SembCorp close to sealing Indonesia gas deal: reports

Fresh supply to be used to fuel cogen plant, meet Jurong Island demand
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 5 Apr 08;

SEMBCORP Industries looks set to conclude its deal to buy more Indonesian natural gas this month. The gas will be used to fuel its cogeneration plant as well as meet growing gas demand from petrochemical plants on Jurong Island.

This follows an earlier heads of agreement it reached with Premier Oil Indonesia last November to import an additional 90 billion British Thermal Units (BBtu) per day of gas from the Natuna Sea Block A field, which Premier operates.

The 26 per cent increase in gas will 'augment the 341 BBtu per day which SembCorp contracted for in 1999, supplied by the West Natuna Group of which Premier Oil is a member', the Singapore corporation said then.

The additional gas will primarily be used by its 815 MW cogeneration plant 'for process use and production of steam to meet growing demand by petrochemical industries on Jurong Island'.

'Some quantity of gas is also expected to be consumed by industrial and chemical customers.'

The Singapore group said at that time that the two sides had been in discussions since 2004 and that it expected to conclude the latest gas deal by the first quarter of this year.

Jakarta reports yesterday suggest that the new 15-year gas deal is expected to be signed soon, as the two sides are very close to concluding negotiations on the volume and price.

Indonesia will start exporting the additional gas to Singapore in 2011, should the contract be signed later this month, The Jakarta Post quoted an official from BP Migas, the country's oil and gas regulator, as saying.

BP Migas deputy chairman Eddy Purwanto reportedly said that the deal would replace the previous export contract which was terminated because Singapore failed to meet Indonesia's requirements.

He was apparently referring to BP Migas's cancellation last October of Island Power's deal to buy Indonesian gas from ConocoPhillips's gas field in Sumatra for its planned Singapore power station.

The axe came after several warnings by BP Migas that it would cancel the deal if the US-owned Island Power failed to secure gas transportation rights through the Singapore section of the existing Singapore-Sumatra pipeline. Island has, meanwhile, turned to the Energy Market Authority here to help it resolve this issue.

Under the expected SembCorp-Premier Oil deal this month, Indonesia will pipe the gas from the Gajah Baru field in Natuna to Singapore via the existing Natuna-Singapore pipeline.

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Plastic-Bag Bans Gaining Momentum Around the World

John Roach, National Geographic News 4 Apr 08;

From Australia to the U.K., and all across the U.S., politicians and corporations are pondering banning or taxing plastic bags.

A hefty surcharge that began in 2003 in Ireland has spurred the public there to spurn plastic bags almost completely in favor of reusable cloth totes.

Plastic sacks are also taxed in Italy and Belgium. Grocery shoppers must pay for the bags in Switzerland, Germany, and Holland. Spain, Norway, and now the U.K. are considering a ban or tax as well.

The political action in the U.K. on single-use plastic bags follows similar gestures earlier this year in Australia.

There a national ban or tax is being hotly debated, though the state of South Australia, which includes the city of Adelaide, has promised a ban on free single-use bags by year's end no matter what.

The state's premier, Mike Rann, listed familiar reasons for the ban: The bags contribute to greenhouse gases, clog up landfills, litter streets and streams, and kill wildlife.

Banished Bags

Unsightly pollution appears to be behind China's January announcement of a countrywide ban on the thinnest totes and a tax on others. It begins June 1, two months before the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Taiwan taxes the bags, and the cities of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Mumbai, India, ban them to prevent flood-inducing storm-drain clogs during monsoon season.

Once jokingly called the "national flower," thin plastic bags have been banned in South Africa since 2003; thicker ones are taxed. Similar measures exist in Eritrea, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda.

In the U.S., the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, California, ban the bags and promote reusable and compostable sacks. Elsewhere in the state supermarkets are required to take back and recycle the bags.

Similar take-back and recycle initiatives are on the books or under consideration in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland.

And some sort of action is an agenda item in seemingly every boardroom and city hall across the U.S., according to Vincent Cobb, founder of Chicago, Illinois-based Reusablebags.com.

"We all have the tendency to buy too much stuff, and I think that symbolic nature is what has made this such a powerful thing," he said of the movement to cut down on plastic bags.

Good Riddance?

Lisa Mastny is the consumption project director for the Washington, D.C.-based Worldwatch Institute.

She said bans are generally meant to keep plastic bags from entering the environment as litter or landfill, but most legislation fails to promote environmentally sound alternatives such as cloth bags.

In the U.S., opposition to bans and taxes from retailers and the plastics industry has led to the take-back and recycling focus, which Mastny said is helpful but does little to change consumer behavior.

"There's nothing stopping [shoppers] from taking the bags in the same quantities that they were before," she said.

More effective measures, she said, are taxation schemes such as Ireland's so-called PlasTax. There carriers are now taxed at 22 euro cents (34 U.S. cents) each, and usage has dropped 95 percent.

In fact, she added, Ireland recently raised the tax to combat resurging plastic bag use. It appears to be working.

But Keith Christman, senior director of packaging at the American Chemistry Council and Progressive Bag Affiliates in Arlington, Virginia, said bans and taxes on plastic bags "are not the right approach."

He noted that such measures force retailers to switch to paper bags, which consume more energy and release more greenhouse gases to produce and supply than do plastic bags.

In addition, he said, 92 percent of consumers reuse their plastic bags to line garbage bins and pickup after pets, among other things. Without free bags from the grocery store, consumers are forced to buy them.

Ireland's PlasTax, Christman noted, has led to a 400 percent increase in plastic bag purchases.

"We think the right approach is to promote recycling of plastic bags, and we've seen much success in that regard," he said.

In 2006, according to the council, 812 million pounds (368 million kilograms) of plastic bags were recycled, up 24 percent from 2005. The bags are recycled into new bags and used for fencing and decking material.

Cobb, whose Web site sells reusable bags and serves as a clearinghouse for information on the single-use bag issue, agreed recycling is a good step but said a tax charged at checkout is needed to change consumer behavior.

"Plastic bags aren't inherently bad," he said. "It's the mindlessness and volume of consumption of plastic bags that occurs. As people wake up to that, I think we are going to see a shift."

Green Retailers

The U.S. grocery chain Whole Foods Market is not waiting for political mandates to cut down on plastic waste. The store recently announced a phase-out of all plastic bags from its stores by Earth Day, April 22.

"What we're really trying to do is encourage reusable bags being brought to the checkout," spokeswoman Ashley Hawkins said.

The store gives shoppers five to ten cents back, depending on location, for each reusable bag they bring. Recyclable paper bags made from recycled material will remain available at the store, she added.

In the U.K., supermarket chain Tesco has switched to biodegradable bags, and this May Marks & Spencer food stores will begin to charge 5 pence (10 cents) per plastic bag.

Mastny said such initiatives are partly an easy—and visible—way for companies to show they care about the environment.

"I'm not saying it's totally greenwash, but obviously there are PR benefits to doing something like this," she said.

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Global temperatures 'to decrease'

Roger Harrabin, BBC News News 4 Apr 08;

Global temperatures will drop slightly this year as a result of the cooling effect of the La Nina current in the Pacific, UN meteorologists have said.

The World Meteorological Organization's secretary-general, Michel Jarraud, told the BBC it was likely that La Nina would continue into the summer.

This would mean global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory.

But experts say we are still clearly in a long-term warming trend - and they forecast a new record high temperature within five years.

The WMO points out that the decade from 1998 to 2007 was the warmest on record. Since the beginning of the 20th Century, the global average surface temperature has risen by 0.74C.

While Nasa, the US space agency, cites 2005 as the warmest year, the UK's Hadley Centre lists it as second to 1998.

Researchers say the uncertainty in the observed value for any particular year is larger than these small temperature differences. What matters, they say, is the long-term upward trend.

Rises 'stalled'



La Nina and El Nino are two great natural Pacific currents whose effects are so huge they resonate round the world.

El Nino warms the planet when it happens; La Nina cools it. This year, the Pacific is in the grip of a powerful La Nina.

It has contributed to torrential rains in Australia and to some of the coldest temperatures in memory in snow-bound parts of China.

Mr Jarraud told the BBC that the effect was likely to continue into the summer, depressing temperatures globally by a fraction of a degree.

This would mean that temperatures have not risen globally since 1998 when El Nino warmed the world.

Watching trends

A minority of scientists question whether this means global warming has peaked and argue the Earth has proved more resilient to greenhouse gases than predicted.

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Animation of El Nino and La Nina effects

But Mr Jarraud insisted this was not the case and noted that 2008 temperatures would still be well above average for the century.

"When you look at climate change you should not look at any particular year," he said. "You should look at trends over a pretty long period and the trend of temperature globally is still very much indicative of warming.

"La Nina is part of what we call 'variability'. There has always been and there will always be cooler and warmer years, but what is important for climate change is that the trend is up; the climate on average is warming even if there is a temporary cooling because of La Nina."

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China suffered from heavy snow in January

Adam Scaife, lead scientist for Modelling Climate Variability at the Hadley Centre in Exeter, UK, said their best estimate for 2008 was about 0.4C above the 1961-1990 average, and higher than this if you compared it with further back in the 20th Century.

Mr Scaife told the BBC: "What's happened now is that La Nina has come along and depressed temperatures slightly but these changes are very small compared to the long-term climate change signal, and in a few years time we are confident that the current record temperature of 1998 will be beaten when the La Nina has ended."

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Bangkok climate change talks close

Ed Cropley, Reuters 4 Apr 08;

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The first formal talks to draw up a replacement to the Kyoto climate change pact wound up in Thailand on Friday with plans for another seven rounds of negotiations in the next 18 months to tackle global warming.

As expected, no major advances were achieved at the meeting, which was mainly intended to flesh out a roadmap from a breakthrough agreement in Bali last year to kick off the talks through to a culmination in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.

"The train to Copenhagen has left the station," said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

"Not only do we have the certainty that critical issues will be addressed next year, we now have bit-sized chunks which will allow us to negotiate in an effective manner," he told a news conference at the conclusion of the week-long Bangkok talks.

The next meeting, to be held in Germany in June, will address the issue of funding and technology to mitigate climate change, a key demand of developing nations who argue that rich countries should foot much of the bill.

A suggestion pushed by Japan in Bangkok to take a sectoral, rather than purely national, approach to emissions cuts was deferred to the third round of talks.

United Nations climate experts want the new treaty that emerges from Copenhagen to go beyond Kyoto by getting all countries to agree to curbs on emissions of the greenhouse gases that are fuelling global warming.

Under Kyoto, only 37 rich nations are bound to cut emissions by an average of five percent from 1990 levels by 2012.

A U.N. climate panel agreed last year that the world needs to halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in order to stave off potentially catastrophic changes to the weather system, that will bring more storms, droughts and higher sea levels.

Negotiators will also have to work out how to deal with the United States -- the only rich nation not to have signed up to Kyoto -- given that President George W. Bush will be leaving the White House after November's election.

Bush pulled the United States out of Kyoto in 2001, saying the pact would hurt the economy and was unfair since it excluded big developing nations from committing to emissions cuts.

The White House has since moderated its stance by saying it would accept emissions targets if all other big emitters do as well based on their individual circumstances.

(Editing by Matthew Jones)

Negotiations between rich and poor countries tense at climate talks
Channel NewsAsia 4 Apr 08;

BANGKOK: The goodwill felt during the Bali Roadmap in December 2007 when nations uniformly agreed about the looming disaster of climate change, has given way to tough talk among 163 nations seeking consensus on how to move forward.

The UN sponsored meetings are tasked with putting together a new global warming deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires at the end of 2009.

But negotiations are proving to be tense between rich and poor countries.

Professor Ram Shrestha, Professor of Energy Economics, Asian Institute of Technology, said: "The countries will have a common but differentiated responsibility. That means everybody will share this responsibility, but the degree of sharing, to what extent different countries will share responsibility will not be uniform. It will be differentiated based on the different countries' own affordability and capability."

But continuing disagreement between developed nations and those seeking to catch up like China and India have dampened negotiators efforts to begin to draft a treaty that would fairly address concerns of all nations involved.

Professor Shrestha said: "The major thing now is how developing countries will be motivated through proper incentives. Their concern is that there should be a mechanism for effective technology transfers, that means transfer of climate friendly technologies to developing countries.

“Developing countries also need some kind of financial resources in order that they will be able to afford these more expensive climate friendly technologies."

The European Union has pushed for maritime and aviation fuels to be subject to emissions controls although neither currently falls under the Kyoto Protocol.

Countries with strong travel industries fear the proposal will make their costs skyrocket.

Other snags include a Japanese effort to implement sector based strategies which some poorer nations fear their growth industries will be subject to the same emissions targets as industrialised countries.

And the United States' offer of US$2 billion over the next three years as part of its Clean Technology Fund was rejected due to the US$30 billion that developing nations would have to pay after the initial grant to maintain green technology.

Experts said that unless major players like the United States join the global community in addressing this problem, no response will be very effective.

But the American economic downturn will certainly be a factor in its participation.

To that end, eyes are on the US presidential elections although all candidates have promised to be more proactive regarding climate change than current President George W. Bush. - CNA/vm

Nations agree on work plan for climate talks
Channel NewsAsia 5 Apr 08;

BANGKOK : More than 160 nations agreed late Friday on the first step to drafting an ambitious new treaty on global warming after hours of haggling between rich and poor countries.

The five-day conference in Bangkok also looked for the first time to consider regulating emissions from airplanes and ships, a rapidly growing source of the pollution blamed for heating up the planet.

But rich and poor countries are sharply divided on how to tackle global warming, despite growing fears that rising temperatures could put millions of people at risk by the end of the century.

The talks set a work plan of four meetings next year to complete a pact by the end of 2009 which would follow the landmark Kyoto Protocol, which requires rich nations to slash gas emissions blamed for warming.

The Bangkok conference ended past midnight on the final day, hours after the scheduled close, with bickering over a Japanese proposal to hold talks soon on the so-called "sectoral approach," in which each industry is judged separately on eco-friendliness.

"There were differences of opinion on different topics," UN climate chief Yvo de Boer told AFP.

"It takes time to find a way out and they did."

Poor nations fear the sectoral approach makes greenhouse gas cuts easier for rich countries because they have cleaner technology, and that it could be a backdoor way to legally require them for the first time to cut emissions.

"I think it needs to be explained better," de Boer said of the Japanese proposal.

"There was at one stage the perception that Japan was trying to replace national commitments by sectoral approaches and that freaked everyone out," he said.

"But that view has since been corrected, so I think things have simmered down," he added.

Japan's chief delegate, Kyoji Komachi, said that the talks "went very well on the whole."

"I think we have seen more understanding, but we need to do more," Komachi told AFP of the sectoral approach.

Japan, which is behind in meeting its Kyoto obligations as its economy recovers from a recession, wanted talks on the sectoral approach to come before it hosts a Group of Eight summit of rich nations in July.

But it is unlikely to get its way, with the sectoral talks expected to come in August, along with talks on deforestation, a key concern for developing economies.

Daniel Mittler, climate and energy adviser for Greenpeace International, said that the Japanese proposal had been "the main stumbling block."

"This meeting should be about saving the planet, not the G8 summit," Mittler said.

A separate statement approved here by countries in the Kyoto treaty said they would look at how to "limit or reduce emissions" in aviation and shipping.

The air and marine transport industries account for about three percent of greenhouse gas emissions. But the Kyoto treaty did not cover the two sectors, which are by nature hard to classify under individual nations.

Delegates and environmentalists said there was an effort to water down the text by countries that are transport hubs, such as Singapore, or remotely located, such as Australia.

The statement also gave a vote of confidence to carbon trading, in which rich countries and companies trade credits for slashing carbon output, raising the chances that such a system will be included in a post-Kyoto deal.

The United States shunned the Kyoto Protocol, saying it is unfair by imposing no requirements on fast-growing emitters such as China and India.

But the United States and developing nations all committed at a major conference in December in Bali, Indonesia, to be part of negotiations for another deal that covers the period after 2012 when Kyoto's obligations end.

De Boer has said that the toughest issue -- how much to slash gas emissions after 2012 -- will likely have to wait until after the United States has a new president in January.

All three major candidates seeking to succeed Bush have pledged tougher action on global warming.

"If we took all these hours to agree on a work plan, one can only imagine what will happen when the real negotiations take place," said Marcelo Furtado of Greenpeace Brazil.

"It is a worrisome indication of how these negotiations will develop."- AFP /ls

Air, sea travel targeted in climate talks
Negotiators from some 160 nations move towards post-Kyoto pact
Straits Times 5 Apr 08;

BANGKOK - MORE than 160 nations agreed yesterday to look at how to cut rapidly growing greenhouse gas emissions from air and sea travel, in an early move towards a new global warming treaty.

Parties to the 1997 United Nations Kyoto Protocol approved by consensus a statement promising to explore ways of curbing the harmful gases that planes and ships spew into the atmosphere.

The global transport industry accounts for about 3 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, but air and sea travel were excluded from emissions cuts promised by rich nations under the Kyoto pact.

Delegates and environmentalists said that some countries had sought to water down the wording by suggesting that the industry should regulate itself.

Countries that had been critical of the effort included transport hubs such as Panama and Singapore and remote countries including Australia, according to environmentalists following the talks in the Thai capital.

Although the final statement does not explicitly say that the transport sector will be included in Kyoto or any other agreement, green activists say that it is a step forward.

The accord was the first hurdle in succeeding the Kyoto agreement in the fight against climate change and followed last-minute haggling over a Japanese proposal that poorer states viewed with suspicion.

Hours after the five-day conference had been due to finish in Bangkok, negotiators were still huddled in closed sessions.

Leaders in the developing bloc oppose Japan's proposal to hold talks early in the process on the so-called 'sectoral approach' in which each industry is judged separately on eco-friendliness.

'The Japanese proposal is the main stumbling block. This meeting should be about saving the planet, not the G-8 summit,' said Mr Daniel Mittler, climate and energy adviser for Greenpeace International.

Japan, which is far behind in meeting its Kyoto obligations as its economy recovers from a recession, hopes to shape the next global climate treaty when it hosts a Group of Eight summit in July.

The country's chief negotiator, Mr Kyoji Komachi, said Tokyo was seeking only a discussion of the sectoral idea and was ready to commit major resources to help developing nations fight global warming.

Rich and poor countries are divided on how to tackle the issue despite growing fears that rising temperatures could put millions of people at risk by the end of the century.

Developing nations fear that the sectoral approach makes Kyoto easier to meet for rich countries, which already have cleaner technology, and that it could be a backdoor-way to require them for the first time to cut emissions.

Last night, delegates appeared to have reached a compromise, with a late-session draft text saying that the Japanese sectoral approach would be discussed at a later meeting.

The protocol required rich countries to slash emissions blamed for global warming by an average of 5 per cent by 2012 from 1990 levels.

The Bangkok meeting is the first since a major conference last December in Bali, Indonesia, which agreed to launch negotiations on what to do after rich countries' commitments under the Kyoto Protocol end in 2012.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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World Bank accused of climate change "hijack"

Ed Cropley, Reuters 4 Apr 08;

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Developing countries and environmental groups accused the World Bank on Friday of trying to seize control of the billions of dollars of aid that will be used to tackle climate change in the next four decades.

"The World Bank's foray into climate change has gone down like a lead balloon," Friends of the Earth campaigner Tom Picken said at the end of a major climate change conference in the Thai capital.

"Many countries and civil society have expressed outrage at the World Bank's attempted hijacking of real efforts to fund climate change efforts," he said.

Before they agree to any sort of restrictions on emissions of the greenhouse gases fuelling global warming, poor countries want firm commitments of billions of dollars in aid from their rich counterparts.

The money will be used for everything from flood barriers against rising sea levels to "clean" but costly power stations, an example of the "technology transfer" developing countries say they need to curb emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide.

As well as the obvious arguments about how much money will be needed -- some estimates run into the trillions of dollars by 2050 -- rich and poor countries are struggling even to agree on a bank manager.

At the week-long Bangkok conference, the World Bank pushed its proposals for a $5-10 billion Clean Technology Fund, a $500 million "adaptation" fund and possibly a third fund dealing with forestry.

However, developing countries want climate change cash to be administered through the existing United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), which they feel is much less under the control of the Group of 8 (G8) richest countries.

"Generally we have been unpleasantly surprised by the funds," said Ana Maria Kleymeyer, Argentina's lead negotiator at the meeting.

"This is a way for the World Bank and its donor members to get credit back home for putting money into climate change in a way that's not transparent, that doesn't involve developing countries and that ignores the UNFCC process," she said.

(Editing by Michael Battye and Alex Richardson)

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Nations inch towards new climate deal

Shaun Tandon, Yahoo News 4 Apr 08;

More than 160 nations were working Friday to clear the initial hurdle in drafting an ambitious new treaty on global warming, expected for the first time to consider rising emissions from planes and ships.

The five-day talks in Bangkok were winding up with negotiators setting a plan for how to reach a UN-backed goal of clinching a new deal by the end of 2009 to follow the Kyoto Protocol.

Major rich and poor nations are sharply divided on what action to take, despite growing global fears that climate change could cause the extinction of plants and animals within the century and put millions of people at risk.

"What is lacking here is a sense of urgency. We are all victims of climate change," said Marcelo Furtado of Greenpeace Brazil.

According to a draft statement obtained by AFP, countries agree to study how rich nations can reduce emissions from aviation and shipping -- a rapidly growing source of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The Kyoto Protocol required rich countries to slash emissions by an average of five percent by 2012 from 1990 levels but exempted aviation and shipping, as by nature they are difficult to classify as individual nations' responsibility.

In late-night negotiations, delegates agreed to toughen language from earlier text suggesting that industry could regulate itself, delegates said.

The European Union and Norway led the way to strengthen the language, facing opposition from countries with strong travel industries or remote locations, such as Australia, Canada, Japan, Panama and Singapore, according to environmentalists monitoring the talks.

The Bangkok meeting is the first since a major conference in December in Bali, Indonesia, that set negotiations on what to do after rich countries' commitments under the Kyoto Protocol end in 2012.

It is officially tasked simply with setting a work plan to meet the Bali goal. A draft text sets four meetings next year until a final deal is reached in late 2009 in Copenhagen.

"The text is aimed at being palatable to all parties," said Alden Meyer, strategy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a US pressure group, and a veteran watcher of environmental negotiations.

He said each side was staking out its position in Bangkok.

"They're setting the table for a meal and they haven't really digged in," he said. "That means there's no food fight, but that will come down the road when it gets serious."

Developing nations are pressing rich nations to commit to major funding to help them cope with climate change.

Nearly all delegates agree that the toughest issue -- how much to slash gas emissions after 2012 -- will have to wait until after the United States has a new president in January.

All three major candidates for the presidency have pledged tougher action on global warming than President George W. Bush. He backed out of Kyoto as one of his first acts in office, arguing it was too costly for the world's largest economy.

"I think people are feeling optimistic that the next administration is going to engage in a different way than Bush has," Meyer said.

The European Union has proposed that rich nations slash gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.

The United States has not backed a clear figure and has insisted along with several allies that developing countries make clear commitments in the next phase.

Chief US negotiator Harlan Watson also said that calls for major aid handouts were unrealistic and the private sector was better suited to help.

Another potential point of contention is the so-called "sectoral approach."

Japan, which is far behind in meeting its Kyoto obligations, pressed in late-night negotiations for language on the approach, in which industrial sectors are judged separately on eco-friendliness.

Developing nations counter that this simply makes Kyoto goals easier for rich countries to meet.

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Best of our wild blogs: 4 Apr 08

Earth Hour and Coal-fired Power Plants
on the Hell Hath No Fury Like Nature Scorned blog

Lamenting the loss of a Sentosa shore
Biophilia and a Demon-haunted world on the lekowala! blog

Oil Spill at East Coast Park
Public advised to avoid swimming at beach affected by oil slick with links to marine life seen at East Coast Park in the past, and 3km of beach cleared on the wildfilms blog.

The Plane
butterfly of the month on the butterflies of singapore blog
(what odd names butterflies have :-)

Galapagos bird brains survive wind turbines
on proper siting of wind turbines on the reuters environment blog

Reef talk at NUS
on the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Oriental Honey-buzzard: Sightings in March
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

Are Global Warming Models Accurately Predicting Our Future?
New Study Reveals the Answer on the Daily Galaxy blog

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East Coast oil spill: 3km of beach cleared

Tania Tan, Straits Times 4 Apr 08;

OVER 800 bags of oil-soaked sand were cleared from a 3km stretch of beach at the East Coast Park yesterday, after an oil spill hit the shoreline on Wednesday evening.

The clean-up, which started that same evening, continued yesterday. About 70 National Environment Agency (NEA) officers armed with garbage bags and shovels got to work at 7.30am near the Road Safety Park.

Chemicals were also used to dissolve any oil residue.

They were done in under two hours.

Mr G. Thurainadan, the manager of the NEA's Marine Parade precinct who oversaw the operation, said: 'We needed to work fast, so that any pollution is minimised. Plus, it's very unsightly.'

The Maritime and Port Authority and the NEA are still investigating the cause of the oil spill.

Mr Frederick Chong, 35, a park visitor who arrived with his two-year-old son Gabriel after the clean-up, said: 'I didn't notice the oil spill. But the beach looks unusually clean. Normally, you see branches and seaweed strewn on the shore, but not today.'

Related articles

Public advised to avoid swimming at beach affected by oil slick
Channel NewsAsia 3 Apr 08;

Mystery oil slick along East Coast Park beach
Channel NewsAsia 2 Apr 08;

What marine life is on the East Coast?
on the wildfilms blog

Read more!

Public advised to avoid swimming at beach affected by oil slick

Channel NewsAsia 3 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: The public is advised to avoid swimming or using the beach along the area affected by the oil slick at the East Coast Park until further notice.

The affected area stretches from Road Safety Park to just before East Coast Lagoon.

The oil slick detected in the seas and the beach off East Coast Park on Wednesday was cleaned up by the National Environment Agency (NEA) on the day itself.

The NEA said it will continue to monitor the situation. - CNA/ac

Related links

Mystery oil slick along East Coast Park beach
Channel NewsAsia 2 Apr 08;

What marine life is on the East Coast?
on the wildfilms blog

Read more!

Bears rescued from 'hellish' Chinese bile farm

Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 3 Apr 08;

Bears that have suffered years of cruelty and ill-treatment on Chinese bile farms have been rescued.

The 28 Moon bears were in a pitiful condition when they were brought to a rescue centre in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Workers from the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) tragically found one male bear dead when it arrived, its body still warm.

Another had to be put down and another died of its injuries within hours of arrival.

AAF founder and CEO, Jill Robinson who has worked for 10 years in Asia rescuing bears and trying to put an end to the farms, said she was shocked by the condition of the animals.

"All were in impossibly small cages, all skeletal, wounded in various ways, and terrified of what would happen in this next stage of their lives," she said.

"Some are blind, some have shattered teeth and grotesquely ulcerated gums, some have shocking necrotic wounds - their flesh literally rotting down to the bones - and all out of their minds with fear.
"Most had open wounds in their abdomens from the free-drip method of bile-extraction, with some leaking bile, blood and pus."

The latest rescue of the bears brings the total rescued by AAF from Chinese bile farms to 248.

Jill Robinson launched AAF after visiting a farm and describing it as "hellish" and "a torture chamber for animals".

In July 2000, AAF signed a landmark agreement with the Sichuan authorities to rescue 500 bears in the province, and to work towards the elimination of bear farming in China and to promote the herbal alternatives to bear bile.

The farmers are given compensation so they can retire or set up new businesses and their licences are taken away permanently.

Bear bile, like rhino horn and tiger parts, is highly prized for use in Chinese traditional medicines. A chinese rural farmer with an income of just over £1 per week can sell a kilo of bear bile for £150.

Although synthetic alternatives to the bile are now widely available the illicit trade continues to flourish condemning bears caught in traps in the wild to unimaginable horrors. Often the animals caught in steel traps lose paws and then injure themselves further because of the appalling and cramped conditions in tiny cages.

Asiatic black bears, known as Moon Bears because of the golden crescents on their chests, can end up spending up to 25 years in coffin-sized cages where they are 'milked' daily for their bile, often through crude and filthy catheters causing the animals intense pain.

The bears are also milked through permanently open holes in their abdomens in what is claimed to be a more humane free-dripping technique. It is the only permitted method of bile extraction in China, but still causes constant pain and the slow death of the bears.

But Jill Robinson said the method was still patently cruel. "This is something that a 10-year-old would understand - a hole gouged into the abdomen and gall bladder of a sentient mammal is neither sanitary nor humane.

"The farmers and those who believe them should be ashamed."

She said the latest batch of tormented and disfigured bears provided further proof that the trade is as brutal as ever. Although the trade in bear products is illegal in China there is a flourishing black market.

The demand for bear bile is greatest in China, Japan and Korea but bear parts, bile powder and bile products are also found in Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the US and Canada.

The bile is still used in traditional medicine for a range of complaints including fever, liver disease and sore eyes.

Two years ago, the EU launched a campaign to urge the Chinese government to end bear farming by 2008.

It is though there are more than 7,000 bears are still trapped in farms throughout China.

AAF employs 150 local on-site staff at its Chengdu sanctuary which costs about £50,000 per month to run, and where remarkably the bears do learn to recover from their ordeal.

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S Iswaran says Singapore has ample supply of rice

Channel NewsAsia 3 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran on Thursday said that Singapore has an ample supply of rice, and urged the public to brace itself for further possible price increases.

Recent price hikes and restrictions imposed by rice-exporting countries have caused some concerns among Singaporeans.

According to NTUC FairPrice, sales of rice have risen 30 per cent at all its outlets since 1 April. It added that it is constantly replenishing stocks at outlets where the demand is high. However, further price hikes can be expected.

Mr Iswaran said: "The price is going up. It's a global phenomenon and as a small importing country, Singapore, really we have to accept there's going to be higher prices. And we're not going to control the price because that would harm our importers and that would (further) affect our supply of rice."

For low-income Singaporeans, who will feel the pinch the most if prices go up further, the senior minister of state said assistance is available.

He said: "We already have the growth dividends and the GST offset credits that are coming on stream - growth dividends in April and October, the second instalment of the GST offset credits in July this year.

"So with these, most should be able to manage and there will be more targeted help for those who need it through our CDCs (Community Development Councils) and ComCare schemes."

NTUC FairPrice said that in order to stabilise prices and the supply of rice, it needs to have a diversification of sources.

NTUC FairPrice's director of integrated purchasing, Tng Ah Yiam, said: "It's important that our shoppers should buy according to what they need, and I think it's not advisable to actually... keep rice for too long a period. Normally (it is alright to keep) for two to three months, but not anything longer than that."

Currently, Singapore has enough rice in its reserves to last about two to three months. For every kilogramme sold, two kilogrammes are stored in the national stockpile. - CNA/ac

Ample supplies of rice available in the shops
Jessica Lim, Straits Times 4 Apr 08;

Prices likely to rise in the short term, but Government says there is no shortage

THERE is no shortage of rice. There is no need to worry. And there is no need to rush out and buy more than you need.

For the second time in under a week, Mr S. Iswaran assured Singaporeans yesterday that stocks are ample and likely to remain so as imports are arriving as usual.

The Government will not set a price cap on rice, he said, because that would only hamper importers from going out to secure supplies at a time of rising prices worldwide.

But consumers can expect prices to rise in the short term.

'It's a global phenomenon and as a small importing country, we have to accept there's going to be higher prices,' he said.

'And we're not going to control the price because that would harm our importers and affect our supply of rice.'

The Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry spoke to reporters at a Pasir Panjang warehouse which stores part of Singapore's three-month rice stockpile.

He said there was no need to draw on the reserves and if the situation reached that point, the Government would announce it.

More than once, he urged people to stay calm and his advice was simply this: 'Buy what you need.'

He said that Singapore gets a lot of its rice from Thailand, the world's largest exporter.

As a proportion of Thai exports, Singapore requires a relatively small amount. It also tends to buy the higher grades of Thai rice, which have not been subject to export curbs.

'As long as we are able to pay the market price, we will be able to get supply,' he said.

A 5kg bag of Thai fragrant rice has gone up by 60 cents from $4.70 to $5.30 in the shops.

Mr Iswaran said Singapore traders also buy from a wide range of countries worldwide.

Checks at supermarkets yesterday showed that many people were not yet heeding the advice to stay calm and were buying more than usual.

At NTUC FairPrice's Toa Payoh Hub outlet yesterday afternoon, the rice shelves went bare in mid-afternoon, but were restocked soon afterwards.

Said mother of three Lye Geok Yong, 45: 'I bought one extra 5kg bag because I want to stock up and save a little money. People were buying, so I also bought.'

MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC Lee Bee Wah said it was nothing more than 'herd mentality' at work.

Opting out of the mad dash was Ms Sherrie Chan, 37, a mother of two whose family takes three months to go through a 10kg bag.

She said: 'What's the point of buying so many bags of rice? It will just be eaten by weevils.'

Mr Iswaran said what the Government is concerned about, is the effect of rising prices on low-income families.

They should get some relief from growth dividend and GST offset payments coming their way this year.

But his ministry will also work with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to help those in difficulty.

Also urging people not to buy more than they need was Consumers Association of Singapore chief Seah Seng Choon.

'Consumers should wait for the storm to clear and buy only what is needed in view of the current unusual high prices,' he said.

'Our rice bowl is safe': Iswaran
Neo Chai Chin, Today Online 4 Apr 08;

Govt may give targeted help so poor can cope with food costs

EVEN as the Government prepares to help Singaporeans who are struggling with spiralling prices of staples like rice, it reiterated yesterday that there was no shortage of the prized grain here.

Speaking to reporters against a backdrop of bountiful rice sacks at a Pasir Panjang warehouse, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran said the Government could "give more targeted assistance" to the poor via an adapted ComCare scheme.

"We're working with the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to see how we can adapt that scheme ... It's something that we're looking at and will put in place in short order," he said. ComCare currently includes schemes such as public assistance, kindergarten subsidies and work support.

Mr Iswaran was quick to calm fears that Singapore is caught in a rice supply crunch, as China, Vietnam and India have cut exports recently.

Singapore's three rice warehouses stock at least three months' worth of supplies and our imports are only a fraction of total world demand. Singaporeans also prefer high-quality varieties like fragrant rice, where there is less worry of a shortage, he said.

Citing Thailand, a major source, he said: "We tend to buy the higher grade of Thai rice. These are not the areas where they are constraining exports as much as some of the lower-end varieties."

Importers like Saga Foodstuffs Manufacturing have also secured contracts to ensure a smooth supply of rice.

In light of rising world prices, which hit a record high yesterday, Mr Iswaran maintained that domestic price controls were not an option. If local rice traders sell their imports at a loss, they would be unable to buy more rice in the world market, he explained.

On the industry's part, NTUC FairPrice, Singapore's largest supermarket chain, said it would stave off price increases for as long as possible. Any increases would also be staggered to help consumers cope, said Mr Tng Ah Yiam, FairPrice's director of integrated purchasing.

"We have to adjust prices accordingly, depending on the price from the source. So far, we have been able to keep the price 10 to 15 per cent lower than any other national brand," he said.

there's No point hoarding rice

Don't panic if you see the shelves empty of rice at your nearest supermarket. Rice sales at NTUC FairPrice's 80 outlets have shot up by 30 per cent in the last three days – due to concerned shoppers stocking up – but there's no cause for worry, said Mr Tng Ah Yiam, director of integrated purchasing for the supermarket chain.

FairPrice imports 80 per cent of its rice directly and, like other rice traders, stockpiles at least twice its monthly import quantities. Trucks now deliver rice up to twice a day to its outlets.

Advising consumers to buy only what they need, Mr Tng said: "Humidity in homes is high and weevils will grow if rice is kept for too long."

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Rice situation in Singapore

Supermarkets re-stock as rice sales pick up
Shops see brisk sales as shoppers snap up favourite brands amid price and supply concerns; cheaper brands left untouched

Tessa Wong, Straits Times 4 Apr 08;

BAGS of rice flew off the shelves yesterday as more shoppers loaded up on the staple, despite assurances from the Government that there is no shortage.

Four out of nine supermarkets visited by The Straits Times yesterday faced near-empty shelves by the afternoon, although stocks were quickly replenished.

Several supermarket chains said sales have gone up steadily since Sunday. Some outlets have been re-stocking their shelves twice daily, something that normally happens once a day or every other day.

NTUC FairPrice said that sales of rice have increased by 50 per cent since the weekend. Cold Storage reported a 10 to 20 per cent increase in rice sales, and Giant Hypermart has sold 15 per cent more rice.

Sheng Siong, meanwhile, has seen a 30 to 40 per cent increase in sales of its house brand this week.

But yesterday saw even brisker sales of rice. Supermarket staff at the NTUC FairPrice outlet in Ang Mo Kio Hub said they had seen 'quite a lot more' people buying rice than the day before, and 80 per cent of the stocks were gone by the end of the morning.

Over at Toa Payoh Lorong 4, Shop N Save store manager Jonas Quiambao nervously eyed his freshly re-stocked rice shelves at 2.30pm. They were full - for a while at least.

About 80 customers had bought rice since 8am - about twice as many as on an average day, he said.

'We ran out of popular brands such as Royal Umbrella and Golden Pineapple around 11am. Good thing we had rice deliveries today, so it's not too bad,' said Mr Quiambao.

At the FairPrice outlet in the HDB Hub, customers were sighing in dismay at the near-empty shelves at 3pm. By 4.30pm, however, shelves were fully stocked.

Over at the outlet at Junction 8, shelves were two-thirds empty by 2.30pm, but an hour later, staff were carting in fresh stock.

Shoppers who said they normally bought one bag were seen heaving two or more bags into their trolleys.

Some were buying rice in case prices went up even further. Others, like Mrs Joanna Yeoh, were buying extra because they were worried about supplies of their favourite brands running low.

'I can't stop prices from rising, but I can buy more, just in case there's not enough stock,' said the 40-year-old technical executive. She bought a 10kg bag of Song He rice even though she had one full 5kg bag at home.

According to some supermarkets, prices of rice have risen by between 10 per cent and 15 per cent over the last two months, in tandem with rising global rice prices. Analysts say this is due to competition with biofuels, natural disasters, and curbs in exports in places such as Vietnam, India and China.

Most people The Straits Times spoke to were shopping for their own families. But there were a few like one hawker who bought six 10kg bags for his economy rice stall - his usual purchase, he said.

Despite the mad dash, customers remain picky. Much of the rice that was snapped up yesterday was either of the mid-range house brand or premium quality variety. Importers said the price of the latter, which includes the Song He and Royal Umbrella brands, has gone up by about a dollar in the last few weeks.

At the FairPrice outlet in HDB Hub, bags of the cheapest house brand variety, which cost around $4.50 per 5kg bag, were left mostly untouched.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LIM HENG LIANG

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