16 Dec (Sun): Talk on "Otters, turtles, hornbills - Hidden Treasures of East Coast Park"
Celebrating Singapore Shores
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Best of our wild blogs: 11 Dec 18
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A*Star, Singapore firm develop system that turns food waste into odourless fertiliser in 24 hours
NAVENE ELANGOVAN Today Online 10 Dec 18;
SINGAPORE — Entrepreneur David Tan set up a company to reduce and recycle waste in 2016, and imported 10 machines from Japan to convert food waste into fertiliser.
But the micro-organisms from Japan could not effectively decompose curry, leftover food items from hotpot meals, and other dishes in Singapore that tended to be higher in oil and salt than Japanese food.
Mr Tan, the chief executive officer of Westcom Solutions, turned to the Singapore Institute of Technology and was put in touch with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star).
Four A*Star researchers from its Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences were seconded to Westcom from last year under the agency’s Technology for Enterprise Capability Upgrading (T-Up) scheme.
After some trial and error with various microbes in A*Star’s collection, the researchers came up with one that could digest one tonne of food waste into 100kg of organic fertiliser in 24 hours — much faster than the seven days or more provided by most other solutions.
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Malaysia linked to wildlife trafficking network
sim leoi leoi The Star 10 Dec 18;
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s connection to a multimillion-dollar trafficking network of endangered freshwater turtles and tortoises has been uncovered by a wildlife investigation group.
Codenamed Operation Dragon and launched in 2016, the two-year investigation and 44-page report by the Wildlife Justice Commission crippled eight major networks working in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia.
It resulted in the arrest of 30 people and the jailing of five others in Malaysia, while a suspect was subjected to the Interpol’s Red Notice after he absconded, believed to be the first for wildlife crime in the country. Some 200 potential “persons of interest” were also identified, while three more cases are ongoing in Malaysia.
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Tackle climate or face financial crash, say world's biggest investors
UN summit urged to end all coal burning and introduce substantial taxes on emissions
Damian Carrington The Guardian 10 Dec 18;
Global investors managing $32tn issued a stark warning to governments at the UN climate summit on Monday, demanding urgent cuts in carbon emissions and the phasing out of all coal burning. Without these, the world faces a financial crash several times worse than the 2008 crisis, they said.
The investors include some of the world’s biggest pension funds, insurers and asset managers and marks the largest such intervention to date. They say fossil fuel subsidies must end and substantial taxes on carbon be introduced.
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Otter alert at Gardens by the Bay during Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon
Goh Yan Han Straits Times 10 Dec 18;
SINGAPORE - As Sunday's (Dec 9) Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon was underway, several unusual guests joined in - a group of 16 otters.
Ten adult otters and six babies were seen around 7.25am at a section of the marathon route that went through Gardens by the Bay.
According to otter enthusiasts, the animals had slept at Gardens by the Bay overnight. The adults woke up around 6am and headed for breakfast, before returning at 7.25am to collect the babies to forage for food together.
Close to an hour later, the otters moved to another part of Gardens by the Bay and were spotted rolling around on the ground to dry themselves, to the delight of event participants who whipped out their phones to snap photos of the animals.
Mr Bernard Seah, 49, a wildlife photographer and volunteer with the Otter Working Group, was at Gardens by the Bay with four others to help facilitate the movement of the otters across the busy race route.
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Singapore has vested interest in strong result at climate talks, says Masagos
Masagos says Republic faces disproportionate risks from negative impacts of climate change
Audrey Tan Straits Times 10 Dec 18;
Singapore's emissions make up just 0.11 per cent of the global total, but as a small island city-state, it faces disproportionate risks from the negative impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels.
That is why Singapore has a "deep and vested interest to see a strong outcome at COP24", said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli, referring to the ongoing United Nations climate change talks in Poland.
Added Mr Masagos, who arrives in Katowice today for the second week of the conference: "At a time when multilateralism is being challenged, a strong outcome in Katowice will show that the global community is united in its support for a multilateral, rules-based approach to addressing climate change."
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Indonesia concerns about live reef fish trade
Antara 9 Dec 18;
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Susi Pudjiastuti has expressed concern about the issue of consumed live reef fish which was very popular in the international market.
"The demand for consumed live reef fish continues to increase because of its huge economic value. It has even been demanded in a very large-scale industry. The reef fish is very vulnerable because it is easily overexploited," Minister Susi said in a press statement received by ANTARA here on Sunday.
Reef fish has long been a food commodity in great demand in various countries, especially Hong Kong and China.
However, the high interest and prices of reef fish have been creating an alarming trend of trade.
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Best of our wild blogs: 9 Dec 18
9 Dec: Registration opens for Sisters Islands Intertidal walks in Jan 2019
Celebrating Singapore Shores
Snow Flats of Singapore
Butterflies of Singapore
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Climate change: COP24 fails to adopt key scientific report
Matt McGrath BBC 9 Dec 18;
Attempts to incorporate a key scientific study into global climate talks in Poland have failed.
The IPCC report on the impacts of a temperature rise of 1.5C, had a significant impact when it was launched last October.
Scientists and many delegates in Poland were shocked as the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to this meeting "welcoming" the report.
It was the 2015 climate conference that had commissioned the landmark study.
The report said that the world is now completely off track, heading more towards 3C this century rather than 1.5C.
Keeping to the preferred target would need "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society". If warming was to be kept to 1.5C this century, then emissions of carbon dioxide would have to be reduced by 45% by 2030.
The report, launched in Incheon in South Korea, had an immediate impact winning praise from politicians all over the world.
But negotiators here ran into serious trouble when Saudi Arabia, the US, Russia and Kuwait objected to the conference "welcoming" the document.
Instead they wanted to support a much more lukewarm phrase, that the conference would "take note" of the report.
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Reclamation at Tuas has nothing to do with maritime boundary dispute, says Khaw
FARIS MOKHTAR Today Online 6 Dec 18;
SINGAPORE — Calling on Malaysia to stop the intrusion of vessels into Singapore’s territorial waters before things get out of hand, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan dismissed Malaysia’s argument that Singapore cannot claim the disputed waters on the basis of its reclamation works in Tuas in recent years.
Reclamation, which started in 1996, should not come into the picture at all, Mr Khaw said on Thursday (Dec 6) at a press conference. For the last 20 years, the Johor Baru port limits had not changed until recently on Oct 25, when Malaysia decided to unilaterally expand the boundaries into Singapore’s territory.
Three Malaysian government vessels were in Singapore’s waters at the time of the press conference, and when asked by reporters what the Government will do if they do not leave, Mr Khaw said that security agencies are there to sound off warnings while exercising restraint.
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Malaysia: Wildlife authorities rapped over jumbo deaths
The Star 8 Dec 18;
FIVE wild elephants were electrocuted between June and November as a result of low-hanging transmission cables in Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nesan reported.
Two died in September after coming into contact with power lines, a court heard recently from forestry department officials.
The latest death occurred in the Megamalai Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu’s Theni district, a haven for more than 60 endangered wildlife such as cheetahs and deers, as well as rare and protected trees.
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Best of our wild blogs: 7 Dec 18
Loss of Ceriagrion chaoi in Bishan Park - Fragile Urban Ecology
Everyday Nature
Successful fledgling of pair of White-bellied Sea-eagles
Singapore Bird Group
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