'Silent tsunami' sends shockwaves over Asia

An Asian solution is needed to address 'agflation' and food security issues in the region
Mshahidul Islam, Business Times 27 May 08;

AGRICULTURAL commodity prices have reached nosebleed levels in recent months. The impact of the ongoing 'agflation' across the world, especially on the low and fixed income groups, is so severe that the World Food Programme has described the phenomenon as a 'silent tsunami'. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) reckons that one billion people in Asia are seriously affected by surging global food prices.

The rising demand from emerging markets, the sliding US dollar, higher energy prices, excessively loose monetary conditions, commodity speculation, weather woes and development of biofuels, among other things, are the drivers of the current 'agflation'.

Further, adding fuel the fire, some Asian countries, including China, India and Vietnam, have banned or restricted several key cereal exports that have created food shortages in many parts of Asia.

In the last four decades, cereal production more than doubled, largely owing to the Green Revolution in the late 1960s. After maintaining equilibrium in the food grain market for a long period, some important factors have emerged in the global food supply-demand scene in recent years.

Firstly, there has been a sudden shift from a demand-constraint to supply-constraint environment in the agriculture market. Since 2007, higher demand has led to an increase in food prices and supply is not able to cope.

Secondly, the growth of China and other emerging economies has lifted millions of people from poverty and thus the demand for high-protein diets has increased. Consequently, a significant portion of cereals has been diverted towards meat production.

Thirdly, climate change concerns have promoted the development of alternative fuels. The road to biofuel is paved with good intentions. But the result - diversion of food to fuel - is doing more harm than good.

Finally, the world is depleting resources much faster than they are being replaced.

Agriculture portfolio has changed

Asia accounts for 42 per cent of global cereal (91 per cent of global rice) production and 39 per cent of global meat production. China and India are the two largest homes to agriculture. In the current decade, the portfolio of Asia's agriculture, particularly the Chinese, has changed significantly. The share of cereal in total agriculture products has declined both in China and India compared to the period of 1999-2000. Meat, vegetables, fruits and fish production have witnessed a tremendous growth in China.

Agriculture diversification in China, coupled with higher demand for protein meal, has forced the country to slash its food exports steadily. Its share in the global food export market declined from 13 per cent in 1990 to 3 per cent in 2006.

India's agriculture sector grew 1.66 per cent annually from 1996-97 to 2004-05, compared to 3.29 per cent growth from 1980-81 to 1989-90. Consequently, the share of agriculture in total gross domestic product (GDP) has decreased without a commensurate decline in the number of agricultural workers in the country.

As the recent growth in the Indian agriculture sector has been below its population growth, the country has lost its position as a food surplus country. India's share in global food export market has declined from 16 per cent in 1990 to 9 per cent in 2005.

The recent decline in cereal production in China and India has not been fully compensated by a production increase in other parts of Asia, particularly in Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.

There is a little reason to hope that food prices will return to their long-term trend soon unless there is a sea-change in the agriculture sector. Even if all factors work for the agriculture sector favourably, in the short run, it is a daunting task to shift the agriculture supply curve rightward.

So, higher food prices are likely to stay for the next few years. After that, a greater involvement of market and state could augment cereal production and other food items.

Agriculture has been neglected both by the state and multilateral organisations for a long period. For example, the World Bank's lending to agriculture totalled US$1.75 billion in 2006, just 7 per cent of total bank lending, compared with more than 30 per cent in 1982.

A meagre 4 per cent of official development assistance goes to agriculture sector in developing countries.

Intensive research and development in the agriculture and more investment in irrigation, fertiliser, seeds, among others, could increase agriculture productivity, even if there is a constraint to expand the sector horizontally.

For instance, it is estimated that 85 per cent of increases needed in global food production must come from agricultural land already under cultivation. Technology and economic forces can spur solutions. But all these developments will take substantial time to have an impact.

But there is a flip side too. The current export ban on key agricultural commodities by many agriculture commodity producing countries is sending the wrong signal to the farmers to judge actual demand.

Further, climate change could emerge as an important barrier to increasing food production both vertically and horizontally, especially in Asia. Water shortage is another huge challenge in this regard.

Moreover, as many Asian economies rapidly industrialise, the wage level is rising both in farms as well as off-farms. As a result, the cost of producing food and other agricultural products is set to increase.

Cheap food is a double-edged sword. High food prices are essentially a regressive tax on the poor, especially those who are net food buyers. At the same time, any attempt to keep food prices low will do more harm than good, as farmers should be properly compensated for their hard work and increasing uncertainties in food production.

There is a need for both short and long-term solutions to address food security in Asia. Food aid can help to avoid hunger and starvation in the short run. But higher cereal and other food production are the ultimate solutions in stabilising prices in the medium to long run.

The chances of world leaders reaching a consensus over key issues concerning agriculture soon are not good. Moreover, neither the United States nor the European Union has shown any sign that they would revise their current biofuel policies that are driving up the food prices across the world. It is energy that affects developed countries' consumer price inflation greatly, not food.

So, an Asian solution is the need of the hour. Thailand's recent attempt to form an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) style cartel with some of its South-east Asian neighbours will create further distortion in the grain market. Such an oligopolistic structure is not viable in the long run, as unlike oil, rice is a renewable commodity and it has close substitutes.

Policymakers in this part of the world should instead address issues such as research and development in agriculture, technology sharing, water sharing, market access and potential free flow of agriculture commodities within the region, among others.

Asia needs to act now - any further delay could exacerbate the current food crisis and it would lead to great economic and political uncertainty, if not conflict, in Asia.

The writer is a research associate at the Institute of South Asian Studies, an autonomous research institute within the National University of Singapore

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Steps that Singapore SMEs can take to go green

Optimising computing environments of different sizes has both benefits to the bottom line and the planet
Claudia Tan, Business Times 27 May 08;

AS THE US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts the continuation of tight global energy supplies, energy prices will remain high through 2008. Large companies have been vocal in their new conservation and 'green' initiatives, but what is the impact on small to medium-sized companies? How will they balance the cost of opportunity against the cost of energy?

In recent years, the globally interconnected economy has driven the unprecedented growth of small and mid-size companies. Feeding this growth has been an insatiable demand for information and computing power: more IT equipment, producing more heat and consuming more energy.

In the past, many smaller companies have cited payroll, employee benefits and supply costs as crippling. How do energy costs compare over recent years? How do you assess the cost of energy against the cost of opportunity? And how is concern about the environment impacting everyday business policies for small and mid-size firms?

We see a growing number of foreign companies, global and local entrepreneurs incorporating in Singapore, with its latest tax incentives, pro-business policies, streamlined regulations and a booming economy of 7.7 per cent growth.

According to enterprise development agency Spring Singapore, the number of small and medium enterprises in Singapore grew from 149,000 in 2005 to 161,000 last year. With a booming economy and exponential increase in commercial real estate, comes an accompanying need for more power to drive the technology infrastructure.

A stable source of quality power, such as what is available in Singapore, comes at a price and a relatively high one at that. Singapore is rated as one of the more expensive countries in Asean to purchase power.

To find answers to these questions, IBM interviewed over 1,100 executives across 10 markets in Europe, Asia and the Americas. These executives hold leadership roles in information technology (IT) at companies employing between 50 and 500 people across manufacturing companies, financial services firms, retailers, health care providers, professional and IT services companies and hospitality providers.

The study threw up some interesting facts. Most small and mid-size firms said that energy is their largest cost increase over the past two years. More than one in three firms believe that IT accounts for 10-50 per cent of their total energy costs. Over 65 per cent of firms in most industries say that energy efficiency is key criteria when considering new IT investments. More than one in two small and mid-size healthcare providers and manufacturers have an environmental policy in place today.

Nearly one out of two firms interviewed say that energy represents one of their largest cost increases over the past two years. In food and hospitality, 50 per cent of firms say that it is their largest cost increase.

As energy costs increase, an underutilised IT infrastructure can often be a significant contributor to unnecessary consumption. Approximately one out of three firms interviewed believe that IT accounts for 10-50 per cent of their total energy costs. Some firms don't know how much their IT infrastructure contributes to total energy costs. More than one out of four firms interviewed - outside of professional and IT services - could not quantify how much IT contributes to their total energy costs.

Most data centres or server rooms today make inefficient use of the energy they consume. Some industry estimates reveal that more than 50 per cent of the energy used in a data centre or server room goes to power and cool equipment rather than computations and processing.

To combat this, approximately one out of four small and mid-size firms in most industries are evaluating the utilisation and performance rates of their server and storage equipment. This can help uncover inefficiencies on several levels, from room power and cooling to individual system utilisation.

Energy efficient solutions

New opportunities to decrease occupied floor space in the data centre or server room also can be identified. Another one out of three firms - outside of food and hospitality - will purchase more energy efficient IT solutions.

These solutions can include a range of components from virtualisation capabilities for increased utilisation to new liquid cooling technologies to prevent overheating. Some solutions also include active energy management software to better manage resources and utilisation rates across an IT infrastructure.

When considering new IT investments, over 65 per cent of firms - outside of health care - indicate that energy efficiency is 'important' to 'extremely important'.

In any event, energy efficiency is fast becoming a key factor for small and mid-size firms looking to make new IT investments.

Changes to IT capabilities are part of a larger plan of action to reduce energy consumption and costs. These actions are taking two forms for many small and mid-size firms: near-term measures and strategic changes.

The near-term measures focus on actions with immediate impact, such as turning off non-essential equipment after working hours and installing new lighting. For the IT department, this can include setting power-down policies for equipment outside the data centre or server room like personal workstations, printers and laptops.

Strategic changes are also gaining momentum among the firms surveyed. Initiatives outside of IT range from purchasing hybrid truck fleets to replacing ageing HVAC systems. Some small and mid-size firms are even considering more forward-looking changes. For example, approximately 12 per cent of firms in health care, food and hospitality have installed solar panels on their buildings or will soon do so.

Many firms focus their energy efficiency initiatives on lowering operational expenses through smarter use of energy. But behind these financial and operational goals, it also comes down to concern about the environment. Whether the policy mandates recycling or caps energy consumption, firms can achieve not only cost savings, but also improved public image and play a role in meaningful conservation.

The IT department can also play a role by disposing old equipment and assets responsibly. Whether the equipment is a personal computer, networking device or server, firms can avoid sending these devices off to the landfill.

Repurchase or buyback services can refurbish and sell off excess equipment. In many instances, old IT assets can earn credit towards future investments. For assets with no market value, these services can securely erase data and recycle the equipment components.

IT is steadily adding to the large energy cost increases that small and mid-size firms are facing. As these firms rely on more powerful IT capabilities to reach new customers, it is imperative that they also focus on how an IT infrastructure consumes energy and utilises resources.

To contend with spiralling energy costs, many firms have made or will make changes to their IT infrastructure in the coming year. Small and mid-size firms are evaluating and identifying opportunities to consolidate older, underutilised equipment. Many firms are also looking to more efficient IT investments that can assume multiple workloads to reduce energy consumption and heat production in a data centre or server room.

Concern about the environment - coupled with rising energy costs increases - are leading many firms to implement environmental policies. Nearly one out of two manufacturers, health care providers and food and hospitality providers have a policy in place today. From near-term changes like power-down policies to environmental policies for equipment disposal, firms are taking action today. In the end, 'going green' not only helps the environment, but can also help keep firms operating in the black.

Optimising computing environments of different sizes has both benefits to the bottom line and the planet.

To close, a few thoughts on steps that can help us do this effectively:

# Evaluate your server room or data centre energy demand, efficiency and capacity from an equipment and facility perspective.

# Move your hardware from a non-secure environment, such as a closet or standard office space, to avoid overheating, unprotected power and lack of overall security.

# Consolidate your workloads onto fewer machines to increase utilisation and reduce energy consumption.

# Implement capabilities to actively monitor energy usage and help better manage resources across your IT infrastructure.

# Adopt cost-effective techniques to cool your server room or data centre without adding additional air-conditioning equipment.

# Dispose of outdated or end-of-lease assets like servers and laptops through environmentally friendly IT resale or recycling programmes.

The writer is general manager, Systems and Technology Group, IBM Singapore

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Upcoming water events in Singapore

The water fringe
Tan Hui Ling, Today Online 27 May 08;

Come next month, Singapore will be home to a gush of water-related events – from a high-level World Health Organisation (WHO) meet to two international awards, to contests for the young.

And that is just on the sidelines of the main event, the Singapore International Water week from June 23 to 27.

In a first for Asia, the Global Water Research Coalition will hold its twice-yearly board of directors meeting in Singapore on June 22 and 23, with 15 of the world’s leading water research organisations.

For the first time in Singapore, WHO experts will gather to review work on the fourth edition of its guidelines on drinking-water quality, used by developing and developed countries.

Yet another first here: A workshop on new concepts in the integrated management of the urban water cycle, organised by the Unesco-IHE Institute for Water Education, Asian Development Bank and the PUB.

To involve the young, three events have been planned. Winners of the inaugural Singapore Junior Water Prize, a contest for 15 to 20-year-old students, will go on to an international event in Stockholm.

There is also a symposium for graduate students involved in water-related research and a water forum for 180 youth leaders from the region.

Two award ceremonies will take place here: The International Water Association Project Innovation Awards, and the inaugural International Desalination Association Fellowship award.

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Over 80 percent of fisheries overfished: report

Yahoo News 26 May 08;

More than 80 percent of the world's fisheries are at risk from over-fishing and the World Trade Organisation must act urgently to scrap unsustainable subsidies, lobby group Oceana said Monday.

"The world's fishing fleets can no longer expect to find new sources of fish," said Courtney Sakai, senior campaign director at Oceana.

"If the countries of the world want healthy and abundant fishery resources, they must improve management and decrease the political and economic pressures that lead to overfishing."

Based on data from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, the report found that only 17 percent of the world's known fish stocks are under-exploited or moderately exploited.

Particularly overfished are stocks in significant parts of the Atlantic Ocean, the Western Indian Ocean and the Northwest Pacific Ocean.

The report said that in the Western Indian Ocean, for example, over 70 percent of known stocks have been fully exploited, while the remainder are overexploited, depleted or currently at a stage of recovery.

Oceana also notes that emerging fishing grounds have large numbers of stocks with unknown status, saying that it opens them up to the risk of overfishing and depletion.

The group estimated that current fishing subsidies are worth at least 20 billion dollars annually, or the value of 25 percent of the world's catch, giving strong economic incentives for overfishing.

"The scope and magnitude of these subsidies is so great that reducing them is the single greatest action that can be taken to protect the world's oceans," according to the group.

It urged countries to push to "reduce and control subsidies" during the current World Trade Organisation negotiations on fisheries subsidies.

The WTO last November proposed the elimination of most subsidies for the fishing industry in a compromise package.

The text, presented by Guillermo Valles Galmes, chair of the WTO's negotiating group on rules, proposes the scrapping of all subsidies for the acquisition, construction, repair or renewal of fishing vessels.

It also calls for the end of subsidies towards the operating costs of fishing fleets such as licence fees, or fuel purchases as is currently the case in the European Union.

Port infrastructure subsidies are also scheduled for the chop along with aid to wild marine life fishing.

Japan is the world's largest fishing subsidiser with annual payments amounting to 5.3 billion dollars a year, according to figures provided by Oceana.

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Billions wasted on UN climate programme

Energy firms routinely abusing carbon offset fund, US studies claim

John Vidal, The Guardian 26 May 08;

Billions of pounds are being wasted in paying industries in developing countries to reduce climate change emissions, according to two analyses of the UN's carbon offsetting programme.

Leading academics and watchdog groups allege that the UN's main offset fund is being routinely abused by chemical, wind, gas and hydro companies who are claiming emission reduction credits for projects that should not qualify. The result is that no genuine pollution cuts are being made, undermining assurances by the UK government and others that carbon markets are dramatically reducing greenhouse gases, the researchers say.

The criticism centres on the UN's clean development mechanism (CDM), an international system established by the Kyoto process that allows rich countries to meet emissions targets by funding clean energy projects in developing nations.

Credits from the project are being bought by European companies and governments who are unable to meet their carbon reduction targets.

The market for CDM credits is growing fast. At present it is worth nearly $20bn a year, but this is expected to grow to over $100bn within four years. More than 1,000 projects have so far been approved, and 2,000 more are making their way through the process.

A working paper from two senior Stanford University academics examined more than 3,000 projects applying for or already granted up to $10bn of credits from the UN's CDM funds over the next four years, and concluded that the majority should not be considered for assistance. "They would be built anyway," says David Victor, law professor at the Californian university. "It looks like between one and two thirds of all the total CDM offsets do not represent actual emission cuts."

Governments consider that CDM is vital to reducing global emissions under the terms of the Kyoto treaty. To earn credits under the mechanism, emission reductions must be in addition to those that would have taken place without the project. But critics argue this "additionality" is impossible to prove and open to abuse. The Stanford paper, by Victor and his colleague Michael Wara, found that nearly every new hydro, wind and natural gas-fired plant expected to be built in China in the next four years is applying for CDM credits, even though it is Chinese policy to encourage these industries.

"Traders are finding ways of gaining credits that they would never have had before. You will never know accurately, but rich countries are clearly overpaying by a massive amount," said Victor.

A separate study published this week by US watchdog group International Rivers argues that nearly three quarters of all registered CDM projects were complete at the time of approval, suggesting that CDM money was not needed to finance them.

"It would seem clear that a project that is already built cannot need extra income in order to be built," said Patrick McCully, director of the thinktank in California. "Judging additionality has turned out to be unknowable and unworkable. It can never be proved definitively that if a developer or factory owner did not get offset income they would not build their project."

Yesterday a spokesman for the CDM in Bonn said the fund was significantly cutting emissions and providing incentives for companies to employ clean technologies: "There is a responsible level of scrutiny. The process is in continual reform. All the projects are vetted independently and are then certified by third parties. There are many checks and balances and we can show how all projects are vetted."

The UK government last night defended the CDM. "We completely reject any assertions that [it] is fundamentally flawed," a spokeswoman said. "We've worked consistently for and seen improvement in CDM processes over the past few years of its operation. We believe the CDM is essentially transparent and robust, though we will continue to press for the environmental integrity of projects."

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Oil and the Arctic: Pumping a convenient untruth

Gwynne Dyer, Straits Times 27 May 08;

WHAT links oil at US$135 (S$184) a barrel with last month's discovery of huge cracks in the Ward Hunt ice shelf off Ellesmere Island at the top of Canada's Arctic archipelago? And what might link those two things with a new, even Colder, War?

The cracks, more evidence that the ice cover on the Arctic Ocean is melting fast, were discovered by scientists tagging along with a Canadian army snowmobile expedition called a 'sovereignty patrol'.

The army was showing the flag because Canada, like the other Arctic countries, suspects that valuable natural resources will become accessible there once the ice melts. And the most valuable of those are oil and gas.

If we are heading for a mostly ice-free Arctic Ocean in the summer, then drilling for gas and oil can soon begin. Hardly a week goes by without somebody pointing to the US Geological Survey's report that the Arctic basin holds a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.

But the event that did most to trigger this new concern about sovereignty was Mr Artur Chilingarov's publicity stunt last summer.

A polar explorer of the old school (he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union in the old days for saving an ice-bound ship in Antarctica), Mr Chilingarov is now Deputy Speaker of the Russian Parliament and Mr Vladimir Putin's personal 'envoy' to the Arctic.

Last year, he took a three- man submarine to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean precisely at the North Pole, and planted a Russian flag in the seabed.

'The Arctic is Russian. We must prove the North Pole is an extension of the Russian landmass,' he said, and affected surprise at the fact that other countries with an Arctic coastline saw this as a challenge to their sovereignty.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for example, flew to the Arctic the very next week, and subsequently announced his country would build six to eight new 'ice-strengthened' warships for Arctic patrols.

The other three countries with Arctic coastlines, the United States (Alaska), Denmark (Greenland) and Norway, are equally suspicious of Russian intentions. The real issue is who owns the rights to the seabed, and the Russian claim is pretty ambitious.

Moscow claims that the Lomonosov Ridge, the subsea mountain range that goes straight across the middle of the Arctic Ocean, is an extension of the Russian territorial shelf, and so belongs to it. Alternatively, if the Law of the Sea tribunal does not accept that claim, Moscow may have a broader claim in reserve.

In the early 20th century, seven countries laid claim to parts of Antarctica on the basis of 'sectors': pie-shaped slices running along lines of longitude (which converge at the poles). The width of those slices depended on where the claimants owned territories near Antarctica, mostly islands in the Southern Ocean. Those claims are dormant because of a later treaty banning economic development in Antarctica, but the precedent has not been forgotten.

By that precedent, Russia could lay claim to about half of the Arctic Ocean on the basis of lines of longitude running from the far eastern and western ends of the country up to the North Pole - and in 1924 the old Soviet Union did precisely that. Nobody else accepted the claim then, and they wouldn't now if Russia raised it again. But Russia has the big Arctic ports and the nuclear-powered ice-breakers to make its claim stick, and nobody else does.

That is where the current panic comes from. It probably won't end up in a new Cold War, but it has certainly agitated all the hens in the coop.

But as is often the case with hens, they are over-reacting. Russia is in a more assertive mood than it was a decade ago, but there are no signs that it will pursue its claims by force. Also, there is no serious basis for the claim that a quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves lie under the Arctic Ocean.

It seemed implausible, given that the Arctic Ocean accounts for only less than 3 per cent of the Earth's surface, but in fact the US Geological Survey never said anything of the sort. Neither has any other authoritative source, yet this factoid has gained such currency that it even influences government policy.

Isn't it interesting how readily people will believe something when they really want to?

The writer is a London-based independent journalist.

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Greenland summit to discuss carve-up of Arctic

Kim McLaughlin, Reuters 26 May 08;

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Officials from five Arctic coastal countries will meet in Greenland this week to discuss how to carve up the Arctic Ocean, which could hold up to one-quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves.

Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States are squabbling over much of the Arctic seabed and Denmark has called them together for talks in its self-governing province to avert a free-for-all for the region's resources.

Russia angered the other Arctic countries last year by planting a flag on the seabed under the North Pole in a headline-grabbing gesture that some criticized as a stunt.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller and the premier of Greenland's government, Hans Enoksen, will meet the Norwegian and Russian foreign ministers Jonas Gahr Stoere and Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Canada's Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn at the two-day conference opening on Wednesday in the town of Ilulissat.

The issue has gained urgency because scientists believe rising temperatures could leave most of the Arctic ice-free in summer months in a few decades' time.

This would improve drilling access and open up the Northwest Passage, a route through the Arctic Ocean linking the Atlantic and Pacific that would reduce the sea journey from New York to Singapore by thousands of miles.

Under the 1982 U.N. Law of the Sea Convention, coastal states own the seabed beyond existing 200 nautical mile zones if it is part of a continental shelf of shallower waters.

TANGLE OF CLAIMS

Some shelves stretch hundreds of miles before reaching the deep ocean floor, which belongs to no state. While the rules aim to fix clear geological limits for shelves' outer limits, they have created a tangle of overlapping Arctic claims.

"The Law of the Sea Convention will basically give most of the Arctic Ocean bed to the five countries, but it is also likely that there will be two smaller areas that will not be controlled by any country," said Lars Kullerud, president of the University of the Arctic, an international cooperative network based in the circumpolar region.

Countries around the ice-locked ocean are rushing to stake claims on the Polar Basin seabed and its hydrocarbon treasures made more tempting by rising oil prices and have taken their arguments to the United Nations.

Despite shrinking ice cover, it will be decades before it is possible to harvest oil outside the already established 200 nautical miles.

Kullerud said it was likely the process would produce areas where countries agree to disagree on mutual borders and that would fall under joint stewardship until agreement was reached.

Environmental groups have criticized the scramble for the Arctic and called for a treaty similar to that regulating the Antarctic, which bans military activity and mineral mining.

Denmark has urged all those involved to abide by U.N. rules on territorial claims and hopes to sign a declaration that the United Nations would rule on the disputes. Both it and Norway have said there is no need for a special treaty.

Besides territorial claims, the countries also plan to discuss cooperation on accidents, maritime security and oil spills.

(Reporting by Kim McLaughlin; editing by Andrew Dobbie)

Diplomatic battle begins over Arctic
Charles Clover, The Telegraph 27 May 08;

Five Arctic coastal countries will meet in Greenland on Wednesday to discuss how to carve up the Arctic Ocean, which could hold up to one-quarter of the world's undiscovered oil and gas reserves, far more than Saudia Arabia’s.

Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States are squabbling over much of the Arctic seabed and Denmark has called them together for talks in its self-governing province to avert a free-for-all for the region's resources.

Russia angered the other Arctic countries last year by planting a flag on the seabed under the North Pole in a headline-grabbing gesture that some criticised as a stunt.

Russia’s lead explorer Artur Chilingarov, declared at the time,: "The Arctic is ours," thereby staking Moscow's claim to 460,000 square miles of ocean floor, more than five times the area of Britain.

Canada, apparently taken by surprise, responded with a military build-up, as have Denmark in Greenland and the United States in Alaska.

Now the Danish foreign minister, Per Stig Moller, and the premier of Greenland's government, Hans Enoksen, will meet the Norwegian and Russian foreign ministers Jonas Gahr Stoere and Sergei Lavrov, United States deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Canada's Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn for a two-day conference in the town of Ilulissat.

Environmentalists have not been invited and they dissent from the Danish view that existing treaties provide an adequate basis for resolving the disputes and the potential threat to the marine environment posed by oil and gas prospecting.

The issue has gained urgency because one third of the Arctic sea ice has disappeared since 2005 and some scientists say that all the floating ice could be lost in summer within 5 years.

This would improve drilling access and open up the Northwest Passage, a route through the Arctic Ocean linking the Atlantic and Pacific that would reduce the sea journey from New York to Singapore by thousands of miles.

Countries around the ice-locked ocean are rushing to stake claims on the Polar Basin seabed and its hydrocarbon treasures - made more tempting by rising oil prices - and have taken their arguments to the United Nations.

Under the 1982 United Nation’s Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), coastal states own the seabed beyond existing 200 nautical mile (370 km) zones if it is part of a continental shelf or shallower waters.

Some shelves stretch hundreds of miles before reaching the deep ocean floor, which belongs to no state.

While the rules aim to fix clear geological limits for shelves' outer limits, they have created a tangle of overlapping Arctic claims.

Lars Kullerud, president of the University of the Arctic, an international cooperative network based in the circumpolar region, said: "The Law of the Sea Convention will basically give most of the Arctic Ocean bed to the five countries, but it is also likely that there will be two smaller areas that will not be controlled by any country."

Despite shrinking ice cover, it will be decades before it is possible to harvest oil outside the already established 200 nautical miles.

Kullerud said it was likely the process would produce areas where countries agree to disagree on mutual borders and that would fall under joint stewardship until agreement was reached.

Denmark has urged all those involved to abide by U.N. rules on territorial claims and hopes to sign a declaration that the United Nations would rule on the disputes.

Both it and Norway have said there is no need for a special treaty.

Environmentalists say there need to be stricter rules as there are no techniques available for dealing with an oil spill on the ice.

Dr. Neil Hamilton, director of WWF International’s Arctic programme, said: “We take a very different view. UNCLOS provides a solid foundation on which to build, but by itself is not enough to meet the changes and the challenges facing us in the Arctic in the 21st Century."

"What we need now is a new legal mechanism for Arctic governance to protect this most critical and vulnerable marine environment."

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Vast cracks appear in Arctic ice

David Shukman, BBC News 23 May 08;

A Canadian expedition found the new cracks

Dramatic evidence of the break-up of the Arctic ice-cap has emerged from research during an expedition by the Canadian military.

Scientists travelling with the troops found major new fractures during an assessment of the state of giant ice shelves in Canada's far north. The team found a network of cracks that stretched for more than 10 miles (16km) on Ward Hunt, the area's largest shelf.

The fate of the vast ice blocks is seen as a key indicator of climate change.

One of the expedition's scientists, Derek Mueller of Trent University, Ontario, told me: "I was astonished to see these new cracks.

"It means the ice shelf is disintegrating, the pieces are pinned together like a jigsaw but could float away," Dr Mueller explained.

According to another scientist on the expedition, Dr Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa, the new cracks fit into a pattern of change in the Arctic.

"We're seeing very dramatic changes; from the retreat of the glaciers, to the melting of the sea ice.

"We had 23% less (sea ice) last year than we've ever had, and what's happening to the ice shelves is part of that picture."

When ice shelves break apart, they drift offshore into the ocean as "ice islands", transforming the very geography of the coastline.

Last year, I was part of a BBC team that joined Dr Mueller and Dr Copland as they carried out the first research on Ayles Ice Island, an iceberg the size of Manhattan.

It has since split into two, each vast chunk of ice now 400 miles (640km) south of its original position.

The rapid changes in the Arctic have reignited disputes over territory.

The Canadian military's expedition was billed as a "sovereignty patrol", the lines of snowmobiles flying Canadian flags in a display of control.

After the record Arctic melting last year, all eyes are now on what happens to the sea ice this summer.

Although its maximum extent last winter was slightly greater than the year before, it was still below the long-term average.

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Vast bounty at risk from under protected oceans

WWF website 26 May 08;

Bonn, May 26, 2008 –Oceans offer a vast bounty to mankind – in food, climate and coastal protection, medicine and new technologies – a new WWF Germany study of the ocean's value has found, but are at risk due to very low levels of protection from over-exploitation.

WWF is urging the 190 Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, now meeting in Bonn, Germany, to conserve the wealth of our oceans.

“Countries have committed themselves to establishing networks of Marine Protected Areas by 2012 under the Convention on Biological Diversity, but only 0.5 per cent of the oceans currently protected is a poor start towards that very essential goal”, said Christian Neumann, Conservation Officer for WWF International Centre for Marine Conservation and co-author of the study.

“Governments should be doubling their efforts in Bonn to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity” said Rolf Hogan, CBD Manager at WWF International.
The value of our oceans shows the economic value of a wide range of goods and services from the oceans. Scientists have put their overall value at some $US 21 trillion annually, a dramatic contrast with the 0.5 per cent of ocean area currently covered by marine protected areas..

“Not only do we have the moral obligation to secure the biological diversity of the seas, mankind is also dependent on intact marine ecosystems,” said Neumann. “They are a cornerstone of our economic wellbeing. Protecting them is much cheaper than loosing them.“

The wealth of the seas is particularly apparent in medicine, as many new compounds from pharmaceutical research activities originate from the oceans. Sponges and other invertebrates have emerged as a particularly fruitful source of new antibiotics and pharmaceutically active substances to fight cancer and Alzheimer’s. Hotspot areas of high biodiversity are valued at 6000 US Dollars per hectare for medicinal aspects alone.

“We just don’t know which potential is lying in the seas, waiting to be discovered by medicine and technology. The economic value is enormous, while very difficult to assess. At the same time, we’re at risk of loosing numerous species before we have the chance to unveil their potential,” Neumann said.

Global fisheries were estimated at a first-sale value of $US 85 billion in 2004, with some 40 million workers, but no only employment, the food of many more millions is at threat from over-exploitation and pollution.

“If we continue overfishing at current levels, fish stocks will collapse by the middle of the century. And that means millions of jobs lost,” Neumann warns.
Coastal protection is among the most important services of marine life, of which intact protected coral reefs contribute to a significant proportion. This service has been valued at $US 9 billion each year.

The oceans are binding carbon and therefore contribute to stabilising the planet’s climate. With no biological activity in the oceans, the carbon concentration in the atmosphere would be 50 per cent higher. This service is valued at $US 0.66 to $US 13.5 trillion per annum.

The report shows there is more money to be earned by protecting the seas than by destroying them. In Bunaken National Park in Sulawesi, Indonesia, for example, employees in the parks’ important tourism sector earn 144 US $ a month compared to fishermen on only US$44. A comparison of 18 case studies in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean shows that turtle watching generated three times more income than a consumptive use of the endangered animals

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Best of our wild blogs: 26 May 08

Hantu Dive!
more exciting encounters on the hantu blog

Ubin's other shores
another seagrass patch explored and fiddler crabs scrutinised on the wildfilms blog

Fiddler crabs galore
clips on the sgbeachbum blog with MORE fiddler crabs and an encore!

New fad: exotic marine pets
and some issues this raises on the wildfilms blog

What is the value of seagrasses?
on the teamseagrass blog

Moon snail disappearing act
clip of speedy burrowing on the manta blog

Semakau walk
with jellyfishes on the discovery blog and on the urban forest blog and wonderful creations blog

Life History of the Malayan Bush Brown
on the butterflies of singapore blog

Owl chick at Pasir Ris Park
and what you should do if you have a similar encounter on the bird ecology blog

Fight Climate Change, Conserve Energy, Save Money
on the Champions of the Environment blog

Recycling at Commercial Buildings and Industrial Estates
on the SG Recycle blog

Bee-eaters of the Thai-Malaya Peninsula
on the bird ecology blog

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"Nature deficit disorder" and the health effects of nature

Putting a spring in your step
Nick Higham, BBC News 23 May 08;

There's nothing new about doctors recommending their patients take more exercise. But what kind?

You could pay a fortune for gym membership, or you could trudge down to your local swimming pool and spend the rest of the day smelling faintly of chlorine.

But the best exercise of all might be the easiest and the cheapest: a stroll in the park, or a country ramble.

The secret ingredient? Greenery. Those of us who live in towns and cities, and even some who live in the countryside, don't get enough of it.

The result for most of us is highly stressful; we get irritable and depressed, and even physically ill (because high levels of stress mean higher risk of things like heart disease and diabetes).

Yet put us in contact with trees and grass and levels of stress fall away.

Natural remedies

The notion that nature does you good is one of the themes of this year's Springwatch series on BBC 2.

Bill Oddie, one of the Springwatch presenters and an enthusiastic bird-watcher, suffers from depression. He has no doubt that contact with nature helps him.

"I know I'm really in trouble when I don't want to go outside and I can't bring myself to do it," he says.

"I've had three clinical depressions, which means going into hospital, and that's the stage where I know nothing's going to help.

"But when you get a downer, and lots of people suffer from this, there is no question, every self-help book, every doctor, every therapist will tell you: get out there in the fresh air, get yourself moving. It's to do with fitness, it's also to do with a meditational thing."

Scientific support for Bill's beliefs comes from Dr William Bird, who combines a career as a GP with a part-time role as health adviser to Natural England.

Last year he produced a report for Natural England and the RSPB arguing that contact with nature and green space has a positive effect on mental health, especially among children.

Some have gone further still. An American journalist, Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, coined the term "nature deficit disorder" (an echo of the medically-established condition, attention deficit disorder) to describe the deprivation, sometimes amounting to mental illness, of children who grow up without contact with the natural environment.

"Nature deficit disorder" is not a condition the medical profession recognises, though common sense suggests that children who take virtually no exercise and rarely get into the great outdoors are unlikely to be healthy and are missing out on a lot of pleasurable experiences.

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Behind the scenes at BBC One's Springwatch programme Dr Bird is urging his fellow GPs to prescribe regular walks and exercise in green spaces for patients suffering from heart disease, depression, obesity and the like.

Referring patients to the natural environment rather than the pharmacist is a lot cheaper than conventional pills and prescriptions and, he argues, is likely to be just as effective in many cases.

But haven't we always known that contact with nature was good for us? Yes, says Dr Bird.

"But we kind of lost it when we got clever with our science. As soon as we got antibiotics and we got technical, we felt we didn't need all that green stuff.

"Now we've realised all that technical stuff can treat you, but we also need the greenness to provide a backdrop for preventing ill-health and for healing."

Happy feet

There's some evidence that patients themselves are willing to go along with the idea.

The results of a Mori poll, commissioned by Natural England and released exclusively to the BBC, show that 94% of us would be happy for our GP to provide outdoor exercise instead of prescription drugs, if he or she thought it would work.

Natural England has already established jointly with the British Heart Foundation a network of "walking the way to health" initiatives. Many areas now have "walk and talk" or "health walk" schemes, run by volunteers who encourage local people to gather regularly for walks ranging from gentle rambles to more demanding hikes.

Some GPs' practices are already prescribing exercise as an alternative to drugs.

The Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health in Devon is one. A partnership of a dozen GPs, it occupies a splendid new architect-designed building, more like an old-fashioned cottage hospital than a conventional GP practice.

The Centre's symbol is "the Green Man", a kind of medieval nature spirit: outside the building is a herb garden; inside they offer complementary medicine as well as conventional clinical consultations.

We met one patient, Roger Cowley, who'd been suffering from obesity and depression and had been effectively confined to bed.

He's been given a "stepometer" that counts the number of paces he takes each day and receives help from Ruth Tucker, an exercise adviser working with GPs.

His eventual target is to take 10,000 steps a day, walking in the fields around his home. So far, he told me, he's up to 4,000 or 5,000.

"I think we've lost contact with our environment, and when you become de-rooted you become alienated, and that's part of becoming unhealthy," says Dr Michael Dixon, one of the partners.

"We know that the most sustainable treatment for depression is exercise, not anti-depressants: a year later people who take exercise are still improving, when with anti-depressants the effects are gone."

Other doctors may take some persuading to prescribe a walk in the country.

Natural England polled 70 GPs and nurses and found that 61% recommended that patients use green space, and 79% recommended walking informally.

But that still left a sizeable minority who didn't.

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Pedra Branca & the old keeper of the light

My Lighthouse, My Playground
Ng Tze Yong, New Paper 26 May 08;

MONEY changes hands, and boatmen joke and jibe as news of the Pedra Branca verdict finally filtered to Marina South Pier on Friday.

Mr Hazlee Lewis, 51, gaunt and genial with an old sea dog's tan, sits quietly behind a counter, where he works as a liaison officer for a maritime company.

For months now, he has seen newspaper pictures of suit-clad diplomats battling over Pedra Branca in the high-profile court case fought half a world away.

And once again, the memories are flooding back.

He is a little boy again. He is riding piggy-back on his father. His father is huffing and puffing, making his way slowly up a dark, winding staircase that leads to the top of the lighthouse.

The stone walls smell damp. The steps are orange with the glow from kerosene lamps hanging on the walls.

When they finally reach the top, the view takes the 8-year-old boy's breath away.

He sees sky and sea, 360 degrees all around, glued together in one clean line.

It is hot and stuffy like a greenhouse. But he feels like the king of the world.

In the 1960s, Mr Hazlee Lewis' father, George, was a keeper of the light at Horsburgh Lighthouse on Pedra Branca.

He died in 2004 at age 89.

But during the 15 years he helped manage Horsburgh Lighthouse, he often took his family there during the school holidays.

He knew his children missed him.

Work meant he had to rotate between different lighthouses of Singapore, staying for a month at each, with three days of shore leave in between.

Once every six months, he would get a three-week break.

For $200 a month, free food and free lodging, he worked with a crew of six to keep the beacon burning bright.

Every day at sunset, the crew would switch on the beam by turning a fist-sized knob.

Every two hours after that, the crew had to spend 15 minutes winding weights up the tower by hand.

DOWN-TO-EARTH PEOPLE

The lighthouse worked like a grandfather's clock. The descent of the weights turned a 2m-wide lens around the lamp, giving it the characteristic lighthouse sweep.

At sunrise, the lights went out.

The crew would spend the rest of the day polishing the lens, refuelling the kerosene in the lamps, cooking and cleaning.

'They had to cover the lens with a canvas because the sun shining through it could start a fire,' Mr Mervin Lewis, Mr Hazlee's 68-year-old brother, recalled.

He added that most of the crew members on Pedra Branca were 'kampung people', 'down-to-earth folk who talked about nothing but fishing'. Everyone spoke in Malay.

Free time was spent fishing for meals, swimming and playing cards.

'Some workers would carve bird cages as a side business,' he said.

A 2m-long python and iguanas lived among the rocks.

At a nearby reef, there were sea porcupines, octopuses, shrimps, clams, crabs and corals.

Once in a while, colossal oil tankers would rumble by, like floating buildings, leaving the lighthouse choking in diesel fumes.

And when night fell, there were galaxies and shooting stars if you squinted and looked up past the lighthouse beam that spun round and round the whole night long.

The adults loved the peace and quiet. The children got bored.

Mr Hazlee Lewis said: 'After the first week, I told my father every day, 'Papa, I want to go home!'

To entertain him, his father told him ghost stories, just before tucking him into bed, under the woollen blankets with red-and-white stripes.

He told him of the old man who sits at night on the rocks like a mermaid; of the black, hairy arm that once reached in for him from a window high up on the tower; and of the fireball he once saw rolling down the steps of the lighthouse.

'But he was never afraid,' Mr Mervyn Lewis said. 'He knew that spirits existed at all lighthouses.'

Commanding the eastern access into the Singapore Strait, through which some 900 ships now pass daily, Pedra Branca houses a traffic information tower that relays shipping information back to the mainland.

The area is a restricted zone and Singapore's navy boats regularly patrol the waters.

But things were different then.

'Whenever there was a storm, my father would invite fishermen to take shelter at the lighthouse,' Mr Mervyn Lewis said.

'It didn't matter if you were a Singaporean, Indonesian or Malaysian. At sea, we were all friends.'

Once a month, a supply boat came, laden with fresh food and a change of crew.

But there were no electricity and no generators on the island.

Vegetables stayed fresh only for a week. The crew drank filtered rainwater, ate canned food and fished every day before drying the catch on rooftops.

LIKE BEING MAROONED

'It was like being marooned on an island,' Mr Mervyn Lewis said.

'Some of the crew members developed cataracts because of the lack of fresh vegetables in their diet and the exposure to the sun. People didn't wear sunglasses in those days.'

In the days before radio communication was installed, the supply boat would sometimes come unannounced, bearing bad news from the mainland.

The crew would gather on the rocks, watching with dread.

Mr Hazlee Lewis was still a child, oblivious to his father's tough life.

But in school, he would swell with pride when he boasted to classmates: My father works in a lighthouse. He keeps sailors safe.

Every month, a few days before his father's return, Mr Hazlee Lewis and his siblings would put on their best behaviour.

'The first thing my father did when he came back was to get a full report from my mother about our behaviour for the past month,' he said.

'And then he will decide what punishment to give us.'

The sea taught the old man many things.

He was always patient, always thoughtful, strong and silent, just like a lighthouse.

A few years before he died, the children took their ailing father back to the relatively nearer Sultan Shoal and Raffles Lighthouses to look at them one last time.

Mr Hazlee Lewis remembered that his father was quieter than usual that day.

After his death, they scattered his ashes in the sea.

It was the old man's last wish.

Why these rocks matter

# International Court of Justice ruled on Friday that Pedra Branca belongs to Singapore, ending a 28-year dispute between Malaysia and Singapore over the granite islet the size of half a football field.

# Malaysia given control over Middle Rocks, one of two rocky outcrops there, while that of other outcrop, South Ledge, has yet to be determined as it falls within overlapping territorial waters.

# Dispute arose when Singapore protested in 1980 against a new Malaysian map of its maritime boundaries in which Malaysia claimed the islet was theirs.

# Singapore Government argued that it has exercised sovereignty openly and continuously on Pedra Branca for some 130 years without protest from its neighbour until about 30 years ago.

# Pedra Branca is strategically located and key to the safety of international shipping passing through the Strait of Singapore. Whoever controls this waterway controls important trading routes in the region.

# Singapore has installed a Vessel Traffic Information System tower on Pedra Branca, which manages shipping traffic and safety.

# It has also built other facilities there, such as a helicopter landing pad and a desalination plant.

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