New electronic playgrounds may be introduced in Singapore's heartlands

Channel NewsAsia 27 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE: Imagine a playground that's fully electronic.

That's what one entrepreneur is hoping to introduce to children with its unique and innovative system.

Town Councils said they need time to assess the new innovation and if they implement them, it would most likely be at some of the larger neighbourhood parks. The playground system costs between S$40,000 to S$60,000.

One of the most important elements’ of the playground will be the racer bike which when pedalled, gets the rest of the game systems powered up and activated.

Allan Ang, Managing Director of RetroMax, said: "They have to peddle to generate the electricity and it's stored within a capacitor. All this is done in a very safe way, it's very low voltage. So, once the electrical energy is stored, they can proceed to play various games within the play area itself." - CNA/vm

Dream playground now a reality here

KidPower is all about high tech – and safety, too
Ng Jing Yng, Today Online 28 Mar 08;

IMAGINE going to your neighbourhood playground and hopping onto a bicycle with a speedometer so you know how fast you are going, plus engine sounds to double the thrill.

And after three to four minutes of pedalling, you will be able to play "catching" with beaming light sensors that challenge you to tap them before the lights go out.

This is no dream playground but a reality that will hit Singapore later this year. Unveiled yesterday by local playground supplier Retromax in collaboration with United States manufacturer Landscape Structures, the new electronic playground — known as KidPower (picture) — is set to replace traditional playgrounds at local estates.

And with one other big plus — safety.

Spring Singapore is rolling out new specifications today, and Retromax is set to comply with the safety standards.

With its low-rise structures and wide-space zones, KidPower is designed to reduce the risk of falls and accidents, said Mr Allan Ang, managing director of Retromax.

High structures, especially those monkey bars often found in older playgrounds, have been blamed for causing many playground accidents here.

Dr Peter Wong from the children's emergency department at KK Women's and Children's Hospital said he "sees several children each day with playground-sustained injuries".

The majority of his young patients suffer from elbow fractures as a result of falling from monkey bars, he added. Some of the injuries are serious enough that the children have to be hospitalised.

Mr Ang said that KidPower is designed to challenge children both mentally and physically. At the core of its system is the bike, Gener-Racer, which generates electricity to power the entire playground.

Children can go to seven different zones such as the Vertzone, where they will be able to tap lit touchpads placed at various heights, or the Lightpacer, where they tap light sensors in an order they must first memorise.

When the prototype of KidPower was built on a trial site in the United States earlier this year, it received positive responses from children, parents and disabled groups, which regarded the playground as disabled-friendly.

Mr Jason Sim, managing director of Playpoint, a company dealing with playground structures here, agreed that innovative playgrounds such as KidPower are needed for a generation raised on a diet of Nintendo and Xbox and known for their short attention span.

Apart from new safety guidelines, future playgrounds must also incorporate electronic and artificial intelligence into playground equipment, Mr Sim added.

Electronic playgrounds like KidPower will cost between $40,000 and $60,000 to install and its promoters hope that these playgrounds will also yield some health benefits — by helping children to lose weight.

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Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease: Deadly strain infections up

Judith Tan, Straits Times 28 Mar 08;

Health Ministry tells parents and family doctors to be alert; may close pre-schools if situation worsens

HEALTH officials are warning parents about a rise in the number of cases of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) caused by a potentially deadly strain of virus.

The strain, called Enterovirus 71 (EV71), was found in a 'higher' number of patients between mid-February and last Saturday, according to the Ministry of Health.

Officials, though, did not say how many people have come down with EV71, which can lead to infections in the brain, heart, and lungs.

A total of 3,721 people have contracted HFMD since the start of the year. A Health Ministry spokesman said a sample study had revealed that about 20 per cent of patients with the ailment tested positive for EV71.

During an outbreak in 2000-2001, the same strain killed more than 70 children in Asia, including seven in Singapore.

While none have died this year, health officials are still on the alert. Family physicians have been told to check for the virus and schools are keeping close tabs on young children, especially those under five who are most susceptible to the disease.

HFMD is a common childhood ailment and actually comes from over 60 different strains of viruses. These include Coxsackie A16, the milder strain that is more common in Singapore.

It causes ulcers, rashes and blisters and can infect adults.

The Health Ministry spokesman said that the spread of EV71 is 'above the normal range' compared with past years and that the ministry would consider closing pre-schools if the situation got worse.

The increase in infections coincides with the reopening of schools after the week-long March break.

During the 2001 outbreak, all kindergartens and childcare centres were closed for 12 days, affecting about 140,000 children.

A check by The Straits Times found that 10 people went to the National University Hospital between mid-February and Wednesday with HFMD.

A hospital spokesman said that out of the 10, only one patient was warded.

There were 14 cases treated at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital this month and the last - 10 of which were caused by the EV71 strain.

But the hospital would not disclose how many of the patients were warded.

Symptoms of infection include a fever lasting two or three days; sore throat; blister-like rashes on the hands, feet and bottom; mouth ulcers, vomiting and diarrhoea.

The virus is spread through contact with blister fluid, saliva, faeces, items used by an infected person and occasionally through the air.

EV71 strain responsible for recent spike in Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease
Tan Hui Leng, Today Online 28 Mar 08;

THE dreaded Enterovirus 71 (EV71) strain has been identified as that responsible for the recent spike in Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) cases.

Up until last Saturday, a total of 3,721 HFMD cases have been reported to the Ministry of Health (MOH) this year — up from 2,480 in the same period last year. The last two weeks, in particular, saw a sharp spike, with last week's figures hitting 585 — crossing the warning level of 565 cases.

Of the cases in the first 12 weeks of the year, 21 per cent of virus isolates tested positive for EV71.

This strain has on occasion been associated with "serious complications", noted the MOH. During the 2000 and 2001 HFMD outbreak, it killed seven children.

However, it is also important to grasp that most EV71 infections are mild in nature, said the MOH. "Many EV71 infections also pass unnoticed as they do not cause any symptoms to appear."

HFMD is a common childhood disease. Symptoms include fever, upper respiratory symptoms, rash with blisters on the palms and soles, and mouth ulcers.

Parents should consult a doctor early if their children exhibit symptoms.

Patients should remain at home and have limited contact with other children until all blisters have dried up.

There has not been any HFMD case involving serious complications this year.

Still, the MOH has asked all doctors to be on high alert. Pre-schools and schools have also been asked to step up hygiene measures. Pre-schools may be closed if necessary.

More HFMD cases reported this year
Channel NewsAsia 27 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE: There has been an increase in the number of Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease (HFMD) cases this year.

The Health Ministry (MOH) has received 3,721 reports so far. It is alerting doctors to be vigilant and to detect new cases early for treatment.

It is also working with the Education Ministry and the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to alert schools to step up measures against HFMD.

If necessary, the Health Ministry may require the closure of pre-schools under the Infectious Diseases Act.

HFMD is spread through direct contact with respiratory droplets. This includes saliva, faeces and blister fluid of an infected person.

Symptoms include fever, mouth ulcers and rashes with blisters on the palms and soles.

Children five years old and younger are the most vulnerable.

MOH has discovered high circulation of the Enterovirus 71 among infected persons since mid-February.

The re-emergence of the virus is of concern as there could be serious health complications.- CNA/so

Read more!

Scouring the world to keep food in Singapore affordable

Jessica Lim, Straits Times 28 Mar 08;

PORK from South Africa. Fish from Namibia. Eggs from the United States.

These are not the usual sources of produce sold in Singapore, but with prices from traditional suppliers heading ever upwards, importers are expanding their horizons.

The reason: If prices get too high, consumers stop buying, and importers' bottom lines take a hit.

So importers are casting their nets far and wide for everything from staples like rice to meat and vegetables.

Meat merchant Jack Koh, 59, used to get his supplies from Malaysia and Thailand. Now he imports from Canada, Brazil and New Zealand as well.

He said: 'We try to explore new sources all the time. It's a contingency plan, even if we do not buy from them in the end.'

Checks showed that at least 10 meat importers have widened their supply sources in the past year.

Mr Koh is the president of the Meat Traders' Association, whose members are scouring Vietnam, Sabah, Sarawak and South Africa for suppliers.

'We must spread out from the north, east, south, west, to everywhere. Anything can happen, and if we do not make sure prices stay down, our customers will stop buying meat. When they suffer, we suffer too,' he said.

When the hunt is over, what results is a fresh platter of chow.

Already, Namibian fish is available at NTUC FairPrice outlets. The chain was the first to bring in a seven-tonne shipment from the south African country last year. And recently, it also started stocking Vietnamese rice, which is about 20 per cent cheaper than that from Thailand.

More supplies from non-traditional sources are on the horizon. In time, eggs - 90 per cent of which come from Malaysia now - might be imported from the US.

Mr Tan La Huah, the former chairman of the Eggs Import/Export Trading Association, said that importers here are holding discussions with US egg suppliers and at least one importer has already turned to the US for its supply.

'We are comparing prices before we decide if we should import American eggs,' said Mr Tan, who brings about 72,000 Malaysian eggs into Singapore every week.

'If we do, another 20 tonnes of these eggs will be available here every month.'

Even the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has got in on the act.

Its spokesman, Mr Goh Shih Yong, said that the AVA 'works with the industry to facilitate the imports of food from diverse sources at competitive prices' and makes efforts to keep the 'market accessible so traders can bring in food items'.

So far, the agency has given new suppliers in Belgium, Brazil, China, France, South Africa and Taiwan the green light to export frozen pork to Singapore.

It also recently approved Taiwan as a new source of frozen duck.

Supermarket chain Cold Storage works with more than 200 suppliers from all over the world to produce the 1,600 items on its shelves.

The massive effort to locate new sources is motivated to a large extent by rising food prices worldwide.

The prices of staples such as rice, wheat, corn and soya beans have all risen sharply, hitting record highs.

Wheat price increases have pulled up prices of flour-based products like bread and noodles. Prima Food - which supplies about 60 per cent of flour to manufacturers here - has raised its flour prices twice in the past three months.

Rice prices have risen, and supermarkets here have upped the price of a 10kg bag by about $2.

Consumers are feeling the pinch.

Mr Augustine Chua, 56, a production manager who earns about $1,500 a month, said: 'I buy house brands now and more frozen food than before.

'I also eat more tofu and less meat. But now the price of tofu, and even rice, is also going up.'

Importers have to look for new sources or risk a repeat of the Great Vegetable Throwaway: About a month ago, many wet-market stallholders had to throw out greens imported from China, after customers baulked at buying because prices almost doubled after severe weather in the country affected supply.

But how does sourcing food from afar help to bring prices down?

There are two ways, said Mr Koh.

When importers diversify their sources, they are no longer at the mercy of one supplier.

Having a choice of suppliers means the buyer's bargaining power goes up, said Mr Koh.

Also, when exports from one place are stemmed - say, because of weather or a bird-flu epidemic - importers and manufacturers can switch to other suppliers easily, and are not held hostage to high prices caused by supply shortages.

Of course, all this is good for the businesses' bottom line as well.

'By searching for cheaper food sources, importers manage to keep their profit margins up,' said Mr Thomas Pek, the managing director of Tai Hua Food Industries.

'It is a win-win situation - our customers benefit from cheaper products and keep coming back to us.'

But however hard the suppliers look to diversify their sources, more price hikes are on the horizon.

A recent United Nations assessment predicted that food prices would continue to increase for the next few years and would, in fact, 'rise in 2008, 2009 and probably at least until 2010'.

In the meantime, consumers will have to hope for news of the sort provided by Mr Png Geo Lian, the chairman of The Association of Chinese Wheat Flour Merchants of Singapore.

He says that importers are moving away from the 'conventional supplies of wheat from places like Canada, America and Australia' and tapping sources in China, where 'wheat is cheaper by about $10 per 25kg bag'.

Read more!

Scramble to grow rice

Experts warn on future availability of staple
Today Online 28 Mar 08;

LOS BANOS [Philippines] — It is the staple food of half of humanity but only a handful of countries have large rice surpluses, leaving even some of the biggest producers scrambling to grow enough to feed their own people.

Land endowment determines which countries have enough of the grain, say the world's foremost rice experts.

Rice yields in the Philippines are nearly double those of Thailand, the world's top exporter, yet as in the case of Indonesia, "there is just not enough land", said International Rice Research Institute (Irri) president Robert Zeigler.

The Philippines and Indonesia have a total of nearly 300 million mouths to feed and are among the most vulnerable consumers of the grain as inflation-adjusted rice prices have recently spiked close to historical highs.

The Philippines has imported rice almost every year since 1869, while Java, Indonesia's most populous island, has been an importer since the 16th century, said Irri economist David Dawe.

Just 30 to 35 tonnes — or 7 per cent of the world's annual rice harvest — is traded in the world market, and because the volumes are so thin, they are subject to price shocks.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer and also has the highest yields, but is not a key player in the export market, said Dr Zeigler, adding that China guards its rice reserve levels as a "state secret".

"China, like any government, is extremely concerned that their people have enough to eat," he said.

An unlucky confluence of events has pushed spot prices close to US$1,000 ($1,380) per tonne, levels not seen since the scientific breakthroughs of the "green revolution" in the early 1980s boosted yields and had since then helped keep prices below US$400 a tonne.

Bad weather in Bangladesh, pests and disease in Vietnam, and political problems in Myanmar — until the 1950s the world's top rice exporter — have cut stocks usually available in the international market, Dr Zeigler said.

The biofuels industry could also make maize and soybeans more attractive.

"We have some land in Asia that is being redirected towards biofuel — certainly a lot of interest in converting some good land into oil palm plantations for biodiesel. That's a concern," Dr Zeigler said.

"In general, there's just not much room for areas of growth in the world for rice." — AFP

Related articles

Rice in Asia; shortages and sharp price rises expected
Alastair McIndoe, Straits Times 27 Mar 08;

Read more!

Asian utilities keen on recycling waste gas: GE Energy

Two modifications for gas-driven plants are starting out in the region
Matthew Phan, Business Times 28 Mar 08;

ASIAN utilities and other energy users are showing keen interest in improving efficiency and recycling waste gases in their generators, says an executive of US-based GE Energy.

The power generating plant maker's regional director of strategic marketing S Ramanan said that two particular modifications for gas-driven power plants are 'just starting out' in Asia but could rapidly catch on.

The first is fuel flexibility, which allows generators to burn a blend of waste gas and natural gas. The second is operating flexibility, which raises the efficiency of gas turbines even when they are running at low, off-peak utilisation rates.

Fuel-flex technology was developed decades ago and is widespread in the US and North Asia - which have had to import natural gas - but not in South-east Asia, Mr Ramanan said.

Blends can comprise a significant portion - or even a majority - of waste gas. Given that the cost of fuel makes up 60-70 per cent of the cost of power generation, fuel flexibility is 'critical for Singapore to consider' as it is highly dependent on natural gas, he said.

Fuel-flex is used ideally where infrastructure already exists, such as on Jurong Island, Mr Ramanan said.

Elsewhere, GE has booked projects in Thailand, Malaysia and Australia.

The challenge with fuel-flex is that a lot of infrastructure is required to collect and compress the waste gas - large quantities are needed because the gas has relatively low calorie content and is released at low pressure.

Ironically, it tends to be older generation turbines, like GE's E-class turbines, that can burn different fuels, Mr Ramanan said.

With E-class turbines, when gas first contacts the turbines - which is where heat is converted to mechanical energy - its temperature is 1,100 to 1,200 degrees Celsius, versus 1,300 to 1,500 degrees for its F-class turbines.

The lower burning temperature allows E-class turbines to use different fuel mixes; though if they use natural gas alone, they run at a lower efficiency than F-class units.

Op-flex, meanwhile, is a relatively new technology, developed in response to higher energy prices, as generators turn their gas turbines on and off more often to cut waste.

Again, it is more widespread in the US and North Asia, where gas turbines are used as necessary to meet peak demand, rather than in South-east Asia, where gas is burned for base-load power.

PowerSeraya told BT that it does not use fuel-flex or op-flex technology at its plants, which it manages based on peak and off-peak needs.

Tuas Power and Senoko Power did not respond to queries by press time.

Read more!

Horror tour of China bear farm

Letter from Lydia Wong Jui Fang (Ms), Straits Times Forum 28 Mar 08;

ABOUT two years ago, my mother signed up for a China tour. She had looked forward to the trip with her friends but she was not prepared for what awaited her when she was there.

She was horrified when the tour guide took them to a reservation-cum-farm that sold bear bile for so-called medical consumption. The tour group was warned not to take photographs of the place for fear of bad publicity. And my mother had to endure screams of the tormented creatures locked in small and filthy cages. The bears were beaten, underfed and had dirty tubes inserted in them to drain their bile.

Upset with the experience, she refused to enter the compound further when she realised what the business was about and exchanged harsh words with the tour operator. Needless to say, it spoiled what could have been an enjoyable holiday for her. It has been a while but she still recounts the experience with sadness and anger.

I urge everyone who intend to go on holidays to check with their tour operators to ensure that their itineraries are free of such programmes. As tourists, we have a moral responsibility of not supporting such causes.

Related link

Acres and trade in bear parts in Singapore on the Acres website

Read more!

Nigeria's forests to disappear by 2020: expert

Yahoo News 27 Mar 08;

Nigeria will lose all of its remaining forests in the next 12 years if the rate of deforestation remains unchecked, an environmental expert warned Thursday.

"Considering the rate at which trees are chopped down without any regeneration efforts ... all of Nigeria's forests will disappear by 2020," Kabiru Yammama told AFP.

Yammama, who heads up the National Forest Conservation Council (NFCCN), a body that acts as a consultant to the Nigerian government, said all forests in northern Nigeria have been depleted and deforestation is moving southwards.

"The north has lost virtually all its forests. Our 1999 survey showed that the rate of deforestation in northern Nigeria alone stood at 400,000 hectares per annum," he said.

Nigeria uses 40.5 million tonnes of firewood every year, he said, adding: "Imagine the depredation wrought on the vegetation in the last decade."

According to the most recent NFCCN report, released in 2007, 35 percent of arable land in 11 northern states has been swallowed by desert.

This has affected the livelihood of over 55 million people, more than the combined population of Mali, Burkina Fasso, Senegal and Mauritania.

Nigeria has the seventh-largest gas reserves in the world but has so far failed to harness them to produce affordable cooking gas, meaning the bulk of the population still relies on wood or charcoal for cooking.

"Now that the forests in the north are gone, attention has shifted to ... southern Nigeria where trees are burnt for charcoal. This is more destructive than tree chopping because it is more rapid and kills all the flora and wildlife," Yammama further warned.

"If this trend continues unchecked Nigeria will join the league of Ethiopia which has lost all its forests," he said.

He cited desertification, rain shortages and drought as some of the consequences of deforestation that northern Nigeria is facing.

Earlier this month Nigeria's meteorological agency warned that the rainy season is getting shorter, particularly in the north, where it has dropped to 120 days from 150 days 30 years ago.

Rain fell for even less than 120 days in the last crop season which adversely affected yields and sent food prices up.

Read more!

Russia calls for sturgeon fishing ban in Caspian

Dario Thuburn, Yahoo News 27 Mar 08;

Russia on Thursday proposed that Caspian Sea states impose a five-year ban on fishing for sturgeon, prized for its caviar eggs, to save stocks from collapse, a spokesman for the fisheries agency said.

"We are ready to announce a moratorium," said spokesman Alexander Savelyev, adding that Russia would formally propose the ban to the other four Caspian Sea states of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan soon.

"This is because the sturgeon is about to disappear," said Savelyev, adding that Russia was not able to fish its annual quota of 50 tonnes of sturgeon last year because overfishing and poaching had depleted stocks.

The fisheries agency also put forward a draft law on Thursday for the creation of a state monopoly on sturgeon fishing and caviar sales in an effort to stop poaching -- a business worth one billion dollars (634 million euros) a year, Savelyev said.

Poaching is "a ruthless, pitiless business motivated only by profit," he continued. The draft law, which also proposes tax breaks for private sturgeon farms, is set to be examined by parliament in the next few days.

Almost all the world's sturgeon, one of the oldest species of fish, live in the Caspian Sea. Their eggs have been prized as a delicacy for centuries and environmentalists say the fish are heading for extinction.

The international environmental watchdog WWF warned earlier this year that the population of Caspian Sea sturgeon, including the osetra, servruga and beluga species, had fallen by as much as 70 percent in the past few decades.

Almost 12 tonnes of illegal caviar were sold in Europe between 2000 and 2005, according to official data from the European Union. Experts believe that is only a fraction of the caviar poached from the Caspian.

Russian police have stepped up raids on illegal caviar in recent years. In one of the latest incidents, nearly two tonnes of black caviar were confiscated from stores in the Moscow region in August last year.

Russia has also launched a sturgeon breeding programme but says its efforts are being undermined by fishing in other parts of the Caspian Sea and has therefore said any action needs to be taken jointly by Caspian Sea states.

Local scientists at the one of the sturgeon breeding centres in the region of Astrakhan in southern Russia also blame the boom in offshore oil and gas development in the Caspian Sea for depletion of stocks.

"We can keep the population at the same low level but we cannot revive the glory of the Caspian since human activity has a very large impact," Alexander Kitanov, a local scientist, said.

"The sturgeon could disappear from the Caspian Sea just like it has disappeared everywhere else. If it falls out of the food chain, its place will be taken up by other species and it will never be able to return."

Read more!

Consensus reached to fight tuna overfishing: Japan

Hiroshi Hiyama, Yahoo News 27 Mar 08;

"But in the end, everyone knew that to conserve the fish we can't continue fishing like we're doing now,"

Tuna eating and catching nations agreed Thursday to review rules to fight chronic overfishing, paving the way for stricter catch quotas later this year, Japanese officials said.

Officials, scientists and fisheries industry people from 13 nations held two days of talks in Tokyo amid concern that the growing popularity for Japanese food around the world is endangering tuna populations.

"There was opposition to the idea that the rules might be tightened, particularly from fisheries operators in the Mediterranean, who said the regulations are pretty tight as they are," said a Japanese official who attended the closed-door talks.

"But in the end, everyone knew that to conserve the fish we can't continue fishing like we're doing now," he said.

A 2006 deal agreed to cut the annual catch of bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic Ocean by one-fifth to 25,500 tonnes by 2010.

A report issued in France last year said that France, Italy, Japan and Spain were the biggest violators of international quotas for bluefin tuna.

Fishing operators also have violated rules not to go tuna fishing during the breeding season and to avoid catching small fish.

Experts have repeatedly warned that that tuna will eventually become extinct at current fishing rates. The United States has in the past suggested a complete temporary ban on tuna fishing to ensure the fish survives.

"Japan's position is that we do not want to encourage overfishing and we would accept stricter fishing quotas based on scientific evidence," the official said.

The Tokyo meeting informally brought together members of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas.

The commission is preparing to issue the latest data on tuna population and catch in June, in a report that is likely to suggest urgent need for controlling tuna fishing, the Japanese official said.

Some participants at the meeting warned that the commission's authority to control tuna fishing might be taken away by other conservation bodies if the quotas go ignored and tuna populations continue to shrink.

"It is difficult to speculate how strict the reviewed quota will be. But it is hard to imagine the new data indicating optimistic prospects for the tuna population," the official said.

The commission will hold a meeting in the latter half of the year based on the report to be issued in June, aiming to put forward a plan to increase tuna populations, the official said.

Japan is by far the biggest consumer of tuna, served raw in sashimi slices or with rice in sushi rolls.

But demand has been rising around the world as a growing number of people eat Japanese food, which is perceived as healthy.

Foreign fisheries operators say Japanese and other buyers are asking for a growing amount of tuna. Japanese businesses maintain they only buy fish that are legally caught.

Read more!

People power to deal with litter problem in the UK

People Clearing Litter aims to clean-up streets
Paul Eccleston and Steve McCormack, The Telegraph 27 Mar 08;

A campaign to clean up other people's discarded litter has been launched.

Steve McCormack, founder of People Clearing Litter, is attempting to recruit public-spirited volunteers to clean up eyesore sites.

He claims authorities are overwhelmed by the scale of the problem and the only solution is for like-minded people to do the job themselves.

Mr McCormack has set up a website - www.peopleclearinglitter.co.uk - as a focal point for the campaign where people can gain information and encouragement.

"The message of my campaign - that public bodies alone will never be able to tackle the litter problem - is not a counsel of despair, but one of optimism, because it provides the chance for ordinary people to show they are prepared to work together to improve their environment," he said.

He is asking people with a few minutes to spare fill up a bag or two of rubbish and then to register with the site, to report what they have done in their own area. They can also link up to jointly tackle the worst eyesores.

The website currently reports that 165 sites have so far been cleared of litter.

Here he explains his mission:

How we can solve the litter problem?

When I first suggested to friends that I was thinking of starting a national campaign to try to persuade British people to pick up litter thrown away by others, most thought I was on the mad side of naïve.

Although enough of them had noticed, with distaste, the increasing accumulation of litter in places they passed on foot or in cars, they doubted there'd be many people willing to get their hands dirty and actually help clear it up.

Worthy, but doomed to fail was the thrust of what they thought of my idea.

There were two reasons behind their pessimism. They thought people had an ingrained resistance to clearing up someone else's mess, particularly if that person could be categorised as lazy or anti-social.

And they said people would object to performing a task that was already the responsibility of public bodies, funded of course by the taxpayer.

But I saw flaws in both these cases. First, if no-one ever lifted a voluntary finger to put right the mistakes or misdeeds of others, we'd truly sink as a society. And second, our taxes are already spent on litter clearing. It is just that we, as a society, are tossing so much litter away that the authorities can't cope.

But what about Keep Britain Tidy, I hear you ask? Aren't they on top of the problem? Are they hell. First, they effectively re-branded themselves out of existence a couple of years ago by being swallowed up by an organisation no-one's ever heard of, called Encams.

And second, they manage to spend large chunks of their £10m annual budget (most of which is our taxes) on producing lengthy, wordy reports few will ever read.

The last of these concluded (I kid you not) that the litter problem had not got any worse over the last four years, when the truth staring us in the face every day is the complete opposite.

It's clear, I'm afraid, that publicly funded bureaucracies, with half an eye on their Government paymasters, can do nothing more than scratch the surface in this area.

We, the people, are the ones with the power.

So, a fortnight ago I launched the campaign and the website (www.peopleclearinglitter.co.uk) on Jeremy Vine's lunchtime BBC Radio 2 programme. My simple message was that, if we want to get rid of litter eyesores, we had better do some of the work ourselves.

I was overwhelmed and heartened by the response. Supportive phones calls flooded the programme, my email inbox was engulfed by messages promising active help, and within 24 hours, the website had registered 15,000 hits.

It was gratifying to know I wasn't alone, and I sensed a similar feeling of relief around the country. 'I thought I was the only one going around with an old carrier bag picking up litter,' wrote a woman from Windsor.

'It's such a relief to know that there are more of us around,' said another woman, from Kent, along with photographs of the cans, bottles, sweet wrappers and plastic bags she's just collected from a path near her home.

In a letter arriving the next day, a man from Sussex wrote: 'Thank heavens there are other like-minded people supporting your efforts. I was beginning to despair.'

By the end of the first day, hundreds of these and other supporters had recorded their recent litter-picking exploits on the website and started using the Forum area to communicate with like-minded people in their localities.

One of my initial aims was that the website, by providing this central rallying point for the campaign, would embolden and encourage people who might feel a little nervous or self-conscious collecting litter in public. Happily, the early signs are that this objective is being achieved.

A man from Burnley wrote: 'Great idea. I find rubbish spoiling my walks in the countryside, but I won't feel like a lone nutter if your idea takes off.'

In similar vein, a man told me of his resolve to do something about the 'thousands' of plastic bags stuck in trees next to his local Tesco store in Huntingdon. 'I am going to sort out this mess. You have given me the final push,' he reported.

One way in which I hope the campaign will spread is as a result of the visibility that will be created by supporters wearing the green campaign badges, and, more powerfully, tying up the bags of litter they collect with the green People Clearing Litter ribbon available through the website. The idea is that these flashes of green will attract the eye, as bulging bags are left for collection alongside council litter bins on footpaths and pavements.

This might just do two other things. First, councils might be encouraged to raise their game, as they surely should. And second, some of the current litter-droppers might just think twice the next time they causally toss that empty can into the bushes, or wind down their car window and chuck out a burger box and empty bottle.

Read more!

Experts seek answers on water footprint

Arthur Max, Associated Press Yahoo News 27 Mar 08;

It's not only our carbon footprint we should worry about. Experts are looking for solutions to our growing water footprint, as urban populations explode and the demand for biofuels adds stress on water for farmland.

Nearly half the people on Earth, about 2.5 billion, have no access to sanitation, many of them in urban slums. The world's cities are growing by 1 million people a week, and soon their aging water systems will not cope.

"What we are doing now can't keep up with the issues we already have," says Carol A. Howe, an expert working for a UNESCO-led water development project called Switch.

"Something needs to change. It needs to change quickly, and it needs to be fairly dramatic," she told a symposium of journalists Wednesday.

The threat of climate change has drawn attention to carbon footprints, the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activity. Now scientists have begun calculating a water footprint, the amount of water needed to produce goods or services.

A report published this month by UNESCO-IHE, the Institute for Water Education in Delft, says it takes 70-400 times as much water to create energy from biofuels as it does from fossil fuels.

It said the production of crude oil requires slightly more than one cubic meter of water for one unit of energy, compared with 61 cubic meters to grow biomass in Brazil — mostly sugar used for ethanol — for the same amount of energy. The water footprint of biomass grown in the Netherlands is 24 cubic meters, the report said.

Engineers are experimenting in a dozen cities from Lima to Beijing to find ways to ease the pressure on water resources.

The pilot projects, run by the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization and funded by the European Union, range from turning rooftops into gardens, capturing and recycling rain, recharging underground water reservoirs with waste water, and swapping traditional flush sanitation for dry toilets.

The English city of Birmingham is monitoring the effects of green roofs to reduce flooding during storms, to cut energy needs and to study how to capture run-off to reduce water needs in the buildings or surrounding areas, Howe said.

A project in Tel Aviv, Israel, channels treated waste water into the aquifer through the natural filtering system of the soil, and is testing whether it can be reused for drinking water, she said.

Gary Amy, a professor of urban water supply and sanitation with UNESCO-IHE, said the United Nations is almost certain to miss its 2015 goal of halving the percentage of the world's population who lack adequate sanitation. The goal takes 1990 as the base level.

Accounting for population growth, some 500,000 new people every day would have to be connected to a sanitation system to meet the U.N. target, he said.

Waterless toilets, using either chemicals or composting, are being tested in Ghana, Kenya, Peru, Egypt and elsewhere. They also enhance the possibility of separating human waste, using liquid waste as a rich source of nutrients for crops, Amy said.

"If we captured all the urine in Africa, it could match all the nitrogen and phosphates used for agriculture," he said.

Howe said standard mechanisms consume about 25 percent of all residential water — drinking water that is literally flushed down the toilet. "It takes a lot of energy and money to bring in the water, to treat it, to put into the toilet, to treat it again, and to put it into the river system," she said.

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The man making 'wind bags' to store wind energy

Brady Haran, BBC News 26 Mar 08;

Seamus Garvey wants to "store the wind".

He believes the future of energy is storing it as compressed air in giant bags under the sea. And a major power company has invested in the scheme.

Professor Garvey, a long-time proponent of compressed air, feels vindicated by the research grant.

He said: "As the country and the whole world moves toward using more renewable energy, we're going to need energy storage." His idea would utilise familiar renewable sources - wind, waves and tidal power.

But Professor Garvey does not believe we should be forced to "use it or lose it" when conditions are best.

Energy would instead be used to compress and pump air into underwater bags, anchored to the seabed.

When energy demand is highest, the air would be released through a turbine, converting it to electricty.

Store or waste?

Professor Garvey, from the University of Nottingham, said: "The demand for electricity's not constant.

"In the middle of the day we want a lot of it, at night almost nobody wants electricity.

"Also, the wind does not blow at the same speed all the time.

"We will have times (as wind power becomes more common) when the amount of electricity generated by the wind is more than the total demand for the whole country... then you have to store it or waste it."

Power company E.ON has granted 300,000 euros (£236,000) towards building two prototypes - the first on land, then an underwater version powered by waves.

Using compressed air to store energy is not new - for example, it has previously been done in disused mines.

But Professor Garvey will do it under the sea, in flexible containers he has dubbed "energy bags".

He said: "We have to overcome the instinct that (this idea) is too simple to be good.

"And then to show that the economics stack up."

Professor Garvey anticipates his prototypes will be operating within 18 months.

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