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The Jakarta Post 22 Jul 15;
PEKANBARU: The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Pekanbaru detected on Tuesday 42 hotspots in Riau province. Pekanbaru BMKG Data and Information Division head Slamet Riyadi said that the hotspots, which indicate the presence of land or forest fires, had been found in eight regencies and cities.
The most hotspots, 11, had been found in Siak regency, followed by nine in Kampar regency, six in Bengkalis and Kuantan Singingi regencies, four in Dumai city and three in Pelalawan regency.
The remaining three hotspots, meanwhile, were found in Indragiri Hulu and Meranti Islands regencies. He further explained that satellite reports indicated a 70 percent likelihood that 29 of the total hotspots in Riau were fires.
“Nine have been found in Siak, six in Kampar, five in Kuantan Sengingi, four in Dumai, three in Bengkalis, and one in Meranti Islands and in Pelalawan,” he said as quoted by Tribunnews.com. — Tribunnews
Raging Peat Fire Approaches Jambi Village
Jakarta Globe 24 Jul 15;
A peat fire raging through the forests of Jambi province is inching closer to Gambut Jaya Kumpeh village in Muarojambi district. (EPA Photo/Azwar)
Jakarta. A peat fire raging in Jambi province has reportedly spread and is inching dangerously closer to Gambut Jaya Kumpeh village in Muarojambi district, according to a local official.
Villagers are cooperating with officers from the Farmers Group Fire Brigade (KTPA) to prevent flames from reaching plantations and residential areas, said Gambut Jaya KTPA chairman Basir.
“The fire is getting bigger and moving closer to people’s homes. It is reaching our village. Yet, at the same time, villagers are on guard to prevent flames from reaching their plantation and houses,” Basir said on Friday as quoted by Antaranews.com.
Basir added that both local residents and firefighters have attempted to extinguish the blaze but their efforts have been unsuccessful due to lack of equipment.
“We are unable to stop the fire entirely. Our equipment is very limited. This is a bad situation because we know most people can’t stand the haze,” Basir said.
The Manggala Agni forest fire brigade were en route to the fire’s point of origin at the time of writing.
Bestari, head of the Jambi Forestry Agency’s forest protection unit, said the team was equipped with the proper equipment to stop the blaze from spreading further.
“One team consists of 15 members. They are on their way to the location at this time. They will be there for three days or even longer, until the fire stops,” Bestari said.
“However, should this team be unsuccessful in extinguishing the fire within three days, we may replace them with another team,” Bestari said.
The fire has destroyed some 200 hectares of land since it erupted earlier this month in the forests located between Jambi and Palembang, South Sulawesi.
Jambi’s Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) chairman Dalmanto said the BPBD along with five district governments within the province were in the process of preparing a regulation on handling peat fires that will later be proposed to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
“We need help from the central government. We need them to provide equipment for operations such as water bombing and weather modification,” Dalmanto said.
AEKARACH SATTABURUTH Bangkok Post 22 Jul 15;
Without urgent action, Bangkok could be under water within 15 years because of excessive pumping from the aquifer, the weight of mushrooming development and rising sea levels, a panel set up by the National Reform Council has warned.
Immediate and costly solutions are needed to avert a catastrophe, the NRC committee studying the risk of Bangkok being submerged said in a report presented to parliament on Wednesday.
Witthaya Kulsomboon, head of the committee, said Bangkok and adjacent provinces were only 0.5 to 2 metres above mean sea level and sinking. The longstanding and excessive use of underground water in areas without tap water supplies and the heavy weight of tall buildings were accelerating the subsidence.
"There are about 700 buildings with 20 floors or more and 4,000 buildings with 8-20 floors in Bangkok. There are also many electric railways. These could cause the submergence of parts of Bangkok and surrounding areas in the future," he said.
Mr Witthaya recommended a national committee chaired by the prime minister be set up to handle the issue.
Solutions must be urgently implemented and would be costly, and the relocation of the capital might have to be considered, he said.
Some reform councillors proposed the government stop the growth of the capital and surrounding areas and move industries and businesses out of Bangkok.
The NRC is to send the submergence report to the cabinet in seven days.
Sujarit Khunthanakulwong, a member of the NRC committee, later said the exploitation of underground water and building construction must be controlled, "otherwise, Bangkok will be submerged in 15 years".
He recommended a sea wall embankment stretching from Si Racha district in Chon Buri to Hua Hin district in Prachuap Khiri Khan to protect the greater Bangkok area from rising sea levels. The cost of construction could be as much as 500 billion baht, Mr Sujarit said.
University of Auckland Scoop 22 Jul 15;
New research shows mangrove forests could play a crucial role in protecting coastal areas from sea level rise caused by climate change.
A joint study between Associate Professor Giovanni Coco from the University of Auckland’s School of Environment and colleagues at the Universities of Southampton (Dr Barend van Maanen) and Waikato (Dr Karin Bryan), used leading-edge mathematical simulations to study how mangrove forests respond to elevated sea levels.
The new model incorporates biophysical interactions to study the formation of tidal channel networks, how these channels are modified by mangroves and how mangroves are in turn affected by channel evolution.
The researchers studied the evolution of the channels by using a hybrid model that connects biotic (mangroves) and abiotic (currents and transport of sediment) processes, to simulate their interaction.
In particular the research focused on how estuarine environments with and without mangroves responded to sea level rise.
The study also used longer timeframes than have been incorporated into this type of modelling work than ever before, studying mangrove evolution for hundreds of years.
The research found that as a mangrove forest begins to develop, the creation of a network of channels is relatively fast. Over 160 years, tidal currents, sediment transport and mangroves significantly modify the estuarine environment, creating a dense channel network.
Within the mangrove forest, these channels become shallower through organic matter from the trees, reduced sediment resuspensions (caused by the mangroves) and sediment trapping (again caused by the mangroves)and the sea bed begins to rise, with bed elevation increasing a few millimetres per year until the area is no longer inundated by the tide.
In modelling of sea level rise in the study, the ability of mangrove forest to gradually create a buffer between sea and land occurs even when the area is subjected to potential sea level rises of up to 0.5mm per year. Even after sea level rise, the mangroves showed an enhanced ability to maintain an elevation in the upper intertidal zone.
“These findings show that mangrove forests play a central role in estuarine and salt marsh environments,” Associate Professor Coco says.
“As we anticipate changes caused by climate change, then it’s important to know the effect sea level rise might have, particularly around our coasts.
“Mangroves appear to be resilient to sea level rise and are likely to be able to sustain such climatic change. The implications for the New Zealand coastline are considerable and will require new thinking in terms of sediment budgets and response to climatic changes.”
This paper is the result of a series of papers to study estuarine morphodynamics initiated thanks to funding from NIWA and the University of Waikato.
Philip Pullella PlanetArk 22 Jul 15;
Pope Francis on Tuesday urged the United Nations to take a "very strong stand" on climate change at a landmark summit this year in Paris on global warming.
The pope spoke at a Vatican-hosted conference of mayors and governors from major world cities who signed a declaration urging global leaders to take bold action at the U.N. summit, saying it may be the last chance to tackle human-induced global warming.
"I have a great hopes in the Paris summit," he said. "I have great hopes that a fundamental agreement is reached. The United Nations needs to take a very strong stand on this."
Last month, the pope issued an encyclical on climate change, the first ever dedicated to the environment. The call to his church's 1.2 billion members could spur the world's Catholics to lobby policymakers on ecology issues and climate change.
The Vatican conference linked climate change and modern slavery because, according to an introductory paper, "global warming is one of the causes of poverty and forced migration".
Francis, speaking in unprepared comments in Spanish to the group at the end of the first day, said he hoped the Paris summit would address "particularly how it (climate change) affects the trafficking of people."
The conference is the Vatican's latest attempt to influence the Paris summit in December, the purpose of which is to reach a global agreement to combat climate change after past failures.
Mayors from South America, Africa, the United States, Europe and Asia signed a declaration stating that the Paris summit "may be the last effective opportunity to negotiate arrangements that keep human-induced warming below 2 degrees centigrade."
Leaders should come to a "bold agreement that confines global warming to a limit safe for humanity while protecting the poor and the vulnerable...," the declaration, which the pope also signed, reads.
High-income countries should help finance the cost of climate-change mitigation in low-income countries, it says.
In a rejection of so-called climate-change deniers, the declaration says: "Human-induced climate change is a scientific reality, and its effective control is a moral imperative for humanity."
On Tuesday morning, California Governor Edmund "Jerry" Brown, whose state is suffering a severe drought, urged mayors to "fight the propaganda" of big business interests that deny that climate change is human induced.
"We have fierce opposition and blind inertia and that opposition is well-financed," Brown said.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called Pope Francis "the most powerful voice on this earth for those whose voice is not being heard," and added: "He did not convene us here to accept the status quo but to indict it".
De Blasio announced that New York City would commit to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030 on top of a previous commitment to reduced them by 80 percent by 2050.
Tony Chammany, the mayor of Kochi, India, said coastal areas were already feeling the effects of rising sea levels. "It is now or never, there may never be a replay," he said.
(Editing by Larry King)
U.N. climate deal draft must be shorter, clearer: minister
Megan Rowling PlanetArk 23 Jul 15;
Ministers working towards a new U.N. deal to tackle climate change, due in December, need a negotiating text that is shorter and more manageable than the current draft, the Marshall Islands' foreign minister said after informal talks in Paris.
"It should be something that people can understand, be able to work with and negotiate from," chief diplomat Tony de Brum told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from France.
The current version of the draft text is a bewildering 85-page list of options, incorporating the demands of the nearly 200 nations participating in the process.
At the last round of formal U.N. talks in June, negotiators slimmed the document down by only a few pages and tasked the co-chairs with preparing a new version, to be published on Friday.
This unofficial document is expected to streamline the text, and may provide more structure aimed at sorting the elements of the draft into a potential core legal agreement and an accompanying set of decisions.
The message from this week's two-day gathering in Paris of around 40 countries' delegations, including 26 with ministers, and an earlier meeting of the world's major economies was that the negotiating text should be short - around 40 pages - and ambitious, de Brum said.
"The ministers should have something that they feel comfortable moving forward with," he added.
The co-chairs will find it hard to chop the text by half, as they have no mandate to weed out options.
But they can set them out more clearly, said Liz Gallagher, leader of the climate diplomacy program at London-based consultancy E3G.
"The co-chairs have a very delicate balance to keep - they can't cut large swathes of the text because they don't want to alienate countries, but we do need manageable options for ministers to choose from," she said.
BUILDING TRUST
France is undertaking a major diplomatic push to avoid a repeat of the 2009 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, where leaders were not ready to seal such a complex deal, and were forced to stitch together a voluntary accord at the last minute.
De Brum said the Paris meeting this week had been useful in helping ministers get to know each other and building trust.
They had discussed substantive issues including a long-term goal to curb climate-changing emissions and how to share the burden of doing that fairly, he added.
He noted growing support for a five-year cycle of assessing and strengthening the national emissions reduction pledges that will be part of the Paris agreement, to ensure they are enough to keep global warming to an internationally agreed limit of 2 degrees Celsius.
This week, the Marshall Islands became the first small island developing nation to submit a contribution to the new global climate change agreement, committing to cut economy-wide emissions of greenhouse gases by 32 percent below 2010 levels by 2025.
It also included an indicative target to further reduce emissions to 45 percent below 2010 levels by 2030, in line with a longer-term vision of net zero emissions by 2050.
De Brum said it was key that the Paris deal - slated to take effect from 2020 - should include a pathway for countries to ratchet up their emissions-cutting ambition "in short spurts" of five years.
"Small island countries need that confidence ... to accept a treaty that does not have 2 degrees guaranteed anywhere," he said. "It has to be flexible enough to allow for greater ambition, that's what all the component parts must add up to."
E3G's Gallagher said that while general consensus was building on a five-year cycle, there was a lack of agreement over what it should aim to achieve.
Some countries with a 2025 emissions reduction target, including the United States, wanted it to serve as an opportunity to decide fresh goals for the coming five years, while others with 2030 targets such as the European Union would prefer it to be a review, she said.
French President Francois Hollande made it clear this week that offers of emissions cuts so far would not be sufficient.
"With the accord that we could have based on the current state of negotiations and the contributions submitted by governments, we are still above 2 degrees, probably 3 degrees," he told another conference in Paris.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement after the informal ministerial meeting that participants "are committed to finding compromises on the major political issues".
Those include fresh funding to help developing nations adapt to climate change impacts and green their economies, which was not discussed this week in Paris.
"We're all conscious of what is at stake and resolutely geared towards searching for the essential solutions," Fabius added.
(Editing by Tim Pearce; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)
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Despite the death of up to 900 fish in the river running through Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, laboratory tests show the raw water quality, including dissolved oxygen levels, is within normal range, PUB says.
Channel NewsAsia 21 Jul 15;
SINGAPORE: About 800 to 900 fish were found dead at the Kallang River at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, but the water quality is normal, said Singapore's water agency PUB.
In a statement, PUB said it was alerted to the problem on Monday (Jul 20) at about 7.40pm. "A site check was carried out immediately and NEA’s contractors were activated to remove the dead fish. Clean-up operations which commenced since last evening at the affected stretch of the river are largely completed," PUB said on Tuesday.
Laboratory tests showed that the raw water quality, including dissolved oxygen levels, is within normal range, the agency stated.
Most of the fish affected are cichlids. Specimens have been sent to AVA for examination, PUB said. Investigations on the cause are still ongoing.
"As of now, the water quality of the river in Bishan Park is normal, live fishes can be seen in the water and the public can continue with their activities at Kallang River @Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. PUB will continue to monitor the situation," a PUB spokesperson said
- CNA/ly
Mass fish deaths at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park
MARISSA YEO Today Online 21 Jul 15;
SINGAPORE — The public may continue their activities at the Kallang River in Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, as authorities investigate what killed some 900 fish there despite normal levels of dissolved oxygen, national water agency PUB said today (July 21).
The dead fish were discovered from last evening and specimens have been sent to the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority for examination, said PUB. “Investigations on the case are still ongoing.”
The PUB checked the site after it was alerted at 7.40pm yesterday.
Contractors of the National Environment Agency were activated to remove the dead fish – numbering about 800 to 900 and which were mainly cichlids – and the PUB said clean-up operations were largely completed as of last evening.
Laboratory tests of water samples collected by PUB along the river showed dissolved oxygen levels within the normal range, said the spokesperson. As of this evening, the water quality of the river in the park was normal and live fishes could be seen, she said.
This is not the first time the park has been hit by fish deaths: Last February, about 400 fish died as Singapore underwent a dry spell. The PUB said at the time that the deaths could be because of lower levels of dissolved oxygen due to hot and dry weather.
Although unaffected, some Bishan residents approached today were surprised to find out about the fish deaths.
Ms Koh Lay Bin, who exercises at the park, said: “I didn’t know that there was clearing of the fishes. (Previously), I have seen several fish that died, probably because the water levels were very low; however I will still see some of them swimming.”
Another resident, Mr Patrick Wong, 60, said: “I don’t really see much fishes along river (when I pass by). It may be due to the shallow waters. However, there are more fishes at the bridges because the water levels are slightly deeper.”
Mass fish deaths have been reported elsewhere in Singapore in recent years. In March, wild fish as well as up to 600 tonnes of farmed fish died in the East Johor Strait off Pasir Ris amid an algal bloom. Last year, a plankton bloom cost fish farmers in both the East and West Johor Straits about 500 tonnes of fish.
Mass fish deaths again at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park
PUB says 800 to 900 fish dead in Kallang River; similar incident occurred in February last year
Carolyn Khew Straits Times 22 Jul 15;
Close to a thousand fish went belly up at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park on Monday night, in a repeat of a similar incident last year.
National water agency PUB said that the latest incident at Kallang River, which runs through the park, affected about 800 to 900 fish of varying sizes. They were mainly cichlids, a diverse family which includes the popular aquarium fish luohan and the food fish tilapia.
Fish specimens have been sent to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore for examination, and investigations are ongoing, said a spokesman for PUB. It is monitoring the situation.
While the cause of the mass fish deaths is a mystery for now, experts The Straits Times spoke to suspect that, like the incident in February last year which killed about 400 fish, it could be related to the hot weather and reduced rainfall.
Dr Tan Heok Hui, a fish expert from the National University of Singapore's (NUS) department of biological sciences, explained that this could have led to low oxygen levels in the water. When there is less rain, the water becomes clearer, so sunlight can better penetrate and algae grows faster, explained Dr Tan, who is also a museum officer at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum.
Water samples that the PUB collected for testing showed that the raw water quality, including dissolved oxygen levels, was within the normal range, it said.
The agency received a report of dead fish at around 7.40pm on Monday, and cleanup operations since then have been largely completed, said the PUB yesterday.
"As of now, the water quality of the river in Bishan Park is normal, live fishes can be seen in the water and the public can continue with their activities at Kallang River at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park," said the PUB spokesman.
When The Straits Times visited the park yesterday morning, cleaners were still removing the dead fish. Residents in the area said that the dead fish gave off a pungent smell which wafted over to the main road nearby.
Bishan resident Chen Shanshan, 24, who lives at the block next to the park, said that she could see many dead fish floating in the water even from her eighth-floor flat.
"I saw passers-by gawking and taking pictures and then later, when I was crossing the road, I could smell the dead fish stench," said the communications associate.
Dr Chou Loke Ming, adjunct research professor at the Tropical Marine Science Institute at NUS, said the mass fish deaths are worrying, and that it could happen again.
"Most would point to the changing climate and that may indeed be true, but we need to investigate to be sure," he said.
Watchdog finds fault with various claims, wants developers to make ad changes
Toh Yong Chuan Straits Times 22 Jul 15;
In April, the property developer behind a Batam villa project splashed a series of print advertisements promising views of Marina Bay Sands (MBS) and leaping dolphins at the residents' doorsteps.
But now, Singapore's advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (Asas), has objected to the ads, and asked the developer to change them.
It found three things unacceptable: claiming that landmarks such as Marina Bay Sands are visible from the villas, promising a guaranteed rental of 7 per cent a year and quoting an anonymous buyer on how wonderful the development is.
The watchdog reviewed the ads after a Sunday Times report in May on the villas, which cost $758,000 each and are being built around a lagoon of captive dolphins.
It told The Straits Times that it had informed the developer about the objections last month.
Asas chairman Tan Sze Wee said that when an advertiser is informed that certain parts of an ad are not acceptable, the advertiser has to stop making the objectionable claims "with immediate effect in all current and future marketing communications".
The developers behind the dolphin lagoon villas are Singapore-registered firms Funtasy Island Development and Seven Seas FID. The project is located on a cluster of six small islands collectively known as Pulau Manis, 3km off Batam in Indonesia.
The 64 two-bedroom villas, which look like round bamboo huts and are each about the size of an HDB executive flat, are built around a lagoon with dolphins which residents can feed and play with.
Bungalows being built over the sea off Batam that are part of a Funtasy Island Development project.
The developer has promised shops and restaurants nearby and a direct ferry service from Singapore's HarbourFront .
The villas, slated to be completed by the end of 2018, were launched at the upmarket One Degree 15 Marina on Sentosa in April.
The villas around the lagoon are part of a larger development of eight other housing projects on Pulau Manis with a total of more than 600 units - comprising villas, bungalows and apartments.
The development sits on land owned by PT Batam Island Marina. The Indonesian company has promised on its website to renew land leases up to 2112. Foreigners cannot own land in Indonesia but can be granted leases to use the land.
Ms Kelly Huang, a spokesman for Funtasy Island Development, said the developers "will observe the guidance" given by the advertising watchdog. "We will work closely with Asas in the future," she said.
"At this point, we have not decided the manner in which the ads will come out."
A check on Funtasy Island's website last week found that the Marina Bay Sands skyline, the 7 per cent annual rent guarantee and the ringing endorsement by the anonymous buyer - aspects that Asas objected to - were still prominently featured.
"Asas has jurisdiction only over local print and broadcast advertisements, but not what the companies do online," said Mr Ku Swee Yong, chief executive of estate agency Century 21.
"There is nothing stopping a developer from putting information on Facebook or the Internet.
"This is a key weakness."
Related link
Preservation groups, activists raise concerns about Batam property with captive dolphins
Audrey Tan and Feng Zengkun The Straits Times AsiaOne 3 May 15;
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Sisters' Islands Marine Park Public Gallery - Now Open! (15 July 2015)
Psychedelic Nature
Akshita Nanda THE STRAITS TIMES AsiaOne 21 Jul 15;
They are the marine biologists who made the impossible happen, raising $46 million in just six months in early 2010 to set up the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
When the museum finally opened in April this year with Professor Peter Ng Kee Lin, 55, as head, and his mentor Leo Tan Wee Hin, 70, as a senior member of staff, it was the culmination of a long-held dream for both.
Visitors to the museum spend much of their time gazing raptly at the trio of dinosaur skeletons dominating the first floor, but equally important for the scientists in charge is the historic Raffles collection of plants and animals established in British colonial times. It was the pride of the Raffles Museum in 1878, but it languished in obscurity after Singapore became independent in 1965.
The collection moved from the newly renamed National Museum of Singapore to the then University of Singapore's department of zoology in 1972. Its name and home changed over the years, but the collection remained mainly the purview of scholars.
This was a pet peeve of those such as Prof Ng, an eminent crab researcher who encountered the collection while studying at the university under the mentorship of Professor Tan who, in turn, was the first to get a degree in marine biology from the University of Singapore.
Both believe anyone visiting a natural history museum will develop new appreciation for living things and the need to conserve the environment.
"The reason for doing such a museum is to help people appreciate the beauty and wonder of nature," says Prof Tan. "Trying to convince people of the value of these things is an uphill battle."
Prof Ng adds: "People think a museum is a place for the dead. It's not, it's a place for people to learn at."
From 1998, Prof Ng was put in charge of the renamed Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, an academic museum open only to those affiliated with the university. Prof Tan was director of the National Institute of Education from 1994 until 2008, when he returned to NUS as professor and director of special projects, Dean's Office in the Faculty of Science.
A year after Prof Tan "came home", as Prof Ng puts it, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research was opened to the public for one day on May 24, 2009, International Museum Day.
To the surprise of both scientists, an estimated 3,000 visitors showed up to see what they had been missing. The Sunday Times ran a column titled Let's Have A Natural History Museum by Tan Dawn Wei and after that Prof Tan was approached by a mystery donor willing to offer $10 million to start such a museum here.
After consulting NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan, they were offered a piece of land at the new University Town area, but learnt that they would require about $30 million to build the museum. They had six months to raise the funds before the university reserved the space for other use.
"During that time, I was asked: 'What if you fail?" recalls Prof Leo Tan, who led the fund-raising efforts. "Failure was not an option. Until the deadline, I would not think of failure."
Amazingly, the scientists raised $46 million within the allotted time - $45 million from major donors including the Lee Foundation and Tote Board. Almost $1 million came from members of the public who responded to Straits Times' articles about the museum, a public endorsement that validated both scientists' push for this project.
"People from every section of society gave what they could," says Prof Tan, eyes moist at the memory. "Secretaries, technicians. It was amazing."
Both scientists also wanted the museum to be a centre of research into the plants and animals that populate and have populated the world. It is a belief that brought them the museum's headline exhibit of full-size dinosaur skeletons: the 24m-tall and 27m-tall adults nicknamed Apollonia and Prince, which come with a baby, Twinky, only 12m from head to tail.
The skeletons were about 80 per cent complete when excavated from Dana Quarry in Wyoming - paleontologists throw celebratory parties over a skeleton just 30 per cent whole - and offered first to the Singapore museum at a bargain price of $12 million because those in charge of the dig heard the centre would be open to scientists coming to study the specimens.
Again, donors stepped in to help the museum acquire the dinosaurs.
On the days that Life visits the museum, gaggles of adults and pupils stand in awe before the dinosaurs, quietly observing them, but many also roam around interactive displays related to the Raffles collection, watching video clips and listening to bird calls.
"What's wrong with museums?" says Prof Ng, gesturing at the enthralled visitors. "It's time to correct the public perception of museums as dusty tombs."
He and Prof Tan often get feedback from visitors young and old thrilled by the museum, many of whom did not expect to be fascinated by the experience.
"You need to tell stories, rather than science," Prof Tan says.
"Some will see the science, but some will never come if you tell them this is about science. You're there to inspire those with an aptitude for science to stand there in awe and think: 'What if? What could I do as well?'"
I have immortality through him
Leo on Peter
In the late 1970s, Professor Peter Ng Kee Lin was a teenager who needed help with a school project on fiddler crabs and so he went to Professor Leo Tan Wee Hin, an eminent marine biologist at the then University of Singapore.
Fast-forward nearly 40 years and Prof Tan is still helping Prof Ng with crabby tasks. On a recent trip to Borneo, he spent three days combing the jungle for a rare purple crab Prof Ng believed could be found there. In the end, he found an even rarer specimen, which he "smuggled" back to Singapore between two ice-cold cans of CocaCola to preserve the tissues.
Asked why he goes to such lengths for his protege, Prof Tan only smiles. "I spotted Peter when he was in junior college. That kind of student, you don't let go," he says. "I took him under my wing when he was 18 years old. There was this outer insolence - but I like a challenge."
Words to be expected from a person who took up marine biology in part because he nearly drowned learning to swim off Changi Beach when he was a child.
"We had no swimming pools in those days," explains Prof Tan, who turns 71 this year. "I became a marine biologist to conquer my fear of water."
The son of a clerk and a housewife, science was not on the family radar, yet he became the first person to do a doctorate in marine biology from the University of Singapore.
His initial area of interest was molluscs, but he became fascinated with crabs while doing his postgraduate studies at Duke University in North Carolina, United States.
When Prof Ng, then a teenager, approached him for help, Prof Tan was a senior lecturer with many demands on his time, but he felt - and continues to feel - that his first duty as a teacher is "to inspire those with an aptitude for science".
He also saw a kindred spirit in the younger man who was fascinated by the natural world, especially the relatively little-documented aquatic fauna of South-east Asia. To this day, when Prof Tan travels, he has a litre of absolute alcohol in his luggage for preserving specimens and refuses maid service in hotel rooms because the sinks in his room are plugged up and made into makeshift preservation tanks.
So when the similarly collectingcrazy Prof Ng entered university as an undergraduate, Prof Tan offered him laboratory space to do research on lobsters, even though this was frowned upon in those days. Undergraduates were meant to absorb and study, while postgraduates did research.
"I told him there was a lot of money in aquaculture to interest him," he recalls, laughing. "He was very clumsy. He broke every piece of glassware in the lab."
Their connection remained even as Prof Tan was seconded to the Singapore Science Centre as its director in 1982, an appointment he took up full time four years later and held until 1991. After that, he became foundation dean of the School of Science at the National Institute of Education (NIE) and was NIE's director from 1994 until 2008. He was also chairman of the National Parks Board from 1998 to 2007.
In 2008, he returned to the National University of Singapore as professor and director of special projects at the Faculty of Science, and began working with Prof Ng at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.
Married with two grown sons, he is looking forward to the time when he can take his two grandchildren, now under the age of three, to the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum and watch them learn about the natural world he loves so much.
But ask what his enduring legacy is and he does not mention the museum, but its head.
He says: "I've got immortality through Peter. You have to groom the next generation, that's your duty. You reach a certain stage in life when time is not on your side, but if you get successors, the legacy continues."
He's the real father of the museum
Peter on Leo
"The real father of the museum," is how Professor Peter Ng Kee Lin describes Professor Leo Tan Wee Hin.
"It was his energy that revitalised it, grew it, saw the potential, made it a top research outfit, then did the massive fund raising necessary and then oversaw everything to make it what it will be soon," says Prof Ng.
The 55-year-old also considers the 70-year-old scientist a mentor. Without Prof Tan's encouragement, he might never have become what he is today: a renowned expert on the classification, conservation and ecology of freshwater crabs, as well as head of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum.
They met when Prof Ng was a teenager in Raffles Institution (RI) doing an extra credit project on fiddler crabs for the school science fair. The expert he sought help from was Prof Tan, the first person to receive a marine biology degree from the University of Singapore (NUS) and who continued as a lecturer there.
Then in 1980, when Prof Ng was doing his first year of undergraduate studies at NUS, Prof Tan allowed him space in his laboratory to do research on lobsters. This was unheard of in those days: the custom was to let only graduate students use university resources for research. Asked why he made this exception, Prof Tan says he had spotted in the younger man a student he could not "let go", one with a love for natural history that deserved to be nurtured.
During this time, Prof Ng went on a research trip to Pulau Tioman, found a big crab and used Prof Tan's laboratory to study the animal's larvae.
"It was like falling off the edge of a cliff. I've never looked back," says Prof Ng, who is married to a teacher and has three sons aged 12 to 20.
He did his postgraduate studies at NUS while teaching in secondary schools to make a living. After completing his doctorate in 1990, he stayed on to teach at the university and, eight years later, was put in charge of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, the precursor of the Lee Kong Chian museum.
His love of animals dates back to his childhood growing up in East Coast. His father, who died when he was only seven, indulged the older of two sons and his habit of keeping fighting fish or eels. Later, Prof Ng's mother was busy running the family printing business and did not have time to stop her son from bringing home pets.
These included climbing perch and snakehead fish found in drains. A favourite hunting ground was also Chinatown, where snapping turtles were commonly sold and where Prof Ng bought a civet cat for $10. "When I brought it home, my mother screamed at first, but she was too busy so she didn't scream too much," he recalls. "I kept it for a year or more before it ran off."
Employees at the family business also started bringing home live animals from their hunting expeditions in Johor to curry favour with the boss' son. The specimen Prof Ng remembers most fondly is a giant cream-coloured squirrel with huge teeth that his mother insisted on returning. "It loved eggs and bananas. It was an absolute beauty. I wish I'd taken photos. It's probably extinct now," he says. "To think I used to play with it as a kid. It brings home the message that extinction is not too far away."
A passionate advocate for natural history, Prof Ng and his team did not let the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research collection stagnate. They expanded it and continued to classify the flora and fauna of Singapore. From 2004, he began holding informal talks with various parties, including the National Parks Board and Singapore Science Centre, on the possibility of establishing a natural history museum, which came to fruition this April with the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum.
"Museums are stuffy old places about the dead - these are perceptions that are not right. It's time to correct these perceptions," he says.
And this museum would not have existed without Dr Tan's effort, he adds. "He is the visionary and the powerhouse. I am just a crab scientist and administrator-cumpaperpusher."
India's Ashtamudi Estuary short-neck clam fishery, one out of some 250 fisheries which have been certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council. Photo: Marine Stewardship Council
Samantha Boh MyPaper AsiaOne 21 Jul 15;
More businesses here are switching to sustainable seafood, with the number of certified suppliers more than tripling over the past three years.
So far, 10 suppliers have been given the stamp of approval by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), a global non-profit organisation that certifies responsibly caught seafood.
Worldwide, over 250 fisheries have pledged their support to MSC to target well-managed, sustainable species which are not considered to be over-fished, and to put in place safeguards to curb bycatch and other destructive fishing practices.
Two hotels - the Hilton and Grand Hyatt - also recently received certification by MSC for serving sustainable seafood at several of their restaurants.
Several other restaurants are expected to follow suit, with five now in discussions with MSC.
"Awareness is growing fast, but... there is no time to lose," said a spokesman for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which works with the council to spread the message that the world's oceans are depleting rapidly.
According to WWF, the world's oceans will no longer be able to provide people with seafood by 2048.
Ninety per cent of global fish stocks are over-fished and 61 per cent fully fished, meaning there is already no room for further fishing.
The variety of plant and animal life in the ocean has also dropped by 39 per cent since the 1970s, and fishermen have reached the point of fishing from juvenile fish stocks.
"If you've had bluefin tuna sushi lately, you've enjoyed a piece of the last 4 per cent - compared to unfished levels," WWF spokesman said.
It was precisely this bleak future that spurred some seafood suppliers, such as Global Oceanlink, to do their part despite having to shoulder higher costs.
The company started by converting 1 per cent of its seafood to sustainably caught ones in 2010 and this included snow crabs. Not only were the crabs up to 15 per cent more expensive than those from non-certified sources, but they were also harder to sell.
That cut the company's margins for snow crabs to the bare minimum, said operations director Dennis Ng, 39.
"But sometimes it is not just about dollars and cents; this is part of our corporate social responsibility to save the oceans," he said.
Over the past five years, Global Oceanlink has increased the amount of sustainable snow crabs it supplies to 10,000kg a month, despite taking three years to reap profits from selling sustainable snow crabs.
In total, the company supplies around 15,000kg of sustainable seafood per month to some 60 businesses.
Others have taken similar steps.
Lee Fish Asia's sales manager, Sam Buck, 38, noted that there could be a price difference of up to 50 per cent for certain fish such as cod. Despite this, the company has doubled its sustainable seafood range to 80 per cent since it opened here in 2008. It now supplies about 32,000kg of sustainable seafood to about 60 hotels and restaurants each month.
Another supplier, Far Ocean Sea Products, received its MSC certification in January. It has already been selling sustainable seafood for years.
It now supplies sustainable seafood to 15 businesses, accounting for about 20 per cent of its overall seafood supply.
Lee Fish and Far Ocean said that cost is still a stumbling block, as many food and beverage businesses are not willing to make the switch if it means paying more.
"It is difficult to initiate it as a supplier as the price is not the same, (so) you have to wait for your customer to be interested and he will be interested when the consumer is," said a spokesman for Far Ocean Sea Products.
Kelvin Ng, 43, commercial director of South-east Asia and Hong Kong at MSC, hopes that the commitment by big hotels such as Hilton and Grand Hyatt will get the ball rolling for more to commit to sustainable seafood, especially supermarkets.
He hopes that as MSC labels become more common, consumers will look out for them and choose labelled products over unlabelled ones.
"The problem now is that while consumers here are aware, they are not asking and retailers are under no pressure to differentiate themselves," he said.
Mr Nur Azha Putra of NUS says the increasing use of natural gas bodes well for Singapore.
Audrey Tan THE STRAITS TIMES AsiaOne 21 Jul 15;
Singapore is weaning itself off petroleum products.
In the past decade, the Republic has adopted cleaner energy sources to fuel electricity demand, moving away from petroleum products such as diesel and fuel oil to the more environmentally-friendly fossil fuel alternative: natural gas.
Natural gas now makes up 95.5 per cent of Singapore's fuel mix, up from 74.4 per cent in 2005, according to the latest statistics from the Energy Market Authority (EMA).
Petroleum products' share this year has been whittled to 0.7 per cent, down from 23.1 per cent in 2005. This will put Singapore in a better position to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, experts say.
"The increasing use of natural gas bodes well for Singapore, given its United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) commitment to reduce carbon emissions," said Mr Nur Azha Putra, research associate at National University of Singapore's Energy Studies Institute.
Natural gas emits about 35 per cent less carbon dioxide than the petroleum-based oil that Singapore was using, and it does not emit polluting particulates and sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere, said Mr Joe Eades, the deputy chairman of The Institution of Engineers, Singapore chemical and process engineering technical committee.
Singapore has pledged that its greenhouse gas emissions will peak around 2030 at the equivalent of about 65 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, even if the economy continues to grow.
It will also be greener economically - reducing the amount of greenhouse gases emitted to achieve each dollar of gross domestic product by more than a third.
The targets were submitted earlier this month to the UNFCCC, which sets a framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle climate change.
Internationally, countries are trying to diversify. China, for instance, is striving to cut the share of petroleum products and coal in its fuel mix, noted Professor Subodh Mhaisalkar, executive director of Nanyang Technological University's Energy Research Institute.
Coal and petroleum products constituted 90 per cent of China's fuel mix in 2003, but this was reduced to 80 per cent in 2010 and is expected to drop to 72 per cent by 2020, he said.
Singapore opted early to switch and power the country with natural gas. Said Professor Subodh: "This way, Singaporeans can enjoy clean and healthy air even as the economy develops and meets the needs of a growing population."
Singapore's new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Jurong Island, which started operating in 2013, will ensure the Republic can import gas from more countries so that it remains energy secure.
Mr Nur Azha said: "With the completion of the liquefied natural gas terminal, Singapore will be able to diversify its energy supply portfolio and be less reliant on piped natural gas imports from Indonesia and Malaysia."
The latest EMA figures also show that other energy sources - such as solar power and converting waste into energy - are contributing more to Singapore's fuel mix, although they still make up only a small portion of the mix - 3.7 per cent this year, up from 2.4 per cent in 2005.
But experts and industry players are hopeful that this figure will increase, largely due to the SolarNova initiative that encourages government agencies to come together to use solar power.
Mr Eades said SolarNova could meet about 5 per cent of Singapore's energy demand by 2020.
This could complement other forms of renewable energy, such as generating electricity through waste incineration, said Mr Christophe Inglin, vice-chairman of the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore and managing director of solar firm Phoenix Solar.
Singapore has already harvested the low-hanging fruits - replacing almost all its oil-fired electricity generation with gas-fired generation, he pointed out.
"Nuclear plants are too controversial, so that leaves renewable energy sources like biogas, waste incineration and solar photovoltaic as main options for reducing our carbon footprint," he said.
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