Balancing the global need for meat

Carlos Sere, BBC Green Room 24 Mar 09;

While meat is all too abundant in the rich North, it is very often a life-saving source of protein in the developing South, says Carlos Sere. In this week's Green Room, he says backing a worldwide curb on meat consumption is likely to do more harm than good.

Daisy the cow, the emblem of healthy wholesome living, is under attack in rich countries.

She is deemed to be destroying the environment by emitting tonnes of greenhouse gases and contributing to an upsurge of obesity and heart disease.

But Daisy, and her farmyard cousins Billy the goat and Porky the pig, are treasured in poor countries.

These animals provide protein, nourishment, and a livelihood to more than a billion poor people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Rich and poor worlds are colliding when it comes to the value of livestock production and consumption.

In this case, both points are understandable - for their own worlds. The rich world may need to cut back on livestock consumption and production, but the poor world cannot afford to do so.

'Factory farming'

According to a recent report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock production, dominated in the West by large-scale factory farming, is responsible for 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions; a bigger share than all of the world's transport.

But as the world moves to address climate change and reduce emissions, we must make sure that the push to reduce the environmental impact of livestock production in rich countries does not hurt the availability of milk, meat, eggs, and other products in developing countries.

While people in rich nations are harming their health by eating too much fatty red meat and cheese, many people in the cities and rural areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, particularly children and women in their child-bearing years, are malnourished because they are not consuming enough eggs, meat, and milk.

Research shows that very modest amounts of animal-sourced foods in the diets of the poor can have tremendous health benefits.

Milk and meat enhance the growth and cognitive development of children subsisting largely on starchy diets.

Livestock producers in rich countries practice factory farming, which can treat animals inhumanely and depends on vast amounts of resources, particularly in the forms of water, cereals, and energy.

However, most livestock producers in poor countries operate small family farms with just a few animals that, while producing methane gas, roam free and eat grass and other wastes rather than grain.

Meeting needs

Concern for the environment is legitimate, but it should not override concern for the livelihoods of 1.2 billion poor people.

Science can serve as an honest broker in the complex and often controversial debate over livestock and environmental issues.

Our role may be inconvenient to some, but empirical evidence is needed in this discussion.

The global agricultural research community is working to develop a more comprehensive, integrated agenda that should provide crucial, objective evidence on the trade-offs between food security, livelihoods and the environment.

Our research tells us that we can often protect the livestock livelihoods of poor people while also conserving environmental resources.

Among the ideas being discussed in rich countries to reduce consumption of livestock foods are a "methane tax" on large feeding operations.

It is based on emission measurements and encouraging a "locavore" movement, creating demand for local livestock products not produced by large-scale, factory farm operations.

Such ideas are worth considering, but they will need research analyses and political debate, and eventual buy-in, to take hold.

Livestock production remains an essential pathway out of poverty in many poor countries, where increasing consumption of animal products also helps reduce malnutrition among the poorest communities.

When allocating resources for agricultural development, which is a long-neglected sector, policymakers and aid agencies need to use different strategies for different regions and populations.

Now we need both worlds to understand one another.

The view from the North and the South - from the feedlots of Chicago and the semi-desert scrublands of Somalia and Ethiopia, from those who eat too much protein and those who eat too little - is very different.

When advocating policies that affect the developing world, we must respect all ways of life, including those born of necessities now remote in the developed world.

If you are asking people in New York, London or Tokyo to reduce their meat consumption for the good of their health and the environment, that is reasonable.

But asking a family on the edge of the Sahara Desert or the outskirts of the packed slums of Mumbai to give up protein from animal foods, particularly milk, is a quite different request.

As a proverb in the Horn of Africa goes: if the herds die, then the people will die too.

Dr Carlos Sere is executive director of the International Livestock Research Institute

The Green Room is a series of opinion articles on environmental topics running weekly on the BBC News website

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UN plans guide to fighting climate-change disasters

Alister Doyle, Reuters 24 Mar 09;

OSLO, March 24 (Reuters) - A proposed U.N. study of climate extremes will be a practical guide for tackling natural disasters and fill a gap in past reports focused on the gradual effects of global warming, experts said.

Floods, mudslides, droughts, heatwaves or storms are often the main causes of destruction and human suffering tied to climate change, rather than the creeping rise in average temperatures blamed on a build-up of greenhouse gases.

"We are saying a lot about changes in mean temperatures but the impacts on real people, real companies, are taking place at the extremes," said Chris Field, a co-chair of a group in the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Better knowledge of extreme climate events could help governments, companies or humanitarian organisations to cope with natural disasters, he told Reuters on Tuesday during a March 23-26 IPCC meeting in Oslo.

"Most importantly (a special study) will be a guide for how we can get going with practical measures in countries vulnerable to climate change," said Ellen Hambro, head of the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority which is hosting the talks.

About 100 scientists are meeting in Oslo to map out a possible special U.N. report about climate extremes by Field's group, under a proposal by Norway and the U.N.'s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

Rising sea levels, for instance, are a threat to coasts, especially low-lying tropical islands. But most erosion happens during extreme storms, said Field, who is director of the U.S. Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology.

And plant ranges are gradually shifting because of climate change. But crop failures that can lead to hunger often happen because of a single extremely hot day when flowers are maturing.

A special report would take about two years to write, if approved by an wider IPCC meeting in Turkey next month. Field said there was enthusiasm among experts for the idea. "It's something ripe for progress now," he said.

Among benefits, Field said that better knowledge of extremes could help develop better coastal defences to withstand storms and rising seas. It might also help relief agencies plan ways to manage heatwaves, droughts or floods.

-- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Study of 1918 El Nino challenges warming intensity link

David Fogarty, Reuters 24 Mar 09;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Research showing an El Nino event in 1918 was far stronger than previously thought is challenging the notion climate change is making El Nino episodes more intense, a U.S. scientist said on Tuesday.

El Nino causes global climate chaos such as droughts and floods. The events of 1982/83 and 1997/98 were the strongest of the 20th Century, causing loss of life and economic havoc through lost crops and damage to infrastructure.

But Ben Giese of Texas A&M University said complex computer modeling showed the 1918 El Nino event was almost as strong and occurred before there was much global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels or widespread deforestation.

The outcome of the research was valuable for several reasons, Giese told Reuters from Perth in Western Australia.

"It questions the notion that El Ninos have been getting stronger because of global warming," he said ahead of a presentation of his team's research at a major climate change conference in Perth.

The 1918 event also coincided with one of India's worst droughts of the 20th century.

"We know that El Ninos and drought in India are often related to each other," he said.

El Nino is an abnormal warming of the surface waters in the eastern Pacific off South America that causes the normally rainy weather in the western Pacific to shift further to the east.

This causes drought in parts of Australia, Southeast Asia and India as well as flooding in Chile and Peru, colder and wetter winters in the southern United States and fewer Atlantic hurricanes.

The droughts in Australia of 1982-83 and 1997-98 rank among the worst in the nation's modern history. Drought also occurred in eastern Australia from 1918-20.

Giese said his team ran a complex ocean computer model that, for the first time, used the results of a separate atmospheric model produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The result was a simulation of ocean temperatures, currents and other measures from 1908 to 1958.

For 1918, the simulation produced a strong abnormal surface warming in the central Pacific and weaker warming nearer the South American coast.

There were very few measurements of the tropical Pacific during 1918, the last year of World War One, and ship-based measurements along the South American coast suggested only a weak El Nino.

This, Giese said, reinforced the point that there is limited data about El Ninos prior to the 1950s and that computer models were one way to get a clearer picture of the past.

"We cannot rely on what El Nino looks like today to try to understand what El Nino patterns looked like in the past."

"It makes it a challenge to talk about El Nino and global warming because we simply don't have a detailed record," he added.

(Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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Financial Crisis Can Lead To Modest Lifestyles

PlanetArk 25 Mar 09;

LONDON - The financial crisis is a timely warning of much greater risks the planet faces from excessive focus on profit and growth, veteran British environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt said on Saturday.

Environmentalists have linked the present recession with wider threats such as climate change, blaming credit-fueled economic growth for the reckless consumption of natural resources including fossil fuels.

Governments, companies and regulators must reduce the rewards for growth and profits to avoid a far worse crisis and the collapse of the life support systems such as fisheries, soil and rain on which the world depends, Porritt told Reuters.

"It was a harsh and unsustainable form of capitalism for the last 25 years," said the chairman of the independent British government watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission.

"It's appropriate people are talking about more modest lifestyles."

For example, bank lending at high repayment rates had driven demand for more credit, creating a cycle of consumption which had also run down natural resources, he said, and policymakers could curb the role of banks to avoid a repeat.

"Banks have forfeited the right to operate on their terms. We've just got used to this idea it's banks' right to create credit and charge interest on it. Governments can create credit ... on much less onerous terms."

Policymakers worldwide have responded to the recession with about $2 trillion of stimulus spending, and about one tenth of that they will direct into green causes such as clean energy technologies, efficiency, public transport and conserving water.

Such green spending may not only fight climate change and cut dependence on imported fossil fuels, but also create jobs in a growing sector of the world economy.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he wants a meeting in London on April 2 of the G20 leading developed and emerging economies to coordinate spending into a global "green new deal."

Some analysts, U.N. agencies and environmental groups say green spending should be a much bigger part of the total stimulus, to improve infrastructure including homes, transport and electric grids and cut carbon emissions.

"We've degraded our natural capital, we have to build this back like we're re-capitalizing the balance sheets of banks. The way to do this is to put huge amounts of money into energy efficiency, low-carbon technologies, renewables," said Porritt.

A report Porritt has written for the charity Forum for the Future, of which he is a co-founder, called "Living within our means: avoiding the ultimate recession," is published on Saturday.

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Gore to publish new global warming book in November

Reuters 24 Mar 09;

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore will publish a follow-up to his global warming awareness bestseller "An Inconvenient Truth" on November 3.

The book will be called "Our Choice" and will describe solutions to global warming, the environmental crusader and U.S. publisher Rodale Inc. said in a statement on Tuesday.

"'An Inconvenient Truth' reached millions of people with the message that the climate crisis is threatening the future of human civilization and that it must and can be solved," Gore said.

"Now that the need for urgent action is even clearer with the alarming new findings of the last three years, it is time for a comprehensive global plan that actually solves the climate crisis. 'Our Choice' will answer that call," he said.

Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his work to raise awareness about climate change and the same year also won an Academy Award for a documentary based on his slide show lecture and book "An Inconvenient Truth."

He said he will donate all proceeds from "Our Choice" to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Gore to pen new book on climate change
Yahoo News 25 Mar 09;

NEW YORK (AFP) – Former vice president and Nobel laureate Al Gore Wednesday announced the November release of "Our Choice," his new book on climate change that proposes solutions to global warming and our present climate crisis.

The follow-up to Gore's first book in 2006 on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth," will be published on recycled paper by Rodale Books.

"An Inconvenient Truth reached millions of people with the message that the climate crisis is threatening the future of human civilization and that it must and can be solved," Gore said in a statement.

"Now that the need for urgent action is even clearer with the alarming new findings of the last three years, it is time for a comprehensive global plan that actually solves the climate crisis. 'Our Choice' will answer that call," he added.

Gore's first book led to a documentary, equally titled "An Inconvenient Truth," that won him an Oscar in 2007 and the Nobel Peace Prize that same year he shared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

"Our Choice" will go on sale November 3.

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France To Compensate Victims Of Nuclear Testing

Sophie Hardach and Estelle Shirbon, PlanetArk 25 Mar 09;

PARIS - France will compensate victims of past nuclear tests in the south Pacific and the Sahara, and for the first time has formally recognized a link between the explosions and illnesses suffered by soldiers and civilians.

Defense Minister Herve Morin told reporters on Tuesday France had conducted the tests as safely as possible, and had needed them to build up a credible nuclear deterrent and emerge as a global nuclear power.

"Thirteen years after the end of tests in the Pacific ... it's time for our country to be at peace with itself, thanks to a system of compensation and mending the damage that was suffered," he told a news conference.

Some veterans who worked on the tests in Algeria and French Polynesian atolls in the Pacific have reported they were ordered to lie down and cover their eyes during the explosions, while wearing nothing more than shorts and T-shirts.

Several said they were told to drive or sail into the damaged area immediately after the blast to examine the impact.

France had long refused to recognize officially a link between the tests, which ended in 1996, and diseases afflicting some of the 150,000 army and civilian staff who were at the sites.

"The burden of proof will be reversed: victims will no longer have to prove that their illness is due to the nuclear tests, but it will be up the state to contest that," Morin said, listing the principles of the proposed compensation scheme.

He also said compensation would no longer depend on whether victims were military staff, civilian staff or residents, and would apply to all nationalities.

INDEPENDENT COMMISSION

France ran a total of 210 nuclear tests, in Algeria between 1960 and 1966, then in French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996.

Veteran Michel Verger worked on the first two tests in Algeria -- the first saw the detonation of an atomic bomb stronger than the one dropped on Hiroshima.

"We are satisfied, especially about the recognition of what caused these illnesses, which was never written down this way before," Verger, now head of the association of victims of the tests, AVEN, told reporters outside the defense ministry.

An initial 10 million euros ($13.5 million) has been earmarked for the program.

An independent commission of doctors will examine existing and future claims, including those concerning "moral or aesthetic" damage, Morin told the news conference.

The doctors will be able to access all files on the tests and their impact.

Staff and residents of areas close to the testing zones have long complained of health problems including leukemia and other forms of cancer, and activists denounced the testing program for decades. There have been numerous court cases.

In the latest one, in February, 12 former soldiers suffering from grave diseases took their claims for compensation to an appeals court in Paris to try to force the government to recognize a link with the tests. The case continues.

Hostility to the tests reached its climax after French secret agents sank the environmental group Greenpeace's ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1985.

The French wanted to prevent the ship from disrupting nuclear tests, but the attack was made public and became an international scandal and a public relations disaster for Paris.

Morin brushed off questions about the history of the tests.

"It was a page. We have turned it. Now we are writing a new one," he said.

(Reporting by Sophie Hardach and Estelle Shirbon)

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Best of our wild blogs: 24 Mar 09

A myth busted... and a new believer is born
on the Water Quality in Singapore blog

Civet cats on Tanglin Halt tree? Look again
on the Lazy Lizard's Tales blog

Nectar harvesting and pollination by spiderhunters
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

1-3 May: Formal Seagrass-Watch training and certification
on the teamseagrass blog

Mass balloon release kills
from wild shores of singapore blog

Mountain bike rental
on ubin.sgkopi

2008 Waste Statistics and Current Waste Situation in Singapore (Part Three) on the Zero Waste Singapore blog

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Solomon dolphin forum a farce: annual export quota set at 100 dolphins

Solomon Star 24 Mar 09;

I WOULD like to comment extensively regarding the so-called Dolphin Forum and its failed attempt to appear transparent on this issue on the part of the government.

It is very obvious that this forum was to be biased from the beginning and a farce.

First, I was invited after the Minister of Environment knew I had left the Solomon Islands.

I had provided a large number of important documents on Monday, March 9 to the minisiter’s office for review.

In these documents were opposition letters from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) stating that the capture and exports of tursiops from Solomons was not based on sound science despite the claim from Dr Defran.

Maybe Dr. Defran is a Phd from San Diego State Univ. but that does not give him the sole credential to state it is fine and dandy to capture and export 100 dolphins per year.

The National Marine Fisheries Service and the Marine Mammal Commission of the US would certainly oppose this abuse.

In fact there have been no captures of dolphins in US waters since 1989. It is also interesting that Dr Defran is funded by Kerzner International.

This is the same company that bought the 28 dolphins for Kerzner's dolphin amusement park in Dubai.

So where is the peer review and fair and non- biased science for the dolphin capture and exports?

It does not exist. How many environmental NGOs and marine scientists can be quoted as supporting this absurd notion that dolphins can be captured and exported as if they were reef fish?

Did the forum discuss that Mexico, the first customer of Solomon dolphins has since banned the import of marine mammals?

Was it discussed that 16 of those 28 sent to Mexico are dead? How about the fact that 5 are already reported dead in Dubai?

And the fact that the last 18 shipped to Philippines are not staying in that country, but moving to Singapore for a resort that any normal Solomon Islander or US citizen for that matter could not afford?

It has also been confirmed that Thailand will NOT allow imports of dolphins, from Solomon Islands or any other country.

If Safari World is indeed working with Francis Chow, then this park will not be allowed the import of dolphins per confirmation I have received from the Government of Thailand.

The fact that the numbers of the dolphin dealers were present at the forum and given unlimited time to speak while Lawrence Makili of Earth Island Institute was given a very limited time to speak shows the government's true colours on this issue as biased and driven by the potential profits only by capturing and exporting the dolphins of the Solomon Islanders, not the select few who claim them for their own greedy profits.

The attacks on Mr Makili and myself (even though I am not present) by the dolphin dealers sends the message that we are threatening their money making scheme.

We will continue to do so.

The dolphin trade is nothing but a 20th century wildlife destruction practice that is doomed to fail as more people are aware worldwide of how dolphins are being abused in this industry.

Japan is the only other country which allows this atrocity toward dolphins, and is soon to be exposed in a large scale feature film this summer.

Once the darkness is lifted from the secrets of these people who destroy dolphins for profit, their markets will dry up.

If the two dolphin exporting companies in the Solomon Islands are transparent, then why is it that Lawrence Makili and I are threatened if we attempt to view the dolphins held?

What are these two dolphin dealing companies trying to hide?? This insidious business is one that is like any wildlife trade, done in secret with threats to anyone who opposes it.

On another note, the party that claims that Earth Island has no clout in the world tuna industry, think again.
Earth Island works with 95 percent of the world canned tuna market to certify it is dolphin safe.

We have done this third party certification for 20 years.

The relationship is driven by consumers in the US, Canada, EU, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand and other markets.

Dolphin safe is the law in US and this is under Earth Island guidelines.

I can assure your readers that the new proposed cannery in Malaita will have no markets without Dolphin Safe tuna accreditation.

In fact, the tuna technical consultant Don Hosokawa who is working with Getax regarding this proposed cannery has stated the dolphin issue must be dealt with first.

A twenty million US dollar investment in a tuna plant needs customers.

We are willing to work with this cannery, but the government of Solomons and Malaita must first figure the long term benefit here, dolphin safe tuna, or a few dolphin exports that will certainly end as more people learn the true nature of the disgusting capture and brutal trade in live dolphins.

Our job is to educate people to boycott parks with dolphins and show them the brutality of capturing them, sticking them in small pens , feeding them dead fish, and then if they survive ship them on a plane to some unknown habitat that is not their own.

These dolphin parks are now fading in the US and EU as more of them close or consolidate.

The so called premier park Sea World in the US which is just a fancy dolphin prison is now for sale due to the lack of tourism and the lack of people who want to pay $65.00 US per person to see dolphins jump through hoops.

The NGO community is not going away on this issue. As long as the dolphin abuse continues by the greed of a few, our campaign of exposing the truth continues until this trade ends once and for all.


By MARK BERMAN
Associate Director
Earth Island Institute
San Francisco, USA

Environmentalist flips over dolphin forum
Solomon Star 23 Mar 09;

SOLOMON Islands' outspoken environmentalist, Lawrence Makili, has labelled a forum on the dolphin trade in the Honiara a farce.

Stakeholders in the controversial industry gathered in a Honiara hotel where the Government had organised a meeting to debate last Thursday the export of live bottlenose dolphins.

However, the meeting seems to have generated more problems than solutions, the Australia Network News reported.

Trading on tradition

Traditionally, hundreds of dolphins are killed every year in Solomon Islands for food.

Their teeth are also used for traditional money and ornaments.

But since 2003 live dolphins have also been exported - a practice that has since generated international protests.

The Minister for Environment and Conservation, Gordon Darcy Lilo, invited all the stakeholders to a forum in Honiara to discuss the issue.

"We believe that this opportunity should provide an avenue for all of us to air our views and establish an understanding as how to we would move forward," he said.

But the Regional Director of the US based Earth Island Institute, Lawrence Makili, said the forum was called by the Minister just to re-enforce the government's annual export quota of 100 dolphins.

Raw deal

"In fact it was a farce, I thought, made by the Minister for Environment and Conservation.

"In fact at the end of the conference I just realised I was called in just because the Minister would like to announce the stance of the current government about the quota of dolphin exports.

"So it was not really a consultation effort to get views from all the stakeholders.

"It was only designed in a way that dolphin traders came in an were happy with the Minister's announcement," he said.

The debate was lively and accusations flew across the table.

One of the dolphin traders, Cathy Chow, found herself defending accusations her dolphins are starving.

"We don't starve our dolphins," she said

"Our dolphins are so fat that the boys told me that they can't get their arms around them."

Clash over dolphin export
Solomon Star 20 Mar 09;

PRO and anti-dolphin exporters clashed in a public forum the Government organised on the issue yesterday.

Earth Island Institute local representative Lawrence Makili led those who were against the export of the animals.

Animal vet Dr Baddeley Anita and others face Mr Makili in a heated debate that turned to personal attacks at times.

They argued dolphin export brings much needed revenue into the country, especially at this time of economic recession.

But in the end both sides agreed that a research into the wild dolphin population needs to be conducted urgently.
This is to determine the number of animals in the wild so that it could be sustainably managed.

The export of dolphin is a highly sensitive issue. This started in 2003 and up until now, less 90 dolphins were exported.

Solomon Marine Export and Solomon Marine and Wildlife Part, owned by Canadian Chris Porter, were the companies exporting the animals.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Conservation, who chaired the forum yesterday, said the Government wants to see a scientific study conducted into the dolphin population.

He said Cabinet had agreed to have 100 dolphins exported from the country a year.

Mr Sore said the Government will also review the management of the dolphins.

By TRIXIE CARTER

Annual Export Quota for Dolphins Capped at 100
Joy Basi, Solomon Times 20 Mar 09

"The export of bottlenose dolphin is our life, it is our only way of making money...and it is our culture to hunt dolphins," said Robert Satu of the Solomon Marine Export Limited.

Despite continuous warnings of possible backlash by the international community, the government has decided that dolphin export would continue, but limited to 100 dolphins per annum.

The decision by cabinet was made known during a public forum yesterday, organised to get the views of all major stakeholders involved in the exportation of dolphins.

The news did not go down well with the representative of Earth Island Institute, Lawrence Makili. "It is important for the government to have proper policy and regulations in place...or else it would be chaos," said Makili. "Government authorities should carry out studies required by the CITES, a convention we have signed up to...it is only through compliance will we get acceptance in the international community."

Meanwhile dolphin exporter Robert Satu from the Solomon Marine Export Limited lashed out at the comments made by Mr. Makili, describing them as insensitive to the needs of ordinary Solomon Islanders. "The export of bottlenose dolphin is our life, it is our only way of making money...and it is our culture to hunt dolphins."

Cathy Chow of Solomon Marine and Wildlife Park raised similar sentiments. "We should not ignore the fact that big money has been paid to the government in terms of duty taxes when we bring in dolphin food and a lot more money is earned when we export them out of the country."

Dr. Bradley Anita, a member of the Fisheries Advisory Council, said they are looking at expanding their Population Assessment Programme based on the preliminary work carried out by Dr. Richard Defran, of San Diego State University. "Many institutes are willing to assist and for exporters, particularly in a time of global economic recession, this may be the best time to carry out such a research."

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Celebrate marriage without balloons

Straits Times 24 Mar 09;

I HEARD an advertisement on the radio for the event Real Love Works 2009, at the Marina Barrage last Saturday.

While I applaud the organiser, Marriage Central, on its efforts to promote longevity of marriage in Singapore, I would like to ask if it is truly necessary to mass-release 'love balloons' as part of the event.

While hundreds of balloons flying off into the sky may be a pretty sight, people need to remember that the balloons do not just vanish or vaporise. Once they burst or deflate, they come back down to earth. While latex balloons are biodegradable in the long run, in the short run, they are nothing but litter and pollution.

As the Marina Barrage is at the water's edge, the balloons that end up in the sea are eaten by dolphins, turtles, sharks and other sea life. They can cause serious problems in these creatures' digestive systems, resulting in pain and sometimes death.

Ingestion of too much latex can cause the sea creatures to become too buoyant. As a result, they will not be able to dive into the sea to hunt for food, and they will starve. Ribbons and strings that are often tied to these balloons are not biodegradable and can cause entanglement and even strangulation.

Balloons that end up on land also result in litter problems. In fact, the mass release of balloons is so problematic, it is illegal in some states in the United States.

By all means, celebrate marriage and long-term commitment. But please do so in an ecologically considerate way, without causing harm to the natural environment.

Sheri Kristen Goh (Ms)

More links
More about how mass balloon release kills and efforts to ban releases on the wild shores of singapore blog.

One-stop marriage portal
Ang Yiying, Straits Times 19 Mar 09;

PLAY Scrabble using only loving words. Share a sausage from opposite ends. Give a bottle of tabasco with a note 'U R HOT!'

These are some of the '365 tips for love to work' available on marriagecentral.sg launched on Thursday.

The website by Marriage Central bills itself as a one-stop portal for marriage-related information and programmes.

The organisation, which was started by the National Family Council in 2008 and supported by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, is also partnering voluntary welfare organisations that offer pre-marital and marital counselling.

Its website targets web-savvy couples who are contemplating marriage, newly-weds and those who have been married for some time.

It is divided into three sections – When I fall in love, It takes two and Eternal Flame – to cater to couples in different stages of their relationships.

Said Marriage Central Executive Director Christopher Ang: “It reinforces the whole marriage eco-system. We take care of those planning marriage, those beginning marriage and those who have been married for a while."

Couples can find suggestions for romantic dates, get advice for relationship problems by emailing experts, read stories about real-life loving couples, sign up for marriage preparation or marriage enrichment courses, or pre-marital and marital counselling, among other things.

Ms Anita Fam, who chairs Marriage Central’s 11-member advisory board, said the organisation will be establishing physical points where marriage-related information will be offered. At least one spot will be ready by end of the year.

Marriage Central will also be holding a series of activities under its tagline, Real Love Works, from Saturday. Over 1,000 couples will set off thousands of heart-shaped balloons at the city reservoir, Marina Barrage on that day. A marriage convention will also be held on March 28 and 29 for the public.

For more information, go to www.marriagecentral.sg

1,000 couples reaffirm love and commitment at Marina Barrage event
Channel NewsAsia 22 Mar 09;

SINGAPORE : Some 1,000 couples did not let the heavy rain on Saturday evening stop them from reaffirming their love and commitment.

The heavens cleared just in time for the event held at the Marina Barrage.

Organisers of Real Love Works Marriage Central said it is a celebration which aims to highlight the importance of the understanding and effort that is required to make a marriage work.

As a symbol of their soaring love, a thousand balloons were released into the sky.

But that is not all. Proving that small doses of love can lead to something big, the participants also set a new Singapore record for the largest heart formation made with a collection of love notes. — CNA/ms

Read more!

Wild hornbill seeks Mr Right

Grace Chua, Straits Times 24 Mar 09;

WANTED: A mate for Singapore's only wild rhinoceros hornbill living in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
The female already has possible suitors from among captive males, but they may belong to any of three sub-species of this endangered bird and not be an exact genetic match. Preserving the sub-species is vital as each is uniquely suited to its environment. Allowing them to cross-breed may produce less hardy hybrids.

Wildlife photographer and field researcher Marc Cremades said: 'We are trying to provide a boyfriend for the lady, and have them breed, and then provide some friends for the babies.'

The striking bird, with its orange-and-white beak and casque, was first sighted in Singapore four years ago.

Its search for love has been bumpy. Last year, researchers - who aim to reintroduce the rhinoceros hornbill sub-species here - decided the bird needed help.

Mr Cremades and his comrade for this mission, gynaecologist and amateur naturalist Ng Soon Chye, front the Singapore Hornbill Project, which has teamed up with the National Parks Board, Jurong BirdPark, National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and the Nature Society.

Last month, NUS and NTU researchers captured the bird from the nature reserve, and compared its DNA to that of rhinoceros hornbills from the birdpark and from an aviary in Bali. This DNA typing reveals the sub-species, which differ slightly in colour and plumage.

A single male rhinoceros hornbill, now stationed in an aviary at the nature reserve, will undergo DNA testing. If the test confirms he is Mr Right, he will be released into the wild, so the female hornbill will be lonely no longer.

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Sand and granite importers will need to get licences

Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 24 Mar 09;

PARLIAMENT yesterday passed the Building and Construction Authority (Amendment) Bill requiring all importers to obtain a licence before they can supply sand and granite to Singapore's construction industry.

The move comes two years after Singapore's 'sand crisis' of early 2007 when Indonesia abruptly banned all land sand exports to the city state - causing building activity to almost grind to a halt and sand prices to treble at one point.

During the second reading of the Bill yesterday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the scheme would ensure imported materials met high standards and help safeguard supplies.

'The sudden disruption of concreting sand and granite supplies in 2007 demonstrated the significant impact that such a disruption could have on our construction industry,' he said.

As Singapore imports most of its construction materials, it was important to ensure that the supply was 'resilient, thus minimising the possibility of any disruption to construction work', he said.

The Bill empowers BCA to license importers and allows it to revoke licences under certain circumstances.

Initially, the scheme will apply to the imports of concreting sand and granite for building, street or railway work in Singapore. Existing importers will be given six months to apply for a licence, which will be valid for up to 24 months and be renewable.

The Bill will also allow BCA to enforce existing test requirements so materials meet required standards.

Importers have to submit a 'business continuity plan' that puts in place measures to mitigate any supply disruption.

Mindful of the current economic conditions, importers will have a lead-time of at least 18 months to comply with this requirement. Licence and import permit fees will be waived for the first year of implementation.

Without a permit, licensees are prohibited from importing construction materials and those that do will be liable to a fine of up to $500,000, a two-year jail sentence, or both.

The severe penalties are there to act as a strong deterrent, said Mr Mah, given that unlicensed businesses importing poor quality materials could endanger public safety.

Mr Simon Lee, executive director of the Singapore Contractors Association, told The Straits Times that the new Bill was a 'good thing for the bigger picture'.

'This is an effort to diversify our supply sources, as we were heavily reliant on one source before,' he added.

Although the National Development Minister insisted there would be no additional cost burden for industry - since the requirements were 'already imposed administratively' - Mr Lee felt increased regulation was going to make doing business slightly more expensive.

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Going green makes sound sense: Euston Quah

Euston Quah and co-author: Qiyan Ong, Straits Times 24 Mar 09;

THERE is a common misperception that the current global financial crisis will mean that concern for the environment will come to a standstill.

The reasoning is as follows: During a recession, creating jobs and jump-starting economic growth are paramount. Thus governments around the world are busy crafting stimulus packages, the main motivation being the creation and preservation of jobs. With most resources channelled towards economic revival, many fear that nothing will be left for the environment. This presumption, however, is flawed.

A financial crisis is often accompanied by a drastic fall in global demand. This translates to lower production and consequently less pollution, less carbon emissions and lower rates of resource depletion. Environmental awareness is never stronger than in times like these and the market for renewable energies has already taken off.

Last month, United States President Barack Obama announced that Washington will invest more than US$20 billion (S$30 billion) in green technology. His intention was to achieve the dual task of creating jobs and fighting climate change. This shows that the global environmental agenda has not been forgotten - and more importantly, that protecting the environment and the pursuit of economic growth do not always have to be a zero- sum game.

The dual focus on reviving economic growth and sustaining the environment is also evident in Singapore's 2009 Budget. Being a small open economy that relies heavily on international trade, Singapore has little chance of averting a sharp downturn regardless of the amount of money it pumps into its economy.

The Singapore Government has thus adopted the pragmatic approach of cushioning the impact of the financial crisis while continuing or bringing forward its plans for non-economic concerns such as the environment. The Government plans to spend $1 billion over the next five years on sustainable development initiatives. These include promoting energy efficiency in industries and households and investing in green transport, clean energy and the greening of our living spaces.

Investing in the environment is an economically sound decision during a financial crisis. Lower global demand means that transactions will be slow in most industries. This, in turn, will affect the cost of raw materials which now may be lower. With lower opportunity cost, industries will have more incentive to incorporate energy efficiency considerations into the design of their industrial facilities as well as adopt energy efficient technologies if there is some financial support and/or subsidy from the government.

From the business perspective, undertaking such investments will lead to improvement in production efficiency and consequently lower business cost in the long run. This prepares the firm for the good times ahead by keeping it competitive in the global business arena.

From the country's perspective, encouraging energy efficiency will enhance business competitiveness and also energy security, besides reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These goals can be achieved together with the goal of job creation.

Singapore has set aside $10 million for the MND Research Fund to support research and development in green building technologies and energy efficiency. It is also actively trying to attract renewable energy firms to set up their plants in the country. Such efforts will further enhance Singapore's energy security, protect the environment - and create jobs.

The Singapore Government has also allocated $24 million to transforming a network of drains, canals and reservoirs into beautiful and clean streams, rivers and lakes, surrounded by parks and green space. A further $695 million has been allocated to transform Singapore into a 'City in a Garden' - by constructing Gardens by the Bay, building a park connector network and promoting skyrise greenery. These projects will not only provide leisure space but also beautify the city state and reduce urban heat. People will have more time to spend on leisurely pursuits, visiting parks and enjoying recreation . Some may even become healthier - and thus, more productive when economic growth resumes. More will become environmentally aware. All this will benefit the green economy in the long run.

Although the current financial crisis is vicious in causing unemployment, it provides opportunities nationally for transformation towards sustainable development. At the individual level, busy city dwellers may finally find time to appreciate and preserve the gifts of nature.

And far from hurting the environment, the consequences of the financial crisis for the environment will probably be positive.

Euston Quah is professor of environmental economics and head of economics at Nanyang Technological University. Qiyan Ong is pursuing her PhD degree at the same university.

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