Permafrost melting a growing climate threat

Reuters 30 Jun 09;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The amount of carbon locked away in frozen soils in the far Northern Hemisphere is double previous estimates and rapid melting could accelerate global warming, a study released on Wednesday says.

Large areas of northern Russia, Canada, Nordic countries and the U.S. state of Alaska have deep layers of frozen soil near the surface called permafrost.

Global warming has already triggered rapid melting of the permafrost in some areas, releasing powerful greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.

As the world gets warmer, more of these gases are predicted to be released and could trigger a tipping point in which huge amounts of the gases flood the atmosphere, rapidly driving up temperatures, scientists say.

"Massive amounts of carbon stored in frozen soils at high latitudes are increasingly vulnerable to exposure to the atmosphere," said Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project at Australia's state-funded Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

"The research shows that the amount of carbon stored in soils surrounding the North Pole has been hugely underestimated."

The study is published in the latest issue of Global Biogeochemical Cycle.

Canadell said a four-year study of the latest research on permafrost, data from new drilling projects as well as the release of previously unpublished data from the Russian Academy of Sciences had led to a rethink of carbon levels.

"Projections show that almost all near-surface permafrost will disappear by the end of this century exposing large carbon stores to decomposition and release of greenhouse gases," he said in a statement.

He said if only 10 per cent of the permafrost melted, this could lead to the release of an additional 80 parts per million of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere. This would equate to about 0.7 degrees Celsius of global warming.

According to the U.N. Climate Panel, average temperatures have already risen by about 0.7 deg C since the late nineteenth century and are forecast to rise another 1.8 to 4 deg C by 2100, Scientists say a rapidly warming planet will trigger more intense storms and droughts, rising seas and melting ice caps.

Canadell said that on a recent trip to northern China, the permafrost at its southern limit had all but disappeared over the past 20 years.

Locals had told him the permafrost was once 20 cm below the surface and now it was several meters down, he told Reuters from Canberra, Australia.

In the statement, he said computer models showed global warming could trigger an irreversible process of thawing.

For example, heat generated from increased microbial activity in the soil could lead to sustained and long-term emissions of carbon dioxide and methane.

In addition, lakes formed as permafrost thaws would draw heat to deeper layers and bring methane trapped in pockets below to the surface.

(Reporting by David Fogarty; Editing by Jerry Norton)

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Green power saved Earth from iceball fate

Yahoo News 1 Jul 09;

PARIS (AFP) – Vegetation helped save Earth from runaway cooling that would have encased the planet in ice, according to a study published on Wednesday.

The paper sheds light on the big natural mechanisms that over hundreds of millions of years have swung the globe like a pendulum between deep chill and intense heat.

Around 50 million years ago, the planet's poles were ice-free and crocodiles roamed the Arctic. But that was followed by a long period of cooling, in which levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal "greenhouse" gas that traps solar heat, progressively declined.

Belching volcanoes provided the main source of this CO2 -- in contrast to today, when the gas comes overwhelmingly from burning fossil fuels and is driving dangerous climate change.

But there was also a force which removed CO2: a chemical reaction that occurs when silica rocks are weathered.

Over the aeons, the gas is dissolved into groundwater, which flows to the sea and eventually the carbon is sequestered on the ocean floor.

Climate scientists have long puzzled about what happened at a key point in this weathering process.

Around 25 million years ago, Earth was wrenched by a period of mountain building that threw up the Himalayas and the Andes.

This created conditions that, in theory, should have sucked nearly all the CO2 out of the atmosphere and plunged the planet into a deep freeze.

Yet it clearly did not happen, and the question is why.

The answer, according to US geophysicists, lies in the buffering power of plants.

Vegetation, especially trees, suck in atmospheric CO2 in the process of photosynthesis and also play a key role in the weathering of rocks.

Their roots secrete acids that dissolve minerals, they hold soils and they increase the amount of CO2 dissolved in groundwater.

As the CO2 levels plummeted, plants were starved of their essential gas for life, according to the team's hypothesis.

This slowed the weathering process down, and led to less burial of the carbon. As a result, there remained enough CO2 in the air to avoid the "Iceball Earth" scenario.

"As the CO2 concentration of Earth's atmosphere decreased to about 200 to 250 parts per million (ppm), CO2 levels stabilised," lead author Mark Pagani, an associate professor of geology and geophysics at Yale University, said in a press release.

The study, published in the British journal Nature, is based on simulations of the global carbon cycle and observations from plant growth experiments.

If plants saved Earth from endless chill, they are unlikely to do the same when it comes to man-made warming, say the authors.

CO2 levels in the atmosphere today are around 385ppm, compared with 280ppm before the Industrial Revolution.

"We are releasing CO2 to the atmosphere about 100 times faster than all the volcanoes in the world put together," said Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

"While these weathering processes will eventually remove the CO2 we are adding to the atmosphere, they act too slowly to help us avoid dangerous climate change.

"It will take hundreds of thousands of years for these rock-weathering processes to remove our fossil-fuel emissions from the atmosphere."

Plant life saved Earth from an icy fate
Anil Ananthaswamy, New Scientist 2 Jul 09;

Besides the obvious benefits they bring, it looks like we owe our very existence to plants, which helped prevent the Earth from freezing over during the past 25 million years.

About 50 million years ago, Earth was a hothouse –: the poles were ice free, and crocodiles lived in the Arctic. Then, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere started dropping from about 1000 to 1500 parts per million (ppm), and the Earth began to cool.

By about 24 million years ago, the uplift of the Himalayan and Andes mountain ranges led to large-scale weathering of rocks, a process that removes massive amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. This reduced the greenhouse effect and cooled the planet.

But something kept the CO2 levels from dropping beyond a certain point, preventing Earth from turning into an icehouse. Now, Mark Pagani of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues have identified our saviours: the plants.

Trees play an important role in the sequestration of atmospheric CO2 in magnesium and calcium carbonate rocks. As mountains grow, rocks break down and become transported to the foothills, where trees hold them in place in the soil and break them down into minerals. These then combine with CO2 to form, for example, limestone.
Negative feedback

The team used computer models to simulate the sensitivity of vegetation to atmospheric CO2 and climate, and found that as the CO2 concentration dropped to about 200 parts per million, the plants started starving and suffocating. This caused a negative feedback, preventing weathered rocks from turning into carbonates, thus putting a natural brake on the sequestration process and letting CO2 levels rise again.

"The carbon dioxide level came down and banged up against this lower limit, and has more or less been banging up against this lower limit for the last 20 odd million years," says team member Ken Caldeira, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford, California. "Plants [played] a critical role in preventing the Earth from going into a deep freeze."

Mathew Huber, a climate scientist at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, says that the work provides a "nice explanation of a negative feedback in the climate system".

Journal reference: Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature08133

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Best of our wild blogs: 1 Jul 09

Heritage Fest 2009: Pasir Panjang Heritage Walk
Registration now open from Toddycats!

Birding Ethics: For photographers, by photographers
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Do birds fart?
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Birds - Do they save?
from Manta Blog

Hantu Dive Blog Log, 27 June 2009 (Part 1)
from Pulau Hantu

Our first seagrass monitoring session!
from Labrador park

Nest of the Zitting Cisticola
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Sand mining off the East Coast for dumping off Labrador
from wild shores of singapore

Checking out Chek Jawa
from Water Quality in Singapore

St. John's Intertidal Walk
from Urban Forest

Pedal Ubin 13th June – durian dominates!
from Toddycats!

Envirofest – debrief, blog posts and photos
from Toddycats!

It's monkey land at Admiralty Park
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Upgrading work at Ubin Jetty until 8 Jul 09
from wild shores of singapore

Winged Beauties @ Endau Rompin (Selai) Part 3
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

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Getting a charge from cooking oil: biodiesel in Singapore

Biodiesel producer sets out to raise public awareness of green alternative to diesel
Kate Lim, Straits Times 1 Jul 09;

BIODIESEL may sound like a technologically advanced fuel, but the green alternative to pump diesel can be produced from something as simple as cooking oil.

And since June 2007, Alpha Biofuels has been collecting used cooking oil from local businesses and refining it to produce biodiesel.

What comes out the other end of its facility at Tanjong Penjuru is way ahead of other fuels in terms of environmental credentials and significantly cuts black smoke, greenhouse gases and carcinogenic emissions from vehicles.

Alpha Biofuels' manufacturing plant currently produces 300 tonnes of the fuel per month, which it distributes to local businesses and consumers.

The firm claims it is the first Singaporean company to bring biodiesel to local consumers via a retail network.

Alpha Biofuels chief executive Allan Lim set up the company in 2004 with Mr Tan Hai Woon, its chief technology officer and his coursemate from Nanyang Technological University.

The pair, both 37, started and failed at four start-ups before striking gold with Alpha Biofuels.

'We believe that sustainable energy is the next thing to come,' said Mr Lim.

Mr Tan added: 'It may be a relatively novel venture in Singapore, but the idea is not new to the world. Firms in the United States, Europe and Australia have been collecting used cooking oil as part of community waste management programmes.'

After a two-year incubation at ITE College East, where they perfected the biotechnology, they managed to amass $1 million from their own bank accounts and from angel investors to pay for the manufacturing facilities at Tanjong Penjuru and a fleet of trucks.

While they were incubating their business at ITE College East, the partners were convinced Singaporeans would embrace their environmentally friendly business - but they were wrong.

'We had a hard time even convincing businesses to let us have their leftover oil,' Mr Tan said, telling of how they had to pay for used cooking oil.

As there is no official waste management programme here for cooking oil, it is common for third-party firms to purchase used oil and re-export it as raw material for use elsewhere.

In fact, public awareness of biodiesel was so limited that Mr Lim and Mr Tan initially had trouble marketing their product.

'Nobody knew about biodiesel, so we had to sell what was essentially 'Liquid X' - a golden liquid with additional benefits that will enhance the power of your vehicle,' quipped Mr Tan.

Despite this tough start-up period, the business has managed to attract a small but loyal following as its go-green message filters through. One of Alpha Biofuels' first walk-in customers, Mr Jack Ling, even joined the firm as its chief operations officer in April last year.

To promote the benefits of its biodiesel, the firm has embarked on a slew of public education campaigns and regularly gives talks and workshops on biodiesel for schools and businesses.

Some students have been so inspired by these initiatives that they intern at the firm during vacations, said Mr Ling.

The partners believe that they are winning hearts and minds, with most businesses buying in to the green message, provided the fuel does not cost too much. But their business continues to face challenges - most notably, the volatility of oil prices.

Explaining their strategy of deliberately pricing biodiesel cheaper than pump diesel - despite the high costs involved - Mr Lim said: 'Every tonne of waste recycled cuts our carbon footprint by 2.5 tonnes, but most Singaporeans do not appreciate this and will not pay a premium for it.'

This means that Alpha Biofuels has to sell biodiesel at prices that yield little profit when conventional fuel prices are low. Retailers like Shell and ExxonMobil can still profit by adjusting pump prices in line with rises and falls in the price of crude oil, but Alpha Biofuels is at a disadvantage because it has to match the price of conventional fuel when the cost of its raw material is relatively static.

Alpha Biofuels is currently selling its biodiesel at a promotional price of 85 cents a litre.

Mr Lim says the firm is now in 'rapid expansion' as a result of sharply increasing sales. It has six retail points islandwide and four more are expected to open by the end of this week.

He expects Alpha Biofuels to make between $1 million and $2 million in sales revenue this year, but admits the firm is not profitable yet. He expects to cross the break-even point by the end of the year.

The company's green message is slowly but surely winning converts, and Alpha Biofuels' founders think the more motorists see of it, the more likely they will be to use its fuel.

With this in mind, Alpha Biofuels is getting involved in this year's National Day Parade by supporting 'backroom logistics'. It will supply biodiesel to power a range of support services, for example, the Old Chang Kee mobile kitchen and cleaning equipment from Purechem Veolia.

Alpha Biofuels expects the use of its biodiesel to cut the volume of carbon emissions from the parade by up to the equivalent of four Olympic-size swimming pools.

The company is looking to supply fuel to more large-scale events in the future, and is currently in discussions with the organisers of the Youth Olympic Games set to be held here next year.

It is also designing and constructing a micro-refinery in the Marina financial district which is expected to produce about 1,000 litres of biodiesel daily to power the site.

'This is not a business that will flourish in a year or two,' said Mr Lim. 'Our vision is to become a bread-and-butter company eventually, by changing the perception of energy.'

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Government to take over development & ownership of LNG import terminal

Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia 30 Jun 09;

SINGAPORE: The Singapore government will take over the development of the country's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal on Jurong Island. It will take over ownership of the facility from current owners Power Gas and its partner GDF Suez.

The government said this is to prevent delays in the building of the terminal which is part of Singapore's strategy to diversify its energy sources.

It's now slated to be ready in 2013, a year later than originally planned.

Factories have seen orders fall amid the current economic downturn resulting in lower demand for electricity.

The International Energy Agency estimates that global electricity consumption could drop by up to 3.5 per cent in 2009, the first annual contraction since the end of Second World War.

The Singapore government said uncertainty over energy demand has made it less commercially viable for PowerGas and GDF Suez to proceed with the country's liquified natural gas terminal.

The global economic downturn has also made raising funds more difficult.

The cost to build the facility could also have gone up by 50 per cent to S$1.5 billion.

In 2007, PowerGas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Power, was designated as the LNG terminal owner and operator.

S Iswaran, Senior Minister of State, Trade & Industry and Education, said: "If we were to pursue this option of continuing on a commercial basis with Power Gas, there will inevitably be more delays as PowerGas tries to put together a proposition that works for all parties.

“Secondly, the costs are likely to be higher because of the financing element. From Singapore's point of view, it is of national interest to proceed with this project and that we do it in a timely way."

The Energy Market Authority (EMA) will set up a new firm, Singapore LNG Corporation, to develop the terminal.

EMA said it will hire up to 60 staff.

Lawrence Wong, chief executive, Energy Market Authority, said: "EMA will second some staff. I have about 20 people in the company. We will recruit more including a potentially new person to head the company. We haven't found that yet and we are opening up for recruitment. We need engineers and people with LNG expertise."

EMA said the land for the project on Jurong Island has been fully reclaimed.

It also said it will award the design and construction contract by year's end.

PowerGas will receive compensation for the work that has been done so far.

EMA added that these are mainly consultancy work that accounted for a small portion of the billion-dollar investment.

Going forward, EMA will study and put in place an appropriate financing model.

The government will also not rule out divesting its stake in the terminal should the opportunity arises.

Observers said the nationalisation of the LNG terminal is unlikely to affect the energy market but could raise concerns among utilities firms.

David Ernsberger, editorial director (Asia), Platts, said: "The power utilities are certainly going to be fearful that they are about to have something rammed down their throats in the form of a consumption requirement. How do you make people consume stuff that is twice as expensive as stuff that are already available?"

Analysts expect a long line of potential investors wanting to buy a stake in the terminal when it is economically viable, including local players and big names like Petronas and Shell.

Still, the future prospects look bright.

Mr Iswaran said the fundamentals of the Asia Pacific LNG market remain strong in the mid to long term, fuelled by the growth of emerging markets.

The Energy Information Administration forecasts that natural gas demand in non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) Asia will grow from 9.4 trillion cubic feet in 2006 to 24.5 trillion cubic feet by 2030.

This represents more than four times the average annual demand growth of OECD countries.

Mr Iswaran added that Singapore can also become a major player in the LNG trade in Asia.

It's estimated that there will be 120 million tonnes of "flexible" LNG supplies available for spot trading by 2015, making up 30 per cent of the total global supply base.

Mr Iswaran also told conference delegates that LNG supplier BG Asia Pacific has concluded discussions with EMA on an agreement which sets out the pricing details and other terms for the supply of LNG to Singapore. - CNA/vm

Government takes over Jurong Island LNG project
Developers find it 'challenging' amid slowing gas demand and costly financing
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 1 Jul 09;

(SINGAPORE) The government is taking over the development and ownership of Singapore's planned $1 billion-plus liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to ensure timely and sufficient supplies for power stations and industry, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran said yesterday.

This is because the appointed developers - Singapore Power subsidiary PowerGas (70 per cent) and GDF Suez (30 per cent) - have found it 'challenging' to develop the Jurong Island project on a commercial basis and on time, amid a slowdown in gas demand and 'more difficult and costly' financing over the past 12 months due to the credit crunch.

Mr Iswaran made the announcement at an international LNG conference yesterday, surprising many participants, given the developers have been working on the project since April 2008.

'The aim is to ensure the terminal is completed and operational by 2013, notwithstanding the present uncertainties in the market,' he said, adding that the government decided after a review that this is the best course of action.

It is in Singapore's interest to develop the terminal 'at the earliest opportunity' to meet anticipated growth in gas demand and be prepared for future opportunities, like regional LNG trading, when economies recover, Mr Iswaran added. Pushing on with the project on a commercial basis would 'inevitably mean further delays and likely higher costs because of the financing difficulties', he explained.

Even now, despite the government stepping in, the LNG terminal will start a year later than 2012 as originally scheduled.

Energy Market Authority (EMA) CEO Lawrence Wong said the delay could have stretched to two or three years if the existing developers were left to plough on.

With the takeover, EMA will spearhead the LNG terminal project by forming a new company, Singapore LNG Corporation, to own and oversee the development. PowerGas staff earlier involved in the project, plus EMA personnel, will be seconded to the new company, which also needs to recruit foreign expertise, Mr Wong said.

As to what form government financing for the terminal will take, Mr Iswaran said this will be worked out by the new company with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), the Finance Ministry and the EMA.

'Our immediate priority is to ensure a smooth transition from PowerGas to the new company,' he said.

With government ownership, there will also be a need for a different financing model for the terminal's operation, which the EMA will study and put in place.

Still, the government has left the door open to future private ownership, with Mr Iswaran saying that when the market improves 'it will leave open the option of divesting its stake in the terminal'.

Reclamation of the project's 30-hectare site on the south-western part of Jurong Island, plus the front-end engineering design, has been completed.

Mr Wong said that following a design tender involving three competing contractors, the EMA expects to award the main engineering, procurement and construction contract to the winner by end-2009, with the terminal now slated to start operating in 2013 after a three-year building process.

The EMA has just concluded an agreement with the LNG aggregator or sole buyer, BG Group, which sets out the pricing details and other terms and conditions for its LNG supplies to Singapore, Mr Wong revealed. The details are confidential, although the EMA apparently looked to secure competitively-priced LNG.

Dan Werner, general manager of BG's Singapore LNG team, said it intends to source most of the LNG from its Curtis project in Queensland, Australia, with two LNG plants there, each of 7.4 million tonnes capacity, starting up in 2014.

At present, Singapore imports about six million tonnes per annum (tpa) of piped natural gas from Indonesia and Malaysia. The LNG terminal is expected to bring in 0.8-1.2 million tpa in 2013, building up to 3.3 million tpa by 2018.

Govt steps in to build LNG plant
Essential part of energy plan, plant risked delay due to economic crisis
Jessica Cheam, Straits Times 1 Jul 09;

THE Government has taken over the development of Singapore's first LNG terminal as the global credit crunch threatens to delay plans for its completion.

Singapore Power's unit PowerGas and French partner GDF Suez were originally appointed to develop and operate the $1 billion terminal, designed to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) and add an emerging energy source to Singapore's power supply.

Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry S Iswaran said yesterday that the fallout from the global economic crisis had made it 'significantly more challenging' for PowerGas and GDF Suez to proceed on a commercial basis.

So the Government has decided to take over ownership and development of the LNG terminal, he said.

The consortium, with a 30 per cent stake by GDF, had been due to make its final investment decision this month for the project which will now be completed by 2013 instead of 2012.

'If we were to pursue this option of continuing on a commercial basis, there will inevitably be further delays as PowerGas tries to put together a proposition that works for all parties,' Mr Iswaran told reporters at an Asia-Pacific LNG conference at the Pan Pacific Hotel yesterday.

'It is in our national interest to proceed with this project at the earliest opportunity... because it is an essential part of our energy strategy to diversify our sources,' he said.

The Energy Market Authority (EMA) will now facilitate the takeover by setting up a new company - Singapore LNG Corporation - to take ownership of the terminal and oversee its development.

PowerGas staff familiar with the project will be seconded to this new firm to continue the work, said Mr Iswaran.

In 2007, Singapore first announced plans for an LNG terminal designed to reduce its reliance on piped natural gas from its neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia.

Since then, PowerGas has been designing the terminal, while EMA has appointed London-listed BG Group as the sole aggregator for LNG in Singapore.

LNG is natural gas cooled to liquid form and globally exported via tankers from source countries such as Australia.

Industry watchers noted that the high-profile rescue of the terminal signalled the Government's determination to diversify Singapore's energy landscape as quickly as possible.

Chief executive John Ng of genco PowerSeraya told The Straits Times that with the Government 'taking the lead in spite of the economic challenges, the industry can be assured of LNG security'.

He added: 'This spells good news for the energy sector, as the terminal will open up a diversified source of fuel... thereby leading to an improved fuel range and reach.'

Mr Lim Kong Puay, president and CEO of Tuas Power, said that the move was not surprising, 'given the current economic situation and tightness of credit'.

'Having this alternate source will enhance energy security and make the supply market more competitive,' he added.

The terminal - to be built on a 30-ha site on Jurong Island - will initially comprise two 150,000 cu m tanks with capacity of three million tonnes per annum and flexibility to double it.

EMA chief executive Lawrence Wong said yesterday that PowerGas had made good progress in completing the front-end engineering and design for the terminal and that the firm will be compensated for sunk costs.

EMA will award the design and construction contract by year end and work towards having the terminal ready for its start-up by 2013.

The impact of new LNG supply on electricity prices from 2013 is unknown for now and will depend on the market price of LNG at that time, said Mr Iswaran.

CIMB-GK economist Song Seng Wun said the takeover showed that the Government was not letting Singapore's long-term growth be interrupted by short-term financial problems.

'We have the financial resources so we can do this - rather than wait for the private sector, which may potentially mean that Singapore misses out when the recovery comes,' said Mr Song.

Mr Iswaran said yesterday that the Government will leave open the option of divesting its stake in the terminal at an opportune time.

Govt to build terminal
Today Online 1 Jul 09;

THE Singapore Government will take over the development of its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal from a Singapore Power consortium to avoid any more delays, and has pushed back its completion date by a year to 2013.

PowerGas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Power, was appointed in 2007 to jointly build and operate the terminal with French-utility Gaz de France - now known as GDF Suez.

The downturn has tightened liquidity and dampened the fuel's demand outlook, posing an additional threat to the project. Singapore initiated the project to boost supplies and diversify its natural gas sources.

"The LNG terminal is a critical part of Singapore's energy infrastructure to ensure diversification of our gas supply sources," Mr S Iswaran, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, said at the Next Generation LNG Asia-Pacific 2009.

The downturn has also "created considerable uncertainty in demand, going forward", he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

The proposed terminal may cost around US$1 billion ($1.45 billion) to US$1.5 billion, said Mr Iswaran. "It's difficult to give an exact number" as engineering, procurement and construction costs have fallen in the past 12 to 18 months, he added.

The Energy Market Authority (EMA) will set up a new company, Singapore LNG Corp, to build and own the terminal and it will study financing options, added Mr Iswaran. The Government may divest its stake in the terminal in future, he said.

The terminal will be built on a 30-hectare site on Jurong Island and will have an initial capacity of 3 million metric tonnes a year.

United Kingdom-based BG Group secured the franchise in April last year to be the exclusive supplier and distributor of LNG for the terminal.

EMA and BG have reached an agreement on the price and other conditions for supplying the LNG, said Mr Iswaran, declining to elaborate.

While BG is committed to selling 3 million tonnes a year, Singapore is open to securing supplies from other sellers when the terminal expands, he added. Dow Jones

Wise move for energy security
Business Times 2 Jul 09;

WHILE some may consider it a $1 billion bailout, the Singapore government's takeover of both ownership and development of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal here is clearly a calculated and critical move to ensure the country's long-term energy security. In short, it could not afford to let the crucial project get derailed by short-term problems.

Like many investors, the original developers (PowerGas and GDF Suez) unfortunately ran smack into the global economic storm. If left to their own devices, the project may have seen light only in 2-3 years. That's as long as the postponement which Germany's Lanxess announced for its $800 million-plus synthetic rubber investment on Jurong Island just a day earlier.

Clearly, the last 12 months have been tough. With the economic downturn, demand for power - and, correspondingly, natural gas - is down, while securing project financing is more difficult and costly. This has raised questions about the LNG terminal's commercial viability. Furthermore, there is no visibility right now of exactly when the economic recovery will come.

So, as one official noted, 'France's GDF Suez (with a 30 per cent terminal stake) was no mere, small fry', and given today's difficult circumstances, there was no point approaching other companies to try to take over the Singapore LNG project. On the other hand, deferring the LNG terminal would have created a bottleneck once the economic recovery came and gas demand from power stations and industries here picked up quickly; two new mega petrochemical complexes of Shell and ExxonMobil are already scheduled to start up here in 2010 and 2011.

Currently, 80 per cent of Singapore's electricity is generated from natural gas, which is a clean and efficient fuel, with 100 per cent of this piped in from Indonesia and Malaysia - although both countries will increasingly need more gas for their own growing domestic needs. Generation companies here like PowerSeraya reckon that even though electricity demand here will slow in the next 1-2 years, it will pick up again - and, with that, gas demand will rise too. The government's LNG move is therefore a no-brainer.

Apart from new governmental financial muscle, the designated new Singapore LNG Corporation overseeing the terminal will also benefit from an existing moratorium, or ban - meant to reduce investment risk for the terminal investor - on further piped natural gas imports here until LNG imports reach 3.3 million tonnes per annum or 2018, whichever comes earlier.

Singapore also sees opportunity in that the LNG terminal can potentially provide the oil trading hub here with the potential to tap into the regional LNG spot trade, given the Republic's proximity to LNG suppliers such as Australia and Indonesia, and demand centres in powerhouses China and India. Capitalising on recent tax incentives, some companies have already started LNG trading here. All the pieces of the jigsaw should start falling neatly into place come 2013, when the LNG terminal is scheduled to start up.

Govt lauded for leading the way in building LNG terminal
Straits Times Forum 3 Jul 09;

I REFER to Wednesday's report, 'Govt steps in to build LNG plant'.

On behalf of the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Committee in Singapore, I congratulate the Government on having taken leadership in the development of the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

Natural gas is the most environment-friendly fossil fuel and it is therefore the right decision to diversify the sources of natural gas and not let the economic downturn disrupt our efforts to have cleaner air in Singapore.

This is also important for the transport sector. More CNG stations will be built in Singapore with rising demand for CNG vehicles, which do not emit any particle matters.

Alexander C. Melchers
Chairman, CNG Committee @ SEAS
Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore

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Three schools bag prizes for hot eco-friendly ideas

Straits Times 1 Jul 09;

A NOVEL idea to use Singapore's hot roads to heat water systems has bagged a team of students from Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) a top prize at the biennial National Weather Study Project awards.

For their project, which involves installing water pipes under roads, the team of four JC2 students won $10,000 in cash, plus a trip to Germany to showcase their eco-friendly project to schools there.

They were one of three top winners who received their awards from Law Minister K. Shanmugam at the Science Centre Singapore yesterday.

A total of 235 projects were submitted by 152 primary and secondary schools and junior colleges for the event organised by local electricity generator Senoko Power.

The competition, launched in 2005, honours ideas about going green, using information from mini-weather stations installed in participating schools.

At yesterday's event, Mr Shanmugam, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs, had a change of heart in an effort to go green.

He told an audience of about 600 students, teachers and guests an anecdote about how his environmentally conscious wife had replaced his usual shaving foam with one that was environmentally friendly. But he did not like the new product.

'So this morning, I decided I will put my foot down and say, no I'm not going to use this, I'm going to go back to my shaving foam. But after coming here, maybe I will stop my act of rebellion,' he quipped.

Principal chairman of the project's advisory committee, Professor Leo Tan, said the winners were chosen based on how well thought through their ideas were. He said: 'We were not looking at the end results, whether the projects could be commercialised, whether there were any direct applications, but whether they were logical, based on sound evidence, building on information available.

'They don't need to solve the problem of climate change or come up with a solution.

'But we hope we set them thinking about it, and if more of us do it conscientiously, then we might be able to make a greater impact to reduce the effects of climate change.'

Nanyang Girls' High School won the top prize in the secondary school division for showing that students were best at recalling shapes and words when the room temperature was between 25.9 deg C and 27.3 deg C.

The team suggested that air-conditioning was generally not needed in schools, and not necessary in companies before 10am.

In the primary school division, Unity Primary School won the top prize for finding what material was best at absorbing perspiration and could be used in T-shirts in physical education classes. It is Dri-Fit.

LIAW WY-CIN

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Kampung Mangkuk mangrove restoration: An example to others

Sean Augustin, New Straits Times 1 Jul 09;

SETIU: Kampung Mangkuk here has become a shining beacon for other villages in the district when it comes to the conservation of mangrove trees.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia's Setiu wetlands project community liaison officer River Foo said when the mangrove replanting programme was started last year, the people in the village were ignorant about conservation.

But all that has changed. On a scale of one to 10, environmental awareness has jumped from zero to eight, he said yesterday.

"They know what the WWF is trying to do as well as the importance of the mangrove ecosystem.

"But more importantly, they are enthusiastic about the whole project, especially the younger generation.

"We are pleased that the teachers in the school have also been encouraging their students to be more environmentally conscious," he said, adding that about 1,700 Asiatic mangrove (Rhizophora mucronata) and Nipah palm (Nypa fruticans) saplings have been planted, to date.

The project has also attracted non-governmental organisations to the site, which has in turn inspired the participation of the locals.

The mangrove ecosystem is important in preventing erosion on the riverbanks and is home to the Nipah crab and Galah prawns, which can contribute to the livelihood of the fishing community here.

Foo hopes that Kampung Mangkuk would be an inspiration to neighbouring villages and attract the people to take part in the project.

Sekolah Kebangsaan Mangkuk mathematics teacher Sahara Zakaria said he has seen a change in the villagers' thinking in the past year, especially among the younger generation.

"They are more environmentally conscious. They are looking at mangrove conservation and its benefits in the long term."

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Study asks Indonesia to adopt green economy

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post 1 Jul 09;

A study analyzing the impacts of switching to a low-carbon economy has shown that investing more in energy efficiency, reducing the use of coal-based fuels and stopping deforestation, could improve per capita incomes and help ease the level of unemployment.

The joint study was conducted by Padjadjaran University, the Center for Economic and Development Studies (CEDS), Strategic Asia and the office of the State Minister for the Environment.

The study found that these benefits would be gained by increasing energy efficiency by 25 percent, reducing the use of coal-based fuels by 50%, implementing a US$50 per ton tax on carbon production, and reducing the rate of deforestation by 10 percent.

“The environmental and economic benefits of such measures are huge. It would cut 177 million tons of CO2 emissions and increase GDP by 2.7 percent [Rp 133 trillion] per year,” Arief Anshory Yusuf, a researcher from Padjadjaran University told The Jakarta Post.

“Such economic benefits could create new jobs for more than 3 million people, and the number of poor people would be reduced by more than 4 million per year.”

The study also included policy recommendations designed to meet targets by promoting energy-saving policies in 25 percent of wealthy households in urban areas, energy-intensive industries and the transport sector.

Several countries, including the US, China and South Korea have been considering adopting “green economy” policies to cut carbon emissions.

The US has allocated US$80 billion for renewable resources and energy efficient programs.

China has allocated 12 percent of its $586 billion economic stimulus package toward energy efficiency and improving the quality of environment.

The South Korean government has created a “Green New Deal” by investing $28 billion in four years to finance 36 projects focused on improving the environment.

Indonesia has issued a series of regulations aimed at cutting emissions from the energy and forestry sectors, but its implementation record remains poor.

In 2005, the government issued a presidential decree on fuel savings requiring government offices to reduce the use of energy and official trips. The government also issued a decree on energy, setting targets to cut 17 percent of the country’s emissions from the energy sector.

State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar said the country should take advantage of its enormous stock of low carbon energy sources like geothermal energy to move toward a green economy.

Indonesia has about 33.000 megawatts of the geothermal resources.

Masnellyarti Hilman, the ministry’s deputy for nature conservation enhancement and environment degradation control, said there were alternatives to carbon market mechanisms, which could generate income and produce a green economy that was not reliant on destroying the environment.

“In forests for example, ecotourism could provide an alternative source of income, rather than cutting down trees for timber,” she said.

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Indonesia presidential hopefuls accused of ignoring the environment

Channel NewsAsia 30 Jun 09;

JAKARTA: Presidential hopefuls vying for Indonesia's top job next week are ignoring the environment, despite dire threats from global warming and deforestation, environmental group Greenpeace has said.

None of the three candidates has made the environment a priority in their campaigns or offered any detailed policies on issues such as deforestation or carbon emissions, Greenpeace climate campaigner Arif Fiyanto said.

"Up to now we haven't seen anything concrete from the three pairs of candidates," Fiyanto said.

Rampant deforestation fuelled by corruption and poor law enforcement has made Indonesia the world's third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the United States and China.

Greenpeace activists said the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had paid little more than pay lip service to environmental problems over its five years in power.

"Environmental problems aren't sexy in the election, indeed ... we've never had a government that has paid attention to the environment," forest campaigner Joko Arif said.

"They're talking about poverty, they're talking about benefits for the community, but if they don't talk about environmental problems it's complete (rubbish)," he added.

Yudhoyono is the strong favourite to win the July 8 poll, which will pit him against ex-president Megawati Sukarnoputri and current Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

Megawati has agreed to a Greenpeace demand for a moratorium on deforestation, but has also promised to open millions of hectares of land for farming and biofuel plantations, Arif said.

Indonesia has been a key advocate of a scheme to get big polluters in rich countries to pay for forest conservation in developing countries.

But Greenpeace fears the plan could trigger a collapse in global carbon prices and undermine broader efforts to fight climate change.

- AFP/ir

Presidential hopefuls losing green points
Niken Prathivi, The Jakarta Post 1 Jul 09;

Greenpeace Indonesia on Sunday slammed presidential candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Boediono for their apparent lack of concern for environmental issues in their campaign agenda.

Greenpeace forest campaigner for Southeast Asia Joko Arif said Yudhoyono, as the incumbent President, should know better, especially with Forestry Minister M.S. Ka'ban as one of his supporters.

"Unfortunately Yudhoyono and his running mate Boediono have put environmental issues 12th among 15 points in their agenda, with a simple line *environmental restoration'," Joko said in a statement sent to The Jakarta Post.

Their stance became more apparent given that the two other hopeful pairs - Megawati Sukarnoputri-Prabowo Subianto and Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto - had already mentioned environmental issues in their campaigns.

During her campaign tour of Palangkaraya, Kalimantan, Megawati promised to implement a moratorium on forestry if elected, Arif said.

Megawati also committed to avoiding the use of nuclear energy, while Kalla promised to reject plans for a nuclear reactor in Indonesia, he added.

"We appreciate these plans. However, we are asking for a thorough and solid working plan."

Greenpeace Indonesia also noted that despite pointing out environmental issues, Megawati and Kalla also had flaws in their campaigns.

Megawati once promised to provide two hectares of land for agricultural goods and four hectares for plantations to provide raw materials for biodiesel production, but failed to elaborate on how she would obtain the land.

Meanwhile, Kalla once stated he would not introduce a moratorium (on forest clearing) because Indonesia was no longer facing forest exploitation.

Kalla also promised to boost Indonesia's production of coal, an environmentally damaging resource, to support power plants.

Arif also said he was disappointed that the General Elections Commission (KPU), which organized the official public debates for presidential and vice-presidential candidates, had neglected to include environmental issues in its topics for discussion.

"Considering that we are already facing impacts of climate change, it is important to protect our environment, especially forests.

"Such efforts need strong political will from leaders.

"Therefore, whoever the president will be, we need a visionary person - someone who not only cares about what happens in the next five years, but also for the next generation," he added.

Greenpeace Indonesia organized a mock debate on Sunday, on environmental issues, presenting six campaigners with masks picturing Megawati, Prabowo, Yudhoyono, Boediono, Kalla and Wiranto.

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Are rich tourists losing touch with nature?

Michael Marshall, New Scientist 30 Jun 09;

Are people becoming more isolated from nature, spending all their time cooped up at home watching TV? Quite the reverse, according to a new study of nature tourism around the world.

Andrew Balmford of the University of Cambridge, UK, and colleagues looked at the numbers of visitors at 280 protected areas, such as national parks, in 20 countries.

Between 1992 and 2006, the team found that the numbers of visitors had overall increased.

Total visit numbers to protected areas on average grew in 15 out of the 20 countries sampled and fell in four; with Uganda showing no change. Even allowing for population growth, per capita visit numbers rose in 14 countries; with Uganda and Australia added to the list of countries showing a downward trend.

When they pooled the results by continent, they found that Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America all showed significant growth in visitor numbers, while North America and Australasia showed no significant trends.
Too much TV?

The popularity of nature tourism depends on how rich the country is, but perhaps not in the way you might expect, Balmford says. "When you compare the trends in visitor numbers with how wealthy the countries are, you see that growth is stagnant in the richest countries," he says. "Nature tourism is growing fastest in the poorest countries – Madagascar is a good example."

Muttulingam Sanjayan of the Nature Conservancy says, "The paper is interesting and adds a lot to the debate."

Balmford's results go against the suggestion of a much-reported paper by Oliver Pergams and Patricia Zaradic, which showed that visitor numbers to protected areas in the US and Japan had been falling for several decades (PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0709893105, http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0709893105).

The pair argued that people were turning away from nature-based recreation in favour of "videophilia": spending time on sedentary activities like watching TV, rather than communing with nature.
'Hyped' study

The new study offers some support for Pergams and Zaradic's finding of a decline in the US and Japan, but shows that it is not part of a worldwide trend. "The original study was hyped beyond what the data suggested," says Balmford.

So does this mean Americans are definitely turning away from nature holidays?

Sanjayan says, "Lots of people in the US are pretty disconnected from nature. Given how big a role [the nation] plays in things like overseas aid, I think that's a worrying trend."
'Drive-through' trend

While videophilia may be to blame, there are several other explanations for his results, which can't be tested using his data alone, he adds.

Because many US national parks are overcrowded, people may be choosing to go elsewhere; either to US locations that are less well-known – and where visitors are not monitored – or to more exotic places overseas.

"In those poor countries with rapid growth, the majority of the visitors are often from outside that country," Balmford says.

Sanjayan thinks that other questions need to be asked. "The biggest challenge for anyone doing studies of nature tourism is: how do people experience nature? In the US, most people who visit national parks experience them in a drive-through way, without leaving their cars. That is an emerging trend in developing countries as well."

Balmford's team is now working on a global model that will predict tourist numbers to protected areas.

Journal reference: PLoS Biology ( DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000144)

Summer Vacation
People are still flocking to national parks. Just not in the U.S.
Journal Watch Online 2 Jul 09;

A new study attempts to resolve two seemingly contradictory and widely reported trends on people’s engagement with nature.

Nature-based tourism is said to be a booming sector within the travel and recreation industry, a trend that’s also a boon for arguments to conserve natural lands. But, to much fanfare, recent studies have also concluded that people are in fact more isolated from nature than ever before, largely based on evidence that the number of visitors to U.S. and Japanese national parks is declining.

The authors, writing in PLoS Biology, conducted a broader survey of 280 protected areas in 20 countries. They confirm that visitation is indeed dropping in the U.S. and Japan, but is growing in 15 of 20 nations. Such results indicate that despite worrying local downturns, tourists elsewhere are still flocking towards natural attractions and generating income for conservation.

Interestingly, the highest rates of visitor increases were generally in the nations with the lowest per capita income whereas the decreases were in richer nations, such as the U.S. and Japan. The authors cannot explain the reason for this trend, but they suppose that corresponding overall drops in international tourism to these countries could have a role. – Jessica Leber

Source: Balmford, A. et al. 2009. A Global Perspective on Trends in Nature-Based Tourism. PLoS Biology DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000144

Image © elkor, iStockphoto.com

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Malaysia rescues smuggled baby orangutans: report

Yahoo News 30 Jun 09;

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Malaysian wildlife authorities have rescued three baby orangutans believed to have been smuggled into the country, following raids on a zoo and an ostrich breeder, a report said Tuesday.

The three young apes were among a smuggled group of five, and a search is under way for the remaining two, Department of Wildlife and National Parks deputy chief Misliah Mohamad Basir told the Star newspaper.

One of the orangutans was discovered in a raid on an ostrich breeder in central Selangor state, who then revealed that the other two were being kept at the Taiping Zoo in Malaysia's north.

"All orangutans at the zoo are microchipped but these specimens were without microchips, hence we are able to ascertain that they are of dubious origin," Misliah reportedly said.

Zoo officials defended their actions, saying the orangutans were sent to them by "anonymous people" and that the raid was carried out before they could notify the authorities.

"We accepted them because we wanted to save the animals out of compassion, that's how they ended up with us. If we said no, the people might have traded them," zoo director Kevin Lazarus told AFP.

"We have got nothing to do with this (smuggling)," he added.

Local laws require a special permit to keep orangutans -- native to Malaysia's eastern states on Borneo island -- which are under threat of extinction because of poaching and habitat destruction.

The report said that DNA samples of the rescued apes were taken to determine their origin.

Wildlife officials have said that wildlife trafficking has hit alarming levels in Malaysia.

Experts say there are about 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 80 percent of them in neighbouring Indonesia and the rest in Malaysian's eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak.

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Greenpeace rap for Orissa

Times of India 30 Jun 09;

BHUBANESWAR: The state government has done nothing much to protect the endangered Olive Ridley turtles on the Orissa coast, according to the Greenpeace. In the assessment of this international environmental watchdog body, there lies a big gap between government rhetorics and actual work done in the field.

The reaction came in its evaluation report on the government's performance in the 2008-09 season (November-May). Turtle mortality figures are set to touch nearly 15,000, it said.

"While some steps have been taken, there remains a yawning gap between the measures on paper and action on the ground," the Greenpeace said in a release issued here on Tuesday. It said in 2008-09 about 7,162 turtle carcasses had been found on the Chilika-Paradip stretch alone."

This is above the average turtle mortality of 6,280 recorded in the past six seasons, but a marginal decline of eight percent when compared to mortality figures from 2007-2008 in the Devi region.

"Taken together with mortality figures, south of Chilika, in Gahirmatha and north of the Dhamra river mouth, including the Udabali Islands, the mortality in the state is once again likely to be 14,000-15,000," the release said.

Greenpeace asked the government to involve local and independent organizations in its exercise to monitor turtle mortality with "transparency and greater accuracy". It also mentioned 473 incidents of trawler violations during the "critical phase of the turtle season (November to February), resulting in largescale turtle deaths and severe hardship for traditional fishermen communities.

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