Himalayan sherpas bugged by the sight of house flies at 5,000m

House flies at Everest basecamp are another sign of climate change that is melting glaciers with worrying speed
John Vidal, guardian.co.uk 12 Oct 09;

Earlier this year Dawa Steven Sherpa was resting at Everest base camp when he and his companions heard something buzzing. "What the heck is that?" asked the young Nepali climber. They searched and found a big black house fly, something unimaginable just a few years ago when no insect could have survived at 5,360 metres.

"It's happened twice this year - the Himalayas are warming up and changing fast," says Dawa, who only took up climbing seriously in 2006, but in a few years has climbed Everest twice as well as two 8,000m peaks in Tibet.

"What I do is climb. It's a family business. And what we see is the Himalayan glaciers melting. It's not a seasonal thing any more. It's rapid. It's so apparent.

"Look at the walls and slopes of the Khumbu glacier [which flows 1.5 miles down from an icefall on the southern flanks of Everest]. "You can see a clear line where the black rock becomes white. That's where it's been exposed to the sun. That means metres of thick ice have melted in just a few decades," he says.

Dawa was born in Khumjung, a village just 12 miles from Everest which lies at 3,500m above sea level. His father used to climb with British mountaineer Chris Bonnington, and his grandfather, a yak traderwho toured the world with Everest's first summiteer, Sir Edmund Hillary.

All three generations of Dawa's family testify to major climate change taking place today. "Grandfather used to take yaks to a place called Gokio which was on the other side of the Ngozumba glacier, Nepal's longest. He could walk them over the ice but now it's just not there – it's a stony wasteland. The whole thing has melted," he says.

He lists some of the physical changes he has seen and their effects on local communities. "The permanent ice above our village now melts at about 5,500m, but it used to be 3,750 metres. Our village is seeing prolonged droughts. They used to last a few months. Now we can go seven months without rain. We have less water now and erratic weather patterns.

"The young girls must now walk two hours to fetch water. Tourism, too, is being hit because villages like Khumjung, which used to have a lot of water for trekkers now don't have it. The villagers lose their business.

"All the Himalayan glaciers are melting, an average of 10-20m a year," he says.

One of the most obvious changes, he adds, is the growth of what are known as glacial lake outburst floods (glofs).

"A glof happens when a glacial lake is created by a melting glacier and it then bursts. Imja lake is the most dramatic example of a potential one. It is growing 74m a year. When it bursts its banks, we will have a mountain tsunami. Billions of gallons of water will be released and it could wipe out about 70% of the trekking trail to Everest base camp. Not only will that destroy our homes and potentially kill people, but it will wipe out the jewel in the crown of Nepal's tourism industry," he says.

Last year villagers got an early warning of what they might expect. A very small lake at the edge of the Khumbu glacier burst and it washed away four bridges on a track up to Everest base camp.

Dawa, now 25, has a Belgian mother, a degree in business management from Heriot-Watt university in Scotland and he speaks five languages. He is a WWF ambassador on climate change and runs major expeditions into the Himalayas, climbing with his friend Apa Sherpa, who has climbed Everest 19 times - the world record. .

Everest itself is changing, he says. "Apa says there was running water on the surface of the South col [a saddle at 7,920m between Everest and Lhotse mountain] this year," says Dawa. "Also the summit is getting smaller. You used to be able to get 50 people on the ridge to it. Now there's room for 18 people at most. The cornice is breaking off. A big crevasse is opening. It never used to exist. It seems nothing is safe anymore."

Nothing compares with the beauty of standing on the summit of Everest and seeing far over the mountains, he says. But finding a fly buzzing thousands of metres up is horrifying.

Read more!

Carbon storage key to UN climate deal: ministers

Robin Millard Yahoo News 13 Oct 09;

LONDON (AFP) – New technology to capture carbon emissions and store them safely must be part of climate change talks in December, ministers from a 23-country group said at a meeting here Tuesday.

The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), holding a four-day gathering in the British capital, agreed to ramp up the case for carbon capture and storage (CCS) to be included at climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

The December 7-18 United Nations climate summit in the Danish capital will see nations attempt to hammer out a new global climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

CCS involves separating carbon dioxide from emissions -- for example from fossil fuel-burning power stations -- capturing it and storing it underground.

"It's important because it's only two months to Copenhagen. We agree there is no possible solution in Copenhagen without CCS as part of it," said Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Riis-Johansen, who co-hosted the forum with his British counterpart Ed Miliband.

"The world will use coal, oil and gas in the future," Riis-Johansen said. "We want to raise this debate and get more countries involved."

The CSLF comprises 23-member states, including the United States, China, Russia, Australia, South Africa, Japan and South Korea, plus the European Commission.

The ministers agreed that building more than 20 industrial-scale CCS demonstration projects, including in developing countries where carbon emissions are set to rise, was "vital".

They also agreed to support for developing countries to build power stations with CCS technology "once it's proven".

"Today some of the world's biggest coal-consuming nations have shown business as usual on coal won't do," said Miliband, who urged the international community to "step up the pace" on developing CCS technology.

"There's agreement that we need countries around the world to finance demonstrations, as we are doing in the UK; we need technology cooperation for know-how and capacity-building, and a financing agreement at Copenhagen which can drive CCS forward in developing countries."

The Global CCS Institute said there were 64 full-scale integrated CCS projects underway in the world, of which seven were operational.

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu said: "The reason we're saying it has to be part of the solution is that it's part of the lowest-cost solution.

"Energy efficiency is the lowest-cost solution, but CCS is not far behind."

He added: "If you want to deliver on climate change and cleaning up coal you need an outcome that incentivises this.

"Unless you can incentivise key technologies like CCS, then targets are all very well but you're not going to achieve the low carbon path that you need."

World Needs Big Drive For Carbon Capture: IEA
Daniel Fineren, PlanetArk 14 Oct 09;

LONDON - The world needs to build 100 major projects for capturing and burying greenhouse gases by 2020 and thousands more by 2050 to help combat climate change, International Energy Agency chief Nobuo Tanaka said Tuesday.

Energy ministers meeting in London said the world must start building by next year at least 20 commercial-scale pilot projects to test a technology which U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu said could solve "20 percent of the problem" to curb carbon.

The drive, mostly to capture emissions from coal-fired power stations, would cost $56 billion by 2020 alone, said Tanaka. Carbon capture funding could be a key part of a new U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.

"We will need 100 large scale projects by 2020, 850 by 2030 and 3,400 in 2050," Tanaka told the ministers at a carbon capture and storage (CCS) conference, adding that the rich world must take the lead but most projects must be in non-OECD countries by 2050.

A few industrial-scale projects are in operation, including in Norway, Canada and Algeria, but none tests all parts of the capture process. Heat-trapping carbon dioxide can be taken from the exhausts of a coal-fired power plant, for instance, then piped underground into porous rocks.

The IEA estimates that after the $56 billion investment in CCS globally from 2010-2020, a further $646 billion will be needed from 2021 to 2030, Tanaka told the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum.

U.N. studies have indicated that CCS could do more to limit greenhouse gas emissions this century than a shift to renewable energies such as wind or solar power. CCS has been limited by high costs.

COPENHAGEN SUCCESS

"We call upon the delegates to the United Nations climate conference in Copenhagen to recognize the importance of CCS in mitigating climate change," said a closing statement of the 15 ministers, including those from the United States, Europe and China.

"The world's biggest coal-using nations recognize we cannot continue with business as usual on coal," British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said. "We need a mechanism which will at least provide the opportunity for developing countries to get help with financing some of the incremental costs of their projects."

A promise of big aid via technologies such as CCS could encourage developing nations led by China and India to sign up in Copenhagen for more action to limit rising emissions.

Talks on the new U.N. climate deal made little progress at a two-week session that ended in Bangkok last week, partly because of disputes between rich and poor nations about sharing out the burden of curbs on greenhouse gas emissions.

It is unclear if the U.S. Senate will pass laws before Copenhagen to cut national emissions, and recession is dampening willingness to act.

In Australia, a survey Tuesday indicated that saving jobs was the top priority for voters. Fighting climate change fell to seventh, two years after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was swept to power on a promise to tackle global warming.

The government said it was committed to an emissions trading scheme which, if defeated in November, could bring a snap election. "Our policy is not determined by polls," Climate Minister Penny Wong said of the survey.

So far, few nations have agreed to invest heavily in carbon capture technologies -- nations including the United States, Australia, Britain and China have projects.

Still, in a national budget Tuesday, Norway said it would almost double funding of carbon capture research to $620 million next year. Norway has the oldest commercial carbon capture site, set up in 1996 at the Sleipner gas field in the North Sea.

-- Additional reporting by Gerard Wynn

(Editing by David Stamp)

Read more!

Global race to gain a clean-tech edge

Hum Wei Mei, Straits Times 14 Oct 09;

CLEAN technology is about more than just reducing greenhouse gases. It is also likely to catapult a class of commodities into prominence, with implications for resource politics and the economic strategies of nations.

There are three reasons for the sector's growing significance: its role in keeping down the cost of climate change measures by improving energy efficiency; its ability to reward enterprising countries with new avenues of growth; and its potential to increase a country's energy security and independence.

Countries that come out ahead in the clean technology sector are therefore likely to be more competitive and secure than others. As a result, clean technology features prominently in the grand strategies of nations in the 21st century.

While clean technology is still in a nascent stage, international competition to develop the sector has intensified considerably.

This has, in turn, added a new dimension to global resource politics. While there is no formal consensus on which commodities will be vital, the European Union, America, Japan, China and South Korea have all established commissions to identify the resources key to their interests.

The scarce materials used in the lucrative and strategically significant clean technology sector include metals such as rare earth elements (REEs), platinum group metals, indium and niobium, which are critical to clean technologies ranging from turbines to lithium-ion batteries.

There are supply problems with a number of these metals because of the difficulty of increasing their production quickly or because they may be subject to export restrictions. Add high demand to these factors, and the stage is set for intense international rivalry for access to these materials.

The fierce competition for lithium stems from its applications in the important field of energy storage. According to Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, the world's largest supplier of lithium, global demand - already growing at 6.7 per cent annually - is expected to accelerate rapidly. This is because of the growing demand for lithium-ion batteries for use in electric vehicles, leading some to wonder if lithium is the new oil.

Meanwhile, global reserves of lithium are concentrated in a few countries. Just four Latin American countries - Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and Brazil - account for more than 80 per cent of the world's reserves of lithium.

China too has an enviable share of the scarce materials needed to support the clean technology sector. In fact, China accounts for more than 95 per cent of the global production of REEs, which are needed to make the advanced permanent magnets used in hybrid and electric vehicles and wind turbines.

About 20kg of these elements are used in a hybrid car such as the Toyota Prius and almost 1,000kg is needed to make an efficient 1MW wind turbine.

Last month, it was reported that China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was considering imposing further restrictions on the production and export of REEs and other industrial raw materials.

This sparked fears that the clean technology industry would be held hostage to limited supplies of vital raw materials.

China has not only encouraged the growth of clean technology industries within its borders, by reducing exports of crucial raw materials, it has also given foreign clean technology companies incentives to set up operations in the country so as to secure access to supplies.

In December, more than 170 countries will attempt to bring about a new global climate agreement. But even as countries negotiate measures to mitigate climate change, they are also seeking to position their economies to profit from a different energy landscape.

Countries like Singapore, which boast neither rich endowments of strategic raw materials nor cutting-edge clean technologies, need to assess how they can best adapt to the new global resource politics.

Economic and industrial strategies are being realigned in an emerging carbon constrained world underwritten by clean technology.

The writer is an adjunct fellow at the Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 13 Oct 09

16 Oct (Fri): Screening of "The Age of Stupid" at the Hollandse Club from wild shores of singapore

27 Oct (Tue): "Biodiversity: A Fundamental Determinant of Human Health?" by Dr. Aaron Bernstein from wild shores of singapore

Speak up for our wild places: STB seeks feedback on tourism plan
from wild shores of singapore

Post a Green Job Vacancy for Free
from Green Business Times

Nice Checkout Dive @ Mainland Singapore
from colourful clouds

Live rock
from The annotated budak

Imitating A Twig
from Life's Indulgences

Black-throated Sunbird’s hunting technique
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Barbets eating figs
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Astrosarkus: Discovering The Great Pumpkin Starfish!
from The Echinoblog

Read more!

Plug in, but take time to tune out

To become effective in a knowledge-based economy, we should make time for solitude
William Choong, Straits Times 13 Oct 09;

At a recent briefing for parents, a school principal at a top school here spoke of the importance of children learning to appreciate nature and art: 'Spend some time with them at the nature reserve,' he urged the parents.

I DON'T watch soccer on TV. I don't even have a TV at home.

So, it was a revelation to me to see usually quiet Singaporeans going at both SingTel and StarHub after the former beat the latter in a bidding contest for rights to the English Premier League. Some railed against the idea of adding one more set-top box to their collection.

I have got nothing against television per se. Like most people, I appreciate Discovery Channel and BBC World. I have been a Manchester United fan for 20 years; to keep myself updated with the latest scores, I resort to the Internet (or Richard, the manager of the office canteen and rabid Man U fan).

But my wife and I decided not to have a television simply because we did not want another distraction on top of all the other distractions the digital age has to offer.

To paraphrase the celebrated Liverpool manager Bill Shankly, the issue here is not just about the ease of watching EPL matches; rather, it is much more important than that. Singaporeans have too many digital distractions on tap - via the Internet, smartphone, cable television and other sources. The 24/7 digital assault screams at us through 98 channels, at 900Mhz, 10Mbps.

No wonder we are afflicted by a severe bout of digital fidgetitis. Put a dozen of us (myself included) in an empty room, and chances are we would start fiddling with our BlackBerrys and mobile phones - even if there are no missed calls or SMSes.

I am not a Luddite. Technological thingamajigs have made us more productive and effective. But a Wikipedia man may not necessarily be a wise one. Google might not necessarily have made us stupid, but its aid in marshalling a wealth of facts does not necessarily make one sharper or more discerning.

A body of research - not to mention common sense - indicates that the quality of one's output and the depth of one's thought deteriorates as one attends to ever more tasks. Maryanne Wolf, the author of Proust And The Squid: The Story And Science Of The Reading Brain, notes that the immediate nature of Internet reading has damaged our capability for deep reading.

How, then, do we slay the modern day beast known as information overload? We need something relatively ancient: Solitude.

Early psychologists believed that solitude warded off the potential perils of over-stimulation. Their contemporaries today argue that solitude - defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the 'state of being or living alone; loneliness; seclusion' - helps us to engage in interesting thoughts and action, fosters creativity and enhances spirituality.

Spiritual figures such as Moses, Jesus, Muhammad all sought solitude, and then returned to share with others what they discovered. Likewise, many famous writers such as Thoreau, Dickinson, Kipling and Kafka have leaned on solitude in their creative process.

Some researchers note that when levels of stimulation drop significantly, a person may generate 'internal stimuli' such as physical sensations, daydreams, distorted thoughts and shifting emotions - all of which contribute to creativity.

A group of researchers based in the Antarctic for an extended period exhibited higher degrees of creativity there. Members made comments such as: '(I) could make my own stories, live them in my mind as if they were real life', or '(I had) more vivid daydreams'.

Paradoxically, solitude also leads to intimacy, in that many people who are in solitude experience feelings of intimacy for others. The poet Lord Byron described solitude as the place 'where we are least alone'. Similarly, Henry Thoreau wrote: 'I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.'

All this talk about solitude is not mere ivory tower mumbo-jumbo. Arguably, the effects of the two biggest crises of the early 21st century - the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and last year's global financial turmoil - could have been ameliorated by a healthy dose of solitude and out-of-the-box thinking.

In 2004, the Sept 11 Commission found that the US intelligence community suffered from a lack of imagination before the attacks. This made it impossible for most analysts and policymakers to accurately gauge the terrorist threat.

Similarly, the 2008 financial crisis was caused by traders who misperceived the possibility of rare events, misperceptions that were reinforced by other faulty risk assessments.

In the poem Enter Without So Much As Knocking, Australian poet Bruce Dawe evokes the theme of man being dust and returning to dust. The poem begins with the birth of a boy, born into a confusing world of television advertisements, consumerism, fashion and the glaring lights of a city that never sleeps.

At every juncture of the poem, the beauty of living is overtaken by the detritus of modern life, such that the beautiful babe at the start of the poem becomes a horrible creature at the end.

The man finally gets time to reflect when he dies: 'No downpayments,

Nobody grieving over halitosis, Flat feet shrinking gums falling hair, Six feet down nobody interested, Blink, blink. CEMETERY. Silence.'

Where does this leave us? To become more effective in a knowledge-based economy, we should make time for solitude. For a few hours a day, or even a full day occasionally, we should learn to switch off all our digital devices and read a book, walk in a nature reserve or meditate.

At a recent briefing for parents, a school principal at a top school here spoke of the importance of children learning to appreciate nature and art: 'Spend some time with them at the nature reserve,' he urged the parents.

'You will hardly find a crowd at the MacRitchie Reservoir. You can reflect there. It is way better than spending your weekends at the shopping mall.'

Wisely put.

As The New York Times writer Mark Bittman has suggested, we should declare a 'secular Sabbath'. And while we are at it, it might not be a bad idea to switch off, or even junk, that set-top box, which increasingly looks like a set-up hoax.

Read more!

President's Award for the Environment goes to youth-related organisations

Joanne Chan, Channel NewsAsia 12 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE: The President's Award for the Environment, which received 29 nominations this year, focused on grooming youths as future eco-champions.

Two of the three recipients of the award - Commonwealth Secondary School and the National Youth Achievement Award Council - were recognised for developing students and youth leaders with an interest in green issues.

The award's evaluating committee said it was not a "conscious" decision to pick organisations that groomed youths, but instead it felt that if green leaders are developed from a young age, the benefits will be long-term.

Commonwealth Secondary School was recognised for being among the first to introduce a structured programme for environmental education.

The school's lower secondary students are exposed to topics such as water conservation, climate change and alternative energies. The students learn more about the environment through field trips and project work, and the school plans to further nurture the students' interest in the environment.

"We also intend to put in place a work attachment programme, so that we can expose our students to environment-related careers that they can embark on. So this gets them to think long-term, instead of short-term focus," said Cheah Mei Ling, principal, Commonwealth Secondary School.

The National Youth Achievement Award Council is another organisation which is convinced that change starts with youths. The council provides a platform to engage them and help develop a passion for the environment.

"They are the future and it's very important to provide them the opportunity and platform. And youths have the energy, they're passionate and if they believe in it, they will do it well," said James Soh, executive director, National Youth Achievement Award Council.

The semiconductor company, ST Microelectronics, is the third recipient of the award. Despite being a major player in a resource-intensive industry, the company has paved the way for greener facilities management, achieving huge water and energy savings.

With a new water reclamation system, the ST wafer fabrication plant manages to save about 2.6 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water daily. It also cut down on 3.5 million kilowatt-hour worth of energy last year, the equivalent of powering 800 four-room flats for a year.

"Basically to comply with regulatory framework was one of the key criteria. Then secondly, new fabrication is getting more and more expensive. We really have to think of a way to reduce the cost of running the new facilities," said Benny Lim, director, Facility Operations, ST Microelectronics.

Currently in its fourth year, the President's Award for the Environment is the highest accolade in Singapore that recognises individuals, organisations and companies for their contributions to environmental sustainability.

- CNA/sc

Environment awards have strong youth flavour
They will honour tech firm, school, youth achievement council
Joyce Hooi, Business Times 13 Oct 09;

THIS year's President's Award for the Environment will be presented to largely youth-oriented recipients by President SR Nathan at the Istana tonight.

Commonwealth Secondary School, the National Youth Achievement Award (NYAA) Council and STMicroelectronics were selected from 29 nominees for the award, which recognises efforts to achieve environmental stability.

'We have seen a wonderful move towards awareness of environmental sustainability and this has been reflected in the nominations we have received in the past few years,' said Tan Gee Paw, chairman of the award's evaluation committee.

The award, now in its fourth year, is for prolonged effort in the area of environmental conservation.

'Track record is important,' Mr Tan said. 'We were not looking for environmental efforts that were just a flash in the pan; the activities had to be ingrained in the organisation.'

This year's winners have built up a substantial portfolio of work in the environmental area.

The NYAA Council, for example, can trace its work in educating young people about the environment back to 1992. Its network of Gold Award Holders' Alumni is now developing a kit on climate change for pre-schoolers.

The first school to win the award, Commonwealth Secondary School, has made lessons on water conservation and climate change a part of its curriculum. The school also boasts a constructed wetland that was converted from a pond and recycles grey water.

'Sustainable development will be one of the major and most complex issues facing the next generation,' said Cheah Mei Ling, principal of Commonwealth Secondary School.

Semiconductor giant STMicroelectronics has spent almost three decades exploring sustainable business practices. As far back as the early 1990s, it made voluntary environmental reporting a part of its corporate social responsibility policy. 'We focus on water and energy conservation and have improved our bottom line as well,' said Benny Lim, the firm's director of facility operations front-end manufacturing in Asia-Pacific.

Last year, STMicroelectronics recycled 79 per cent of its waste, with only 1.5 per cent headed for landfills.

Previous award winners include Professor Tommy Koh in 2006, City Developments Ltd in 2007 and South West Community Development Council in 2008.

Commonwealth 1st school to win top green award
Grace Chua, Straits Times 13 Oct 09;

COMMONWEALTH Secondary School was not 14-year-old Wilson Lim's first choice.

But after being posted there and joining programmes such as the clean-ups of Sungei Pandan and dragonfly studies, the young environmentalist has no regrets about attending the neighbourhood school.

And now, he has something of which he can be even more proud.

This evening, Commonwealth Secondary will be the first school to receive the prestigious President's Award for the Environment, the highest national accolade for championing environmental sustainability.

The award, now in its fourth year, will be presented at the Istana in a ceremony presided over by President S R Nathan.

The school, one of two Ministry of Education centres of excellence for environmental education, has been incorporating the green message in its curriculum and activities for several years now.

Its students go on field trips to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and study water treatment and wildlife at the campus' specially constructed wetland habitat. The school is hoping to start a work attachment plan to expose students to environment- related jobs, said principal Cheah Mei Ling.

This environmental push began after its Green Club was formed in 2001. Students and staff then discovered a cause they could champion.

'We hope to inspire other schools to undertake a similar journey,' Mrs Cheah said.

The other award winners this year are the National Youth Achievement Award Council and semiconductor company ST Microelectronics.

The council, launched in 1992 to guide 14- to 25-year-olds in community service, skills development and other areas, has made conservation an element of its service criteria since 1993.

ST Microelectronics has an outstanding track record when it comes to saving energy and recycling its waste and water.

It saves about 6,000 cu m of water each day, enough to fill 2.6 Olympic-size swimming pools, and annually cuts enough energy to power 800 four-room HDB flats for a year.

Facility operations director Benny Lim said: 'We aim to comply with the most stringent frameworks.'

This year's winners were picked from 29 nominees, including individuals, organisations like schools and NGOs, and companies.

PUB chairman Tan Gee Paw, who chaired the award evaluation committee, said of the three winners: 'They have institutionalised environmental awareness, which will continue into the future.'

Read more!

STB developing new blueprint to boost tourist growth

Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia 12 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) is developing a new road map for 2020. It is also looking for ideas from the public.

Singapore's tourism industry has taken a hit with the economic downturn. Latest figures showed tourist arrivals from January to August fell 9.2 per cent over the same period last year to 6.23 million.

There was one silver lining though - the rate of decline has slowed since June.

The STB had previously set as its 2015 target 17 million visitor arrivals and S$30 billion in tourism receipts. But it now said that would be a challenge.

Looking forward to 2020, the STB has put together a steering committee to chart strategic directions for the future of an industry that contributed 5.8 per cent to GDP last year.

Five taskforces have been set up to look into specific areas - Business, Enrichment, Lifestyle, Marketing plus Travel and Hospitality.

Industry leaders heading these taskforces know they face an uphill task.

Dennis Foo, co-chair of Lifestyle Taskforce and CEO of St James Power Station, said: "... very exciting years ahead, with the two IRs (integrated resorts). But the big challenge is really to have the right software - essentially, it's the people. Hospitality is about people."

Loh Lik Peng, co-chair of Business Taskforce and director of KMC Holdings, said: "A lot of it is looking ahead and seeing the growth opportunities in markets like China, India, Indonesia.

"If you look at the wealth creation in those countries, the size of the middle class and the people who will travel for work and will want to come for events in Singapore or hold a conference here will increase exponentially.

"We want to position ourselves so that we get a fair share of that market. We don't want to be marginalised by their own capital cities."

About 70 per cent of Singapore's visitor arrivals are from Asia.

For its new road map, the STB wants to tap on ideas from the public through this website.

The public can submit their ideas over the next four months.

STB's chief executive, Aw Kah Peng, said: "Everyone who has a good idea, who can contribute, we want to hear them. If we can take even a small number of these ideas and turn them into something that works for us, that will be tremendously powerful."

The new road map and targets are expected to be ready by March next year.

- CNA/ir


Know how to woo more tourists? Tell STB
Tourism board seeks public, industry ideas on improving local appeal
Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times 13 Oct 09;

IF YOU have views on local tourism and how its appeal can be ramped up to bring in more visitors, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) wants to hear them.

The board will also tap industry experts for their input on what needs to be done to grow their sectors.

Singapore has been efficient in developing tourism infrastructure, but needs to work harder in areas like service - what the STB calls the 'software'.

The results of this consultation exercise will go into setting up targets for 2020, and charting ways of hitting them.

This 'road map', dubbed the Tourism Compass 2020, marks the first time the STB has canvassed the public for feedback.

It will do this online, at a website set up for the purpose: http://www.tourismcompass2020.com

The most creative ideas submitted will be posted on the website and thrown open to a public vote. Those whose ideas garner the most support will win prizes like a trip to Resorts World at Sentosa. Their ideas could also make it into the tourism masterplan, which is expected to be unveiled by next March.

Among the more than 50 captains of industry who will be consulted are nightlife veteran and owner of St James Power Station Dennis Foo, serviced apartments operator Ascott Group's chief executive officer Gerald Lee, and retailer F. J. Benjamin's executive director Douglas Benjamin. Five task-force groups have been set up to examine the following sectors:

# Business

# Enrichment, looking at education and health care

# Lifestyle, including retail and the arts

# Marketing

# Travel and hospitality

Mr Foo has already identified manpower shortage as a perennial issue.

Industry feedback was also sought when the 2015 targets were set up, but not on such a scale.

STB chief executive officer Aw Kah Peng pointed out that in any case, those targets, established more than five years ago, needed re-examination in the light of the current global economic crisis.

The 2015 target was to attract 17 million tourists to spend $30 billion here.

The targets are staying, but getting there will be a challenge, said Ms Aw.

Tourism grew steadily up to the first half of last year, but with the financial crisis hitting in the second half, the year ended with numbers shy of 2007's.

The targets were to welcome 10.8 million visitors, who would spend $15.5 billion; by year's end, only 10.1 million had come and $14.8 billion had been spent.

The targets this year are more modest - to attract nine million to 9.5 million visitors, and to generate between $12 billion and $12.5 billion in shopping receipts.

Singapore wants your suggestions
Teo Xuanwei, Today Online 13 Oct 09;

SINGAPORE - Unlike years past - when the arrival of tourist magnets such as the Integrated Resorts and Formula One to our shores were largely Government-led moves - you can now have a bigger say as to how Singapore's tourism scene should be like.

Or as Singapore Tourism Board (STB) chief Aw Kah Peng put it - having Singaporeans give their input and ideas will ensure that "we can tell our story to tourists better".

This drive to chart a roadmap for Singapore tourism in 2020 - which will enhance the current 2015 blueprint - was launched yesterday with STB asking for the public's views on ways to woo travellers here.

Mr Gerald Lee, The Ascott Group's deputy chief and co-chair of the Singapore Tourism Consultative Council, said: "Tourism is not just for visitors; Singapore tourism belongs to residents, too.

By bringing members of the public into this discussion, we hope to include ideas and suggestions close to the hearts of people."

For the next four months, you can chip in with ideas on a new website (www.tourismcompass2020.com). STB expects to share its findings by March.

It is a good time to look ahead and refine our long-term strategies, said Ms Aw, as growing regional markets such as Thailand and Macau increasingly jostle with Singapore for tourists.

Over 50 industry players from both the public and private sectors have been grouped in five taskforces under a Tourism Compass 2020 steering committee to raise Singapore's appeal in various areas.

While STB did not reveal hard targets for 2020 - the Tourism 2015 blueprint, set five years ago, aims to achieve $30 billion in tourism receipts and 17 million visitor arrivals - one indication, according to Mr Lee, would be for Singapore to evolve into a "destination of a lifetime" and a "regular weekend vacation spot" at the same.

STB sets up steering committee for new tourism roadmap
Business Times 13 Oct 09;

THE Singapore Tourism Board (STB) yesterday unveiled a steering committee to provide direction for future developments here under its Tourism Compass 2020 roadmap.

Tourism Compass 2020 will be an extension of Tourism 2015 - a blueprint launched in 2005 to achieve $30 billion of tourism receipts and 17 million visitor arrivals a year by 2015.

STB said development of the new roadmap is 'timely' given recent events - such as the economic downturn, H1N1 flu and avian flu - all of which have hurt the tourism industry.

STB chief executive Aw Kah Peng said: 'While the current environment may be challenging, we are upbeat about the long-term prospects for growth and emerging opportunities afforded by new travel trends, so we can further tourism's contribution as a key driver of Singapore's economy.'

Ms Aw will co-chair the Tourism Compass 2020 steering committee with Gerald Lee, deputy chief executive of The Ascott Group.

The steering committee will include members of the Tourism Consultative Council (TCC), who are leaders in the business and tourism sectors.

Five task forces - business, enrichment, lifestyle, marketing, and travel and hospitality - have also been set up, with each task force led jointly by STB and TCC representatives. Members include representatives of 'various backgrounds from the private and public sectors who can provide valuable insights and perspectives', such as the executive director of FJ Benjamin, Douglas Benjamin, and general manager of Zuji Singapore Melissa Siew.

STB also said it wants members of the public to put their ideas forward through the Tourism Compass 2020 website - http://www.tourismcompass2020.com - from this month to January next year. Details of the roadmap will be announced in the first quarter of 2010.

Related posts

• Speak up for our wild places: STB seeks feedback on tourism plan from wild shores of singapore.
  
• Small is Beautiful for Tourism Compass 2020 from AsiaIsGreen.

Read more!

New Indonesian government quota system to preserve coral reefs

The Jakarta Post 13 Oct 09;

The government plans to set a quota on coral trading to ensure the sustainability of marine biodiversity, a minister revealed Monday.

"Coral reefs are very important for our country, as it is located within *the* Coral Triangle area," Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Fredy Numberi told a press conference during a symposium on coral reef management.

The quota system was recommended by the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI), Fredy said.

It was reported that a piece of coral is sold for Rp 1,000 (10 US cents) to Rp 3,000 while the replacement of the same coral would cost between Rp 5,000 and Rp 10,000.

It takes at least one year for a coral reef to grow by one centimeter.

A 2003 Johns Hopkins University study revealed Indonesia's 85,000-square-kilometer coral reef area is home to a third of the world's coral and a quarter of its fish species.

Indonesia has fallen victim to destructive fishing, unregulated tourism and climatic changes, as well as coral trading. Data from 414 reef monitoring stations in 2000 found that only six percent of Indonesia's coral reefs are in excellent condition, while 24 percent are in good condition, and about 70 percent are only in poor to fair condition.

Yaya Mulyana, the director of the Coral Reef Rehabilitation and Management Program Phase II (COREMAP II), said once the government has set a quota, traders will be advised to sell only transplanted coral .

There are about 50 species of coral in Bali and West Nusa Tenggara that can be transplanted.

State Minister for national development planning (Bappenas) Paskah Suzetta said the government would produce a blueprint to address several maritime issues such as fisheries, tourism, sea resources, and modes of sea transportation.

"The Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Ministry *DKP* and Bappenas will cooperate in drafting the blueprint," Paskah said on the sidelines of the symposium. (naf)

Read more!

Rare Vegetarian Spider Discovered

Jeanna Bryner, livescience.com Yahoo News 12 Oct 09;

In a possible affront to its fierce meat-eating relatives, one jumping spider prefers to dine vegetarian, munching on specialized leaf-tips of acacia shrubs, finds a new study.
The eight-legged vegetarian, called Bagheera kiplingi, lives in Central America, and is now considered a rarity among the world's 40,000 or so spider species, most of which are strictly predators, feeding on insects and other animals. B. kiplingi is about the size of a person's pinky nail.

"This is really the first spider known to specifically 'hunt' plants; it is also the first known to go after plants as a primary food source," said study researcher Christopher Meehan of Villanova University in Pennsylvania. (Co-author Eric Olson of Brandeis University independently observed the same behaviors in another population of this spider in Costa Rica.)

Essentially, the spider employs hunting strategies to get past guard ants that keep the acacias safe from other herbivores. In return, the ants get a comfy place to live - the plant's hollow spines - and food in the form of acacia nectar and the shrub's leaf-tips.

B. kiplingi spends its entire life on the acacia shrubs, and so must avoid the ants at all times. When hunting, they actively avoid the ants by changing targets when approached by a guard, and using silk droplines as retreat ladders. The spiders also nest primarily on the ends of older acacia leaves, spots the researchers found were least patrolled by ants.

"Most of the big spider textbooks almost outright claimed there are no herbivorous spiders," Meehan told LiveScience. "It's on par with the flying pig in terms of novelty."

The strategy seems to be successful. Direct observation, video recordings and chemical analyses of such spiders in Mexico and Costa Rica suggest the animals get most of their food from such plants. In the Mexican population, about 90 percent of the spiders' diet came from plant tissue, with the rest made up of ant larvae, nectar and other items. In Costa Rica, the spiders got about 60 percent of their diet from acacia plant tissues.

When the spiders do hunt ant larvae, they mimic the ants' behaviors, for instance by making jerky movements.

The research will be published in the Oct. 13 issue of the journal Current Biology.

'Veggie' spider shuns meat diet
Rebecca Morelle, BBC News 12 Oct 09;

A spider that dines almost exclusively on plants has been described by scientists.

It is the first-known predominantly vegetarian spider; all of the other known 40,000 spider species are thought to be mainly carnivorous.

Bagheera kiplingi , which is found in Central America and Mexico, bucks the meat-eating trend by feasting on acacia plants.

The research is published in the journal Current Biology.

The herbivorous spider was filmed on high-definition camera.

Running the gauntlet

The jumping arachnid, which is 5-6mm long, has developed a taste for the tips of the acacia plants - known as Beltian bodies - which are packed full of protein.

But to reach this leafy fare, the spider has to evade the attention of ants, which live in the hollow spines of the tree.

The ants and acacia trees have co-evolved to form a mutually beneficial relationship: the aggressive ants protect the trees from predators, swarming to attack any invaders; and in return for acting as bodyguards, the ants get to gorge on the acacias' Beltian bodies themselves.

But the crafty Bagheera kiplingi has found a way to exploit this symbiotic relationship.

One of the study's authors, Professor Robert Curry, from Villanova University, Pennsylvania, told BBC News: "The spiders basically dodge the ants.

"The spiders live on the plants - but way out on the tips of the old leaves, where the ants don't spend a lot of time, because there isn't any food on those leaves."

But when they get hungry, the spiders head to the newer leaves, and get ready to run the ant gauntlet.

Professor Curry said: "And they wait for an opening - they watch the ants move around, and they watch to see that there are not any ants in the local area that they are going after.

"And then they zip in and grab one of these Beltian bodies and then clip it off, hold it in their mouths and run away.

"And then they retreat to one of the undefended parts of the plant to eat it."

Like other species of jumping spider, Bagheera kiplingi has keen eyesight, is especially fast and agile and is thought to have good cognitive skills, which allows it to "hunt" down this plant food.

Fierce competition

The spider's herbivorous diet was first discovered in Costa Rica in 2001 by Eric Olsen from Brandeis University, and was then independently observed again in 2007 by Christopher Meehan, at that time an undergraduate student at Villanova University.

The team then collaborated to describe the spider for the first time in this Current Biology paper.

Professor Curry said he was extremely surprised when he found out about its unusual behaviour.

He said: "This is the only spider we know that deliberately only goes after plants."

While some spiders will occasionally supplement their diet with a little nectar or pollen, Bagheera kiplingi 's diet is almost completely vegetarian - although occasionally topped up with a little ant larvae at times.

Professor Curry said there were numerous reasons why this spider might have turned away from meaty meals.

He said: "Competition in the tropics is pretty fierce so there are always advantages to doing what someone else isn't already doing.

"They are jumping spiders, so they don't build a web to catch food, so they have to catch their prey through pursuit. And the Beltian bodies are not moving - they are stuck - so it is a very predictable food supply."

Acacias also produce leaves throughout the year - even through the dry season - which would make them attractive.

And Professor Curry added: "Because the plants are protected by ants, they have none of their own chemical defences that other plants do."

Read more!

Support for New Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Gathers Momentum

UNEP 9 Oct 09;

Five-Day IPBES Discussions Underline Need for Serious Strengthening of 'Science-Policy Links' to Reverse Declines

Nairobi, 9 October 2009-Momentum towards the establishment of a new international body to address the loss and degradation of the world's multi trillion dollar nature-based assets gathered pace at a meeting of close to 100 governments.

There was strong support that an intergovernmental panel, similar to the one that has catalyzed political action on the issue of climate change, is now needed to galvanize a step change in respect to the management of biodiversity and ecosystems.

Governments agreed that there was now an urgency to strengthen the link between science and policy so that the knowledge being generated by researchers across the globe gets turned into action by governments on the ground.

Delegates, who were meeting at the headquarters of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), agreed that a final meeting would be held in 2010 on whether to establish an Intergovernmental Panel or Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

2010 marks the International Year of Biodiversity when governments in 2002 agreed to reverse the rate of loss of biodiversity at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director, said:" The deadline date for this decision on IPBES is significant. This is the year when the world had hoped to have turned the tide on the loss of biodiversity. This however is unlikely to be achieved which does not undermine the goal but speaks volumes of the need for an effective mechanism which IPBES could represent".

"This week's meeting has certainly moved the process a long way forward towards that opportunity. The vast majority of countries now agree that a body akin to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is now needed to translate the science into policies for positive change," he said.

"Indeed, the momentum here in Nairobi was encouraging-there is a clear recognition that the status quo is not an option. More discussions on the detail, the financing, the issue of capacity building for developing economies and the precise role of an IPBES is now needed. But a deadline has now been set for a full and final decision," he said.

Robert Watson, chief scientist at the UK's Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the chair of the meeting, said: "This week's meeting comes in the wake of mounting evidence of the serious and significant economic impact of the inadequacy of the current policy response".

"The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project, which UNEP hosts and whose final report will coincide with the biological diversity convention's crucial meeting in Nagoya next year, estimates that damage and degradation of ecosystems such as forests may be costing between $2 trillion and $5 trillion a year," he added.

Ibrahim Thiaw, Director of UNEP's Division of Environmental Policy Implementation, said: "This threatens not only human well-being and the achievement of the poverty-related Millennium Development Goals but the opportunity for a low carbon, resource efficient Green Economy for the 21st century-we urgently need a step change in the way science and economics are translated into transformational policy decisions."

Background

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005 played a crucial role in alerting the world to the rapid loss of the planet's nature-based assets.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment revealed that ecosystems and biodiversity had declined more rapidly in the past 50 years than at any other time in human history. The four-year study on the use of the planet's natural resources released in 2005 noted that 60 percent of ecosystem services - benefits from ecosystems like water purification - have been degraded, that about a quarter of the earth's land is now cultivated and that human beings use 40 to 50 percent of all available freshwater.

"The message emanating from the Assessment is clear: unless these problems are addressed urgently, the degradation of ecosystem services and the irreversible loss in biodiversity will substantially diminish the benefits that future generations could obtain from ecosystems," said Angela Cropper, UNEP's deputy director during the opening of this week's meeting.

Despite the report's warning, the losses continue. "There seems to be a disconnect between the findings of the Assessment and the urgent changes required in the policies of governments," she added.

The five-day gathering of over 200 delegates from over 90 countries was convened to find the mechanism by which science can be linked to policy-making to stop the degradation.

"Often governments are called upon to make very unpopular decisions to stop the destruction of ecosystems and biodiversity loss. For this reason such decisions should be supported, and such support should be based on the best available scientific evidence," John Michuki, Kenya's Minister for Environment and Mineral Resources, told the audience.

While science helps to understand the challenges due to the loss in biodiversity and ecosystems and the solutions, it is increasingly clear that the science is fragmented along specific issues, lacks a complete overview on biodiversity and ecosystem services and it means nothing without the support of governments.

"Policy-makers need to catch up with the rapidly evolving science and the IPBES could provide governments with a forum for creating an independent and authoritative mechanism to fill this gap," added Mr. Thiaw.

The meeting also announced the International Year of Biodiversity 2010 that will include a yearlong campaign that will encourage worldwide action to safeguard biodiversity.

Read more!

Conservation targets too low

University of Adelaide, Science Alert 13 Oct 09

Conservation biologists are setting their minimum population size targets too low to prevent extinction.

That's according to a new study by University of Adelaide and Macquarie University scientists which has shown that populations of endangered species are unlikely to persist in the face of global climate change and habitat loss unless they number around 5000 mature individuals or more.

The findings have been published online on 12 October in a paper 'Pragmatic population viability targets in a rapidly changing world' in the journal Biological Conservation.

"Conservation biologists routinely underestimate or ignore the number of animals or plants required to prevent extinction," says lead author Dr Lochran Traill, from the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute.

"Often, they aim to maintain tens or hundreds of individuals, when thousands are actually needed. Our review found that populations smaller than about 5000 had unacceptably high extinction rates. This suggests that many targets for conservation recovery are simply too small to do much good in the long run."

A long-standing idea in species restoration programs is the so-called `50/500' rule. This states that at least 50 adults are required to avoid the damaging effects of inbreeding, and 500 to avoid extinctions due to the inability to evolve to cope with environmental change.

"Our research suggests that the 50/500 rule is at least an order of magnitude too small to effectively stave off extinction," says Dr Traill. "This does not necessarily imply that populations smaller than 5000 are doomed. But it does highlight the challenge that small populations face in adapting to a rapidly changing world."

Team member Professor Richard Frankham, from Macquarie University's Department of Biological Sciences, says: "Genetic diversity within populations allows them to evolve to cope with environmental change, and genetic loss equates to fragility in the face of such changes."

Conservation biologists worldwide are battling to prevent a mass extinction event in the face of a growing human population and its associated impact on the planet.

"The conservation management bar needs to be a lot higher," says Dr Traill. "However, we shouldn't necessarily give up on critically endangered species numbering a few hundred of individuals in the wild. Acceptance that more needs to be done if we are to stop `managing for extinction' should force decision makers to be more explicit about what they are aiming for, and what they are willing to trade off, when allocating conservation funds."

Other researchers in the study are Associate Professor Corey Bradshaw and Professor Barry Brook, both from the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2009.09.001

Conservation targets too low to save at-risk species
Nora Schultz, New Scientist 13 Oct 09;

Conservation biologists may be deluding themselves. An analysis of the minimum number of individuals needed for a species to survive in the long term has found that current conservation practices underestimate the risk of extinction by not fully allowing for the dangers posed by the loss of genetic diversity. If correct, it means the number of individuals in endangered species are being allowed to dwindle too far.

Lochran Traill at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and colleagues found that for thousands of species the minimum viable population size (MVP) – where a species has a 90 per cent chance of surviving the next 100 years – comes in at thousands rather than hundreds of individuals. Many biologists, Traill says, work with lower numbers and so allow unacceptably high extinction risks.

"If critically endangered species are not brought up to total population sizes of a few thousand, then we are simply managing for their short-term persistence," Traill says. He hopes his work will "encourage greater focus of scarce resources toward the populations that need attention now".
Reality check

Jean-Christophe Vié of the IUCN Species Programme says it is still worth investing in the protection of very rare species, since this can have broad positive implications for whole ecosystems even if the survival of the species is uncertain.

Traill's team hopes that an acceptance of how high population numbers should be for long-term survival will help conservation policy by providing a reality check, even if political or logistical constraints may make it unlikely that such targets can easily be reached.

"Explicit acceptance of the genetic and demographic requirements of vulnerable species may lead to an increase in the size or number of protected areas," says Traill.

"It's also important to remember that 5000 individuals do not need to occur in one large area, but can occur as a metapopulation [a collection of populations in a region] – so long as genetic transfer remains," he says. "This can be done through artificial dispersal, such as the translocation programmes in place for black and white rhino in southern Africa."

Journal reference: Biological Conservation, DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2009.09.001

Read more!

Sea cows disappearing from Gulf of Mannar

S Raja Express Buzz 13 Oct 09;

RAMANATHAPURAM: Commonly known as the sea cow, Dugong dugon fights for survival in Indian waters, especially near the Gulf of Mannar region. Their numbers have been dwindling due to an increase in fishing with banned equipment.

Environmentalists have urged the Centre to take steps to announce the sea cow, an endangered species, a national animal, just as it had decided to declare the freshwater dolphin a national water animal at a recent meeting in New Delhi.

In 1990, the Western Indian Ocean Dugong Research Programme was launched. In an aerial survey conducted as part of the programme, it was revealed that the dugongs had become extinct in Seychelles, Mauritius and Tanzania. The population has also come down considerably in the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Mannar area.

These herbivores can be found in the Gulf of Mannar, the Gulf of Kutch and the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Indian Ocean. The animal rises to the water surface every 1.3 minutes for breathing, and experts say, the life span of a dugong is 70 years.

The increase in the number of boats, using banned nets, indulging in dynamite fishing and other illegal activities have caused a massive destruction of this marine species. Some people are said to hunt these docile creatures as its meat is believed to cure several diseases. The dugong’s bones and tusks are also used as jewellery in some countries.

After it had been enlisted as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of USA, the hunt for the sea cow came down in the South Pacific Ocean belt. Gulf of Mannar National Marine Park sources told Express that if steps were not taken at the earliest to protect these sea creatures in the Gulf of Mannar region, they would soon become extinct here.

Read more!