction of exotic invasive species.

Coastal ecosystem services are valued at around US$25,000 billion per year through areas like food production, storm and flood regulatory services, climate change mitigation and carbon sequestration. Yet these values are often overlooked when national development policies are prepared, much to the detriment of the poorest.

Because of the weakening of these key ecosystems, about 270 million people are affected annually and some 124,000 killed worldwide every year by natural disasters including floods and droughts. Yet these can be prevented by reducing deforestation of catchments as well as restoring wetlands, mangroves and coral reefs.

This year, the UN Environment Programme is commemorating World Oceans Day at UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi with the screening of Ωcéans, a film by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud film. The documentary is designed to raise awareness of the need to protect our oceans,

Using new underwater cameras that followed sea life over the course of four years in 50 locations around the world, Ωcéans is a timely reminder of the incredible beauty of a little-known, but fragile world. The crews – including some of the world's most experienced underwater cinematographers – captured about 200 species of fish, dolphins, whales, squid, lizards, crabs, turtles and creatures that defy classification.

Coasts of life: helping tropical seaside communities cope with climate change
UN Media Release 8 Jun 10;

Climate change is hitting coastal areas hard: rises in sea levels, ocean acidification, extreme events, bleaching and death of coral are all climate impacts which will require adjustments socially and economically. A new IUCN report, published today, provides practical guidance for coastal communities and industries to adapt to climate change.

By 2015 half of the world's population will be living within 100 km of the coast. Some 500 million people, mostly in developing countries, depend on coral reefs for food and income. However a fifth of coral reefs have disappeared and another 35 percent are under threat because of climate change. Intensive fishing, inappropriate coastal construction and pollution further increase the vulnerability to climate change of such ecosystems and of the people who depend on them.

“Climate change is the biggest challenge faced by coastal communities and industries around the world,” says Carl Gustaf Lundin, Head of IUCN’s Global Marine Programme. “Setting a reliable and sustainable framework for adaptation is an urgent necessity.”

As talks under the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) are currently ongoing in Bonn, the IUCN report “A Framework for Social Adaptation to Climate Change: Sustaining Tropical Coastal Communities and Industries” is a guide to assess the vulnerability of coastal communities and provides economic and social tools to build resilience and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Adaptation to climate change is at the heart of negotiations towards a post-2012 climate deal, and building resilience of societies and ecosystems through economic diversification and the management of natural resources is considered key in this regard.

"We must increase our understanding not only of how nature responds to climate change, but of the factors that enable people and industries to cope and adapt," says Jerker Tamelander, Oceans and Climate Change manager at IUCN and one of the authors of the report.

For example, as traditional sources of income are being depleted in the Maldives’ Baa Atoll, one of the places on earth most threatened by climate change, a coping and adaptation strategy has been put in place to provide business and marketing training to complement existing handicraft production skills. An initiative in the Bar Reef area of Sri Lanka has helped communities develop livelihoods consistent with their culture while reducing the dependence on wild capture fisheries, by helping people analyze available natural resources, local economic patterns, services available to the community and other characteristics.

By learning how people assess and manage risks, how they learn, plan and take decisions, their access to and ability to utilize networks, and what assets are at their disposal, more effective development strategies can be devised.

"People and policymakers increasingly comprehend the implications of climate change and are embracing the need for adaptation. This publication helps direct adaptation initiatives on the ground," Tamelander adds.

To download the report: http://www.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/2010-022.pdf

Note to editors:
The report was prepared through a working group on Climate Change and Coral Reefs, hosted by IUCN, in collaboration with Coastal Ocean Research Development Indian Ocean (CORDIO), the Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organisation (CSIRO) of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence on Coral Reef Studies, with the support of the MacArthur Foundation and the Government of Finland.

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Snakes may be in decline worldwide: study

Yahoo News 9 Jun 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Distinct populations of snake species on three continents have crashed over the last decade, raising fears that the reptiles may be in global decline, according to a study published Wednesday.

The pattern across the eight species monitored was alarmingly similar despite their geographical isolation, which points to a common cause such as climate change, the researchers said.

Other factors known to play a role include habitat loss, pollution, disease, lack of prey and over-exploitation, either for food or trade.

The study showed that 11 of 17 snake populations in Britain, France, Italy, Nigeria and Australia dropped off sharply over a four-year period starting in the late 1990s.

"Our data revealed an alarming trend," the authors reported in the British Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

"Two-thirds of the monitored populations collapsed, and none have shown any sign of recover over nearly a decade since the crash. Unfortunately, there is no reason to expect a reversal of this trend."

Snakes are top predators among reptiles, and a sharp decline in their numbers would likely have serious consequences for many ecosystems.

Earlier studies have turned up dwindling numbers for certain species and in some regions, especially the Mediterranean basin.

But the new study presents the first evidence that snakes in the tropics are also in trouble.

Depending on the continent, population declines varied depending on sex, with females disappearing significantly more rapidly than males in most cases.

So-called 'sit-and-wait' foragers -- snakes that lie motionless, waiting for prey to come within striking distance -- are also more severely depleted in numbers than counterparts which are active hunters.

The fact that the declines observed happened in different corners of the globe over the same short time points to a single problem.

"We suggest that there is likely to be a common cause at the root of the declines, and that this indicates a more widespread phenomenon," the study concluded.

Snakes in mysterious global decline
Richard Black, BBC News 9 Jun 10;

Snakes may be declining across the world, according to a global study.

Researchers examined records for 17 snake populations covering eight species over the last few decades, and found most had declined markedly.

For reasons that are not entirely clear, some populations shrank in number abruptly around 1998.

Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers describe the findings as "alarming" but say much more work is needed to understand the causes.

"This is the first time that data has been analysed in this way, and what we've shown is that in different parts of the world we seem to have this steep decline in a short period," said project leader Chris Reading.

"It surprised us when we realised what we were looking at," he told BBC News.

"And we don't have a clue what it was about that period of time (around 1998)."

Dr Reading's team at the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology ran the study with institutions in Australia, France, Italy and Nigeria.

Data deficiencies

The main problem for anyone wanting to conduct a global survey such as this is simply lack of data.

Monitoring snake populations means marking the individuals in some way - typically by snipping a pattern into their scales, or implanting a microchip.

Field seasons can last for many months, and have to be repeated annually.

The researchers believe they amassed most, if not all, long-term datasets for this study - although "long-term" in this context means going back more than one decade, in some cases more than two.

Nevertheless, within this relatively short timeframe, eight of the 17 populations were seen to fall markedly in size - some by more than 90% - with only one showing any sign of a rise.

Species in decline include the asp and the smooth snake from Europe, the Gabon viper and rhinoceros viper of West Africa, and the royal python.Populations shrank even in protected areas, suggesting that the progressive loss of habitat for wild animals being seen all over the world is not the only cause.

Similar steep declines observed in frogs and newts in an earlier period were eventually found to be caused by the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.

The year when many of the snake declines began - 1998 - raises the question of whether climatic factors might be involved, as very strong El Nino conditions contributed to making it the hottest year recorded in modern times.

Dr Reading's research group suggests many causes might be involved, and is appealing to other researchers to come forward with any more long-term datasets that might broaden the picture.

"The purpose of this paper was to say 'this is what we've found', and to say to other herpetologists 'now go and look at your own data'," he said.

"But I think that with so many populations in different places showing decline, it's more than co-incidence."

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Pahang Kuala Krau forest to be a bio-valley

The Star 9 Jun 10;

TEMERLOH: Pahang has gazetted 76,000ha of the Kuala Krau Forest Reserve near Lanchang as the state bio-valley.

Logging would be prohibited in the area, said state Information, Innovation, Science and Tech­nology Committee chairman Datuk Mohd Sharkar Sham­suddin.

With the move, he said any encroachment, felling of trees and poaching would banned in the 1,000-year-old forest.

“The forest is rich with wildlife such as rhinoceros, deer, antelope, napuh and wild ox,” he told reporters after attending the Biodiversity Goodwill Programme hosted by the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) in Bukit Rengit, Lanchang, yesterday.

Mohd Sharkar, who is also Lanchang assemblyman, said the state government was also planning to turn Lanchang into a natural food production centre with a honey processing factory and a mineral water plant being earmarked for the area.

“Lanchang has enough resources for the production of honey and mineral water. The projects will not only be a source of income for the local community but also the state government,” he said. — Bernama

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Rewards for recycling may encourage people to create waste

Plans have been dropped to penalise those with overstuffed bins, but the emphasis should be on unnecessary packaging
James Garvey guardian.co.uk 8 Jun 10;

What is the best way to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfills: the carrot or the stick? The Labour government considered both, taking some heat just for proposing the stick. Under pay as you throw schemes, electronic chips fitted to bins monitor and fine households which throw away too much. There was talk of Big Brother sifting through your rubbish and an unfair tax on large families. Unsurprisingly, the scheme was never taken forward.

Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, says that the new government will not go ahead with penalties for overstuffed bins. Instead, individuals can earn points for putting out more recyclable waste – points worth up to £130 in local shops. It's the same chip and bin technology, but now you earn points rather than pay fines. In a reward scheme piloted in Windsor and Maidenhead, 70% of the families offered the chance to take part did so. With every kilo of recycled waste worth 5.5 reward points, almost 6m points have been racked up so far. Instead of protests over sinister, automated bin inspectors, the good people of Windsor and Maidenhead voluntarily and possibly happily increased their recycling by 35% in six months. By January 2011 the scheme will be up and running for all households in the community – 60,000 people will get the chance to join in.

There's not much to choose between these two forms of behaviour modification. We've known for a while about reinforcing desired behaviour with rewards and extinguishing unwanted behaviour with punishments. A painful stimulus (a penalty charge) accompanying waste will lead to less wasteful behaviour. A pleasant stimulus (free stuff) accompanying recycling will lead to more recycling behaviour. There's almost no limit to what you can do with rewards and punishments. You could make a rat recycle the paper in its cage – it's just a matter of voltage.

What you can't do with this method is convey an understanding of the importance of recycling to your subject and change behaviour based on reasons rather than reactions. That's precisely the trouble with the carrot and stick approach to dealing with waste, and that's precisely why aspects of this scheme are a little suspect. It rewards people to produce more recyclable waste, rather than take steps to reduce the amount they produce in the first place. It rewards individuals for recycling disposable stuff by giving them the chance to buy yet more disposable stuff. It does nothing at all about the behaviour of the source of most of our household waste: the unnecessary packaging used by shops and suppliers. What's needed from the government isn't behaviour modification with a system of rewards and punishments. What's needed is an understanding of the problem and some help to solve it.

The point of recycling has to do with understanding the importance of reducing waste in a finite world. It costs energy and resources to make a plastic bottle, fill it with water, package it and ship it to your local shop. We currently get almost all of that energy by burning fossil fuels and doing damage to our climate. The resources which go into the bottle's production, distribution and disposal might have been used in other, better ways. Once empty, the bottle might take up space in a landfill or end up in the ocean. If you understand the value of reducing waste in a finite world – if you want to avoid a hand in wasting energy, causing climate change, squandering resources, poisoning oceans – you might think twice about buying a bottle of water. If you recycle because you earn reward points for doing so, you might just buy a lot of plastic bottles.

What is the best way to reduce the amount of waste we send to landfills? Something more subtle than carrots and sticks is needed. Recall that old bit of hippy wisdom: reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycling is third on the list. It's our last resort, the worst option. It's what we do if we can't help but use recyclable stuff in the first place. But there's a very great deal we can do instead. If the government is serious about meeting EU targets and cutting the waste we send to landfills by two thirds by 2020, it knows that it must do better than reward points for plastic bottles. It has to do something about the source of plastic bottles and the vast amount of waste produced by supermarkets each day. That's not to say it can ignore us. It also has to do something about the ordinary person's thought that buying a cabbage wrapped in plastic is a reasonable thing to do.

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