Best of our wild blogs: 9 Sep 13

Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [2 - 8 Sep 2013]
from Green Business Times

14 Sep (Sat): Free evening tour for families at Pasir Ris mangroves
from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

Running allowed at Chek Jawa?
from Peiyan.Photography

Reviving The National Soul
from a.t.Bukit Brown. Heritage. Habitat. History.

Trash at Pulau Ubin and fish farms nearby
from wild shores of singapore

Anniversary walk at Chek Jawa
from Peiyan.Photography

Three cuckoos in a day
from Bird Ecology Study Group

African Flame Snail
from Monday Morgue

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Singaporeans must take climate change seriously

Straits Times 9 Sep 13;

LAST Thursday's flood in the western part of Singapore which resulted in the closure of the Ayer Rajah Expressway serves as a timely reminder to all to take climate change seriously ("Flash floods shut down part of AYE for 40 mins"; last Friday).

While Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan affirmed that his ministry would be doing more to alleviate flooding, Singaporeans have to be mindful that this issue could be beyond the Government's ambit.

In recent years, Singapore has been hit by many flash floods, which were unprecedented in terms of scale and damage caused.

Being an island-state, it is a harbinger of a crisis if Singaporeans remain indifferent towards climate change as it threatens our very existence as a country. This is especially so, given that our drainage system is generally well-maintained by national water agency PUB.

The general sense of complacency among Singaporeans towards the environment has to change. Singaporeans have to do their part to mitigate climate change by:

- Recycling. Unfortunately, this is simply too onerous a task for most households. The National Environment Agency should make recycling bins more accessible to encourage recycling.

- Taking along one's own shopping bags. Retailers here dish out plastic bags freely without thought for its impact on the environment. Shoppers who take along their own bags are a rare breed. Perhaps we should emulate Taiwan and charge for plastic bags, to change consumers' behaviour.

- Eating less meat. It is undeniable that meat consumption, and hence, meat production, contributes to most of the greenhouse gas production. While it may not be possible for all to adopt a vegetarian diet, government institutions such as army camps can take the lead by adopting a meat-free day in their cook-houses. A vegetarian diet is a healthier option as well.

- Using less electricity. This can be as simple as switching off the lights when they are not in use.

Singapore has come to a critical juncture where we cannot afford to be apathetic towards climate change. It is clear that we have to adopt a green lifestyle for our survival.

Elgar Lee

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Give these noteworthy spots a new lease of life: Haw Par Villa and Lim Chu Kang beach

Heng Cho Choon Today Online 9 Sep 13;

Mr Chua Sheng Yang had some good suggestions in his letter on how to preserve the Singapore “soul” and “increase our vibrancy as a nation” (“Enough malls, use land for other activities”, Sept 7). I would like to add some noteworthy places in Singapore that are worth preserving to his list.

I hope the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) will do something to resurrect Haw Par Villa, which was built in 1937. In its heyday, it drew thousands of tourists daily. Does it have even 50 visitors a day now?

Let us spruce up the place with clean toilets, cafes and a new coat of paint for the statues. Tourists will then, hopefully, make a beeline for it.

Also facing an uncertain future are Singapore’s two remaining dragon kilns: At Thow Kwang Industry and at Focus Ceramic Services. Their leases were set to expire next year and 2015 respectively, but they were given some reprieve with new three-year tenancies that are renewable for another two terms of three years each.

If they eventually are torn down for development, a part of our Chinese culture will sink into oblivion and the next generation will know about such dragon kilns only from their history books.

Another sorely-neglected spot is Lim Chu Kang beach at the end of Lim Chu Kang Road. Near the Police Coast Guard Regional Base is a rickety pier that looks like it might disintegrate at anytime. At low tide, one can see huge amounts of trash that have washed up on the shore.

I hope the National Parks Board (NParks) will do more to spruce up this beach and build some boardwalks similar to those at Chek Jawa. This will bring some life and vibrancy to this part of Singapore.

More effort on the part of the STB, NParks and the National Heritage Board will bring more life and vibrancy to parts of Singapore. It will also help to boost tourism numbers.

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Economic woes may mute impact of U.N. report saying warming manmade

Alister Doyle and Nina Chestney PlanetArk 9 Sep 13;

Economic woes may mute impact of U.N. report saying warming manmade Photo: Jason Lee
Vehicles during a hazy winter day in Beijing January 12, 2013.
Photo: Jason Lee

The strongest scientific warning to date that global warming is man-made may have a muted impact when it is released later this month with many governments more focused on nursing weak economies than on fixing the planet.

Many are also still smarting from a failure to agree a global pact to fight climate change at a summit in Copenhagen in 2009 and wary of making bold promises under a new timetable meant to agree a global U.N. deal in 2015.

Even so, the planned release of a report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in Stockholm on September 26 - the main guide for government action - may mark the start of a revival of attention on global warming.

"Climate politics has been in a coma since Copenhagen," said Yvo de Boer, former head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, who led work at Copenhagen and now works at auditors KPMG. "I really hope the report can jolt us out of that coma."

A draft of the IPCC report seen by Reuters, which still has to be reviewed, raises the probability that climate change since the 1950s is mainly caused by human activities to "extremely likely", or at least 95 percent, from "very likely", or over 90 percent, in the last report in 2007.

Past IPCC reports have spurred U.N. talks with ever stronger warnings that greenhouse gases will cause more floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas. The impact may be less dramatic this time, partly because climate science is better known.

"Climate change is not taking us by surprise any longer," said Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme. "The report as such will not be an awakening moment."

But he said the report, the first of four about the climate in the next year, would underscore risks of inaction.

"I think that will be the focus of the public debate. What are we going to do to catch up with the lost time?" he said.

AUSTERITY

Among past reports, a 1995 IPCC report that concluded it was more than 50 percent likely that mankind was to blame for climate change helped spur talks that led to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol for cutting emissions by developed nations.

The 2007 IPCC report spurred two years of negotiations that led to a summit in Copenhagen where world leaders failed to clinch a global deal. Governments agreed two years ago to have another try, giving themselves until 2015.

Todd Stern, U.S. President Barack Obama's climate envoy, said there was "substantial political will" around the world to reach a deal in 2015 for limiting emissions and that "whatever comes out of the IPCC will only accentuate that desire."

"It's too early to say," Stern told Reuters when asked if Washington would reaffirm a 2009 pathway for steep cuts in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions of 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 and 42 percent by 2030.

The IPCC will face extra scrutiny after errors were found in the 2007 report, led by an exaggeration of the melt of Himalayan glaciers. A review by outside experts found that the main conclusions were unaffected.

Richard Klein, a senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute, said the economic crisis would overshadow the report but remained hopeful that economic recovery could improve the prospects for a global deal in 2015.

Even so, austerity makes it hard for developed nations to keep a promise of increasing aid to developing countries to a promised $100 billion a year by 2020, from $10 billion in 2012.

"An age of austerity has slowed down the international sources of climate finance which are part of a grand bargain," said Rachel Kyte, vice president of the World Bank for sustainable development.

Even though climate change has taken a back seat to the financial crisis, opinion polls indicate it is a top concern.

In a poll by the Pew Research Center in June, 54 percent of almost 40,000 respondents worldwide rated climate change a "major threat", higher than percentages for other worries led by international financial instability and Islamist extremism.

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G20 countries agree to phase down potent greenhouse gas

Valerie Volcovici PlanetArk 9 Sep 13

Leaders attending the Group of 20 summit of the world's biggest economies in St. Petersburg, Russia, agreed on Friday to phase down the use of certain potent greenhouse gases known to damage the climate.

The White House cited the agreement to cooperate on phasing down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), gases used in refrigerators, air conditioners and some industrial equipment, as one of the "most significant agreements" of the summit.

"This commitment marks an important step forward toward addressing HFCs - highly potent greenhouse gases that are rapidly increasing in use - through the proven mechanism of the Montreal Protocol," the White House said in a fact sheet.

Addressing HFCs also has climate benefits and can reduce as much as 90 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent between now and 2050, the White House said.

The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty established in 1987 that targets the production of various substances known to deplete the earth's ozone layer. The specifics of the agreement will be discussed at the next meeting of the protocol in October in Bangkok.

Separately, China and the United States, the world's top greenhouse gas emitters, agreed to take new steps on an HFC phasedown following there June agreement to cooperate.

The two countries agreed to set up a contact group to explore specific issues such as financial and technology support for developing countries under the Montreal Protocol, an step that marked the start of formal use of the protocol to phase down HFCs.

John Podesta, chairman of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, said the U.S.-China move was a milestone in "stepping outside of the historically deadlocked U.N. climate negotiations to tackle HFCs."

President Barack Obama's climate action plan, announced in June, calls on the U.S. to show international leadership on climate change.

Part of the effort involves the United States working with countries to push to include HFCs within the Montreal Protocol.

The administration has also called on countries to stop investing in coal-fired power plants overseas as part of its international climate strategy.

On the eve of the G-20 summit on Wednesday five Scandinavian countries backed Obama's call to end the financing of overseas coal plants.

(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, editing by Ros Krasny and Jackie Frank)

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Best of our wild blogs: 8 Sep 13

6 years of Nakedness at Chek Jawa
from wild shores of singapore

Javan Myna Eats Dwarf White Bauhinia Flower Petal
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Night Walk At Admiralty Park (06 Sep 2013)
from Beetles@SG BLOG

48th National Day at Pasir Ris Park
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

It's a Bird! No, it's a Butterfly!! Part 2
from Butterflies of Singapore

Indonesia finally establishes REDD+ agency to tackle deforestation
from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler

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Two Singaporean divers drown in Tioman

Simon Khoo The Star 8 Sep 13;

ROMPIN: Two Singaporeans drowned during a diving outing in Pantai Air Batang, Tioman, in a series of drowning incident involving foreigners in the popular island.

The victims, aged 35 and 48, were brought to the shore by other divers during the incident at about 12pm on Saturday.

Deputy OCPD Asst Supt Zainul Mujahidin Mat Yudin said cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed on the victims but they already turned pale and not breathing.

ASP Zainul Mujahidin said the case had been classified as sudden death and their remains had been sent for a post-mortem.

"Initial investigation showed both victims and a woman were in a group diving in the site about 25m from the shores.

"One of them was a diving instructor and the other his student," he said, adding that the woman who spotted the two men in difficulties quickly waved frantically for help.

ASP Zainul Mujahidin said a group of other divers nearby rushed to their assistance and managed to bring them out of the water.

However, both victims were confirmed dead and police were alerted to the scene.

Last month, a couple from Syria lost their eight-year-old in Pulau Salang after the child went for a swim without their knowledge.

Passers-by spotted the remains of Saad Abdul Karim Mohd Altayasinah floating in the water before alerting the authorities.

Police also recovered the remains of two unidentified persons, believed to be foreigners who have drowned, in Kampung Mukut and Pulau Tulai, respectively.

Both victims were decomposed and without any personal documents.

2 S'porean divers die at Tioman after air tanks run out
Maryam Mokhtar Straits Times 9 Sep 13;

A DIVING trip to Pulau Tioman turned tragic last Saturday after the body of a 35-year-old Singaporean man had to be pulled out of the water by his own wife.

Their 48-year-old diving instructor, also a Singaporean, died as well.

Both men are believed to have run out of air in their diving tanks, reported Chinese daily Shin Min.

The couple, the instructor and another woman had reached Tioman, located off the east coast of Pahang, last Friday for a three-day trip.

The group went diving around 25m from the shore the following day at about 11am, with the instructor taking the women out first. After the women returned, he took the man out.

Eyewitnesses at a nearby resort then heard a call for help from one of the women.

One witness saw the man's wife dragging him onto the beach, reported Chinese daily Wanbao.

Other bystanders said the body looked bloated. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.

The instructor, believed to have been based in Malaysia, was retrieved from the water shortly afterwards.

The victims were taken on a boat to a clinic at the nearest town centre some 10 minutes away, said Shin Min.

During preliminary investigations, the air tanks used by the two men were found to be empty, added the newspaper.

A Malaysian police officer handling the case said post-mortems on the two victims were completed yesterday morning. The police did not give their names.

Family members of the two men arrived at Kuantan Hospital early yesterday to collect the bodies.

Earlier this year, the body of Singapore Management University professor Winston Koh was recovered after he went missing during a scuba diving trip to Pulau Dayang, off Mersing in Johor.

Two Singaporeans die while diving in Tioman
Channel NewsAsia 8 Sep 13;

SINGAPORE: Two Singaporeans died while diving in Tioman on Saturday.

Malaysian police said the bodies of the two men, aged 35 and 49 years, were released on Sunday following a post mortem.

Channel NewsAsia understands from the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital in Kuantan that preliminary findings showed drowning to be the cause of death.

Malaysian police said the two victims were rushed to a clinic but died on the way there.

One of them was a diving coach and the other was his trainee.

"The student was probably not used to diving, so the instructor went to help him. While struggling, he is likely to have pulled the diving equipment, causing water to seep in," said Rompin police officer Awang Hatiah.

- CNA/ir

Two Singaporean men drown during Tioman diving trip
Today Online 9 Sep 13;

SINGAPORE — Two Singaporean men drowned on Saturday during a diving outing in Pantai Air Batang, Tioman island, reported Malaysia’s The Star newspaper yesterday.

The victims, who were aged 35 and 48, had gone diving at a site about 25 metres from the shore when they got into trouble, Deputy Assistant Superintendent Zainul Mujahidin Mat Yudin from the district police was reported as saying.

“One of them was a diving instructor and the other his student,” he said, adding that a woman who was part of the group had spotted the two men in difficulties.

They were brought to the shore by other divers and cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed, but they had already turned pale and were not breathing, said ASP Zainul Mujahidin.

The case has been classified as sudden death and a post-mortem will be carried out.

Last month, a couple from Syria lost their eight-year-old in Tioman’s Pulau Salang after the child went for a swim without their knowledge. Passers-by spotted the body of Saad Abdul Karim Mohd Altayasinah floating in the water and alerted the authorities.

In a separate case last month, the police also recovered the remains of two unidentified persons, believed to be foreigners who drowned, in Kampung Mukut and Pulau Tulai. Both bodies were decomposed and without any personal documents.

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Volunteers clear more than a ton trash from Pulau Ubin beaches in pre-dawn clean-up

Audrey Tan Straits Times 7 Sep 13;

More than a ton of trash was cleared from the beaches of Pulau Ubin by 72 volunteers during a coastal clean-up operation organised by Outward Bound Singapore (OBS) Alumni on Saturday.

A total of 76 bags of trash weighing 1,237 kg were amassed by four teachers and 68 youths aged between 15 and 26 before sunrise on Saturday morning. Participants brought their own recycled plastic bags for trash collection and were taught how to categorise and record the trash collected. In total, 1,394 plastic bags, 662 food wrappers and 428 plastic bottles were picked up.

This data will be submitted to the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (ICCS) to provide insight to the strategies needed to tackle global marine trash problems.

Conducted ahead of International Coastal Cleanup Day on Sept 21, this initiative aims to educate youths on the impact of marine trash on wildlife and spur them to become environmental ambassadors. "I just hope more people are made aware of this and not simply discard their rubbish selfishly," said volunteer Priscilla Goh, 15, who is from Tanjong Katong Girls' School. "I actually picked up a few dead sea crabs, and it was really heartbreaking."

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Best of our wild blogs: 7 Sep 13

Macritchie Memories
from The Green Beans

Roosting of Long-tailed Parakeet
from Bird Ecology Study Group

From MNT to Ranger Station
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Otters at Buloh
from Art in Wetlands

Wildfacts updates: wonderful molluscs and more!
from wild shores of singapore

Tue, 10 Sep 2013, 12.30pm @ CF1: Andrew Balmford on “Nature’s glass: half-full or half-empty?”
from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

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Development vs environmental protection: Public discussion needed

Tan Wee Cheng Today Online 7 Sep 13;

The area along Ayer Rajah Expressway was once lush with greenery, but now science parks, educational institutions, condominiums and industrial complexes stand in its place.

Trees and vegetation cover help retain water and prevent surface run-off in ways that concrete surfaces and storm drains cannot. I am therefore not surprised that flash floods shut down part of the expressway on Thursday (“Floods hit western S’pore”, Sept 6).

Indeed, the question of whether the decrease in vegetation cover in the Orchard Road and Bukit Timah areas — as a result of increasing development — is linked to the floods that occurred there has been raised.

In the coming decades, could the next flood hot spots be the central-north region, where for decades the dense vegetation at areas like Bukit Brown, Bidadari and the Central Catchment Nature Reserve has helped absorb surface run-off?

With plans to develop Bukit Brown and Bidadari, as well as the future Cross Island MRT line that could cut through nature reserves, we may be removing the last natural bastions against flooding in the area.

Given public concern over flooding and the potential increase in insurance premiums to include risks associated with flooding, the Government should make public the outcome of detailed Environmental Impact Assessments on its proposed development plans and encourage public discussion of the trade-offs between development and environmental protection.

I also urge the Government to consider flooding concerns when drawing up the proposed master plan for underground spaces (“Govt mulling large-scale underground developments”, Sept 4).

Cities like Montreal and Toronto can develop elaborate underground networks of malls, public spaces and industrial facilities as they also have large areas of high ground within their central metropolitan areas that are subject to strict nature conservation rules.

The dense natural vegetation of Montreal’s Mount Royal and Toronto’s complex ravine system have long been credited for not only preventing urban flooding but helping to keep summer temperatures low within the densely-populated urban areas.

Floods in urban areas are Mother Nature’s way of telling us that relentless development has its limits, and we should heed the signs before worse disruptions occur.

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Interim solution for AYE flood problem

PUB will build tidal gate at canal in 6 to 9 months
Rachel Au-yong And Lim Yi Han Straits Times 7 Sep 13;

A DAY after flash floods ground morning rush-hour traffic to a halt on the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE), national water agency PUB has come up with an interim plan to solve the problem in that area.

It will build a tidal gate at the Sungei Pandan Kechil canal within six to nine months. The 2m-tall steel gate near West Coast Road prevents high tide from the sea from flowing into the canal, by creating a temporary storage area.

"If we can cut out the influence of the tide, it helps buy some time during severe rain," PUB's director of catchment and waterways Tan Nguan Sen told The Straits Times.

A city-bound stretch of the AYE shut down for 40 minutes on Thursday morning, as the combination of heavy rain and high tides "stressed out" the area's drainage system, said Mr Tan, with water overflowing onto all four lanes of the major artery. The problem was compounded by the fact that the AYE sits atop a junction where three drains meet, before they channel out to the canal.

Because each drain carries water from a different direction, the intersection at which they meet faces a lot of resistance. This slows down the speed at which water can flow through, said Mr Tan.

PUB will also widen culverts at the intersection to allow a higher volume of water to pass - a process that will start by the end of this month and be completed by the end of the year.

The agency intends to widen and deepen the canal, but that would "require more thorough investigation" and upgrading works will take place only in 2015, said Mr Tan.

PUB will also consider building a barrage - a larger version of a tidal gate - in the long term.

"But we'll try to push forward these plans as fast as we can; that's our priority," said Mr Tan.

Heavy rain continued yesterday morning, although no flash floods were reported.

The National University of Singapore, where several facilities were flooded in Thursday's downpour, said it is looking at solutions to mitigate floods.

The highest total daily rainfall recorded on Thursday was 122mm at Holland Road. That is more than the amount of rain that fell for the whole of last September - 107.6mm.

The rain was particularly heavy on Thursday due to "the convergence of winds over the region", said the National Environment Agency.

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Gardens and parks rise to the top

Besides more elaborate green spaces, public housing estates now also have gardens on rooftops
Natasha Ann Zachariah Straits Times 7 Sep 13;

Landscaping in newer public housing developments has reached a new level as gardens and shared amenities are now designed to be above ground.

The evolution of these green spaces was seen among the various projects taking home prizes at the Housing and Development Board Awards which were given out on Tuesday. They were given to contractors and developers of HDB projects for good design and constructing homes well.

Take, for example, Casa Clementi in Clementi Avenue 1. The one-year-old estate boasts a 15,000 sq m landscaped deck that links the third storeys of the development's 10 blocks. Residents of the 2,234-unit estate enjoy amenities such as children's playgrounds, senior citizens' exercise corners and pavilions spread across this landscaped deck.

Well-manicured bushes and tall trees line the expansive space and cover up airwells so that carparks on the first and second storeys are out of sight.

At the awards ceremony, Casa Clementi's contractor Straits Construction won the Distinguished Construction Award for its quality work, innovative building methods, project management and efforts to engage the community, while its designer Surbana International Consultants won the top award for the design.

Other projects with well-thought-out raised green spaces include Punggol Breeze, a 12-block HDB project with 964flats; Punggol Spectra, which has 1,142 units; and Senja Green in Bukit Panjang, which has 474 units.

Bounded by Punggol Drive and Edgefield Plains, the Punggol Breeze estate, which was completed in December last year, has a 270m linear roof garden atop the multi-storey carpark, and is the longest roof garden in Punggol.

The 7,000 sq m common green is planted with palm trees and willows, which will help reduce heat from the atmosphere and glare from the windows of the flats.

Ms Hoo Xin Yu, executive landscape architect from the development and procurement group at HDB, says that where possible, designers will "try to maximise areas for greenery and landscaping".

Indeed, since HDB started building flats 52 years ago, the landscape surrounding public housing has gone from basic trees and children's playgrounds to precincts that incorporate plants and trees, lawn areas and play stations for multi-generational use.

Plants and flowering shrubs are carefully chosen for their durability, ability to provide shade and easy maintenance.

Since 2009, all new multi-storey carpark roofs have been designed as accessible roof gardens, and planter systems were put in for large plants. Spaces have also been set aside for residents to start community gardens in the future.

Compared to the days when carparks were situated in front of flats, Ms Hoo, 26, says: "Instead of looking out at cars, the playground and gardens are a much nicer view. Also, this design makes the communal areas safer as they are free from traffic flow."

On Wednesday, HDB launched a landscape guide to help developers plan better public housing areas and showcase current good designs.

The move is timely as newer neighbourhoods such as the upcoming Bidadari estate in Woodleigh, and potential public housing sites at the soon-to-be- demolished Paya Lebar airbase and Southern Waterfront City in Tanjong Pagar will be going into the design phase.

Ms Hoo says while HDB blocks may look similar, no two gardens are alike because designing landscapes depends on the size of the land.

For example, Punggol Breeze has a "meandering garden" while Casa Clementi's is more linear.

But do not expect sky gardens, such as those in The Pinnacle@Duxton in Outram and the upcoming SkyVille@Dawson in Queenstown, in most of HDB's new projects.

In those developments, residents have access to gardens that can be found every 11 storeys in the 40-storey-tall Woha- designed SkyVille@Dawson, and on the 50th storey at The Pinnacle@Duxton.

This is because the pool of plants which can survive at such heights are small, and the garden can be difficult and costly to maintain. For example, trees, which can provide shade but have huge roots, cannot be planted too high up as there is no space for their roots to grow.

Ms Hoo says: "We've had to change the way we design, so that we can maximise every site, and still have space for playgrounds and parks, even if it's above ground level.

"These common areas and the greenery help make the neighbourhood look nicer than just having flats alone, and encourage residents to spend time outside and meet their neighbours too."

Casa Clementi resident Thomas Tey, who lives in a four-room flat, loves how the gardenscape has the feel of private condominiums.

The 37-year-old real estate valuer, who often walks his dog there, says: "My friends even expect there to be a pool, just like in a condo. It's a one-of-a-kind design where you get the garden this big, so I'm really impressed."

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