Beetles, wildfire: Double threat in warming world

Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press Yahoo News 23 Aug 09;

HAINES JUNCTION, Yukon Territory – A veil of smoke settled over the forest in the shadow of the St. Elias Mountains, in a wilderness whose spruce trees stood tall and gray, a deathly gray even in the greenest heart of a Yukon summer.

"As far as the eye can see, it's all infested," forester Rob Legare said, looking out over the thick woods of the Alsek River valley.

Beetles and fire, twin plagues, are consuming northern forests in what scientists say is a preview of the future, in a century growing warmer, as the land grows drier, trees grow weaker and pests, abetted by milder winters, grow stronger.

Dying, burning forests would then only add to the warming.

It's here in the sub-Arctic and Arctic — in Alaska, across Siberia, in northernmost Europe, and in the Yukon and elsewhere in northern Canada — that Earth's climate is changing most rapidly. While average temperatures globally rose 0.74 degrees Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) in the past century, the far north experienced warming at twice that rate or greater.

In Russia's frigid east, some average temperatures have risen more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), with midwinter mercury spiking even higher. And "eight of the last 10 summers have been extreme wildfire seasons in Siberia," American researcher Amber J. Soja pointed out by telephone from central Siberia.

Along with shrinking the polar ice cap and thawing permafrost, scientists say, the warming of the Arctic threatens to turn boreal forest — the vast cover of spruce, pine and other conifers blanketing these high latitudes — into less of a crucial "sink" absorbing carbon dioxide and more of a source, as megatons of that greenhouse gas rise from dead, burning and decaying wood.

American forest ecologist Scott Green worries about a "domino effect."

"These things may occur simultaneously," said the researcher from the University of Northern British Columbia. "If the bark beetles kill the trees, you'll have lots of dead, dry wood that will create a really, really hot fire, and then sometimes you don't get trees regenerating on the site."

Dominoes may already be falling in western North America.

From Colorado to Washington state, an unprecedented, years-long epidemic of mountain pine beetle has killed 2.6 million hectares (6.5 million acres) of forest. The insect has struck even more devastatingly to the north, in British Columbia, where clouds of beetles have laid waste to 14 million hectares (35 million acres) — twice the area of Ireland. It is expected to kill 80 percent of the Canadian province's lodgepole pines before it's finished.

Farther north, in the Yukon, the pine beetle isn't endemic — yet. Here it's the spruce bark beetle that has eaten its way through 400,000 hectares (1 million acres) of woodland, and even more in neighboring Alaska, in a 15-year-old epidemic unmatched in its longevity and extent.

"It's a fingerprint of climate change," Aynslie Ogden, senior researcher for the Yukon Forest Management Branch, said in Whitehorse, the territorial capital. "The intensity and severity and magnitude of the infestation is outside the normal."

Hiking through the wild and beetle-ravaged Alsek valley, Legare, the Yukon agency's forest health expert, explained how the 6-millimeter (quarter-inch) insect does its damage.

"Usually the female bores into the tree first, followed by the male, and then they mate and they both excavate a main egg gallery which runs parallel to the wood grain," he said.

The hatched larvae, just beneath the outer bark, then feed via perpendicular galleries they bore around the tree, cutting off nutrients moving through the phloem and killing the plant. Its needles turn reddish, later gray, and eventually wind topples the dead wood.

Winter spells of minus-40-Celsius (minus-40-Fahrenheit) temperatures once killed off larvae, but those deep freezes now occur less often. And warmer summers enable some beetles to complete their reproductive cycle in one year instead of two, speeding up population growth.

Years of summer drought, meanwhile, weakened the spruces' ability to extrude sticky pitch, to trap and expel beetles. Because the snow-streaked peaks of the 5,000-meter-high (15,000-foot-high) St. Elias range block moisture from the Pacific, a mere 250 millimeters (10 inches) of precipitation falls each year. Even a slight shortfall stresses the trees.

The Yukon has experienced smaller, briefer beetle outbreaks in the past, fed by patches of fallen trees left by road construction. But "what makes this infestation different" is that climate change is a primary cause, said Legare.

As he spoke, smoke from dozens of fires, some nearby in the Yukon, some in distant Alaska, wafted over a landscape already bleak with dead forest.

In an authoritative 2007 assessment, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the U.N.-sponsored scientific network, cited multiple studies linking the spread of wildfires to warmer, drier conditions.

This June, in the latest such study, as early flames flared in California's wildfire season, Harvard scientists said the area burned in the western United States could increase by 50 percent by the 2050s, even under the best-case warming scenario projected by the IPCC.

In Siberia, "fire has been increasing, and there's an earlier fire season," Soja, of the U.S. National Institute of Aerospace, reported from the Sukachev Institute of Forestry in Krasnoyarsk. Her research this summer found that a warmer, drier climate appears to be stifling regrowth of burned-out areas on the Siberian forest's southern edge, turning them to grasslands.

In Canada, area burned is double what it was in the 1970s, despite greater firefighting capacity and some recent favorable weather, said Mike Flannigan, a fire researcher for the Canadian Forest Service.

He cited three key reasons: warmer temperatures are drying the forests, lengthening the fire season and generating more lightning, cause of the worst wilderness fires.

Flannigan worries, too, that future fires smoldering through the carbon-heavy peatlands that undergird much of the boreal region would pour unparalleled amounts of carbon dioxide, the main global-warming gas, into the skies, feeding an unstoppable cycle.

"The bottom line is if you get more fire, you get more emissions, which contributes to further warming, which contributes to more fires," he said in an interview from Ontario.

"The concern is that things may happen more rapidly than we anticipate. Even our most pessimistic scenarios may not be pessimistic enough."

Back here in smoky gray southwest Yukon, where things are happening, the 1,400 native Champagne-Aishihik people feel it most. The stricken forest's fallen trees are keeping them from traditional fur-trapping rounds, the streams seem warmer without thick cover overhead, and the fishing is off.

Their oral tradition tells of great change in the past, said the group's land manager, Graham Boyd. "They're now wondering what changed to have had this happen."

What's changed extends beyond Champagne-Aishihik lands to the rest of the Yukon, where forester Legare in his travels finds other insects — the northern spruce engraver, the aspen leaf miner, the willow miner — gaining an upper hand in unusual places in unexpected ways.

"Weird things, unprecedented things are happening," he said.

Over the top of the world in Siberia, they're girding for a surge in the highly destructive Siberian moth, a caterpillar that devours forests of pine, spruce, fir and larch.

"The moth loves warm and dry, and that's what's happening," said Nadezda M. Tchebakova, Soja's Siberian research partner. At the same time, she said from Krasnoyarsk, "the frequency and severity of fires should increase."

As the Yukon warms and burns, its foresters hope for at least an early warning on one immediate threat, the mountain pine beetle. They have set traps at the British Columbia border to alert them if the non-native insect moves northward.

"The Yukon pines probably don't have natural defenses. They may be uniquely susceptible to this pest," said ecologist Green. "Then you'll have the potential for fires in large areas of dead trees. With the needles still on them, they literally explode with fire."

Of her Yukon woodlands, Ogden said, "It's the right forest, the right climate type, and we expect the climate to warm. My sense is it" — the pine beetle — "is almost inevitable."

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Thousands flee raging wildfires in Greece

Nicholas Paphitis, Associated Press Google News 24 Aug 09;

ATHENS, Greece — A partial drop in gale-force winds early Monday offered hard-pressed Greek firefighters a brief respite after wildfires raged unchecked for two days north of Athens, burning houses and swathes of forest while forcing thousands to flee their homes.

But Fire Brigade officials cautioned that the fires still threatened inhabited areas on the capital's northern fringes, the eastern coastal town of Nea Makri and nearby Marathon — site of one of history's most famous battlegrounds.

"There are fewer hazardous points," Fire Brigade spokesman Yiannis Kappakis said. "But the blaze is still developing."

Several houses were gutted but there were no reports of deaths or injuries. There was huge damage to the countryside, however, with thousands of hectares of the area's rapidly dwindling forests gone.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said the fire — one of more than 90 that broke out across Greece over the weekend — was hard to tame.

"The situation remains very difficult," he said after a fire brigade briefing. "The enormous (firefighting) effort will continue on all fronts throughout the night."

In Nea Makri, south of Marathon, local authorities said blaze stretching for 2.5-miles (four-kilometers) was tearing down a hillside towards some houses, and a dozen nuns were evacuated from a nearby Christian Orthodox convent.

"The situation is tragic right now, there's a huge fire coming our way" Nea Makri mayor Iordanis Loizos said. "There is nothing we can do ... but wait for the (water-dropping) planes at dawn."

Water-dropping aircraft were to resume operations at first light Monday, assisted by aircraft from France, Italy and Cyprus. More than 2,000 firefighters, soldiers and volunteers are fighting the blaze on the ground.

Officials have not said what started the fire. Hundreds of forest blazes plague Greece every summer and many are set intentionally — often by unscrupulous land developers or animal farmers seeking to expand their grazing land.

In many afflicted areas, despairing residents pleaded for firefighters and equipment that were nowhere to be seen.

On Sunday, thousands of residents of Athens' northern outskirts evacuated their homes, fleeing in cars or on foot. The fire destroyed several houses as it advanced across an area more than 30 miles (50 kilometers) in circumference.

Six major fires were burning early Monday across Greece. The Athens blaze started north of Marathon plain, and spread over Mount Penteli — on the city's limit to the north — threatening outlying suburbs.

Driven by gale-force winds, the blaze grew fastest near Marathon, from which the long-distance foot race takes its name, born from a legendary run after the 490 B.C Athenian victory over an invading Persian army.

A guard at the nearby Museum of Marathon said the fire at one point came within 50 yards (meters) of the building, whose exhibits include weapons and skeletons from the battle. However, its main front was moving south toward Nea Makri.

The fire also threatened the ancient fortress town of Rhamnus, home to two 2,500-year-old temples.

The mayor of Marathon said he had been "begging the government to send over planes and helicopters" to no avail.

"There are only two fire engines here; three houses are already on fire and we are just watching helplessly," mayor Spyros Zagaris told Greek TV.

Zagaris was among several local leaders who accused the government of having no plan to fight the fire.

Finance Minister Yiannis Papathanassiou responded: "This is not the time for criticism under these tragic conditions. We are fighting a difficult fight."

Another official said emergency workers were exhausted.

"The firefighters, soldiers and volunteers fighting the fire are tired and their equipment is being used constantly and there is fatigue there too," said deputy Interior Minister Christos Markoyiannakis.

Opposition politicians have been restrained in their criticism so far.

But both Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga and Giorgos Karatzaferis, head of populist right-wing Popular Orthodox Rally, said the government had learned nothing from the catastrophic summer fires of 2007, when 76 people died and several villages were totally destroyed in southern Greece.

A shift in wind helped halt the flames in the town of Agios Stefanos, a township on the fringes of Athens on the opposite side of Mount Penteli from Marathon. Most of its 10,000 inhabitants had evacuated Sunday afternoon. By nightfall, the town was empty, authorities said.

About 58 square miles (37,000 acres or 15,000 hectares) of forest, brush and olive groves have burned, according to Athens prefect Yiannis Sgouros. The highly flammable pine forests around Athens' northern suburbs helped the fire spread.

Sgouros said the full extent of the damage would take days to estimate.

Authorities evacuated two large children's hospitals, as well as campsites and homes in villages and outlying suburbs threatened by blazes that scattered ash across Athens. The flames also threatened a large monastery on Mount Penteli.

Elsewhere in Greece, serious fires were reported on the islands of Evia and Skyros in the Aegean Sea and Zakynthos in the west. Another large fire that started Saturday near the town of Plataea, 40 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Athens, was spreading unchecked toward a coastal resort in western Attica.

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Study examines real consequences of carbon farming

Monash University, ScienceAlert 24 Aug 09;

Monash University's Australian Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) has launched a major research project into the benefits of 'carbon farming' -- the planting of trees to offset carbon emissions.

The five-year $4.9 million project will assess how effective and efficient carbon farming is at providing environmental benefits when compared to traditional farming, particularly during times of drought. Researchers will use the 2.4 million hectare Goulburn Broken catchment near Shepparton as an environmental case study.

Project Leader Dr Ross Thompson said the introduction of carbon farming was a positive step toward a more sustainable environment, but there are important knowledge gaps about its effects.

"There is concern that the carbon accrual and biodiversity benefits of revegetation may be counteracted by reductions in water yield. The project will forecast the effects of increasing reforestation on the Goulburn Broken catchment, by quantifying the water use, carbon storage and biodiversity values of different land uses, and understanding how increases in native vegetation affect those processes," Dr Thompson said.

"We will measure the exchange of carbon and water fluxes among soil, water, plants and the atmosphere and the impact this exchange will have on biodiversity values. Our sites will be situated within an agricultural zone which is most likely to be converted to carbon farming," Dr Thompson said.

Our sites will be selected within the Goulburn and Broken River valleys, considered to be Victoria's food bowl and one of the catchment's most at risk to ongoing drought and a drying climate. The research will focus on land uses including dry land agriculture, tree plantings of a range of ages and remnant woodland, and assesses terrestrial, aquatic and soil biodiversity.

The research results will be applicable to other catchment areas and act as a 'model' for future land-use planning.

"Carbon farming is looming as an important new land use both in Australia and internationally. Our research will identify both the costs and benefits of tree planting for carbon accrual. It essential information to allow land managers and landholders to make informed decisions, particularly in the face of the economic and social forces occurring as a result of the current drought " Dr Thompson said.

The research project assembles an expert team from Monash University including scientists who specialise in forest ecology, soil processes, terrestrial and freshwater ecology, and landscape modelling. Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment and, Environmental Protection Authority Victoria will also provide scientists to take part in the research.

The research is funded by an ARC Linkage grant with substantial contributions from the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, Catchment Management Authorities (Goulburn Broken, North Central), EPA Victoria and the investment company Kilter Pty Ltd.

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Young People Step Up Pressure on World Leaders to Clinch a Crucial Climate Deal in Copenhagen

UNEP 23 Aug 09;

Daejeon/Nairobi, 23 August 2009 - Rallies in 100 cities will be organized by young people across the world as part of a major push to persuade governments to Seal a meaningful Deal at the crucial UN climate convention meeting in Copenhagen in just under 110 days time.

Youth delegates pledged to keep global warming high on the international agenda as the Tunza International Youth Conference on Climate Change ended today in Daejeon, Republic of Korea.

"Climate change is the greatest threat we are facing in the 21st century, and many countries are vulnerable. If we the children and youth don't act now, we cannot be sure there will be a future for us, for future generations. We want to make sure that future generations will inherit a better place to live in," outgoing Tunza Youth Advisory Board member, 22-year old Jessie James Marcellones from the Philippines, said.

Regional Action Plans, agreed during the conference and covering Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, and West Asia include:

* Mobilizing youth for the upcoming UN climate change meeting that opens on 7 December in the Danish capital;

* Reaching out to other environmental groups, especially during the September 21-25 Climate Week;

* Educating others about the Copenhagen meeting on campuses, in school and among churches, sports teams and more;

* Letter-writing, phone banking, visiting officials to 'Seal the Deal';

* Social Networking through the Unite for Climate, Facebook, Twitter and other e-fora;

* College campaigns and tree planting initiatives.

The 220 youths, aged 15-24, were joined by 580 children in Daejeon City in South Korea. It has been the largest conference of young people on climate change ever.

Seventeen-year-old Yaiguili Alvarado Garcia, from the Kuna indigenous group in Panama, expressed the need for adults to hear and listen and understand why the young need their support.

"There are a lot of indigenous cultures that are losing, because nobody wants to hear what we want to say, what we know about Mother Earth, and it is frustrating for us because we have so many things to share and the world doesn't listen to us," she said. "There are many things we asked the governments to do and we know it is hard, but we want to work with them, we just want to make a better place for the children, for the animals and plants. It is about time we stop thinking just for us and think also for other beings that cannot speak for themselves. It is time to stop being selfish."

Yaiguili Alvarado Garcia is among the 13 newly elected Tunza Youth Advisory Council members. The Tunza Youth Advisory Council has two Youth Advisors for each of the six regions, and two representing indigenous groups. The Council advises UNEP on better ways of engaging young people in its work and represents youth in international environmental negotiations.

"This global Youth and Children gathering under Seal the Deal Campaign is the largest international gathering of young people this year advocating for climate change action. Their voices will and must be heard because they will inherit the outcomes of our actions," said the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.

"The young people of the world are the generation that will inherit the transformational decisions governments need to take in less than 110 days time. If their passion, commitment and ideas can be embraced by world leaders and governments over the coming days and weeks, then a climate agreement that can put the world on track to a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy can be secured," said Achim Steiner, Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

UNEP organized the conference with the support of the UNEP National Committee for Korea, the Daejeon Metropolitan Government, and Tunza global programme partner, Bayer AG, as well as UNICEF, UNFPA, FAO, WMO, the World Organization of the Scout Movement, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and 350.org. Other private sector sponsors include Hyundai-Kia Automotive group and Samsung Engineering. Nickelodeon TV Asia is the media partner for the event.

About Tunza

The Tunza Youth Strategy, adopted in February this year by UNEP's Governing Council, is a long-term strategy to engage young people in environmental activities and in the work of UNEP. The word 'Tunza' means 'to treat with care or affection' in Kiswahili. The Tunza initiative aims to develop activities in the areas of environmental awareness and information exchange on the environment for children and youth. For more information, please visit www.unep.org/Tunza/

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Clunker Program's Environmental Merits Questioned

NPR 23 Aug 09;

The Cash for Clunkers program was touted as a way to stimulate the flat-lining auto industry and to improve the environment. President Obama celebrated the program as a triumph. But while dealers could barely keep up with demand, questions remain about the plan's effect on Mother Earth.

"The program has been wonderful for the economy, but it's been only a middling success for greenhouse gas emissions," Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia Law School's new Center for Climate Change Law tells Weekend Edition host Liane Hansen.

To start, Gerrard says, "there was a provision in the law that automobiles over 25 years old could not be traded in. And that made no sense from an environmental standpoint. It was put there to help the dealers in used auto parts, but it really didn't help the environment at all."

Additionally, "the minimum required difference in the mileage for the old vehicles that were traded in and the new vehicles that were bought was just 4 miles per gallon — which is not much of a difference at all."

To make a bigger impact, the government could have required a greater mileage differential, Gerrard says. "You could have had a minimum of 15 mpg differential, which would have made a big difference."

People did buy cars with better average gas mileage, Gerrard says, "but it is still not a cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

"There are some calculations that it cost somewhere between $200 and $400 per ton of carbon dioxide reduced, depending on what assumptions are used," he says. "That's way above the market price of carbon and way above many, many other methods of reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

At the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — an American cap-and-trade system that trades in carbon — carbon dioxide is selling for about $3 a ton, Gerrard says. In Europe, it's around $18 or $20. "So the market price of carbon dioxide trading is much, much lower than the cost of reducing a ton of carbon dioxide under the Cash for Clunkers program."

More cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gases would include increasing energy efficiency in the industrial sector or in commercial and residential lighting, Gerrard suggests. Or providing combined heat and power systems in commercial and industrial settings. "All would be several orders of magnitude more cost-effective from a fuel-saving and greenhouse perspective than Cash for Clunkers was."

Successful or not, the government is putting the brakes on the popular program. After 8 p.m. Monday, car buyers will no longer be able to trade in their gas-guzzling vehicles for rebates of up to $4,500.

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Best of our wild blogs: 23 Aug 09

Back to Little Sisters
from wonderful creation and Singapore Nature and wild shores of singapore

At Least No One Will Be Counting Stars
from colourful clouds

Insight into the mixed-species bulbul breeding
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Nature's Tale: You scratch my back, I scratch your back
from Where Discovery Begins

Two Minds, One Theory
from Butterflies of Singapore

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New campaign aims to change Singaporeans' transport habits

Channel NewsAsia 22 Aug 09;

SINGAPORE: Globally, 30 per cent of the greenhouse gases are produced as a result of transport.

In a bid to reduce greenhouse emissions, a local NGO has launched an initiative, called the Green Transport Week, to drive home the message of using public transport and other environmentally friendly vehicles.

On Saturday, 100 cyclists travelled from the east and west coast parks to the Singapore Management University (SMU) city campus for the launch of the Green Transport Week.

The campaign aims to inculcate environmentally friendly transport habits among Singaporeans, particularly the youths.

Its organisers also said they find it a challenge to persuade another segment of the population to give up driving and to take another form of transport.

Howard Shaw, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council (SEC), said: "This is a campaign about changing habits and old people are more set in their ways."

On the streets, Channel NewsAsia found Singaporeans with varying knowledge of transport habits that are environmentally friendly.

"A lot of people are encouraged to be green to use public transport as much as possible," one said.

Another added: "It depends. If I am alone, perhaps it would be more environmentally friendly to take public transport. But if we have three or four people, then we'll drive."

To travel one kilometre, a driver will use at least nine times more energy than a passenger travelling by bus or train.

But for those who cannot resist buying cars, they can consider other greener alternatives like CNG-powered, hybrid, and maybe in the future, electric cars.

The SEC is targeting to get some 4,000 individuals and 100 corporations to pledge their commitment to be more environmentally friendly on the event's official website.
- CNA/so

More about the event on the Green Transport Week website and wildsingapore happenings.

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Animal protector

The man behind Singapore's first wildlife shelter has survived death threats and public scepticism
Frankie Chee, Straits Times 23 Aug 09;

In his drive to fight illegal wildlife trade in Singapore, Mr Louis Ng, 31, has endured death threats, had his front door splattered with red paint and the windows of his van smashed.

But Mr Ng, founder of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), persevered and eight years on, opened a wildlife rescue centre here just over a week ago.

The Wildlife Rescue Centre - the first of its kind here - is located at a sprawling 2ha plot of land in Jalan Lekar, among a cluster of fish farms and nurseries near Choa Chu Kang.

The location is also the new headquarters for the society.

The opening of the non-government centre, which will take in reptiles and amphibians rescued from smugglers and owners who keep them illegally, is a milestone for Mr Ng who has toiled for his cause.

The $500,000 centre currently only has one animal occupant - a star tortoise that was left at the centre's gate - but it is early days. Yet, Mr Ng already has plans to open another centre in Malaysia, and offices in other countries.

The opening of the centre is a far cry from Acres' humble beginnings in a small office with two tables at the Golden Mile Complex. The organisation was registered in 2001.

Since then, Mr Ng has worked to uncover evidence of the illegal wildlife trade here.

The animal lover - his HDB apartment in Jurong West that he shares with wife and fellow Acres worker Amy Corrigan is currently home to a dog with a deformed leg that he found abandoned - has petitioned for wildlife causes ceaselessly.

He has also pushed for legislation changes on endangered species.

And he has achieved much. Acres has successfully lobbied for the penalty for wildlife smuggling to be increased from $5,000 to $50,000, and has also worked to persuade the upcoming Resorts World in Sentosa to drop its plans to import whale sharks as an attraction.

And, more than just talk, the staff and volunteers at Acres actively get their hands dirty by posing as buyers of illegal wildlife or wildlife products and gathering evidence against them using hidden cameras, then handing these over to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA).

'We don't want to just leave it to the authorities to handle the problem, we want to actively participate in solving it,' he explains.

Some of Acres' achievements include the rescue of a rare South African vervet monkey locked in a factory in 2003, the seizure of 11 animals of seven different species kept by a man in his bedroom in 2001 and bringing about a drop in the number of traditional Chinese medicine shops illegally selling bear bile and gall bladders after an undercover stint the same year.

For all his efforts, Ng is paid only $1,600 a month, while wife Amy, 32, the director of education in Acres, receives $400 less. The rest of the seven staff get between $500 and $1,600.

Mr Ng, who has no children yet, admits: 'There are some drawbacks to this job but we are passionate enough about our work not to be concerned by them. We're one of the most dedicated teams around and my colleagues and I are not here for the money, but to make a difference.'

Indeed, the charity-funded society has had to struggle with money as the majority of its funds come from donations, with government grants and corporate contributions making up the rest.

The society's operating costs are between $400,000 and $500,000 annually, while its new Wildlife Rescue Centre needs about $20,000 a month.

'The bulk of our money comes from the man on the street, the $5 or $10 donations. So it takes a lot of effort to raise the funds,' he says.

He recalls how he raised funds during Acres' early years through 'sheer perseverence' by cold-calling companies. That is how he got an initial $8,000 from the Lee Foundation. And, in 2005, with only $8,000 in Acres' bank account, the gutsy young man had to call donors and beg for money.

Today, the society has 18,000 supporters in its database.

Money aside, he also faced initial criticisms and scepticism. Even his parents, retired civil servant Angela Quek, 60, and sales manager Robert Ng, 61, were upset that the younger of two children, a National University of Singapore biology graduate, went down this path and had a starting pay of only $500.

But, after successfully campaigning for a baby chimpanzee, used by the zoo for photo-taking sessions, to be returned to its mother, he realised that he would have to speak up against cruelty to animals beyond the usual dogs and cats.

He recalls: 'It was a challenge in the beginning because we were starting something new, and we were not going to just rescue animals but also change people's mindset.'

Through roadshows and campaigns, he showed that Acres is not just another society fighting animal cruelty but is also trying to put an end to the illegal wildlife trade, which is estimated to be worth US$10 billion (S$14.5 billion) worldwide. He raises awareness of the problem at these events.

'Acres can't do everything, we need to get the public involved. If we can get four million Singaporeans to be our eyes, we can wipe out the illegal wildlife trade,' he stresses.

So there is still acres of work ahead for the animal rights group which has made its presence felt here.

'It's a continuing process. After eight years of our work here, people now believe we're here to stay because we have a proper focus,' he says.

Acres' milestones
The Straits Times 23 Aug 09;

The Acres Wildlife Rescue Centre, which opened over a week ago, has a garden with educational fun facts about wildlife. -- ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG

2001: Mr Louis Ng, then a 23-year old undergraduate studying biology at the National University of Singapore (NUS), sets up the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) with eight other friends.

The plucky activist writes letters to several organisations, including the Lee Foundation, to seek funding.

2002: An investigation by Acres leads to a clampdown by the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) on shops illegally selling bear bile and gall bladder here.

2003: Acting on a tip-off, Acres rescues a rare South African vervet monkey which was caged in a factory in Tuas.

It also petitions for Underwater World's pink dolphins kept at its Dolphin Lagoon in Sentosa to be released, and threatens to report the attraction's owners for animal abuse.

2004: Acres sets up a hotline for the public to inform it about any illegal wildlife activities. It offers a $1,000 reward for information about a tiger and a Malayan sun bear being kept as pets. Acres finds a home for the vervet monkey rescued a year ago - the Munda Wanga Sanctuary in Zambia. The repatriation project costs $6,000.

2005: The society has just $8,000 left in its bank account, prompting Mr Ng to go knocking on doors for donations. It receives an approval from the AVA to set up a wildlife shelter.

2008: Together with the Singapore Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and the Nature Society of Singapore, Acres lobbies for the upcoming Resorts World in Sentosa to drop its plans to import a whale shark for its oceanarium.

2009: Resorts World agrees not to bring in the whale shark. Acres opens its Wildlife Rescue Centre, which will be used to house rescued animals till they can be repatriated.

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Wanted: Homes abroad for strays

Adoption numbers are at an all-time low, forcing group to look overseas for takers
Tan Dawn Wei, Straits Times 23 Aug 09;

In June, American Amy Ferber got an e-mail from a friend in Singapore asking if she would like to adopt a stray dog from Singapore.

She was surprised at the idea.

Having lived in Singapore with her family for two years before she moved back to the United States four years ago, she knew that this would be an expensive and tedious process involving export permits and flight, among other things.

But she was won over by the story of how the three-year-old brown and white mongrel, Lilly, had been rescued by animal welfare group Action For Singapore Dogs (ASD) from a construction site near Leisure Park Kallang.

Last month, Lilly took a flight as excess baggage checked in by a volunteer traveller en route to New York on business. Ms Ferber's sister then drove the dog to Ms Ferber's farmhouse in rural Massachusetts.

She joins Ms Ferber's three other dogs, two teenage daughters and husband, and enjoys twice-daily romps, leash-free, in the orchard around the house.

'The US is a big country with lots of open space and Singapore is a small, urban country which necessarily has to place limits on the number of animals in people's homes,' said Ms Ferber, a psychotherapist who works for a hospice.

'It makes more sense to find homes outside Singapore, and focus efforts on spay and neuter efforts there to keep the number of unwanted animals to a minimum.'

Lilly is the first dog to be successfully re-homed under ASD's new international adoption programme, Singapore Specials Overseas.

With adoption numbers at an all-time low in the past year, the nine-year-old volunteer outfit, which rescues and re-homes stray or abandoned dogs, has had to look outside Singapore.

In the past year, it has not managed to find new homes for more than two to three dogs a month.

Some months go by with no adoptions. It takes in about five strays a month now as its adoption and rescue centre is full. The group, which has a no-kill policy, has some 100 dogs up for adoption.

'It has been a bad year... It is really out of desperation that we are exploring this. It is another avenue to getting homes for these rescued dogs,' said ASD president Ricky Yeo.

The programme - believed to be the first of its kind here - took off with the help of an expatriate volunteer, Ms Sherry Conisbee, who founded another animal welfare group, Soi Cats And Dogs (SCAD), when she was living in Bangkok up until two years ago.

When she could not find anyone to adopt a dog she rescued in 2002, her niece in the US suggested looking there.

Since then, the Bangkok outfit has been sending an average of 20 dogs a year to the US.

Said Ms Conisbee, a British native now based in Singapore with her husband: 'Everyone asks, haven't they got dogs over there? Yes, but it is the same reason people will adopt children or causes which aren't necessarily at their own doorstep. They recognise lives of strays in South-east Asia are pretty bad.'

It was a friend of Ms Conisbee's friend who had contacted Ms Ferber.

Bangkok has an estimated 300,000 street dogs, while Singapore has between 5,000 and 8,000.

Dogs under the new programme could either be directly adopted by an overseas family or go to a foster network which will find a home for them.

They will undergo socialisation and crate training for between two weeks and a month to prepare them for the hours they have to spend in crates on the plane.

ASD will then look for travellers bound for major cities in the US and Europe who will volunteer to take the dogs as check-in baggage.

All it took for Lilly was an export permit from the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, a health certificate from a veterinarian, a rabies vaccination and a volunteer traveller.

Her air journey cost ASD $300. Dogs bound for the US and the Netherlands, where ASD now has adoption networks, are also not required to be quarantined as Singapore is rabies-free.

Despite the extra work involved, international adoptions make sense. 'Keeping a dog in our adoption centre long-term and waiting for an adopter will take more than $300, which typically is what it will cost to maintain a dog for about two to three months,' said Mr Yeo.

ASD plans to send out at least one dog a month for a start, while actively expanding its network of foreign partners.

Next on the list is Kiwi, a stray dog whose hind paw was severed after it got caught in an illegal trap in Lim Chu Kang two months ago.

The three-legged dog, whose plight was reported in The Straits Times, is destined for a shelter in Seattle which has agreed to take her and put her up for adoption there.

Mr Yeo said Western countries are more receptive to 'imperfect' dogs, unlike in Singapore, where Kiwi's prospects of getting adopted are small.

ASD is ramping up its fund-raising efforts to cater to this programme, which will cost $40,000, next year. It is also looking for volunteer travellers bound for Boston, New York, Seattle or Amsterdam.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the largest animal welfare organisation here, said it has no plans to follow in ASD's footsteps.

'For us, we prefer to meet the people, counsel them and follow up if necessary,' said its executive officer, Ms Deirdre Moss, adding that its adoption centre in Mount Vernon Road sees high human traffic.

Lilly has proven to be such a fine ambassador for Singapore dogs that Ms Ferber plans to train her as a therapy dog.

'We intend on reciprocating with an open door for more Singapore dogs and doing everything we are able to from this end to enable more dogs to find happy homes with families in the US,' she said.

No guarantee that strays sent abroad will find good homes
Straits Times 30 Aug 09;

I refer to last Sunday's report, 'Wanted: Homes abroad for strays'.

Sending a dog abroad to be adopted does not ensure that the dog will be loved and well cared for there.

How will the house checks be done? How can you ensure that the dog will not be abandoned, or end up spending the rest of its life in another shelter abroad?

Does the country not have its own strays? Why help others when it probably faces the same pet abandonment issues at home?

Why does animal welfare group Action For Singapore Dogs (ASD) have to raise $40,000 to send more strays abroad?

Should the onus not be on the new family to pay to adopt a pet?

We all know that pets, like other items, are valued more when one has to pay for them.

Does it not make sense for the new adoptive family to make a payment or donation to ASD in exchange for adopting the stray?

With the donation, ASD would then be able to help and rescue more strays, rather than spend time raising funds.

Chew Annie (Mdm)

Screening, adoption fees part of scheme to rehome strays abroad
Straits Times 6 Sep 09;

I refer to Madam Annie Chew's letter last Sunday, 'No guarantee that strays sent abroad will find good homes'.

On behalf of Action for Singapore Dogs (ASD), I wish to respond regarding the launch of our overseas adoption programme, which aims to find homes in the United States and Europe for strays which we are unable to rehome locally.

Had Madam Chew checked with us first before writing in, we could have put her mind at rest.

The organisations and foster networks we work with all have sterling reputations and good track records in the area of adoptions, and follow the strict no-kill policy that we adhere to.

Screening of potential adopters such as house checks and references will be carried out as standard procedure, and adoptive families will get to meet the dogs ahead of any commitment.

All parties involved are constantly in touch through e-mail and photos even past the adoption stage.

Adoption fees are required, equivalent to those levied in shelters overseas, and the amount is actually more than in Singapore.

The $40,000 ASD needs is actually used for the strays, to cover the costs of the rescue, veterinary treatment, sterilisation, vaccinations, shelter and the procedural costs and flight to the destination country.

There can never be any guarantee that strays will find good homes in Singapore either.

Ironically, the 'Singapore Special' is not warmly received by the local population, and even with the few good families that eventually adopt, we do get a 20per cent to 30per cent return rate due to various circumstances.

At the same time, many adoptions of these mixed-breed puppies are handled by individual rehomers without adequate pre-adoption checks and follow-ups.

The biggest battle is that homes are hard to find in Singapore, where 80per cent of our population live in HDB housing with restrictions that do not allow ownership of a 15kg to 20kg mid-sized 'Singapore Special'.

There are still an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 strays out there, and we cannot shelter and rehome them all.

While ASD strives to find loving homes locally and overseas, the only long-term solution is a cooperative collaboration between the Government and non-governmental organisations, careful changes to the current HDB rules to allow these dogs into such homes and a humane sterilisation programme for the strays, which will eventually lead to a stray-free Singapore

Ricky Yeo
President
Action for Singapore Dogs Society

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Second dog maimed by illegal trap

Straits Times 23 Aug 09;

Since The Straits Times highlighted the plight of a stray dog whose leg was caught in an illegal trap two months ago, another dog has fallen victim in the same area.

The second dog, named Mimi by volunteers at Action For Singapore Dogs (ASD), was found two weeks ago with its front leg mangled. The leg had to be amputated.

Mr Ricky Yeo, president of ASD, said Mimi had not showed up at the regular feeding spot near a forested area in Lim Chu Kang for two weeks.

On Aug 10, while ASD volunteers were doing their feeding rounds, Mimi limped out, its front leg stripped of skin and with bones showing. The dog was also suffering from severe heartworm infection.

After the first dog, Kiwi, was found with its hind paw severed, the animal welfare group made a police report and alerted the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA).

Its volunteers also dismantled two traps that they found.

AVA told The Sunday Times that it did not find any traps in the area.

It is an offence to set traps - to catch protected wild animals - which could also endanger human life or cause grievous hurt. The maximum fine is $1,000 or a jail term of up to six months, or both.

AVA said it is monitoring the situation and is asking the public to contact the agency on 6471-9987 if they have any information on these illegal traps.

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Positive thinking for a cooler world

New Scientist 19 Aug 09;

THE threat posed by climate change is all too real, but some of the solutions are all in the mind. That's the message from work in the field known as conservation psychology, which is beginning to show how people can be encouraged to change their lifestyles to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

As well as showing what does work, this research also tells us what does not. And in that regard, groups trying to promote action to fight global warming could pay closer attention to what the psychologists are saying. Environmental groups have already learned some obvious lessons: no one likes to be hectored, and preachiness is not a winning tactic. Positive campaigns like "We can solve the climate crisis", run by Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, are a better idea. Meanwhile, other research suggests that human nature need not be as rapacious and short-sighted as it sometimes appears: we are surprisingly ready to act in the interests of others and the natural world (see "Triumph of the commons").

But other tricks are still being missed. The website of the "We can solve the climate crisis" campaign features a video by Will.i.am of the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas. As a backdrop to his song Take Our Planet Back, it shows images of environmental degradation coupled with statements like "Every American generates 2000 pounds of trash each year".

Approaches like this can be counterproductive, reinforcing the idea that heavy consumption is the societal norm and promoting a sense of helplessness in the face of an apparently insurmountable problem. Like it or not, most of us go with the herd. Show people this video and they will find little motivation not to carry on generating trash and burning oil like there's no tomorrow. But tell them about the steps their peers are taking to make things better, and they may just follow suit.

Over at the Earth Day Network site, it gets worse. There you can find out how many planets it would take to support your lifestyle if everyone on Earth lived the same way. It's hard to find any positive messages: a vegan who doesn't own a car, never flies, takes public transport to work and shares a tiny apartment in a US city would still be told that their lifestyle requires 3.3 Earths. It is hard to see what this is going to achieve, other than disillusioning people who are already doing their bit and telling everyone else that it isn't worth the bother.

Psychology, often denigrated as a "soft science", has a vital role to play as humankind grapples with a truly vexing problem. Better to employ its findings now than to turn to psychologists only when we need help in dealing with the distress of occupying a world that has passed some dangerous climate tipping points.

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How psychology can help the planet stay cool

Peter Aldhous, New Scientist 20 Aug 09;

"I'M NOT convinced it's as bad as the experts make out... It's everyone else's fault... Even if I turn down my thermostat, it will make no difference." The list of reasons for not acting to combat global warming goes on and on.

This month, an American Psychological Association (APA) task force released a report highlighting these and other psychological barriers standing in the way of action. But don't despair. The report also points to strategies that could be used to convince us to play our part.

Sourced from psychological experiments, we review tricks that could be deployed by companies or organisations to encourage climate-friendly behaviour. Also, on page 40 of this issue, psychologist Mark van Vugt of the Free University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands describes the elements of human nature that push us to act altruistically.

As advertisers of consumer products well know, different groups of people may have quite distinct interests and motivations, and messages that seek to change behaviour need to be tailored to take these into account. "You have to target the marketing to the demographic," says Robert Gifford of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, another of the report's authors.

The affluent young, for instance, tend to be diet conscious, and this could be used to steer them away from foods like cheeseburgers - one of the most climate-unfriendly meals around because of the energy it takes to raise cattle. So when trying to convince them to forgo that carbon-intensive beef pattie, better to stress health benefits than harp on about the global climate.

Though conservative pundits have been known to attack such efforts, characterising them as psychological manipulation or "mind control", experiments indicate that people are willing to be persuaded. "From participants in our experiments, we've never heard a negative backlash," says Wesley Schultz of California State University in San Marcos. In fact, according to John Petersen of Oberlin College, Ohio, we are used to far worse. "Compared to the barrage of advertising, it seems milder than anything I experience in my daily life," he says.
Good neighbours

DEEP down, most of us want to fit in with the crowd, and psychologists are exploiting this urge to conform to encourage environmentally friendly behaviour.

Researchers led by Wesley Schultz at California State University in San Marcos and Jessica Nolan, now at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, have found that people will cut their electricity usage if told that their neighbours use less than they do.

In one experiment, the researchers left information with households in San Marcos asking them to use fans rather than air conditioners at night, turn off lights and take shorter showers. Some messages simply stressed energy conservation, some talked about future generations, while others emphasised the financial savings. But it was the flyers that implored residents to join with their neighbours in saving energy that were most effective in cutting electricity consumption (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol 34, p 913).

In another study, the researchers told households what others in their neighbourhood used on average. High users cut their consumption in response, but low users increased theirs. The problem disappeared if the messages were reinforced with sad or smiley faces. The smileys received by the residents who were already saving energy provided sufficient encouragement for them to keep doing so (Psychological Science, vol 18, p 429).
Information economy

MOST people seem to conserve energy if provided with real-time feedback on how much they are using. But feedback can be too immediate.

For instance, Janet Swim has a General Motors car that shows her mileage per gallon plummeting each time she accelerates. It's just not very useful, she argues, because it's hard to place that momentary piece of feedback in the context of her overall driving behaviour and fuel efficiency.

In contrast, the Toyota Prius display shows mileage per gallon over 5-minute intervals for the previous half-hour. With that contextual information, people can experiment with different driving styles to see how they affect mileage, and even compete with themselves to improve over time. The 2010 Honda Insight goes one better, flashing up an image of a trophy to reward thrifty driving.

The benefits of feedback are not restricted to car gadgets. Studies show that devices that display domestic energy usage produce savings of between 5 and 12 per cent.
Competitive instincts

EVERY spring, selected student dormitories at Oberlin College in Ohio compete to discover which one can cut energy use by the most. Computer screens give the students detailed feedback on electricity consumption, and in one study dorms cut their electricity use by 55 per cent (International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol 8, p 16).

The researchers running the study have not yet crunched their numbers to separate out the effects of competition from the feedback on electricity consumption, but the large savings compared to other studies that lack a competitive element suggest a strong effect. "The competition, at least in this environment, is critical," says John Petersen, Oberlin's head of environmental studies.

Petersen concedes that Oberlin may attract students with green sensibilities atypical of society at large. The project is about to extend into the real world. Equipment to provide detailed feedback on electricity use will be fitted into 53 apartments and six business units in a development now under construction in the city of Oberlin. "We hope to create volunteer groups that will compete with one another," says psychologist Cindy Frantz.
Here and now

PEOPLE have to be persuaded to act on climate change even though the benefit won't be felt for decades. Research by David Hardisty and Elke Weber of Columbia University in New York suggests ways to achieve this.

Hardisty and Weber have found that people respond in exactly the same way to decisions involving future environmental gains and losses as they do when making financial decisions (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, vol 138, p 329). This allows psychologists' knowledge of how to manipulate financial decision-making to be brought into play.

For instance, schemes that give people an upfront cash payment for insulating their home will work better than those promising long-term savings, even if the people receiving cash end up paying a little more in the long run.

And because we are generally more worried about future losses than we are impressed by future gains, messages are more effective if framed to warn people that they will lose $500 over 10 years if they don't follow a particular course of action to limit climate change than if they are told they'll be $500 better off if they do take action.
Social networks

AS SOCIAL animals, we like to interact with others and take inspiration from their actions. Psychologists are working out how to exploit this to spread behaviours that will help limit climate change. "My sense is that social networks are going to be important," says Swim.

Allowing people to document successes in saving energy on their Facebook pages could drive change among their friends, and the Oberlin team is considering integrating this into its urban residence experiment.

Tawanna Dillahunt and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, think such opportunities presented by Facebook can be combined with our liking for furry animals. Inspired by the attachment that people can develop towards Tamagotchi virtual pets, the team is testing the persuasive power of a "virtual polar bear" standing on an ice floe that grows bigger as people adopt environmentally friendly behaviours such as taking shorter showers. Initial results suggests the polar bear has pull.

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