One Million Face Drought in Southwest China

PlanetArk 18 Dec 07;

BEIJING - More than a million people in the southwestern Chinese region of Guangxi have been hit by drinking water shortages in the worst drought since 1951, the official People's Daily said on Monday.

In the last three months, Guangxi, the country's main sugar-growing region, had had less than half the normal amount of rain, the report said, while other parts of the region had seen almost no rain at all.

The government has earmarked 2.29 billion yuan (US$310.8 million) to bring water to thirsty villages, the newspaper added.

Large areas of south China are also suffering from serious drought, with water levels on two major rivers -- the Gan and the Xiang -- in rice-growing provinces dropping to historic lows.

China suffers water shortages of nearly 40 billion cubic metres a year which its water minister has blamed largely on global warming, state media have reported, though severe pollution and rising consumption by both farmers and booming cities have compounded shortages. (US$1=7.369 Yuan) (Reporting by Ben Blanchard)

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Mexico, US Suffer as Rio Grande Sucked Dry

Robin Emmott, PlanetArk 18 Dec 07;

EJIDO LA LAGUNA, Mexico - Julian Rosales' farm is within a stone's throw of one of North America's biggest rivers, but the Mexican landowner fears he will not be able to sow his crops next year for lack of water.

Rusty tractors plow Rosales' parched earth along the banks of the Rio Grande on Mexico's border with Texas where thousands of local farmers say their livelihoods are at stake because Mexico was this year forced by a bilateral treaty to transfer millions of liters of water to the United States.

While farmers and lawmakers in arid northern Mexico seek to challenge the water payment in an international court, the farmers' plight is a symptom of a much bigger problem: the Rio Grande and its underground aquifers are being sucked dry on both sides of the frontier.

The eastern border region is slowly heading toward a water crisis.

"They have taken our water and these lands are dying. Our children are emigrating to the United States, some illegally," said Rosales, who grows the animal feed sorghum in the desert lands of Mexico's Tamaulipas state on the Gulf of Mexico.

Under a 1944 treaty, Mexico is required to transfer water to the United States every five years from the two dams the countries share on the Texas border. For farmers in Tamaulipas, that means ruined harvests and hardship every time the transfer is made.

The landscape is now dotted with abandoned farms and villages unable to enjoy the artificial irrigation that is central to agriculture in a desert region with sporadic rains.

In a last attempt to save the farmers, lawmakers in Tamaulipas have called on Mexico's Supreme Court to rule on whether this year's water transfer was lawful. They argue the treaty stipulates the payment should be made with water from six Mexican tributaries further west along the border that feed the Rio Grande, not with surface water from Tamaulipas.

If they win, lawmakers aim to take the United States to an international court to force it to return the water.

RIVER, SPRINGS RUNS DRY

Water is a scarce commodity across the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) US-Mexico border, with the fight over the Rio Grande mirrored in the west by competition for the Colorado River, which is reduced to a trickle by the time it reaches its delta in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.

In eastern Mexico, the tributaries that feed the Rio Grande are being siphoned off to support vegetable crops for export in the desert. On the US side in Colorado, water from the Rio Grande is so heavily diverted for human use that a section of the river in El Paso on the Texas border virtually stops.

Springs across southern Texas have run dry as aquifers are pumped for water. Most could be exhausted within two decades.

Historically, the Rio Grande, the fifth-longest river in the United States, flowed continuously from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. But since the 1900s, dams, channelization and overexploitation have endangered its survival.

"The Rio Grande is one of the most stressed river basins in the world and water use is already at its limit," said Casey Walsh, a water specialist Mexico's Iberoamericana University.

That is worrisome given that Mexican cities on the border with Texas are set to double their population over the next 20 years. Trade growth, a retiree boom and the influx of immigrants in south Texas will also substantially increase water demand there, as small towns become cities.

The Mexico-Texas border is also a motor for both the US and Mexican economies. Billions of dollars in trade pass through the frontier every year and the US city of Laredo is one of the United States' biggest inland ports.

LYRICAL RIVER

A dry Rio Grande is unthinkable for Americans and Mexicans. Known in Spanish as the Rio Bravo, or "Rough River," its waters have been famed in Western movies and cowboy ballads and have marked the Texan border with Mexico since the 19th century.

"It is going to be disastrous unless there is a change. Companies, farmers, and government at the local, state and federal levels need to work out a solution," said Leslie Hopper of the Texas-based Sul Ross State University, which has set up a research center to study the Rio Grande.

El Paso, which faced predictions it would run out of water in 2010, has done the most to tackle the water shortages. In August, the city opened the world's largest inland desalination plant to turn brackish ground water into freshwater and ensure decades of water supply.

The city of Brownsville on the Gulf of Mexico is now considering a US$150 million desalination plant, while Mexico's Tamaulipas' state government has proposed a US$500 million plan to build an aqueduct to channel Rio Grande water into pipes.

"Without this, we will continue to lose half of our water to seepage and evaporation," said Jaime Cano, a director at the Tamaulipas state water commission.

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Italy's woodlands dying due to climate change

Michael Day, Telegraph 17 Dec 07;

Italy's woodlands are already dying as climate change starts to bite in southern Europe, experts warn.

A report represented to the Italian government said that eight out of 10 trees across Italy's varied ecosystems were already suffering from the effects of rising temperatures and diminishing rainfall.

Professor Carlo Blasi of the Inter-university Centre for Bio-diversity at Rome's La Sapienza University said the research showed that a third of the country's woodland was seriously threatened, and that 60 per cent was likely to suffer permanent damage.

The warning echoes fears that the Mediterranean, and Italy in particular, is proving highly vulnerable to climate change.

Climatologist Dr Filippo Giorgi of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told a major environment conference in Rome in September that the Mediterranean was warming up faster than the rest of the world.

"It's a climate change hot spot, one of the areas where we actually see the change happening".

Dr Giorgi said that in the next decades temperature rises in Europe during the summer months could be 40-50 per cent higher than elsewhere.

Of the six major droughts to occur in Italy in the last 60 years, four have occurred since 1990. The average temperature has increased by 0.4ºC in the north in 20 years and by 0.7ºC in the south. Earlier report have suggest that 10m hectares were "at risk of desertification".

Prof Blasi noted that many of Italy's tree species were ill-equipped to survive hotter, drier conditions.

"Despite its large Mediterranean coastline, Italy has a relatively low proportion - just 40 per cent - of the shrubby Mediterranean trees that are best adapted to resist the heat waves that are on their way," he told La Repubblica newspaper.

"The other 60 per cent are particularly likely to suffer from increasingly hot and arid conditions."

Most surprising, said Prof Blasi, was how widespread the threat was across Italy.

The regions of Tuscany, Umbria, Abruzzo, Puglia and also the islands of Sicily and Sardinia were being hard hit by rising temperatures, with several species of oak and beech tree in particular under threat.

Lack of rainfall was proving the biggest threat to woodland in the Alpine north of the country.

In Sicily and Sardinia, cork trees, the evergreen Holm-oak and even some compact Mediterranean tree species were threatened by the increasingly arid conditions.

In response to the report Environment minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio said: "Fewer woodlands mean, among other things, reduced capacity to absorb carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere."

He said that to "break this vicious ciricle" his government had set aside £110m to tackle degradation of forests and woodlands.

Like other Southern European countries, Italy has also lost considerable areas of woodland to forest fires, which although fanned by hot winds, are often started deliberately.

Pecoraro Scanio lamented the failure of Italy's fractious parliament to agree to fund a new body to investigate the cause of such blazes and "defend itself from the criminals that set fire to the forests".

He predicted more woodland and forest would perish from such fires in the summers to come.

It is not not only Italy's forests that are causing enviromentalists concern, however.

Scientists at Italy's Agency for New technology, Energy and the Environment (ENEA), say that failing cold currents and rising water temperatures are exacerbating periodic flooding - and this is causing massive erosion along Italy's Adriatic coast.

As a result they have drawn up a plan in which hundreds of miles of new sand dunes would be created to save it the country's most endangered coastline and its wildlife from rising sea levels.

Dr Edi Valpreda, who led the project, told Telegraph Earth that it was currently being considered by the environment ministry.

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Carbon credits and Indonesia: Silver lining in a dense situation?

John McBeth, Straits Times 18 Dec 07;

IT IS hard enough rehabilitating Indonesia's peatlands and saving its remaining rainforests, but the decision to proceed with a fast-track 10,000MW coal-fired power plant shows the juggling act developing countries face in reducing their carbon emissions.

Coal and oil make up close to 70 per cent of state- owned power utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara's (PLN) total installed capacity of 24,000MW - far more than it should, given Indonesia's abundant natural gas, geothermal resources and biofuel potential.

Ten new coal-fired stations, with a total 6,900MW output, are expected to go online on the Java-Bali grid by 2010 as PLN tries to keep pace with an annual 9 per cent growth in demand. Plants are planned for other islands as part of an US$8 billion (S$11.5 billion) expansion.

So, officials were understandably silent over the programme in the lead-up to the UN climate change conference in Bali this month, but it does underline the problem of getting large developing countries to commit to a set reduction in carbon dioxide emissions if it risks hampering their economic growth.

Why coal? It is the quickest and probably the cheapest to bring into operation. The boost to the country's overall generating capacity will add at least 65 million tonnes to the 45 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent that Indonesia's coal-fired stations already pump into the atmosphere each year.

But while Jakarta is adding more smokestacks, it is also trying to undo some of the damage caused by former president Suharto's ill-fated scheme in the 1990s to convert 1 million ha of Central Kalimantan peatland into productive rice fields.

The resulting ecological disaster helped push the country into third place among the world's biggest carbon emitters - a position it contests, but which was still a source of profound embarrassment to the hosts of the just-concluded Bali conference.

Kalimantan is only part of the problem. More damage has been done by loggers and oil palm planters in Riau - so much so that the Sumatran province contributes 70 per cent of the 516 million tonnes of carbon Indonesia's degraded peatlands emit each year.

In all, that adds up to 82 per cent of South-east Asian peat emissions, 58 per cent of global emissions and twice what Indonesia burns annually in fossil fuels - just some of the statistics trotted out to support the inclusion of reforestation and avoided deforestation in a new addendum to the Kyoto Protocol.

Overall, deforestation, degradation and land-use changes are responsible for 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet there is no incentive in the current protocol for Indonesia and 10 other developing countries to curb them or do more to slow the destruction of their forests.

Jakarta wants peatlands in the proposed Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (Redd) pact for a good reason. Simple re-flooding and other rehabilitation will bring far more short-term benefits than reforestation and reduced logging in any global carbon trading market.

'Peatlands are the low- hanging fruit, given their huge value of emissions and the fact that they bring few economic benefits,' said Mr Meine van Noordwijk, regional coordinator for the International Centre for Research and Agroforestry.

'If they are not included, about 50 per cent of Indonesia's emissions will not be within the domain.'

Carbon trading offers financial incentives for businesses not to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It is already a US$30 billion business, but Mr Anthony Moody, executive chairman of Sindicatum Carbon Capital, believes it could soar to US$200 billion over the next three years.

The ultimate goal of climate change negotiators is to map out a two-year path aimed at forging a global system for imposing and enforcing emission reductions.

Some developed countries do not want to pay for actions that are not taken and worry about the difficulty of measuring avoided deforestation, particularly in countries such as Indonesia, where graft is rife and rules notoriously slippery.

Under Kyoto, so-called Annex 1 countries - all developed nations except the US - set a ceiling on the greenhouse gases they can can emit in a year. When Europe implemented its cap-and-trade system, which sets a benchline for emissions, it did not specifically give offset credits for avoided deforestation because it feared they would flood the system, though it did make some exceptions.

London is the financial centre for carbon trading because Britain and the European Union signed up early to Kyoto, and the financiers quickly got to work and figured out how to profit from it.

Indonesian businessmen say carbon credit trading will not work because it is just too difficult. But they said the same thing when the Jakarta Stock Exchange opened in 1988 with 24 listed companies and little else.

'It involved a process, and you had to go through the process and be transparent,' recalled Ms Agnes Safford, director of Singapore-based AsiaWorksAsia.

'You are dealing with the same thing in the carbon market - auditors, accountants and engineers are the only people who understand it.'

In the short term, a lot can still happen because power plants, industry, transportation, landfills - even lighting in city buildings - can all create carbon credits by making efficiency savings and shifting away from fossil fuels.

Mr Moody's Sindicatum recently hooked up with petroleum firm Odira Energy Persada in eight projects that will cut 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by converting flared gas to liquid petroleum gas for use in diesel and coal-fired power stations.

Swiss-owned Indocement, Indonesia's second-largest cement maker, has already introduced substitute fuels and efficiencies in power usage to generate emission credits that can be offset in Switzerland.

The Swiss should be cleaning up their own country, but it is cheaper to do it in Indonesia, which has only nine projects registered so far with the UN Convention for Climate Change.

Of course, for climate change activists, the idea of offsets is not as attractive as absolute cuts which, as the US has stubbornly shown, are tough to attain in an industrialised giant seeking to keep its extravagant living standards.

Indonesia can do it easier, but Ms Safford said the earliest actual credits for reforestation and avoided deforestation will probably not be paid until 2014, two years after Redd is enshrined under a new protocol and Jakarta decides on an emissions cap.

Until then, investors can trade in voluntary emission reduction (VER) credits - private deals in which carbon credits for maintaining a forest can be used - not traded - to offset carbon emissions.

In the first pilot project of its kind, the Borneo Tropical Rainforest Foundation has a deal with East Kalimantan's Malinau district to carry out a study of carbon stocks in 325,000ha of virgin forest. It aims to create a baseline for Indonesia's future voluntary carbon market. That means coming up with a comprehensive assessment of the amount of carbon dioxide a forest absorbs, given the fact that different trees do not suck up the same amount of carbon.

Ms Safford said a VER credit in Indonesia is worth US$2 to US$3 a tonne, against US$20 or more for those traded in Europe. So far, the global VER market only amounts to about US$50 million, largely because the bureaucracy is not involved and a lot of the deals are built on trust.

'But the minute it falls under a new protocol, you will start seeing forest deals done,' said Ms Safford. 'Why? Because all the big funds see the writing on the wall - they see the Western world will pay for this. In the end, I am sure it is going to be a conscience thing.'

But back to that huge increase in coal-fired power generation. What might happen if the price of carbon doubles and suddenly scrubbers and other clean technologies become a profitable part of the electricity business?

Ms Safford said: 'It will happen eventually, but we still have to go through this tedious process to get there. The framework has to be in place before the private sector can pile in.'

That is the good news. The bad news, she acknowledged, could be that polluters are able to buy credits to clean up their mess cheaper than it costs to actually clean up.

Many experts argue that to get over that, carbon should have a floor price of at least US$50 a tonne.

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Bird flu spreading again, WHO warns

Straits Times 18 Dec 07;
Team heads to Pakistan to probe S. Asia's first human cases as outbreaks pop up elsewhere

ISLAMABAD - THE World Health Organisation warned yesterday that countries should be on the alert for bird flu because it is on the move again, with Pakistan reporting new infections and Myanmar logging its first human case.

A three-member WHO team headed for the city of Abbottabad in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province yesterday to investigate how eight people were infected with bird flu, after the country reported its first human death due to the virus.

Health officials confirmed at the weekend that eight people had tested positive for H5N1 in the province since late October, of which one person, who worked in a poultry farm, died.

A brother of the dead person, who had not been tested, also died. It was not clear if he was a victim of bird flu.

The cases are South Asia's first human infections from the virus.

'The team will investigate who the affected people were in contact with, whether they visited poultry farms or affected persons,' Health Secretary Khushnood Akhtar Lashari said.

The team will also visit Peshawar, where patients were treated.

In Geneva, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said on Sunday that human-to-human transmission had not been ruled out, but added that poultry outbreaks had earlier been reported in the area, and it was unclear if all patients had links to sick birds or infected surroundings.

With fresh poultry outbreaks reported in a number of countries, including Germany at the weekend, WHO urged countries to be vigilant in identifying and reporting cases in both birds and humans.

'The key to the public health response is surveillance,' said Mr Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the WHO Western Pacific region in Manila. 'If we do actually get to the cases with antivirals early on, the health outcome is a lot better.'

Myanmar's first human case was reported last Friday in a seven-year-old girl who fell ill last month and survived, while Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the virus, announced its 93rd death from the virus.

Two human cases were also recently confirmed in China, one of whom died.

The H5N1 virus often flares up during the winter months. In some countries such as Indonesia, poultry outbreaks and human cases are reported year round. But many other countries experience a flurry of activity when temperatures drop.

'It starts to pop up at this time of the year, not just in this region where it is endemic, but it starts to appear in the West,' Mr Cordingley said. 'Between now and April is a very dangerous time of the year.'

At least 208 people have died from the virus which began plaguing Asian poultry stocks in late 2003.

Humans rarely contract H5N1, which is mainly an animal disease. But experts fear the strain could spark a global pandemic and kill millions if it mutates to a form that spreads more easily.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS

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Endangered dugongs found dead in Abu Dhabi: drowned in gill nets

Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi Calls on public to help Protect endangered dugong.
Middle East Online 17 Dec 07;

ABU DHABI – A team of field scientists from the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) this month came across two dugongs trapped in an abandoned drift Gillnet (Al Hayali), close to Abu Al Abyad Island.

“This discovery clearly demonstrates once again the vulnerability of these majestic animals to human threats. We call on the community once again to help support our efforts in protecting this endangered treasure,” said Majid Al Mansouri, Secretary General of EAD.

The dugong is listed as ‘Vulnerable to Extinction’ internationally and is protected locally under UAE Federal Law No. 23 (By-Laws 2001).

The law aims to fully protect dugongs and other marine wildlife, including sea turtles, from any commercial and recreational utilization of species within its range in UAE waters.

Gillnets, particularly drift gillnets locally known as Al Hayali, constitute one of the major threats to the Dugong populations within the UAE and globally.

Studies conducted by EAD experts have indicated that the two dugongs suffocated to death in gill-nets. Drift nets (Al Hayali) and Encircling gill nets ( Al Halaq) are banned by Law in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, however, abandoned nets and illegal use of banned nets continue to be a major cause of dugong mortality in the area.

Moreover, Dugongs are at risk from boat strikes and disturbances in areas, where high boating traffic coincides with dugong habitat.

Dugongs are also indirectly at risk due to the destruction of their main habitat, the seagrass.

Seagrass which occur in coastal and shallow water areas and require light for their growth, are particularly vulnerable from increasing developmental activities along the coast such as dredging, land filling, coastal clearing and land reclamation as well as eutrophication (an increase in chemical nutrients) from sewage and other effluents.

EAD has been undertaking studies on dugongs in the UAE since 1999, with funding from TOTAL ABU AL BUKHOOSH. The initial phase of the studies which extended over a period of four years focused on obtaining information on the abundance, distribution and the conservation status of dugongs in UAE.

The second phase, which is currently being implemented, further focuses on the biological and ecological aspects and stock structure of the species. Current efforts also include implementing of a dugong conservation and management plan and fostering closer regional and international cooperation in dugong conservation.

Efforts towards regional and international cooperation culminated in the signing of a memorandum of understanding involving all dugong range states during a meeting held in Abu Dhabi last October.
Two dugongs found dead trapped in gill net
Rayeesa Absal Gulf News 17 Dec 07;

Abu Dhabi: Scientists at the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) recently came across two dead dugongs trapped in an abandoned gill net, close to Abu Al Abyad Island. The scientists said the dugongs suffocated to death after being trapped in the gill net.

The incident prompted EAD officials to call on the public to lend a hand in their efforts to protect dugongs, which have been listed as vulnerable to extinction by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

Commenting on the incident, Majid Al Mansouri, the Secretary General of EAD, said, "This discovery clearly demonstrates once again the vulnerability of these majestic animals to human threats."

He said the UAE government has taken several steps towards the protection of dugongs and conservation of its habitats.

Second largest dugong population in UAE

The UAE is home to second largest dugong population in the world. The Arabian Gulf and Red Sea hosts an estimated population of more than 7,000 dugongs, which constitutes the largest population outside Australia.

About 40 per cent of this population occurs in Abu Dhabi waters in the UAE making the UAE particularly significant in terms of global dugong conservation efforts.

Dugong population is distributed mainly along 37 nations encompassing tropical, sub-tropical coastal and inland waters of the Indian and Pacific Ocean.

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2007 marks fresh start for Singapore's transport sector

Channel NewsAsia 17 Dec 07;

SINGAPORE: 2007 is a year of fresh starts for Singapore's transport sector, with the new superjumbo A380, the new Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE) and a new chapter for budget carriers which have finally been given access to the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route.

Singapore Airlines took delivery of the first A380 after an almost two-year delay.

Excitement built up further when over 400 passengers, who had to bid for their seats, took off on the first commercial A380 flight from Singapore to Sydney on 25 October.

Barely a month later, in another ground-breaking move, it was announced that the lucrative Singapore-Kuala Lumpur air route – long held in a near monopolistic grip by the national carriers for over 30 years – would be opened to budget carriers from February next year, on an initial limited basis.

On the home front, curious Singaporeans have been making a beeline to check out Changi Airport's S$1.75 billion Terminal 3, which will only officially open its doors in January next year.

There are also new beginnings for the road users.

The first phase of the KPE was opened to traffic on 26 October. When fully completed in end-2008, it will have the longest road tunnel in Southeast Asia - nine kilometres of the 12-kilometre expressway.

At the same time, another unexpected record was set for KPE – over 3,000 motorists were booked for speeding on the expressway just within the first week of operations.

There were, however, few surprises, when it came to fares and fees.

As the KPE opened, a whole slew of new ERP charges – from new gantries to extended operational hours – were announced. On the public transport front, bus fares also went up during the annual fare review.

The highest ERP charge now stands at S$5 for the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) slip road into the Central Expressway (CTE) – its third ERP rate increase this year.

From Members of Parliament to the man in the street, this has remained a bugbear.

MP Seng Han Thong said: "I hope it will make ERP more effective rather than make it more expensive."

"We don't mind, as vehicle owners, to pay increased ERP. But we are frustrated when we don't see any ease of traffic flow on the CTE," said a resident in the Thomson area.

One other area which made Singaporeans see red is errant cabbies who overcharge, refuse to pick up passengers or tout in nightspots like Clarke Quay.

After a series of complaints, the authorities finally acted by imposing higher penalties that range from increased fines and demerit points to possible suspension of licences.

Hopefully, all of that will lead to a better 2008.- CNA/so

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South Korea's worst oil spill threatens bird haven

Reuters 17 Dec 07;

TAEAN, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea's worst oil spill is threatening to enter a bay that is an important winter rest stop for migratory birds, the coastguard and a conservation group said on Monday.

Tens of thousands of volunteers, soldiers and others have battled for 10 days to clean up 10,500 tons of crude oil that spewed from a tanker. The spill then washed up on west coast beaches popular with tourists and blackened a nature reserve.

The coastguard has set up containment fences and dispatched vessels to break up or turn back the spill before it enters Cheonsu Bay, about 95 miles southwest of Seoul.

The bay is home for about 400,000 migratory birds, representing 300 different species that pass through during the South Korean winter, according to a statement by the Seosan Cheonsu Bay Bird Watching Fair Organisation Committee.

South Korea has declared the west coast Taean region a disaster area and said it would make available $322.7 million in loans to help residents who say they face ruin.

The spill has wiped out fish farms and oyster beds in the region and conservation groups said oil in the seabed will create problems for years to come.

The leak is about a third of the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill of crude oil onto Alaska shores, the costliest on record at $9.5 billion including settlement of claims.

(Reporting by Jessica Kim; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Oil still drifting south in South Korea's worst spill: Coast Guard
Yahoo News 17 Dec 07;

Slicks from South Korea's worst oil spill are still drifting south despite massive clean-up efforts since the accident 10 days ago, the Coast Guard said Monday.

Clumps of tar and slicks were spotted up to 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of the scene of the spill in the Yellow Sea, Coast Guard officials said.

A tanker spilled some 10,500 tons of crude oil off Taean county on the west coast on December 7 after being holed by a drifting barge carrying a crane.

Navy ships are battling to disperse the oil near four islands, while salvage workers and fishermen have begun work to protect sea farms from contamination, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

The Coast Guard also said it had set up more booms at the mouth of Cheonsu Bay, south of Taean, to protect the habitat for migratory birds.

Much of the oil which coated beaches in Taean was being removed by tens of thousands of volunteers, police and troops.

On Monday, some 37,000 people, 828 ships and 18 aircraft were combating the spill.

Marine authorities said they had begun studying the potential impact of the oil on residents, fishermen and sea farms, and environmentalists have said it may take decades to recover fully from the disaster.

On Sunday, Seoul said it would provide 30 billion won (32 million dollars) in emergency aid to residents of the disaster-hit area by the end of next month.

Separately, the government has also offered up to 300 billion won (325 million dollars) in emergency funds to support small businesses and marine farmers.

The European Union, the United Nations and Japan have despatched environmental experts to assist the cleanup. Aid has also come from Singapore, China and the United States.

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Habitat loss forces India's tigers to high ground

Bappa Majumdar, Reuters 17 Dec 07;

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Habitat destruction is forcing India's endangered tigers to new grounds, including high mountains which have a sufficient prey base but are not known to be the natural home of the big cats.

With forests in the foothills being built over and cleared for farming, wildlife experts say tigers are being increasingly spotted in high altitudes in India's northeast and west.

But they say tigers could still be as endangered in their new environment and are not as adaptable as leopards.

"Tigers can feel the effect of villages on the bio-diversity from miles, and move away," said Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

"But they are not as adaptable as leopards in mountains."

India's wildlife crisis, highlighted best by the dwindling tiger and lion population, has caused huge national concern, pushing authorities to declare new measures to save the cats.

Experts say increasing human interference such as development, encroachment and destruction of habitat, as well as poaching, are the main threats to animals across India, from the Himalayas to Indian Ocean islands.

India is thought to be home to half the world's surviving tigers, but according to a census in 2001 and 2002, their numbers have dwindled to between 1,300 and 1,500 from 40,000 a century ago.

NEW HOME

In an example of the tiger adapting to the threat to their natural habitat, experts have found at least 20 of them in the high mountains of Neora, tucked between Bhutan and India's eastern state of West Bengal.

"Until 1998, we found one or two tigers straying into the Neora from the foothills, but now they live there," said Pranabes Sanyal of World Conservation Union, who conducted a study on tiger migration.

The tigers moved to the dense cover of bamboo and oak at Neora from the Gorumara reserve in the foothills, their original habitat.

In September, experts sighted up to 20 tigers in a hilly tropical rainforest in the western Maharashtra state, almost three decades after it was thought that poaching had wiped them out there.

Tigers have also moved into the lower Himalayan range in Bhutan from the Buxa and Manas tiger reserves on the plains of adjacent India which have a large human population.

Some conservationists have called for a proper study to find out how tigers were surviving in the unfamiliar terrain.

"There needs to be a special study done to find how they are doing and to learn about the extent of disturbance in the habitat below that forced them to move up," said Valmik Thapar, a leading tiger expert.

(Editing by Krittivas Mukherjee)

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Hong Kong public calls for air pollution fight

Reuters 17 Dec 07;

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Most Hong Kong people were willing to pay for a tougher crackdown on chronic air pollution through road pricing and other measures, a government-backed report said on Monday.

The head of the government advisory body that collaborated on the report with Hong Kong University also said the city should establish a "superfund" for cleaning up the environment.

Released during Hong Kong's traditionally smoggy winter months, the report is the most ambitious so far to gauge public attitudes about pollution, which frequently obscures the famous harbor.

"The public really wants something to be done even if certain costs are added to them...so it's really a good political capital that they (the government) have to drive on more initiatives," said environmentalist Alexis Lau.

Edgar Cheng, the Chairman of the Council for Sustainable Development, called for the government to establish the fund.

Cheng didn't specify the size of the fund, but said the government could afford it, with an expected surplus of HK$50 billion dollar ($6.4 billion) this fiscal year.

"We figured out that if we want to clear up everything, it will cost HK$20-30 billion," Cheng said.

Of the 81,000 people polled in the survey, 77 percent said they would be bear increases in transport costs in return for better air, through the use of cleaner vehicles and fuels.

Forty-two percent said they backed electronic road pricing, which would charge vehicle usage on roads during peak periods -- a contentious measure opposed by the motor trade for decades.

A consensus was also found for greater public transport usage on bad air days and certain mandatory measures like the use of green lightbulbs and turning off air-conditioners in empty rooms.

Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang said he would study the report.

"Improving air quality and the overall environmental quality is a long term battle, which must have the participation of everyone in society in order to realize results," he said.

Coal-fired power stations are blamed as the city's worst polluters, but increasing emissions also blow across the border from tens of thousands of factories in southern China.

(Reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Grant McCool)

Hong Kong public willing to pay more for clean air
Straits Times 18 Dec 07;

HONG KONG - HONG Kong residents would be willing to pay higher transportation costs if it means breathing cleaner air, according to a survey published yesterday as the city's dazzling skyline was once again shrouded by a thick haze.

The survey was released to coincide with a summit called by the government to discuss the deteriorating air quality in the bustling financial hub and how to tackle it.

Hong Kong's skies are often heavily polluted by its two coal-burning power plants, marine and road traffic, and factories over the border in mainland China, fuelling concerns that tourists and investors may shift their attention to cleaner cities like Singapore.

Pollution monitoring stations in Hong Kong registered a 'high' pollution reading yesterday, meaning that regular exposure over months or years could cause long-term health effects.

A week earlier, downtown Hong Kong and some other areas recorded 'very high' levels, prompting the government to advise people with heart and respiratory illnesses to stay at home.

Dr Anthony Hedley, professor of community medicine at the University of Hong Kong, said cleaning up the city's air was a 'medical emergency'.

More than 75 per cent of 82,000 people surveyed said they would happily pay higher transportation costs if it meant that the thousands of buses, taxis and mini-buses used cleaner fuel.

It also revealed that 42 per cent backed electronic road pricing, which would charge vehicle usage on roads during peak periods - a contentious measure opposed strongly by the motor trade.

The money could be used to subsidise greener vehicles and public transportation, said the survey, which was commissioned by the government's Council for Sustainable Development and carried out by the University of Hong Kong in the past five months.

A consensus was also found for greater public transportation usage on bad air days and certain mandatory measures such as the use of environmentally friendly light bulbs and turning off air-conditioners in empty rooms.

Released during Hong Kong's traditionally smoggy winter months, the report is the most ambitious so far to gauge public attitudes about pollution.

Speaking at the summit, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang vowed to consider the council's findings when formulating a long-term plan for cleaning up the air.

'We firmly believe if Hong Kong's economy is to maintain a sustainable growth, it is necessary to improve our air quality, provide a quality living environment to attract investors and talent to stay in Hong Kong,' Mr Tsang said.

But Professor Hedley said the government needed to act fast as residents were already paying a heavy price for poor quality air, citing an earlier study which found that pollution contributes to 1,600 deaths in the city each year.

ASSOCIATED PRESS, REUTERS

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Malaysian Floods: Not the time for ’fiesta’

Nurul Halawati Azhari, Bernama New Straits Times 17 Dec 07;

The floods that have inundated the states of Kelantan, Johor, Pahang and Negeri Sembilan have steadily worsened. The number of evacuees moved to relief centres has risen to 29,176 while as of dec 17, 22 people had drowned in the floods since it struck last Dec 8.

In the past week, news of people drowning in the flood waters made the headlines in the media but the irony of the situation was that the victims met their death while frolicking in the river or irrigation channels.

Such ’deadly excitement’ playing in the flood waters had drawn the attention of Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, who called on people in flood-hit areas to abandon the thoughts of playing in the ’water carnival.’

The Kelantan Police Chief who is upset with the whole situation, expressed his anger and frustration against parents who allowed their children to play in the flood waters, making them victims to the fast flowing water currents.

However, some of the drowning cases could have been avoided by simply staying away from the flood waters as this not a ’wet theme park’ where people can have fun frolicking in the water.


LACKADAISICAL ATTITUDE

Water is just like fire. It is friendly when small but grows into a danger when it is big. And before we are engulfed by this danger, it is better to take precautions.

However in some areas, the floods which are seasonal, are welcomed with much delight. This is the time when children and adults alike, armed with nets, go out looking for freshwater fish that may have swim out of overflowing aquaculture ponds.

Others would have a gala time splashing in the flood waters. The print and electronic media had reported that parents blatantly showed their lackadaisical attitude by bringing out their small children to play in the rapidly rising flood waters.

Not to be left out are the ’mat rempit’ or speed fiends on motorbikes where their pictures doing ’wheelies’ on their machines in the floods were prominently displayed in the newspapers recently.

The police as well as the Fire and Rescue Department had, on countless of times reminded the public to be wary of the dangers posed by the rapidly flowing flood waters, but unfortunately this had fallen on deaf ears.



RED CRESCENT

A field officer of the National Red Crescent Association (PBSM), Nasir Khan Abd Rahman, said the fun felt while frolicking in the floods can make one to be unaware of the dangers lurking in the water.

They are not only in danger of drowning but there is a high risk that they may get bitten by poisonous snakes that are carried by the rapid currents as well as being exposed to water-borne diseases like cholera as well as skin allergies cased by contaminated or toxic substances.

People in flood-hit areas are advised against eating food that had been tainted by flood water as the food could have been contaminated by bacteria or other micro-organisms.

They are also advised to only drink boiled treated water or the mineral water supplied by relief agencies, said Nasir Khan.

He said:"If those in the flood-hit areas accidentally drink the flood water, they should immediately seek treatment at any clinic as the contaminated water may cause the victim to suffer from vomiting as well as diarrhea”.

Nasir Khan said the PBSM also assists the other relief agencies by supplying rescue boats and ambulances to the flood-hit areas.

“We have volunteers working round-the-clock to help those affected by the flood”, he said.

Nasir Khan said 30 PBSM volunteers had been dispatched to Johor while 80 are in Kelantan, 40 in Pahang and another 20 in Terengganu.

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Great Escape: Eastern Coastal Park Connectors

Sandra Leong, Straits Times 16 Dec 07;
Get away from the concrete jungle by heading to the new 42km Eastern Coastal Park Connectors Network on your bike

IF YOU'RE someone who spends most of your time shuttling between air-conditioned malls and cinemas, there's never been a better time to get on your bike.

That's because of a new network of trails on the east coast that makes cycling in the great outdoors a breeze.

You can wheel it from Siglap to Pasir Ris to Changi and back in as little as two hours, thanks to the completion of the 42km Eastern Coastal Park Connectors Network (PCN for short.)

The $22 million cycling network, which took the National Parks Board (NParks) a decade to complete, links six parks via trails taking riders through heartland estates and along picturesque canals.

The final piece in the grid - the 7km Coastal Park Connector - was unveiled on Dec 7.

So far, 100km of park connectors have been completed across the island, with NParks planning a further 100km by 2015 as part of a plan to transform Singapore into a 'City-in-a-Garden'.

On a rare fine day last week, LifeStyle took a joyride to check out the various routes. And don't worry about getting lost. NParks has placed PCN in bold letters on the track at strategic spots.

Suburban sights

THE start. Park at Carpark C4 along East Coast Park and take the overhead bridge - push your bike up a ramp - to get to the 4.5km Siglap Park Connector that takes you all the way from Marine Parade to Bedok Reservoir Park.

As you go alongside Siglap Canal, you find yourself smack in upper middle-class suburbia - the backyards of the Telok Kurau private estate. The route does get a little congested during mornings and evenings, so expect a slow ride.

Emerge at Kembangan MRT and continue towards the Pan Island Expressway where, once again, you have to push your bike up an overhead ramp (see story on facing page).

Cross over and go through the scenic Bedok Town Park, a length of greenery that eventually connects with Bedok Reservoir Park. You might even catch people wakeboarding there.

From here, you have two choices. Head back to East Coast Park using the 6km Bedok Park Connector, which takes you through a series of canals - one of them parallel to food factories complete with tantalising aromas wafting over to you. Or link up with the 5.4km Tampines Park Connector.

Heartland explorer

THIS route takes you up close and personal with the Tampines HDB estate, as the cycling paths are incorporated into the pedestrian walkways close to the void decks.

For a drink, stop at the several no-name sundry shops along the way.

After some distance, the track turns left towards Tampines Central where you can stop at neighbourhood shopping hubs Tampines Mall and Century Square

Look out for the S-11 kopitiam further down for a hawker fare fix. Past the Tampines Regional Library, you'll reach Sun Plaza Park which has a playground with slides shaped like elephants and crocodiles. From there, join the 2.3km Pasir Ris Park Connector.

The far East

THE pace of life is slower here and you'll encounter fewer motorists and pedestrians. Behind an HDB estate, cross a canal - people go fishing here - via a quaint wooden footbridge.

There's another overhead bridge to cross. Soon you end up at Pasir Ris Town Park, a hotspot for pond fishing. At the end, turn right and go down Pasir Ris Drive 3 towards Loyang and eventually the 3.4km Loyang Park Connector.

There's nothing much to see here except greenery and the odd industrial building. The route winds into some deserted places so it's not advisable to go alone.

Finally, you hit the renowned Changi Village where you can tuck into nasi lemak and sugarcane juice. Arrive after dusk and you may see 'ah kuas' (Hokkien for transvestites).

The ride through Changi Beach Park is pleasant, with lampposts and a footbridge over water where bumboats bob. The last and most daunting bit beckons: the 7.9km Coastal Park Connector.

Ride for your life

THIS flat, straight stretch is bliss. Ride alongside the runways of Changi Airport, with the roar of jet engines urging you to pedal harder and faster.

The only downer is the strong wind, which can slow you down if you're riding into it. But soldier on to reach the best part of the Eastern network.

The connector turns off into a picturesque spot beside a canal that spills over into the sea. The path is shrouded by a canopy of trees and, from the gaps in the greenery, you can view the bellies of planes coming in to land - so close you can see their unfurling wheels. From here, link back to East Coast Park and back to your start point.

Don't forget to reward yourself with a hard-earned drink on the way back by wheeling up to Sunset Bay, a new incarnation of the once-famous Sentosa beach bar institution.

After 42km of pedal power, it's bound to hit the spot.

RELATED ARTICLES

Cycle and carry: some disconnects in the park connectors
Straits Times 16 Dec 07;

Cycling wardens keep footpaths safe in Tampines
Shobana Kesava, Straits Times 17 Dec 07;
170 volunteers ensure that cyclists using footways do not pose danger to pedestrians

42km Eastern Coastal Park Connector Network launched
Channel NewsAsia 8 Dec 07;

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