Malaysia's RM2.5b seafood export industry near collapse

The Sun Daily 17 Dec 08;

SEBERANG PERAI (Dec 17, 2008) : Malaysia's RM2.5 billion seafood export industry is on the verge of collapse with no concrete help thus far from the government following a ban on Malaysian seafood by the European Union (EU) in June.

The Malaysian Frozen Foods Processors Association (MFFPA) has raised an alarm that the industry has a lifeline of only three months left, as millions of ringgit in stocks languish in cold rooms, unable to be exported.

The situation is worsened because the product cannot be sold to other countries due to different packing and logistical requirements.

"The seafood exporters have reported an estimated loss in sales and production of more than RM1.5 billion to date," said MFFPA president Ch'ng Chin Hooi.

"The players can no longer withstand the losses and pressure from commercial banks," he told a press conference at the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) headquarters here today.

Ch'ng stressed that some 10,000 workers from the MFFPA's 25 member operators stand to lose their jobs, alongside another 30,000 indirect workers in related services.

"Many factories have started to retrench workers, if they are not already reducing working days since the ban came into force."

"To add insult to injury, the government has increased the electricity rate by 30%," he added.

Ch'ng said the cabinet had three months ago approved a RM500 million rescue package through soft loans to help industry players, with priority given to MFFPA members. However, the money has yet to be given out.

The Malaysian seafood industry is the country's second largest food export earner, with Europe its main market.

But the EU has found environmental and hygiene standards in the Malaysian industry to be wanting.

Ch'ng said the Malaysian government had been given the Guidelines for Export to the EU in 2005, but these were not properly implemented when EU inspectors came here in April and May 2008.

He noted that the inspection team's main concerns were fishing vessels, landing ports and agriculture farms.

"The processing factories were not the main concern as most of the processing plants were audited by the EU Health Authority on an ad hoc basis," he said.

Ch'ng said a Malaysian team comprising representatives from the Health Ministry, the Fisheries Department and the MFFPA had met EU Health Authority after the ban, but failed to gain a reprieve.

"The seafood export industry is still viable as there are still orders from foreign customers. What the industry needs is a financial helpline to hold the stocks and soften killing interest rates," he said.

"The point is that this industry can be saved if the government acts fast. We will be back on our feet if we can catch the 2009 summer holiday sales."

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Time to revive Stray Cats Rehabilitation Scheme

Letter to the Straits Times Forum 18 Dec 08;

I AM writing to urge the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority's (AVA) Centre for Animal Welfare and Control and the town councils to revive the Stray Cats Rehabilitation Scheme and step up awareness among the public that offenders caught abandoning pets are liable on conviction to a maximum fine of $10,000 and/or 12 months' imprisonment.

The presence of stray cats and dogs is the result of irresponsible pet owners abandoning their pets. These strays end up scavenging at food centres and rubbish bins for survival. Like humans, they mate and multiply. As their numbers increase, we complain of their defecation, noise from cat fights, caterwauling and scratches on cars.

If we can set up old folks' homes to house elderly folk abandoned by their children, if we can run campaigns to raise awareness for Aids and yet continue to permit the oldest trade in the world, why can't we make a humane effort to control strays rather than just cull them and teach the public responsible pet ownership.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the AVA put down 10,000 to 15,000 stray cats a year. Since 2002, the AVA has, on average each year, impounded some 3,500 dogs and 5,700 cats and received 4,000 and 5,000 calls complaining about stray dogs and cats respectively. SPCA receives some 700 abandoned pets every month but fewer than 20 per cent are successfully found new homes.

Controlling the population of stray cats and dogs requires a multi-pronged approach. As stated in the AVA's media release dated June 13, 2003, culling of strays is one necessary method to control the population. But when will such a cruel exercise be stopped?

The Stray Cats Rehabilitation Scheme sterilised some 3,000 stray cats before it was stopped in 2003. These sterilised cats would have remained at 3,000 to this day, if they survived road accidents or illness. A pair of cats can mate and produce up to 324 progeny in about two years. Assuming an equal number in sexes and using only simple mathematical calculations, the scheme has effectively saved at least 486,000 homeless cats from being born in 2005. This naturally translates into fewer public complaints for the AVA and the town councils, and savings in costs incurred rounding up and culling these cats.

Phyllis Tan (Ms)

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US proposes protecting 7 penguin species

Dina Cappiello, Associated Yahoo News 18 Dec 08;

WASHINGTON – Seven penguin species have reason to have happy feet: The Bush administration is moving to protect them. But three other types of penguin — including the stars of recent movies — got the cold shoulder.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list six species of penguin as threatened species and one — the African penguin — as an endangered species.

But it has denied protection under the 1973 Endangered Species Act for three others — including the emperor and northern rockhopper penguins, the stars of such popular movies as "March of the Penguins" and "Happy Feet."

The penguins live far from the U.S., in places like Antarctica, South Africa, Peru, Argentina and New Zealand so the protections of U.S. endangered species law are limited, officials said. But listing the penguins under the act will raise awareness about the species and could give the U.S. leverage in international negotiations to protect them from fishing, habitat loss, development and other threats.

Environmentalists hailed the Bush administration's proposal to fully list six penguin species, but criticized its decision not to protect three others, including the emperor penguin, the largest penguin in the world and one that depends on sea ice for breeding and feeding.

Endangered species advocates also faulted the government for protecting a seventh species — the southern rockhopper penguin — in only a small part of its range.

"Penguin populations are in jeopardy, and we can't afford to further delay protections," said Brendan Cummings, the oceans program director for the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, which requested in November 2006 that the administration protect a dozen penguin species.

The government decided in July that there wasn't enough information to do a review of two of the 12 species for which protection was sought.

The decision to protect seven is still open for public comment so the Obama administration will make the final determination on them. For the others, any action to alter the Bush decision would require an entirely new review.

The administration said that there was not enough evidence to list the emperor as threatened because of global warming now or in the foreseeable future, although research has predicted that increasing temperatures could melt ice in Antarctica and also diminish populations of the penguin's preferred food such as krill.

About 390,000 emperor penguins live in 47 colonies in Antarctica. But while the populations of many penguin species are high, recent research has shown that about a dozen species are in decline because of numerous stresses, including climate change.

The other species not getting protection include the northern rockhopper penguin and the macaroni penguin.

"There are certainly issues with those species, but we did not believe at this time that the populations were reduced or that there were significant threats to lead us to make a determination that they are threatened with extinction," said Kenneth Stansell, deputy director of the Fish and Wildlife Service in an interview.

Earlier this year the Bush administration listed the polar bear as a threatened species, the first to be protected because of the threats of global warming. But the administration has also finalized regulations to ensure that the law is not used to block projects that contribute to global warming.

The Fish and Wildlife Service was under a court-ordered deadline to make decisions about the penguins by Thursday.

Scientists believe there are at least 16 and perhaps up to 19 penguin species, depending on whether some are categorized as subspecies.

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Protected habitat proposed for sea otter in Alaska

Yahoo News 16 Dec 08;

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A federal agency proposed nearly 6,000 square miles of southwest Alaska shoreline be protected habitat for a threatened population of northern sea otters.

About 90 percent of northern sea otters live in coastal Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands population was declared threatened three years ago under the Endangered Species Act.
About 40,000 northern sea otters exist today, less than half 1970s estimates. The reasons for the decline aren't known, but increasing predation by killer whales is suspected.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal issued Tuesday would designate nearshore waters in southwest Alaska as critical habitat. Nearshore is defined as within 100 meters, or 328 feet, of the mean tide line.

The agency said nearshore waters provide sea otters with cover and shelter from marine predators, particularly killer whales.

The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the government eight years ago to protect sea otters. The conservation group maintains that proposals to open Bristol Bay in the Bering Sea to oil development, overfishing and global warming are threatening sea otters.

The agency's designation is a good start, but the protected habitat should extend at least a mile from shore, said Brendan Cummings, the center's oceans program director.

A critical habitat designation requires all federal agencies to ensure that any activities in the area would not harm sea otters.

Fish and Wildlife does not anticipate that the designation would restrict commercial fishing because little is done in the area and because sea otters eat mostly sea urchins, crabs, octopuses and some bottom-dwelling fish that have little or no commercial value.

Public comments can be made until Feb. 17, and the final habitat designation would be made by Oct. 1.

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Zimbabwe: extinction looms in a paradise lost to guns, greed and hunger

Martin Fletcher, The Times 18 Dec 08;

At first it seemed a paradise. Baboons played on the dusty track ahead of us. Impala and zebra, wildebeest and spiral-horned kudu bounded into the bush as our vehicle approached. We stopped to admire a 3,000-year-old baobab tree with a trunk that dwarfed our four-wheel drive, and spotted a herd of African elephants. It seemed scarcely possible that this semi-arid land in the Lowveld of southeastern Zimbabwe could support so much wildlife.

It was only as we approached the eastern edge of the million-acre Save Valley Conservancy that we began to encounter the problems besetting this idyll. “Resettled farmers” had moved in - burning trees, building huts of mud and thatch, and clearing land in an improbable attempt to grow crops.

Soon Clive Stockil, chairman of what is the biggest private conservancy in Zimbabwe, turned off the track and stopped. We were hit by the stench of rotting flesh. A few yards away was the decomposing carcass of a black rhinoceros, one of the world's most endangered species, shot by poachers three days earlier.

In life this 15-year-old bull was a magnificent creature weighing a tonne. Now it had been stripped of its meat by hungry villagers, writhing maggots feasted on the contents of its belly and clouds of flies hovered overhead. Its head was intact except where its second horn had been hacked off. That was what the poachers had been after because, thousands of miles away in eastern Asia, rhino horns are prized for their alleged medicinal value and fetch a small fortune.

What made this rhino's death even more tragic was that the conservancy had removed its horns last year to stop it becoming a target for poachers. The horns for which it was shot were regrown stumps barely two inches long. The same was true of the young female rhinoceros whose remains festered near by in the summer heat. Her horns were also mere stumps.

The cow was in season and the pair were probably in the process of mating when they were slaughtered. “You feel angry. You feel bitter. You have the urge to get even,” Mr Stockil said. “It sounds silly to say, but it's almost like a member of my family. I can recall when she was born and watching her give birth, and giving birth again 28 months later, and you come here and see this.

“My tears, they came down,” added Jackson Kamwe, head of the conservancy's rhino surveillance unit, recalling the moment he found the corpses. The conservancy knows its rhinos so well that it even has names for them. The bull was Enoch, the cow Gladys.

Sadly, this massacre was far from isolated. Last month poachers used an AK47 to kill Ice, a young cow whose mother, Natalia, was shot in 2007. This year 16 black rhinos have been killed in Save, and Mr Stockil admits that he is losing his battle to protect the 120 others that the conservancy has nurtured so lovingly since it was established in 1991.

Nor is this “onslaught” confined to Save. In the past two years criminal syndicates have begun targeting the rhinoceros. Experts believe that between 50 and 100 black rhinos have been shot in Zimbabwe this year, twice as many as last year, and between 50 and 60 in neighbouring South Africa - up from 30 in 2007. There were once hundreds of thousands of the rhino, with their distinctive prehensile upper lips, across Africa. Today there are barely 4,000. One of the four sub-species was declared extinct in 2006. The rest have been designated “critically endangered” and Mr Stockil says that “the countdown to extinction” has begun.

Zimbabwe's hunger, poverty and collapsing law and order make it a particularly soft target for the syndicates, and nowhere more so than Save.

Some 10,000 “resettled farmers” have seized a quarter of the conservancy in recent years, giving them easy access to the rhinos' habitat. Like millions of other Zimbabweans, they are destitute and starving, making it easy for the syndicates to recruit poachers and guides for paltry fees.

When the poachers are caught, the syndicates use their wealth to subvert justice. Not one Zimbabwean rhino poacher has yet been prosecuted successfully. Many are caught, freed and return straight to poaching.

The three men who killed Enoch and Gladys are good examples. They had removed just one of the pair's four stumpy horns before they were surprised by Mr Kamwe and his scouts. They ran away but the scouts recognised two. They had been arrested for killing another black rhino earlier this year but somehow managed to “escape” - unseen and unhandcuffed - from the police van taking them to court.

Save goes to great lengths to protect its rhinos. It employs a scout for every 20sq km (8sq miles), each armed and with radios. It has airdropped leaflets over villages bordering the conservancy offering $1,000 rewards for information about poachers, and has established a network of informers - one of whom alerted Mr Kamwe to the killing of Enoch and Gladys. It has built up dossiers on poachers and their firearms, micro-chipped each rhino, and sought to co-opt the surrounding villages by establishing a trust that would make them beneficiaries of its success.

It would like to do much more but it is hamstrung by another problem unique to Zimbabwe: the tourist trade on which the conservancy depends for its finances has collapsed.

Before the white farm seizures began in 2000, Mr Stockil's Senuko Lodge had an occupancy rate of more than 60 per cent. Today it is almost empty. “We're in a very serious financial crunch,” says Mr Stockil who, in desperation, recently began catering for wealthy hunters of non-endangered species such as elephants. Without that, he says, “we would have had to close”.

Mr Stockil believes, though, that no amount of scouts would be able to protect the rhinos over such a vast area, and that more drastic measures are needed.

The conservancy de-horns the rhinos that live nearest to the encroaching settlers to minimise their value to poachers but that has been ineffective: sometimes the poachers cannot even see a rhino's head before they shoot. He now wants all Zimbabwe's rhinos de-horned, and the wildlife authorities agree, but that would be vastly expensive, requiring helicopters, drugs, four-wheel drives and huge manpower. Moreover, it would have to be repeated every two years.

He believes that the poachers would still kill for mere stumps, and advocates an even more ambitious scheme that would destroy the five to ten syndicates behind the rhino poaching.

As Mr Stockil points out, the actual poachers are mere pawns - he knows of one who has made just enough to buy himself a motorbike. The real money is made by the middle men who spirit the horns across Zimbabwe's borders to South African ports and airports or up to the fast-growing Chinese community in Harare. From there they are shipped to the Far East, some in diplomatic bags. A Vietnamese Embassy receptionist in Pretoria was photographed recently taking delivery of a rhino horn from a dealer.

Mr Stockil wants African states to establish how many horns the end-users in China, Vietnam and North Korea require, to provide that number themselves, and to use the proceeds to protect the world's last black rhinos before they vanish forever. “You would stop poaching, raise money for conservation, increase the rhino population, do away with the illegal trade and provide a legal product that for centuries has been used by cultures that say they need it,” he argues.

In the meantime the black rhino population is in danger of shrinking to a level that is barely sustainable, and at Save, and across Zimbabwe, poaching of all sorts is escalating rapidly as the human population grows hungrier.

Near Senuko Lodge two tall poles support 6,000 snares that scouts have discovered on the conservancy over the past six years. Today they are finding between 30 and 50 a week, the more recent made of copper stripped from telephone wires. A few are for rhino. Most are designed for impala and other “bushmeat” but they trap animals indiscriminately - giraffes, zebras, lions, cheetahs. The conservancy has put down half-a-dozen maimed elephants. But it is another highly endangered species, the carnivorous African wild dog or Lycaon pictus, that the snares threaten most.

There used to be half a million of these brightly coloured dogs in Africa, but they were hunted almost to extinction as vermin. Today there are fewer than 5,000. In three years Save's wild dog population has shrunk from well over 150 to barely 100.

The victims of Zimbabwe's implosion are not just its people. They include some of the world's rarest animals. The difference is that the human race will outlast Robert Mugabe.

THE MIGHTY FALLEN

65,000 rhino in Africa 35 years ago. Now there are an estimated 3,600

2,000 black rhino in Zimbabwe before the peak of poaching in the 1980s

370 at the lowest point in 1993

201,000 overseas vistors to Zimbabwe in 2005, down from 597,000 in 1999

Sources: International Rhino Foundation, Times archives

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Corn pests to thrive as global climate warms: study

Karl Plume, Reuters 17 Dec 08;

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Populations of insects that feed on corn and other crops in the United States may flourish and expand to new territory as global climate change brings warmer summers and milder winters in the decades ahead, according to a new study.

More frequent or more severe pest infestations may cut crop yields and drive up the price of corn, used for food and animal feed and to produce renewable fuels.

"Our projections showed all of the species studied spreading into agricultural areas where they currently are not endemic," said Noah Diffenbaugh, a Purdue University associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences who led the study.

"The greatest potential range expansion was seen with the corn earworm, which is known to infest other high-value crops such as sweet corn and tomatoes. Warming could allow populations to survive the winter in the upper Midwest, the key region for corn production, as well as areas of the West where other high-value crops are grown," he said.

Researchers used climate model simulations that suggest winters will be milder more often later in the 21st century while summer growing seasons will be longer and warmer more often than they are now.

They compared the climate models to the temperature survival thresholds of four common corn pests found in the United States, the world's top corn producer and exporter.

"Basically, we examined both the number of days warm enough for the pests to grow and the number of days cold enough to kill the pests," said Purdue entomologist Christian Krupke. "This tells us what could happen in projected future climates."

For example, temperatures in Iowa, the top U.S. corn producing state, were suitable for corn earworm survival in zero to three years of every 24 years in the 20th Century. But in the 21st Century, that frequency was projected to increase to one to seven out of every 24 years.

More frequent insect pressure means farmers will need to spend more on pesticides or high-priced biotech seeds that help control pests or risk yield losses, researchers said.

More frequent pest problems can also result in more variable yields, which can drive up the cost of crop insurance or disaster relief for farmers, they said.

"Losses due to insect pests, including the resources required to control them, is the biggest cost for corn production," said Corinne Alexander, an agricultural economist at Purdue.

"The European corn borer has been estimated to cost the United States around $1 billion annually, and the corn earworm is responsible for destroying about 2 percent of the corn crop," she said.

The World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday that 2008 will be the coolest year since 1997, but still the tenth hottest since scientists began recording the data 150 years ago. The 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 1997.

(Reporting by Karl Plume; Editing by David Gregorio)

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£1 million boost for marine power in the UK

Technology used in aviation and the oil industry is to form part of a £1 million plan to boost wave and tidal power in the UK.

Louise Gray, The Telegraph 18 Dec 08;

Energy from the sea could provide up to 20 per cent of the UK's current electricity.

However at the moment the renewable power is too expensive, compared to other options such as wind farms.

The Carbon Trust, an organisation set up by the Government to boost green energy, is to invest £1 million over the next year to try reduce the cost of generating marine power by 20 per cent. Research will include investigating the possibility of using giant turbines used on aeroplanes and hydraulics used in the oil industry.

Lord Hunt, energy innovation minister, said the UK must lead the world in the sector.

"These innovative technologies, when proven to be commercially viable, could play a significant role in meeting our renewable and climate change targets," he said.

The announcement came as the Liberal Democrats called for a new "green road out of the recession".

Leader Nick Clegg said his party would scrap the Government's temporary 2.5 per cent cut in VAT and spend the £12.5 billion on "green" measures to kick-start the economy instead.

The plan would include a five-year programme to insulate every school and hospital; subsidies for home energy efficiency; 40,000 new zero-carbon homes; improvements to rail lines and 700 new train carriages.

The Government announced a consultation on plans to make all homes zero carbon by 2016 yesterday.

However campaigners have warned the economic downturn could threaten the target as the construction industry is investing less in innovative building methods and less people will be updating their homes to improve energy efficiency.

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Prince Charles warns environmental threat even more alarming than recession

The Prince of Wales, in his first intervention on the recession, has warned that the threat to the environment is even more "alarming" than the economic downturn.
Andrew Pierce, The Telegraph 17 Dec 08'

In an address to some of Britain's business leaders he said the principal factors which caused the collapse in the international banking system also lie at the heart of the "climate crunch".

He said: "There are a number of parallels that can be drawn between the current financial crisis and the looming, and even more alarming, environmental crisis."

He cited, overconsumption, indebtedness, overconfidence in market and regulatory systems and short-termism, as features that lay at the heart of the looming environmental disaster.

"Just as the world is hopefully coming together to tackle the credit crunch, so we need to work together even more powerfully, and with the same sense of urgency, to tackle climate change and the challenges of a resource constrained world," he said in a speech at a conference at St James's Palace for the Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Forum.

The forum has brought together more than 200 representatives from the business, investor, academic, accounting and public sectors to help develop systems to enable organisations to measure more effectively the wider environmental and social costs of their actions and business decisions.

The speech comes after the Daily Telegraph reported that the Queen hoped that members of the Royal Family would follow her example and avoid any overt displays of public extravagance because of the deepening recession, which threatens to push unemployment to three million.

The Queen also revealed her deep concern about the impact of the recession when she was overheard asking academics at the London School of Economics: "Why did no one see it coming?"

The Prince said he was not trying to suggest that governments should focus on solving one of the problems rather than the other. But he said a "growing chorus" of voices now urges a response which is geared to dealing with both at the same time.

"New industries, millions of new jobs and many new commercial opportunities can go hand-in-hand with transformation toward an ecologically durable economy," he said.

"The ecosystems on which we all rely for our survival are more complex and less well-understood than the global financial system, and my great fear – a long-held one, for which I have been roundly abused and ridiculed – is that by the time these problems are understood and addressed it will be too late and, very importantly, that unlike financial capital our natural capital cannot be replenished."

He said the Accounting for Sustainability project, which he set up in December 2006, was created to help ensure that sustainability becomes embedded in the DNA of organisations.

"Unless this is the case, sustainability considerations will not become embedded within organisations' day to day operations and decision making so that having, hopefully, survived the credit crunch, we will not have learned the much larger lessons and will merely carry on regardless to a much more painful, calamitous and, crucially, irretrievable climate crunch."

The conference was also addressed by Stephen Green, group chairman of HSBC bank which stands to lose up to £688 million in the Madoff Wall Street fraud.

Mr Green warned against reducing the priority attached to tackling climate change in the crisis. He said: "The climate change agenda will not pass, this is something that is with us for the rest of time. This is something that we do have to attend to for the sake not only of our children but for our grandchildren and onwards."

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U.S. carbon output slower than thought by 2030: EIA

Reuters 17 Dec 08;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. energy-related emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by 2030 will be 9.4 percent less than forecast last year as renewable energy develops and prices cut fossil fuel demand, the top U.S. energy forecasting agency said on Wednesday.

Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions will hit 6.410 billion tonnes in 2030, the Energy Information Administration said in its annual long-term forecast. In last year's forecast, the EIA, the independent statistics arm of the Department of Energy, had forecast the emissions to hit 6.851 billion tonnes by 2030.

"Efficiency policies and higher energy prices ... slow the rise in U.S. energy use," the EIA said. "When combined with the increased use of renewables and a reduction in the projected additions of new coal-fired conventional power plants, this slows the growth in energy-related (greenhouse gas) emissions."

Total consumption of renewable fuels including hydropower, solar and wind power, biofuels, and wood burning will grow 3.3 percent per year through 2030, according to the report. Some of the growth will be spurred by the U.S. 2007 biofuels mandate, and state mandates for minimum levels of renewable electricity generation, the EIA said.

New power generation fired by coal, which emits more carbon dioxide than any other fuel, will hit 46 gigawatts, not the 104 gigawatts forecast last year, the report said.

"It's a tremendous sea change in the forecast for coal plant construction from last year," said Alan Nogee, the clean energy director for the Union of Concerned Scientists. He said Wednesday's forecast showed EIA expectations of about 100 fewer average-sized coal plants by 2030 than last year's forecast.

This year alone utilities anticipating future federal greenhouse gas emissions have canceled plans for about 13 coal-fired power plants.

President-elect Barack Obama wants to cut total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 in order to avoid catastrophic effects of climate change including droughts, floods and more powerful storms. Last year those emissions were about 16.7 percent above 1990 levels.

Carbon dioxide emissions from energy sources represented about 81 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas output in 2007. Other sources of gases blamed for warming the planet include methane, which is given off at farms and waste dumps.

Nogee said more renewable energy will need to be developed as more coal plants will be planned in coming years.

Coal's share of U.S. power generation will fall from 49 percent in 2007 to 45 percent by 2025 and then rebound to 47 percent by 2030, the EIA said.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Christian Wiessner)

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EU finalizes deal to fight climate change

Pete Harrison and Huw Jones, Reuters 17 Dec 08;

BRUSSELS/STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union finalized plans for its battle against global warming on Wednesday, seeking to lead the way toward a broad alliance including other big polluters like China and the United States.

The European Parliament approved a cut in carbon dioxide emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, heeding warnings of severe weather, famine and drought as the atmosphere heats up.

The deal takes on a greater importance coming just before Barack Obama assumes the U.S. presidency, amid hopes in Europe he will cooperate more on tackling climate change than incumbent George W. Bush.

"Happily Bush is going," said European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas. "Everybody knows what Mr. Obama has set as priorities -- energy security and climate change."

World leaders will meet in Copenhagen next December to try to agree a global deal, but preparatory talks in Poland ended last week with deep divisions between rich and poor nations.

The advancing economic crisis had at times threatened to derail the EU's climate negotiations.

A myriad of concessions to water down the costs for industry helped pin down a deal, although this fueled criticism from environmental groups.

DISSENT

Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had fought successfully for industries like German steel, chemicals and cement and Italian glass and ceramics, as well as their powerful auto sectors.

Lawmakers approved measures on Wednesday to cut CO2 emissions from new cars by 18 percent by 2015, after intense lobbying by the industry won it a three year reprieve.

"There was an explosion in dissent and manufacturers were at loggerheads," said Italian socialist Guido Sacconi, who led the rules for cars through parliament.

"Trying to secure a conclusion came when the car industry found itself at the epicenter of the economic crisis and this heightened difficulties," he added.

Green group politicians branded the rules as a sell-out to industry, while industry group ACEA repeated calls for billions of euros in EU support to help manufacturers meet the targets.

The biggest threat to a deal was the opposition of nine former communist nations, which feared the deal would ramp up costs for their highly polluting coal-fired power sectors.

To buy their support, the EU has offered a partial exemption and agreed to give them 12 percent of revenues from the EU's flagship emissions trading scheme (ETS), which makes industry buy permits to pollute.

The European Commission, which originated the climate laws in January, demonstrated its appetite for further action by adopting rules on eco-friendly design on Wednesday, which would cap the energy consumption of televisions on standby mode.

Environmentalists vented their anger over the dilution of the EU's ambition, most of them criticizing the high levels of carbon offsets, which allow member states to pay for most of their emissions cuts in developing nations rather than at home.

"People will look back at 2008 and ask...knowing what they knew then, why did they not do more to save all of us from the unbearable impacts from a warming planet?" said British Green group politician Caroline Lucas.

(Reporting by Huw Jones, writing by Pete Harrison; editing by Sue Thomas and Anthony Barker)

EU parliament approves climate change package
Christian Spillmann Yahoo News 17 Dec 08;

STRASBOURG (AFP) – The European Parliament on Wednesday approved the EU's climate change package, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, lifting the last hurdle to the ambitious plan.

Six texts on the package, already agreed by the 27 European Union member states, were passed by a large majority of the MEPs present.

"We have sealed the climate package," said European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering, after the vote.

The so-called "20-20-20" climate package, which Europe hopes will serve as a model to other nations, will oblige EU nations to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, make 20 percent energy savings and bring the use of renewable energy sources up to 20 percent of the total.

The parliamentary approval came five days after EU heads of state and government worked out a compromise deal on the package at a summit in Brussels.

Within the overall EU targets, each EU nation and industry sector has its own obligations under the package, and last-minute dispensations were given, particularly to Warsaw and Berlin which were concerned at the effects on industry.

German conservatives also complained that the package was too tough on industry and evoked the spectre of "carbon leakage" whereby jobs would move out of a highly regulated region with no benefit to the European economy or the global environment.

However, environmental groups complain that the package was so watered-down in the attempts to reach a deal that the measures adopted will no longer deliver on the promised climate change targets.

"The parliament has marginalised itself by lacking the courage to make even small changes to the compromises negotiated by the EU summit last Friday," said Greenpeace EU climate and energy policy director Joris den Blanken.

"Europe promised leadership on climate, but so far it has led us up the garden path. The climate package doesn't even take us half way to where we should be in the fight against climate change," he added.

"This is not quite the third industrial revolution trumpeted when proposals were presented at the beginning of the year," complained Delia Villagrasa, Senior Advisor to WWF.

"The 20 percent target sounds nice in words, but is void because EU countries are allowed to accomplish approximately three quarters of the effort outside EU borders, which translates into European emission reduced by only 4-5 percent between now and 2020," she added.

However, Swedish Liberal Democrat MEP Lena Ek hailed the agreement as "a win-win situation."

"Finally we have this package. In a period where we have to go through an economic crisis this package is a win-win situation," she said.

"The green investments will create jobs and give our industry a lead. By adopting this set of measures we have confirmed Europe's leadership in tackling global warming," she added.

"Mission accomplished," French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told AFP. "We'll see the full benefit if we reach a global deal in Copenhagen."

The European Union hopes that its climate and energy package will serve as a model for the United States, China, India and other major polluters at international climate change talks to be held in Copenhagen next December.

The EU nations have said they are prepared to increase their greenhouse gas cuts to 30 percent if there is an international climate change deal.

The six texts adopted by the parliament constituted the main planks of the overall package -- renewable energy, emissions trading, carbon dioxide capture and storage, efforts by member states, overall reduction of CO2 emissions and reducing car emissions.

All six went through with a large majority, with between 559 and 670 European deputies voting in favour out of the total of 785.

The plan must be formally published before its measures come into effect.

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Best of our wild blogs: 17 Dec 08

How long can it last?
on the annotated budak blog

Moments of Tanah Merah
on the wonderful creation blog

Pasir Ris
A quick health check and Pool of Surprises on the wild shores of singapore blog

Impact of ZoukOut 2008 on Sentosa's marinelife
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Bukit Timah to MacRitchie
on Manoj Sugathan's Wlog

Milky Stork forages with an open wing
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

How I like my tomatoes
on the annotated budak blog

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Singapore faces negligible tsunami risks

Study shows that even if waves hit island, they will not be life threatening
Liaw Wy-Cin, Straits Times 17 Dec 08;

THE impact of any tsunami, triggered by quakes in the region, on Singapore would be minimal, according to a new two-year study.

Computer simulations used in the study found that it would take an earthquake, in Indonesian or Philippine waters, measuring about 9.0 on the Richter scale to generate a tsunami powerful enough to reach Singapore.

Even then, it would take 10 hours before the first waves hit the island.

By that time, the waves would be no more than 0.7m above the average sea level, reaching no more than 50m inland and at speeds slower than that of normal tides. From Straits Times PDF.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) commissioned the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to conduct the study in 2006.

The aim of the study was to discover the effects of tidal waves, caused by underwater earth movements, on Singapore.

This was in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami on Dec 26 four years ago, which killed more than 225,000 people. The epicentre of the earthquake that caused the tsunami was in the sea near Indonesia, known as the Sunda Arc.

This area, together with another area called the Manila Trench near the Philippines, was identified as a hot spot for underwater movement which could pose a tsunami threat to Singapore.

Earthquakes in the region usually measure 6.0 to 8.0 on the Richter scale, apart from the massive quake in 2004. There was also one measuring 8.7 in 2005 and only two measuring 8.5 to 9.0 in the 19th century.

The Richter scale goes up to 10 points. Earthquakes measuring about 8.0 occur once a year and can cause serious damage in areas several hundred kilometres from the epicentre.

Earthquakes at 9.0 on the Richter scale have devastating effects several thousand kilometres away and occur once in 20 years.

An earthquake measuring 10 on the Richter scale has never been recorded.

Earlier this month, NTU researchers said they had detected signs of an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra but could not predict when or where it would strike.

It is, however, unlikely to be as large as the 2004 one.

The shallow waters and land masses around Singapore protect the island from the effects of any tsunami, said Mr Foong Chee Leong, the director-general of NEA's meteorological services.

Even during the 2004 earthquake, there was no record of a rise in Singapore's sea level, he said.

The speed at which any tsunami wave would hit Singapore's shores - at half a metre per second - is slower than the speed of a normal tide, which is 1m to 2m per second, said one of the NUS researchers, Dr Pavel Tkalich.

The study costs $1.3 million and made use of a modified program used in Japanese tsunami warning systems, which are considered among the best in the world.

Six Singapore beaches were identified as potential risk areas: West Coast Park, Labrador Park, Sentosa, the Southern Islands, East Coast Park and Pasir Ris Park.

But these areas pose a limited threat because the nearest residential area from the coastline is about 80m inland and any built- up area was constructed at least 1.25m above the highest tide level of about 1.5m above the average sea level here, said Mr Foong.

Dean of NTU's college of engineering, Professor Pan Tso-Chien, said the only worry would be people on the beach.

'Those in the sea would feel like they are riding a wave, bobbing up and down,' he said.

'The waves, by the time they hit the beach would be less than 1m high, at very low speeds, and (they) wouldn't be able to cause any destruction.'

Response plan in place
Straits Times 17 Dec 08;

EVEN though the risk of a tsunami hitting Singapore is low, beaches here will still be evacuated and the public advised to stay away if the alert is sounded.

This is part of a tsunami response plan drawn up by the National Environment Agency (NEA) and other agencies, including the PUB and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore.

The lead time of the 10 hours it would take for the first of any tsunami waves to hit Singapore would provide ample time for a decision to be made on whether to sound the alarm and evacuate beaches, said Mr Foong Chee Leong, director-general of the NEA's meteorological services division.

He said the NEA receives alerts about earthquakes within two minutes of their occurrence.

It would take an hour for data to be analysed to ascertain if a tsunami would be generated and if it would reach Singapore.

Information about when it would do so, its speed, and height of the waves, for example, would also be available within the first hour of the earthquake alert.

Time to analyse the data is necessary to avoid sounding false alarms, said Mr Foong.

The NEA has identified six vulnerable beach areas - West Coast Park, Labrador Park, Sentosa, Southern Islands, East Coast Park and Pasir Ris Park.

In the event of a tsunami heading towards Singapore, advisories would be issued via the media.

The police and the Sentosa Development Corporation would then help to evacuate the public from these areas.

The NEA said the public warning siren will be activated only if the impact is expected to be severe, to avoid alarming the public unnecessarily.

Sheltered from the waves
Two-year study finds that landmasses and shallow waters protect Singapore from tsunamis
Esther Ng, Today Online 17 Dec 08;

IN THE worst-case scenario, waves would lap the waists of beachgoers should a tsunami hit Singapore. And residences would not be affected as flooding is only expected to affect areas less than 50 metres from the shore.

Since the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami caused havoc in the region, Singaporeans have wondered: Would we be as lucky the next time another tsunami struck?

Yes, according to a tsunami study commissioned by the National Environment Agency (NEA).

Even if a magnitude 9 earthquake were to occur in the Manila Trench (a tectonic plate in the South China sea) and the Sunda Arc, north-west of Sumatra island,Singapore would be safe because it is sheltered by relatively shallow waters and landmasses such as Sumatra and Peninsula Malaysia.

“By the time the tsunami waves arrive in Singapore, the wave energy will have largely been dissipated and the impact on Singapore will be minimal,” said Mr Foong Chee Leong, the director-general of the NEA’s meteorological services division.

However, the two-year study conducted by the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, at the cost of $1.3 million, found that some of our beaches are vulnerable to flooding from a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake at the Manila Trench. These are the West Coast Park, Labrador Park, Sentosa and Southern Islands, East Coast Park and Pasir Ris Park.

But the public has little to fear.

“Over the years, much of Singapore’s shoreline has undergone coastal hardening and is protected by sea walls and other reinforcement,” said an NEA spokesman.

“Most of Singapore’s industrial buildings and residences are built in areas which are elevated well above high tide levels. Hence, it is very unlikely for residences along Elias Road, Loyang Besar and the industrial buildings along Loyang Crescent will be affected by a tsunami.”

However, to date, there have been no records of earthquakes occurring in Singapore, only weak tremors which are felt occasionally from distant earthquakes off Sumatra. The agency said it will continue to monitor regional seismic activities for possible tsunamis, even though there has been no known records of tsunamis affecting Singapore.

No major impact from tsunamis: NEA study
Noor Aisha, Business Times 17 Dec 08;

THE National Environment Agency (NEA) has confirmed that there is a low probability of Singapore being affected by a tsunami, following a two-year study since August 2006.

The study considered two sources which might trigger tsunami that could affect Singapore: first, undersea landslides near Singapore and, second, seismic zones with the potential to produce great earthquakes of magnitude 9.0 and above.

According to the study, both sources do not pose a major threat as the likelihood of undersea landslides near Singapore is very low.

In addition, simulations by numerical models showed that tsunami triggered by earthquakes along seismic zones capable of producing such large earthquakes are expected to take more than 10 hours to reach Singapore's coast.

The research was jointly conducted by the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University at a cost of $1.3 million.

Nonetheless, in the event of a tsunami, a Tsunami Response Plan has also been developed by the NEA, with the cooperation of relevant agencies like the Singapore Police Force, Maritime Port Authority, Jurong Town Corporation and Sentosa Development Corporation.

We are safe from killer waves
Tsunami waves would be only 50cm tall if they reach S'pore: study
Chng Choon Hiong, The New Paper 18 Dec 08;

FOR Singaporeans who are worried that a tsunami may strike our shores, here's good news: We are safe from killer waves.

A new two-year study has confirmed this.

The height of the tsunami waves if they do reach Singapore will be considerably less than the highest tide (1.5m) here.

In the worst case scenario where the first wave reaches Singapore during highest tide, the water will only move a maximum of 50m inland.

The study, which began in August 2006, was conducted by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

It was commissioned by the National Environment Agency (NEA) in response to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami which killed 225,000 people in 11 countries.

The study examines several extreme scenarios (see graphics) of powerful undersea earthquakes and landslides occurring in locations that may result in tsunami waves hitting our shores.

The researchers in the team ran computer simulations to determine the nature of the waves that would hit Singapore under such situations.

The simulations shows that the relatively shallow waters (less than 200m) surrounding Singapore are able to slow down and dissipate the enormous amount of energy carried by these monster waves.

The ample lead time of 10 hours - the estimated time for the waves to reach our shores - allows the authorities to keep track of the event, receive additional information and further improve their confidence on the assessment of the situation, said Professor Chan Eng Soon, Dean of Engineering at NUS.

Unprotected beaches

While the study has found that the impact of a tsunami is likely to be minimal for Singapore, people at unprotected beaches could still be exposed to some risk if the waves do hit us.

The list of unprotected beaches include West Coast Park, Labrador Park, East Coast Park, Pasir Ris Park, Sentosa and the Southern Islands.

Even though Singapore faces no significant threat from tsunamis, NEA has nevertheless developed a Tsunami Response Plan with the cooperation of several other agencies, such as the Singapore Police and Maritime Port Authority.

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