Indonesia's haze: Some doubts linger

Straits Times 17 Dec 07;

THERE was a different atmosphere when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met in Bali during the just-concluded conference on climate change. This year, Indonesia did not export haze to neighbouring countries.

Both are surely happy.

There had been no reports of Indonesia, Singapore or Malaysia being hit by the haze, which can affect daily activities and aviation.

Some said this is a result of Indonesia overcoming forest burning and the new land clearings. But others cynically feel it is due to the rainy season coming earlier than usual. Indeed, razing of farmlands is usually done at the end of the dry season so that the fires can be doused by rainfall.

But is it true that there has been no haze at all?

Not really. At the end of the dry spell, many fire points had been discovered. Not as many as usual and not as big as during the past years, so the haze did not get to reach other countries. Meanwhile, local residents in a number of areas in Kalimantan and Sumatra did experience some haze problems.

We hope the reduction in the movement of the haze is due more to the government's action and awareness of (farm) operators. But it must be admitted that, until today, there hasn't been any detailed explanation about the fact that we have not been overcome by haze as usual.

Isn't there confirmation that the absence of the haze is due to the rainy season coming earlier? We await the government's explanation.

Actually, it is easy for the government to stop the haze invasion. Even though it has never been admitted, we are more convinced that the burning of land is done by operators who want to develop plantations, such as oil palm.

But we are always made to believe that burning of lands is done by transient farmers. The question is: why didn't this take place in the past? Why only now, during the time of much deforestation and opening of big farmlands?

Herein lies the importance of honesty on all sides. In the issue of forest fires, the parties concerned are the district government, the police and the Forestry Department. In their hands lie the responsibility of monitoring as well as deterring and acting against those who are fond of burning forests.

Through their honesty, if there are forests on fire, they only need to look at the papers stating ownership and authority on the land, the permits for farming, and groups that can mobilise manpower for forest burning.

Yet, a moderate solution becomes complicated if we are corrupt. A host of reasons will be conjured, when the Indonesian police is proven to be more sophisticated than the US police. The proof: the ability of the Indonesian police to nab criminals is much better than US police.

And most spectacular is when the Indonesian police, better than any police force in the world, is able to uncover the terrorism network to its roots. So uncovering perpetrators of forest fires should just be at the tips of their hands.

We are grateful that we have been able to go through 2007 without any significant invasion of the haze. Hopefully in 2008 and the years to come, there will no longer be forest burning. This is the nicest gift for the climate change conference in Bali.

This editorial appeared in Indonesia's Republika last Friday.

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Singapore buckles down to hard work, post-Bali

Maria Almenoar, Strait Times 17 Dec 07;

"From a Singaporean perspective, this is what we always wanted. Mr Lee mentioned that everybody has to play a part"

HARD work is the order of the day now that the two-week- long climate change conference in Bali has ended.

Singapore's Minister for Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday that the Government will have to sit down over the next two years to plan its next steps.

Areas for discussion include how to assist developing countries and the enhancement of national plans.

'The framework is actually quite adequate but the devil will always be in the details.

'So for the next two years, the negotiators now have a very broad parameter...That's the right spirit, the right framework. So I'm glad we have managed to achieve it even at the 11th hour,' he said.

Mr Yaacob was speaking to reporters after a community event in Kolam Ayer to promote youth involvement in community activities.

The 'Bali road map' launches two more years of formal negotiations to spell out what each country will have to do to slow emissions of global warning gases after 2012, when the current deal, called the Kyoto Protocol, ends.

From Singapore's perspective, the resolution is something the Republic has always wanted, said Mr Yaacob.

'Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has always said that everybody must do their part - we must be a responsible member of the international community. What that part is now, is the part that we will have to discuss.'

He also said that keeping the four 'building blocks' of adaptation, mitigation, technology and finance in mind, countries will then have to go to back to the 'drawing board' to see how funds can be better used, if the money is enough and how it can be used to help developing countries, among other things.

Asked about Singapore's plans to build dykes to combat the rising water levels due to climate change, Mr Yaacob said studies were still being done.

It would take about two years, he said, to study how such a project would affect the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea.

Only then could they look at adapting the technology the Dutch have used to suit our island.

The Government has already made contact with the Dutch to tap their expertise in building dykes.

Just Singapore's shade of green
Bali roadmap on climate change 'what Republic always wanted', says Minister Yaacob
Nazry Bahrawi Today Online 17 Dec 07;

It was an eleventh-hour resolution reached after more than two weeks of wrangling — and the new Bali roadmap on climate change, adopted by nearly 190 nations on Saturday, is what Singapore had always wanted, according to Minister for Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim.

The reason? It calls for action from all quarters, an element earlier highlighted by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

"From a Singaporean perspective, this is what we always wanted. Mr Lee mentioned that everybody has to play a part," he told reporters on the sidelines of a community event at the Kolam Ayer Community Club yesterday.

Hailing the resolution as the "best draft", Dr Yaacob added that the devil is now in the details.

"Now we have to discuss what (each country's) part is," he said. "For developed countries, it is enhanced actions. For developing countries, it is national programmes."

Still, the new roadmap lacks specific targets, unlike its predecessor the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Following protests by the United States, Japan and others, negotiators on Saturday decided not to adopt a recommendation by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for industrial nations' emissions to be cut 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Instead, they agreed to negotiate, by 2009, countries' targets and a blueprint for fighting global warming. "That gives us a timeline," said Dr Yaacob.

Singapore is "very happy" the resolution includes projects to slow deforestation, he added. The Republic will continue to support regional initiatives to protect carbon sinks — forested regions — that offset the damage of global warming gases, he said.

Last month, Singapore set aside $1 million to fund anti-haze projects in the Indonesian province of Jambi in Riau. Norway and South Korea had offered suggestions to help with deforestation, while others have pledged money, Dr Yaacob noted. Still, the Adaptation Fund — of about $67 million — set aside to help developing countries deal with climate change "may not be enough".

Meanwhile, Dr Yaacob said, Singapore is studying "very seriously" the possibility of hosting the next Water Summit in 2009. The event is organised by the Asia Pacific Water Forum, which had, two weeks ago, invited Singapore to play host. The forum is chaired by Singapore's Ambassador-at-Large Tommy Koh.

Dr Yaacob also said a high level committee, comprising scientists and ministry staff, is looking at the IPCC's findings, and refining these for Singapore — especially concerning the direct impact that rising sea levels will have on the Republic.

"When we are more confident of those figures, then can we talk about adaptation measures," said Dr Yaacob, who was speaking at Project Graffiti, a community event to make the Kolam Ayer Community Club more attractive to youths.

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Asian cities lauded for improving lives

Four win awards for innovative efforts in tackling urbanisation
Bhagyashree Garekar, Straits Times 17 Dec 07;

WASHINGTON - FROM software which makes sure planning applications follow the rules to determined attempts to end pollution, Asian cities are winning recognition for improving the lives of their inhabitants.

The third annual London-based NGO World Leadership Forum awards, which recognise innovative attempts to cope with the problems of rapid urbanisation, saw eight Asian cities on the shortlist of 23, with four among the 14 winners.

The Indian city of Pune made the final cut with software that can read a building plan submitted for approval and check whether the blueprint is consistent with the various rules and regulations.

For a city bustling with infotech companies, it was no great technological leap forward, but it has meant freedom from paperwork, inefficiency and malpractice.

Earlier this year, the forum, which seeks to spotlight leadership in a host of areas including public policymaking and the private sector, approached 400 of the world's largest cities and asked them to enter their most successful projects in a contest.

Categories included town planning, ways of dealing with pollution, the housing crunch, crime and health issues, and the entries were judged by a team of experts in terms of the quality of leadership displayed, the obstacles faced and the degree of inspiration held out for others.

Another Asian winner was the Taiwanese city of Taichung, which was lauded for a simple yet successful plan to boost tourism: 'Build the city with art and boost its economy.'

The Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh picked up an award for its doggedness in taking on environmental pollution.

And the southern Indian city of Chennai was feted for the way it reached out to school students to educate them about HIV/Aids.

Meanwhile, Amman, the capital of Jordan, won an award for town planning.

Buffeted by the arrival of thousands of refugees from the Iraq war as well as petrodollars from the Gulf which were rapidly buying up the city's real estate, the city produced its first detailed urban plan in the 6,500 years since it was founded.

Mr Malcolm Turner, president of the forum, said: 'More than half the projects come from the developing world - it goes to show that ideas which improve people's lives can be implemented on budgets far smaller than those employed in Europe or America.'

And he noted a jump in the entries and winners from Asia this year, saying: 'We particularly noted there were eight projects from four cities in India, and we think that has to do with the economic reforms embraced by the country's leadership.

'It is benefiting the cities and disadvantaged people.'

Mr Joel Kotkin, a Los Angeles-based urban expert and author of a noted book, The City: A Global History, agreed that Asian cities, many of which have been subject to Western colonisation, are coming into their own.

While no city has completely managed to solve problems like overcrowding or transportation, they are increasingly paying attention to their liveability, he said.

And such creative approaches to the problems that urbanisation is bringing to Asia will be increasingly necessary as experts say that, between now and 2025, the continent's urban population will increase by 60 per cent.

Meanwhile, Singapore is due to host a conference on liveable cities next June to address the related issues of urbanisation, climate change, energy and the environment.

And Mr Turner said he hoped Singapore might enter some of its well-regarded projects in the forum competition in coming years.

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European cities' local fight against global warming

Big and small cities take lead in innovative measures to cut emissions
Mark Rice-Oxley, Guardian in Straits Times 17 Dec 07;

WOKING (ENGLAND) - CITIES, towns and even villages across Europe are pressing ahead with deep, unilateral cuts in carbon emissions, regardless of national or international targets, proving that one does not necessarily need a Bali-style global deal to get to grips with climate change.

From Woking in England to Vaxjo in Sweden, and from the mighty metropolises of London, Barcelona and Munich to tiny villages like Gussing in Austria, Europeans are shrinking their individual carbon footprints through an exotic range of renewables and energy efficiency projects.

The result: some towns have cut emissions by far greater amounts than was prescribed in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, while others are confidently setting targets that go well beyond any tentative suggestions put forward last week at the Bali conference of 190 nations.

'If we want to tackle climate change we have to be local,' says Mr Pedro Ballesteros Torres, manager of the European Commission's Sustainable Energy Europe campaign.

'Our aim is for the cities to push the governments to act on climate change.'

Woking is an early pioneer in Britain. With its solar-powered street lights and photovoltaic panels, its fuel cells and energy-efficient power generators, this town south of London has gained a reputation as Britain's greenest city.

'We have cut emissions by 21 per cent since 1990,' enthuses Ms Lara Curran, who heads the climate change programme for the local council. If the national grid were to go down, locals here boast, parts of Woking would remain lit, thanks to its alternative energy supplies.

'Woking is a small town but this shows we can make a difference,' says Ms Curran.

Vaxjo in southern Sweden is even further down the road to becoming fossil-fuel free, a goal it set for itself in 1996. It has since cut emissions by 30 per cent and is confident it can get a 50 per cent cut by 2010.

The main agent of change has been a centralised 'district heating system' which runs on low-emitting woodchip fuel (one of a number of stock fuels known as biomass) and provides up to 90 per cent of local heating needs.

'We are taking leftover product from forestry industry and sawmills and so on and using that as the source for heat and electricity production,' says environment controller Henrik Johansson.

Vaxjo has also expanded its bicycle network (snow is cleared from cycle paths before roads) and provides free parking for green cars. It is insulating older buildings and 50 per cent of its energy supply now comes from renewable sources.

Visitors come from all over the world to see what can be done on a local level.

'We send them the message that you don't have to wait for international agreements because you can do a lot on a voluntary local basis,' he says.

As for cities, Barcelona now requires all new buildings to install solar panels for hot water.

Munich is refurbishing old buildings for tackling energy wastage through poor insulation. It aims to shrink its footprint by 50 per cent by 2030. That compares with the likes of Copenhagen (35 per cent by 2010) and London (60 per cent by 2025).

Cities are also taking on the fastest-growing source of carbon emissions: transport.

Paris has its new 'Velib' free bicycle rental scheme, joining cities such as Copenhagen, Helsinki, Vienna and Brussels; London has its much-admired congestion charge that has cut weekday traffic through the city centre. Stockholm followed suit in August this year.

'Traffic is the big problem for the future,' says Ms Angela Harnish of the Climate Alliance of European Cities, a grouping of more than 1,400 member cities and municipalities across Europe which aim to cut their emissions by 10 per cent every five years.

'For energy and heating we have solutions but for traffic and mobility, it's harder.'

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Climate change: Think big, start small, act now - Thomas L. Friedman

Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times Straits Times 17 Dec 07;

BALI - THE negotiators at the UN climate conference here came from almost 200 countries and spoke almost as many languages, but driving them all to find a better way to address climate change was one widely shared, if unspoken, sentiment: that 'later' is over for our generation.

'Later' was a luxury for previous generations and civilisations. It meant that you could paint the same landscape, see the same animals, eat the same fruit, climb the same trees, fish the same rivers, enjoy the same weather or rescue the same endangered species that you did when you were a kid - but just do it later, whenever you got around to it.

If there is one change in global consciousness that seems to have settled in over just the past couple of years, it is the notion that later is over. Later is no longer when you get to do all those same things - just on your time-table.

Later is now when they're gone - when you won't get to do any of them ever again, unless there is radical collective action to mitigate climate change, and maybe even if there is.

There are many reasons that later is over. The fact that global warming is now having such an observable effect on pillars of our ecosystem - like the frozen sea ice within the Arctic Circle, which a new study says could disappear entirely during summers by 2040 - is certainly one big factor. But the other is the voracious power of today's global economy.

Throughout human history there had always been some new part of the ocean to plunder, some new forest to devour, some new farmlands to exploit, noted Mr Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club, an observer at the Bali conference.

But 'now that economic development has become the prerogative of every country', he said, we've run out of virgin oceans and lands 'for new rising economic powers to exploit'.

So, too many countries are now chasing too few fish, trees and water resources, and are either devouring their own or plundering those of neighbours at alarming rates.

Indeed, today's global economy has become like a monster truck with the accelerator stuck, so no one can stop it from wiping out more and more of the natural world, no matter what the global plan.

There was a chilling essay in the Jakarta Post last week by Mr Andrio Adiwibowo, a lecturer in environmental management at the University of Indonesia, about how a plan to protect the mangrove forests around coastal Jakarta was never carried out, leading to widespread tidal flooding last month.

This line jumped out at me: 'The plan was not implemented. Instead of providing a buffer zone, development encroached into the core zone, which was covered over by concrete.'

You could read that story in a hundred different developing countries today. But the fact that you read it here is one of the most important reasons that 'later' has become extinct.

Indonesia is second only to Brazil in terrestrial biodiversity and is No. 1 in the world in marine biodiversity. Just half a hectare in Borneo contains more different tree species than all of North America - not to mention animals that don't exist anywhere else on earth. If we lose them, there will be no later for some of the rarest plants and animals on the planet.

And we are losing them. Market- driven forces emanating primarily from China, Europe and the US have become so powerful that Indonesia recently made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the fastest rate of deforestation in the world.

Indonesia is losing tropical forests the size of the state of Maryland in the US every year, and the carbon released by the cutting and clearing - much of it from illegal logging - has made Indonesia the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, after the US and China.

Deforestation actually accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than all the vehicles in the world, an issue the Bali conference finally addressed.

I interviewed Mr Barnabas Suebu, the governor of the Indonesian province of Papua, home to some of its richest forests. He waxed eloquent about how difficult it is to create jobs that will give his villagers anything close to the income they can get from chopping down a tree and selling it to smugglers, who will ship it out to other parts of Asia to be made into furniture for Americans or Europeans.

He said his motto was: 'Think big, start small, act now - before everything becomes too late.'

Ditto for all of us. If you want to help preserve the Indonesian forests, think fast, start quick, act now. Just don't say later.

NEW YORK TIMES

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Malaysia's Penan in battle for survival

M. Jegathesan, Yahoo News 15 Dec 07;

Deep in the Borneo jungle, 70-year-old Ara Potong stiches a rattan mat and wonders how much longer he can continue to survive on the bounty of the fast-disappearing forest.

The grey-haired Penan tribesman, with the stretched earlobes distinctive to his people, deftly slices the thin rattan to fashion a mat that will be traded for basic goods like rice, sugar, salt and oil.

"Logging has damaged the jungles. Now it is difficult to find rattan. We need it to make mats," says Ding Liang, another elderly resident of the Penan settlement, as he watches Ara work.

"Even wild boars and monkeys are becoming rare. We do not have enough to eat. Our river is murky. Please tell the world our plight," he tells AFP.

Data Bila is located 150 kilometres (95 miles) southeast of Miri, an oil-rich coastal town in Malaysia's Sarawak state which borders Brunei to the north and Indonesia's Kalimantan to the south.

Data Bila is part of the Ulu Baram region that was famous for its teeming flora and fauna, but where many species are now becoming threatened.

It is also home to an indigenous population comprising the Penans, Kelabit, Kenyah and Kayans -- yet as the logging firms encroach ever further, their way of life is also in jeopardy.

The Penan were traditionally a nomadic people but many have now established settlements along the Baram river. Once it brought them fresh water and fish, but logging operations upstream have now turned it dark and silted.

By the 1980s they had had enough, and began erecting blockades to highlight the damage the timber business caused. Most were demolished -- some violently -- but the protest goes on.

A few weeks ago, Penans in the settlement of Long Benalih erected a new blockade across a proposed logging trail to prevent Malaysia timber giant Samling Global constructing a road into its concession area.

The structure is only flimsy and could easily be swept aside, but it is a potent symbolic gesture, and one which can jeopardise certification needed to prove timber was obtained legally and sustainably.

"We have the blockade to preserve and prevent damage to the land," Long Benalih's headman Saun Bujang said in a statement posted on the blockade, first set up in 2003 and periodically demolished and rebuilt.

"We oppose logging and construction of the timber road because it destroys our way of life and the forest products we depend on."

Samling insists the allegations of forest destruction are baseless.

"We have tried to negotiate with Long Benalih community but we have not been able to make any progress. This blockade is being put up in our timber concession area and we have not started any harvesting in the disputed area," says spokeswoman Cheryl Yong.

Ajang Kiew, chairman of the Sarawak Penan Association, says most timber players in Sarawak have little regard for the native people and the forests, although Samling stands above the rest by selectively logging mature timber.

"Logging destroyed my ancestral burial grounds in the 1980s and 1990s," the 54-year-old tells AFP.

"If you come to my village you only see red soil. The water is murky," he says. Ajang is also worried about the disappearing sago palm -- a staple diet eaten with meat from wild boar or barking deer.

Ajang has been jailed three times in the past two decades and sacked by the government as village headman for helping build blockades.

"The jungle is like a mother to us. It gives us food and protection. I am sad when the forest is destroyed. Our culture will disappear if the forests disappears. My heart bleeds when they cut the trees," he says.

The plight of the Penan was made famous in the 1990s by environmental activist Bruno Manser, who waged a crusade to protect their way of life and fend off the loggers.

He vanished in 2000 -- many suspect foul play.

Malaysia bitterly resented his efforts and banned him from the country, but Ajang says opposition to logging runs much deeper than the campaign of any one man.

"We are not influenced by Bruno Manser or any other outsiders. Our problems are real. Come to my village and see for yourselve. We are not liars."

Samling's vice-president of forest division James Ho, who is based in Miri, insists the sago plants and rattan vines so critical to the Penan way of life are not damaged in its concession areas.

"Sago plants do not have commercial value. We don't touch such plants. We practice sustainable forest management. Only trees with commercial value of certain size are cut. We follow the laws," he says.

"We do not destroy the forest. We only harvest mature trees. We are a listed company in Hong Kong and we want to be transparent."

"Unfortunately by being transparent, we are subjected to more scrutiny," he tells a group of international media which the company brought to Sarawak to witness its activities.

Ho says the Penan of Long Benalih are being influenced by outsiders, and that many others actually welcome the roads, piped water and other benefits of development that the logging brings.

Raymond Abin, of the Borneo Research Institue in Miri, said there are at least 15,000 Penans in Sarawak, including about 300 who still live a nomadic existence in the jungle.

"Many Penans have been forced out of the forest to settle in settlement camps. Their social and economic activities depend on hunting and sale of handicraft. Rattan is already depleted due to logging."

Despite the "benefits" of development, malnutrition remains a big problem, the social activist says.

"And if you look at the state development plan, it is very scary. The lowlands are for oil palm cultivation and the highlands for forest plantations. Hence, the indigenous people will be pushed further into the interior."

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Singaporeans urged to go green this festive season

Channel NewsAsia 16 Dec 07;

SINGAPORE: While many enjoy celebrating the season of giving, one champion of the Go Green Movement has added that special green touch, as a gift to Mother Nature.

The green champion said using LED lights, which last longer and use less electricity, will give one the same festive cheer.

Although LED lights cost about 20 percent more than conventional lights, Wilson Ang – president of ECO Singapore – will be using it to celebrate Christmas in a 'green' way.

He said: "Buying gifts is good. People like receiving gifts. I like buying for myself as well. But how do we do it with a green touch?"

Countering some people's argument that they have no time to be environmentally conscious, Mr Ang said: "If Singaporeans really have no time, why is it that some people spend hours queuing up for donuts for example, or for Hello Kitty? You sit down, observe, and it makes a significant difference altogether."

Even gift-wrapping can be creative. Newspapers – spiced up with recycled lanyards – can take the place of colourful wrapping papers.

Still, he said Christmas is not just about presents.

"It's about giving, and really, it's not about giving gifts. It's really about spending quality time," said the ECO Singapore president.

So for him, playing board games is a great way to interact with friends and family, and unlike computer games, these games do not use electricity.


- CNA/so

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Small group of US experts insist global warming not man-made

Jean-Louis Santini, Yahoo News 16 Dec 07;

A small group of US experts stubbornly insist that, contrary to what the vast majority of their colleagues believe, humans may not be responsible for the warming of the planet Earth.

These experts believe that global warming is a natural phenomenon, and they point to reams of data they say supports their assertions.

These conclusions are in sharp contradiction to those of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which reached its conclusions using largely similar data.

The UN body of about 3,000 experts, including several renown US scientists, jointly won the award with former US vice president Al Gore for their work to raise awareness about the disastrous consequences of global warming.

In mid-November the IPCC adopted a landmark report stating that the evidence of a human role in the warming of the planet was now "unequivocal."

Retreating glaciers and loss of snow in Alpine regions, thinning Arctic summer sea ice and thawing permafrost shows that climate change is already on the march, the report said.

Carbon pollution, emitted especially by the burning of oil, gas and coal, traps heat from the Sun, thus warming the Earth's surface and inflicting changes to weather systems.

A group of US scientists however disagree, and have written an article on their views that is published in The International Journal of Climatology, a publication of Britain's Royal Meteorological Society.

"The observed pattern of warming, comparing surface and atmospheric temperature trends, doesn't show the characteristic fingerprint associated with greenhouse warming," wrote lead author David Douglas, a climate expert from the University of Rochester, in New York state.

"The inescapable conclusion is that human contribution is not significant and that observed increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases make only a negligible contribution to climate warming," Douglas wrote.

According to co-author John Christi from the University of Alabama, satellite data "and independent balloon data agree that the atmospheric warming trends do not exceed those of the surface," while greenhouse models "demand that atmospheric trend values be two to three times greater."

Data from satellite observations "suggest that greenhouse models ignore negative feedback produced by clouds and by water vapor, that diminish the warming effects" of human carbon dioxide emissions.

The journal authors "have good reason, therefore, to believe that current climate models greatly overestimate the effects of greenhouse gases."

For Fred Singer, a climatologist at the University of Virginia and another co-author, the current warming "trend is simply part of a natural cycle of climate warming and cooling that has been seen in ice cores, deep sea sediments and stalagmites . . . and published in hundreds of papers in peer reviewed journals."

How these cyclical climate take place is still unknown, but they "are most likely caused by variations in the solar wind and associated magnetic fields that affect the flux of cosmic rays incident on cloudiness, and thereby control the amount of sunlight reaching the earth's surface and thus the climate."

Singer said at a recent National Press Club meeting in Washington that there is still no definite proof that humans can produce climate change.

The available data is ambiguous, Singer said: global temperatures, for example, rose between 1900 and 1940, well before humans began to burn the enormous quantities of hydrocarbons they do today. Then they dropped between 1940 and 1975, when the use of oil and coal increased, he said.

Singer believes that other factors -- like variations of solar winds and terrestrial magnetic field that impact cloud formations and the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface, and thus determining the temperature -- are much more influential than human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 16 Dec 07

Youth Statement to High-Level Plenary in Bali “This is our last chance” a short powerful speech by youths, on the It's Getting Hot In Here blog

Tears and cheers seal "unthinkable" climate deal Kevin Conrad, representative from Papua New Guinea, put in words what no-one dared say: “There is an old saying if you are not going to lead you should get out of the way and so I say to the United States: ‘We ask for your leadership but if you are not going to lead, leave it to us. Get out of the way.’” and more on the New Scientist Environment Blog

Has the IPCC outlived its usefulness?
Is it past the time for consensus? on treehugger

Singapore's sun-loving pansies part 2
more beautiful creatures on the butterflies of singapore blog

TeamSeagrass roundup for 2007
in the Seagrass-Watch newsletter on the teamseagrass blog

When corals turn brown
the effect of acid on teeth and corals, on The Guardian's comment is free blog

Beautiful Buloh
an outing by the Semakau guides and Naked Hermit Crabs on the colourful clouds blog and urban forest blog and tidechaser blog

Chestnut-winged cuckoo
a chance encounter on the bird ecology blog

Read more!

NEW Publication: Seagrass-Watch newsletter

International Seagrass-Watch's last newsletter for the year is now online.

Read a roundup of TeamSeagrass Singapore's work on our very own seagrasses! As well as establishing Seagrass-Watch in central Viet Nam. There's also articles about researching the diets of turtles and polychaete worms (with photos of Singapore's own humble worms!)

More on the teamseagrass blog

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NEW publication: Gardenwise July 07

Gardenwise July 07 now available online
A magazine of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, check out this issue which features orchids!

Read about "An Extinct Orchid Re-discovered", "An Endangered Orchid in Singapore" and "Edible Orchids". And the intriguing "Naked Tree".

With lots of gorgeous photos!

Read more!

Cycle and carry: some disconnects in the park connectors

Straits Times 16 Dec 07;
THE Eastern Coastal Park Connector looks seamless on the map, but, on the ground, it is a different story.

LifeStyle journalist Sandra Leong, 26, and Viki Ho, 32, who owns bicycle shop Cycle Craft in East Coast Road, ended up carrying their transport at some spots along the route.

DISMOUNT 1

At the end of the Bedok Park Connector heading to East Coast Park, the underpass behind Bedok Camp has no ramp down. Cyclists have to carry their bikes down a staircase.

Ho says: 'This is difficult for cyclists with heavy bikes. The steps look slippery after rain so people wearing cycling shoes (which have studded surfaces) may fall.'

Leong says: 'Not only is there no ramp, the steps are also steep and narrow.'

NParks says: 'The existing underpass was constructed by the Land Transport Authority many years ago. We are working with the LTA to see if it can provide a proper ramp. We need to ask for additional land as well as additional funding. We hope to do something within the next two years.'

DISMOUNT 2

Along Bedok North Road on the Siglap Park Connector, there's no proper ramp on an overhead bridge that cyclists use to link up with Bedok Town Park. Bikes have to be pushed along a narrow, cement groove that runs beside the staircase steps.

Ho says: 'I wouldn't roll my bike down this way because it's not safe. Just like the underpass, most people will carry their bikes. Those with heavy bikes may find this inconvenient.'

Leong says: 'As there are two flights of steps on either side, this is no easy feat, especially for older cyclists.'

NParks says: 'This overhead bridge was built by the LTA and the land adjacent to it is HDB land. We are working with HDB and LTA to come up with a cost-effective design and technical solution to incorporate the ramp into the existing structure. Again, we hope to do this within the next two years.'

MISLEADING SIGN

At the end of Pasir Ris Town Park, a sign mistakenly directs cyclists to turn around if they want to head to Changi Beach Park. It should, in fact, be pointing right. NParks says a screw on the sign had come loose, causing it to swing in the wrong direction. The problem was rectified on Thursday.

Cycle Craft is at 282 East Coast Road

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