Lawns May Contribute to Global Warming

livescience.com Yahoo News 24 Jan 10;

Lush green lawns may not be as good for the environment as you might think.

A new study suggests that, in certain parts of the country, total emissions would actually be lower if there weren't any lawns.

Previous studies have demonstrated that lawns comprised of turfgrass can potentially function as carbon sinks since they help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But the maintenance of lawns - fertilizer production, mowing, leaf blowing and other lawn management practices - may generate greenhouse gas emissions that ultimately exceed four times the carbon they end up storing, according to the study.

"Lawns look great - they're nice and green and healthy, and they're photosynthesizing a lot of organic carbon," said researcher Amy Townsend-Small,who co-authored the study. "But the carbon-storing benefits of lawns are counteracted by fuel consumption."

To reach their conclusion, the researchers sampled grass from four parks around Irvine, Calif. that contained either ornamental lawn turf or athletic field turf, which tended to be more trampled and required replanting and frequent aeration. Samples were taken from the soil and air above the turf, and analyzed to measure carbon sequestration and nitrous oxide emissions. The investigators then compared that data to the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that resulted from maintaining the turf, which included fuel consumption, irrigation and fertilizer production.

The results, detailed in the forthcoming issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, showed that nitrous oxide emissions from lawns were comparable to those found in agricultural farms, which are considered among the largest emitters of nitrous oxide globally. In ornamental lawns, nitrous oxide emissions from fertilization offset just 10 percent to 30 percent of the carbon that was sequestered. But day-to-day management required fossil fuel consumption that released about four times more carbon dioxide than the plots could take up.

Athletic fields fared even worse. They didn't trap nearly as much carbon as ornamental grass but required just as much emission-generating care.

"It's impossible for these lawns to be net greenhouse gas sinks because too much fuel is used to maintain them," Townsend-Small said.

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Long-term fix vital for nuclear waste

Michael Richardson, For The Straits Times 25 Jan 10;

THE Pacific Sandpiper, a specially built cargo ship with safety features far in excess of those found on conventional vessels, left Britain's Barrow port bound for Japan last week.

The security surrounding its departure indicates that something out of the ordinary is aboard. The Pacific Sandpiper and several sister ships make no port calls on their voyages between Europe and Japan because they carry potentially lethal nuclear material.

In the Sandpiper's hold on this journey to Japan via the Panama Canal is only one item of cargo - a giant cylinder weighing more than 100 tonnes. Inside are 28 stainless steel containers, each nearly one-third of a metre thick. They are packed with 14 tonnes of highly radioactive waste that has been turned into solid glass form to make it safer and easier to handle.

It is the first of a series of such shipments planned for the next few years to Japan from Britain's Sellafield nuclear storage and reprocessing complex. Three years ago, a dozen similar shipments from France to Japan were completed.

Used fuel from nuclear power reactors that generate about one-third of Japan's electricity has been shipped to Europe for reprocessing since 1969, while vitrified waste has been sent back to Japan since 1995. There have been over 170 of these ocean shipments without any incident involving the release of radioactivity.

But the elaborate and costly arrangement casts light on two of the most problematic aspects of civilian nuclear power: how to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons material and know-how to terrorists and rogue states, and how to store nuclear waste safely for the long term.

With the number of power reactors expected to rise from today's 435 in 31 countries to nearly 570 in 42 countries by 2020, and with much of this expansion expected to take place in Asia and the Middle East, the need for safeguards on material that could be used to make nuclear weapons is obvious.

Recycling fuel from nuclear reactors under strict national and international regulations is one method being developed. When uranium oxide fuel has been used in a reactor for three or four years, it becomes less efficient and is replaced with fresh fuel.

The spent fuel can then be chemically treated to recover usable uranium, associated plutonium and radioactive waste, a system known as reprocessing. Although expensive, this cycle provides up to 25 per cent more energy from the original uranium. It also reduces the volume of high-level waste to about one-fifth of what it would otherwise be.

Eventually, advances in reprocessing and a new generation of fast reactors may be able to recover and reburn even more of the fissile and radioactive material from used fuel, further reducing waste and reducing the proliferation risk.

So far, about 90,000 tonnes of used fuel from commercial power reactors have been reprocessed, mainly in Britain, France and Russia. By 2030, another 400,000 tonnes of used fuel are likely to pile up, an average of 20,000 tonnes a year. At present, annual global reprocessing capacity is about 3,800 tonnes per year for normal uranium oxide fuel, and about 1,700 tonnes for other nuclear fuels, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Much of the spent fuel piled up by 2030 will be in Asia. Japan, India, China and South Korea aim to emulate the main reprocessing centres in Europe and Russia. They see the technology as the key to a lucrative nuclear service industry as well as being one that is vital to their own energy security.

Meanwhile, power reactors in most countries have been built without safe long-term underground storage arrangements being put in place, mainly because of the high cost involved and public resistance at potential sites.

In the United States, which generates 20 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power, opponents of a plan for a national repository beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada have stymied it for years.

A recent analysis by the US Government Accountability Office said it could cost US$67 billion (S$94 billion) to build the Yucca facility and operate it for 150 years.

High-level radioactive waste is accumulating at a rate of about 12,000 tonnes per year worldwide. When used fuel is removed from a reactor, it must cool for up to 50 years under water or in dry storage, where circulating air gradually removes the heat.

The level of both radioactivity and heat from spent fuel, or from the dangerous waste material extracted from the fuel during reprocessing, falls rapidly in these years down to about one-thousandth of the level when the fuel was removed from the reactor.

During this period, storage may be at one central place, as in Britain's Sellafield complex, or at the reactor site where the spent fuel was removed, as in the US. But either way, the time for permanent storage of the most toxic waste deep underground in geologically stable rock, salt or clay in countries that have been generating electricity from nuclear power for decades is fast approaching.

Without a long-term solution, the pile of radioactive 'rubbish' will become so big and so widely dispersed that it may be impossible to manage safely.

The writer is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

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Earth Hour: World climate event set for March 27

Yahoo News 24 Jan 10;

SYDNEY (AFP) – Millions of people from Sydney to Sweden are set to switch off their lights on March 27, as part of the global 'Earth Hour' campaign to highlight climate change, organisers said Sunday.

Some 250 cities around the world have already signed up for the symbolic, energy saving exercise which in 2009 saw landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and New York's Empire State Building plunged into darkness.

"The event will be held at 8:30 pm Saturday 27 March in cities and towns all over the world," conservation group WWF-Australia's Chief Executive Officer Greg Bourne said.

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007 when 2.2 million people switched off the lights in their homes, offices and businesses for 60 minutes to make a point about electricity consumption and carbon pollution.

The campaign went global the following year and by 2009 some 3,929 cities, villages and localities across the globe elected to cut their lights in aid of the environment.

Organisers said numerous cities and towns in Australia would be joined by many in Canada, the United States, Singapore, Russia, Sweden, Belgium, Bolivia, South Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland and Turkey for the 2010 event.

Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Seoul, Manila, Singapore, Toronto, Hong Kong and Dallas are the latest to confirm their commitment but more cities are expected to join the campaign closer to the date, a spokeswoman said.

In its fourth year, Earth Hour is asking participants to do something more than the one hour of darkness -- which reduces the amount of fossil fuels burned to create electricity -- and think about their total carbon footprint.

"We're asking people to go beyond turning off lights and instead make an Earth Hour resolution to start something bigger," said Bourne.

"Switching off your lights is a great first step, but your true environmental impact is much bigger than just your energy bill."

Scientists have warned that global warming caused by burning fossil fuels on a massive scale could devastate the planet, hitting the poorest countries hardest with floods, droughts and disease.

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Climate talks threaten Saudi with anti-oil bias: official

Paul Handley Yahoo News 24 Jan 10;

RIYADH (AFP) – Global climate talks are biased against oil and pose a "scary" threat to Saudi Arabia's economy, a top official said on Sunday, defending Riyadh's stance on efforts to harness greenhouse gas emissions.

Mohammed al-Sabban, the country's top climate negotiator, said negotiations on emissions controls saw Saudi Arabia, for decades the world's leading oil exporter, effectively targeted by "certain" industrialised countries while letting their own subsidized coal, nuclear and biofuel industries off the hook.

He also said that after the watered-down resolutions at the December UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, climate negotiations were deadlocked.

"There was no real agreement in Copenhagen and I don't foresee any agreement in the near term," Sabban told AFP in an interview.

"No one has submitted a burden-sharing agreement" that treats various parties equitably, he said.

"We are facing the same deadlock as the Doha round of the WTO," the World Trade Organisation, he said of long-stuck global trade agreement negotiations.

Environmentalists at the Copenhagen summit last month labelled Saudi Arabia and China the culprits that prevented a strong agreement obliging countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Ahead of the conference, Sabban and Oil Minister Ali Naimi said that Saudi Arabia, which depends on oil revenues for about 75 percent of government spending, should be compensated for losses caused by any pact that forced a sharp reduction in global oil consumption.

Environmentalists mocked their argument, but it reflected deep Saudi concern over anti-oil bias in the proposed emissions controls, Sabban said on Sunday on the sidelines of the Global Competitiveness Forum in Riyadh.

He said the proposals did not equally address coal, nuclear, biofuel and other energy sources that also generate harmful emissions and other problems but were protected by their home countries.

"If any energy product should be hit hard, it should be coal," he said.

He also explained Riyadh's criticisms of energy independence drives in countries like the United States, which he labelled a "phobia."

Such programmes, together with strong controls on emissions from burning petroleum, would deal a devastating blow to the Saudi economy.

"If all countries take steps to reduce dependency, then definitely this will impact the demand for oil. That is very scary for us," he said.

Sabban cited research from the International Energy Agency, which forecast a loss of four trillion dollars in potential oil sales by OPEC countries during 2008-2030 if aggressive carbon emissions reduction targets were implemented.

But the same study still says that overall OPEC income will increase sharply over the previous 22-year period.

Economists say the Saudis are particularly worried about the mixed signals they are getting and how that relates to the need for long-term planning in oil and gas exploration and production.

Even now, said Sabban, Riyadh is being encouraged to sustain investment in oil to support the global economy.

"If there is a continued need for increasing investment, and at the same time they are saying 'we don't want your oil,' that's a contradiction," said the US-trained economist.

He admitted that climate change was already hurting his mostly parched, desert country as it was others -- with higher temperatures, falling water tables and a surge in violent sandstorms and flash floods.

Sabban said Riyadh supports an "equitable" climate pact, but not what had been laid out so far.

"We are going to be impacted by both climate change and the response measures," he said.

He said Saudi Arabia was investing heavily in solar energy, hoping eventually to tap its sunny skies and open desert to become a major exporter of sun-generated clean energy.

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Emerging nations pledge climate change unity in India

Rupam Jain Nair Yahoo News 24 Jan 10;

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Environment ministers from Brazil, South Africa, India and China said on Sunday that talks in New Delhi had further cemented their alliance following the Copenhagen climate change summit.

The four emerging economies -- a key bloc within troubled negotiations on how to tackle global warming -- lobbied successfully at the Copenhagen meeting in December against binding emissions caps.

Speaking after Sunday's talks, Indian environment minister Jairam Ramesh said the group -- known by the acronym BASIC -- had pledged to strengthen its unified stance but added it "seeks consensus with developed countries."

"We will deepen our co-operation," Ramesh said, praising the "crucial role" the four countries had played in creating the widely criticised Copenhagen Accord.

The accord was a non-binding document crafted by a small group of countries, including the BASIC nations, on the final day of the talks as the meeting faced collapse.

Sunday's meeting came ahead of a January 31 deadline for countries to say if they intended to be "associated" with the Copenhagen outcome or what sort of measures they envisaged taking.

As recriminations continue over December's summit, the United Nations' climate change forum is due to resume shortly with a ministerial-level meeting planned in Mexico at the end of the year.

The four ministers meeting in Delhi also issued a joint statement calling for rapid distribution of the ten billion dollars that wealthy countries pledged for tackling climate change in the developing world during 2010.

The money must be made available at once "as proof of their commitment to urgently address the global challenge of climate change," the ministers said.

The Copenhagen Accord set a broad goal of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) but did not specify the staging points for achieving this goal or a year by which greenhouse gas emissions should peak.

Instead, countries are being urged to identify what actions they intend to take, either as binding curbs on emissions or voluntary action. Twenty-eight billion dollars in aid have been pledged by rich countries for 2010-2012.

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, the head of the UN's climate science panel, R.K. Pachauri, expressed hope that the BASIC nations would soon offer some chance of a binding pact in the future.

Many emerging nations say they will not allow emissions targets to be imposed at the cost of economic development.

China-led climate group ups pressure on donors
Reuters 24 Jan 10;

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Four nations led by China pledged on Sunday to meet an end-month deadline to submit action plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions and challenged rich countries to come up with funding to help fight global warming.

Environment ministers and envoys from Brazil, South Africa, India and China met in New Delhi in a show of unity by countries whose greenhouse gas emissions are among the fastest rising in the world.

The bloc was key to brokering a political agreement at the Copenhagen talks in December and its meeting in India was designed in part to put pressure on richer nations to make good on funding commitments.

"We have sent a very powerful symbol to the world of our intentions," the Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said at a joint press conference after seven hours of talks.

The group discussed setting up a climate fund to help nations most vulnerable to the impact of global warming, which it said would act as a wakeup call for wealthier countries to meet their pledges on financial assistance and give $10 billion in 2010.

Rich countries have pledged $30 billion in climate change funding for the 2010-12 period and set a goal of $100 billion by 2020, far less than what developing countries had wanted.

The group in New Delhi said releasing $10 billion this year would send a signal of the rich countries' commitment. The four said they were in talks to set up an independent fund for the same purpose, but gave no timeline or figure.

"When we say we will be reinforcing technical support as well as funds to the most vulnerable countries, we are giving a slap in the face to the rich countries," Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc said through a translator.

The non-binding accord worked out at the Copenhagen climate summit was described by many as a failure because it fell short of the conference's original goal of a more ambitious commitment to prevent more heatwaves, droughts and crop failures.

China is the world's top CO2 emitter, while India is number four. China was blamed by many countries at Copenhagen for obstructing a tougher deal and has refused to submit to outside scrutiny of its plans to brake greenhouse gas emissions.

China has pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each unit of economic growth by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. For India, that figure is up to 25 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

Xie Zhenhua, deputy head of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, said the world needed to take immediate action to fight climate change.

But in the wake of a controversial exaggeration by the U.N. climate panel on the threat of global warming to the Himalayan glaciers [ID:nSGE60M01C], he called for an "open attitude" to climate science.

"(There is a) point of view that the climate change or climate warming issue is caused by the cyclical element of the nature itself. I think we need to adopt an open attitude to the scientific research," he said through a translator.

"We want our views to be more scientific and more consistent."

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

Donors urged to pay climate cash
BBC News 24 Jan 10;

Brazil, China, India and South Africa have urged wealthy nations to hand over $10bn (£6bn) pledged to poor nations in 2010 to fight climate change.

The group - known as Basic - said the money must be available at once "as proof of their commitment" to address the global challenge.

The plea was issued after a meeting of the four nations in Delhi.

The funds were pledged in a non-binding deal agreed at last year's Copenhagen global climate conference.

The deal - the Copenhagen Accord - envisages that $30bn (£18.5bn) of aid will be delivered for developing nations over the next three years.

Basic members were instrumental in fashioning a political accord at the December climate summit.

The next round of negotiations is due to be held in December in Mexico.

'Soft' deadline

After the Delhi talks, environmental ministers from the four nations issued a joint statement calling for rapid distribution of $10bn that industrialised nations promised to the developing world to tackle climate change in 2010.

The first funds should go to the least developed countries, including small island states and African nations, China's top climate negotiator Xi Zhenhua said, the Associated Press reports.

The four nations also broadly endorsed the Copenhagen agreement, the BBC's Sanjoy Majumber in Delhi says.

And they said they would come up with some sort of action-plan on battling global warming, our correspondent adds.

This comes just a week ahead of a deadline for nations signing up to the accord to send figures on how much they will curb emissions.

But amid uncertainty over who is going to sign up, UN climate convention head Yvo de Boer said earlier this week the deadline was "soft".

He said the Copenhagen summit had not delivered the "agreement the world needs" to address climate change.

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UN climate panel reviewing natural disasters claim: report

Yahoo News 24 Jan 10;

LONDON (AFP) – The UN climate panel is re-examining its claim that global warming is linked to worsening natural disasters after doubts were raised about the evidence, a British newspaper reported on Sunday.

The news brings fresh embarrassment to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which this week admitted errors in a forecast about melting Himalayan glaciers that was included in a landmark 2007 report.

That report -- which won the panel a Nobel Peace Prize and has become a benchmark in climate science -- also contained a claim that rapidly rising costs from events such as floods and hurricanes were linked to climate change.

According to The Sunday Times, however, the claim was based on an unpublished study that had not been subjected to routine scientific scrutiny.

When the study was finally published in 2008, it included a caveat saying: "We find insufficient evidence to claim a statistical relationship between global temperature increase and catastrophe losses."

The IPCC included the claim despite doubts raised by at least two scientific reviewers at the time, and also failed to issue a clarification after the study was published, the Sunday Times said.

Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a climatologist at the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and the vice-chairman of the IPCC, told the newspaper that he would be reviewing the evidence.

"We are reassessing the evidence and will publish a report on natural disasters and extreme weather with the latest findings. Despite recent events the IPCC process is still very rigorous and scientific," he said.

The IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, published in 2007, was a 938-page opus whose warning that climate change was on the march spurred politicians around the world to vow action.

However, it had to admit last week that a forecast suggesting the glaciers in the Himalayas were likely to disappear by 2035 was "poorly substantiated".

UN panel defends climate change evidence
Yahoo News 26 Jan 10;

GENEVA (AFP) – The UN climate panel has rejected as "baseless and misleading" a newspaper report that raised doubts about the evidence behind a claim that global warming is linked to worsening natural disasters.

This weekend, the Sunday Times of London reported that a passage in one of the panel's reports, which suggested natural disasters including hurricanes and floods had increased in number and intensity, had been challenged.

The IPCC insisted in a statement released late on Monday that the targeted study was quoted alongside others in balanced manner exposing the range of evidence. It said the panel had weighed its conclusions.

"This section of the IPCC report is a balanced treatment of a complicated and important issue."

"It clearly makes the point that one study detected an increase in economic losses, corrected for values at risk, but that other studies have not detected such a trend," the statement added.

"The tone is balanced, and the section contains many important qualifiers."

The panel also underlined that it came to several conclusions about the role of climate change in extreme weather events and disasters in different sections of its reports, based on a "careful" assessment of past changes and projections of future trends.

The panel concluded that the newspaper "ran a misleading and baseless story attacking the way the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC handled an important question concerning recent trends in economic losses from climate-related disasters."

The Sunday Times had reported that the IPCC included the reference to the then unpublished study despite doubts raised by at least two scientific reviewers at the time.

Professor Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a climatologist at the Universite Catholique de Louvain in Belgium and the vice-chairman of the IPCC, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the panel was reassessing the evidence.

It was the second time in recent weeks that doubt was cast on the scientific validity some of the evidence used in the UN panel's reports.

The IPCC last week admitted errors in a forecast about melting Himalayan glaciers that was included in a landmark 2007 report.

The ongoing series of reports compiled since 1999 are meant to reflect a global scientific consensus to guide official action against climate change.

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Best of our wild blogs: 24 Jan 10

An Aussie Skipperoo Comes to Town
from Butterflies of Singapore

MacRitchie's Beasts
from Creatures in the Wild

Back to Buangkok
from Urban Forest

Hey You, Simpoh Air!
from Black Dillenia

Chek Jawa with the Naked Hermit Crabs
from wild shores of singapore

A trip to the forgotten Chinese Garden
from The Simplicities in Life

Field Trip to BTNR
from encounters with nature

Appearance of Dark-sided and Asian Brown Flycatchers
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Continued Photo Documentation Of The Kings
from Life's Indulgences

Night macro at Lower Pierce
from talfryn.net and Earless agamid at Venus Drive

This is not a toy!
from Manta Blog

Parasitic fly on Spotted Dove
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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URA launches public consultation exercise for Concept Plan 2011

Joanne Chan, Channel NewsAsia 23 Jan 10;

SINGAPORE : The Singapore Government is seeking public feedback on how the country should use its land over the next 40 to 50 years.

A consultation exercise for Concept Plan 2011 was launched by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Saturday.

Four issues will be considered during the planning process, including how to enhance the quality of life and build a sense of belonging.

The other two issues deal with an ageing population and growing the nation in a sustainable way.

What does is mean to be Singaporean and how can we provide for the needs of an ageing population are just some of the questions that will be discussed by two focus groups during the public consultation exercise.

Lee Tzu Yang, co-chair, Focus Group on Sustainability and Identity, said: "In terms of identity, it is not about hardware, it is about software. It is about how people want to live in the neighbourhood.

"Once we know how people want to live in the neighbourhood, I think that will suggest to URA the kind of hardware that needs to be put in."

And in land scarce Singapore, planners need to balance different competing needs which can affect the quality of life.

Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, co-chair, Focus Group on Quality of Life and Ageing, said: "Quality of life means different things for different groups of people, and how do we bring all this together into something which will provide an optimal mix of facilities as well as amenities for a broad section of people."

The Concept Plan is reviewed every 10 years to reflect changing trends.

Elaborating on these trends, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said: "Competition from other cities, the need for us to accommodate the changing demographics in Singapore, ageing population, and of course, the need for us to grow in a more sustainable way."

Previous Concept Plans have had a major impact on Singapore's landscape. For example, when the first Concept Plan was established in 1971, plans were drawn up for major infrastructure projects such as Changi Airport, and the first MRT lines.

URA is also seeking online feedback from the public via its website. - CNA/ms

Wanted: Your vision for Singapore in next 50 years
Tan Dawn Wei, Straits Times 24 Jan 10;

If you want a say on how Singapore should shape up in the next five decades, the opportunity has come.

And mind you, it comes knocking only once every 10 years.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has just launched its public consultation exercise for the review of its Concept Plan 2011.

This maps out the long-term directions for Singapore's land use and transportation game plan for the next 40 to 50 years.

Previous concept plans have given birth to major infrastructure projects like Changi Airport and the first MRT lines, which were in the 1971 plan, and the parks and waterbodies plan from the 2001 review.

Yesterday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan launched the exercise. It includes the participation of two focus groups made up of professionals, academics and civil-society representatives.

Singapore has consistently been ranked one of the most liveable cities in Asia, but this did not come about by chance, he said.

With just 710 sq km of land, every inch of space needs to be maximised and outlined.

Mr Mah said the key objective of such a plan remains the same, which is to strive for the best quality of life for Singaporeans.

He spelt out three key trends that set the context for the Concept Plan review this time: economic, demographic and environmental.

With more cities competing for investments, businesses and talent, successful cities must have good lifestyle offerings to attract a highly talented workforce.

Singapore's population mix will also change and age rapidly too. And there is also the issue of sustainability in the face of climate change.

How to strike a balance between the different objectives in land-use planning will depend on what Singapore residents want in each stage of the country's development, Mr Mah said.

The public can give feedback on URA's website at www.ura.gov.sg/conceptplan2011/

They can also share their views through an online survey on the website from now till Feb 21.

The two focus groups - comprising about 35 members each - have also been asked to discuss four key issues identified by URA: quality of life, ageing issues, sustainability, and identity.

National Arts Council chairman Edmund Cheng and National University of Singapore president Tan Chorh Chuan will co-chair the group looking at quality of life and ageing.

Shell chairman Lee Tzu Yang and Institute of Policy Studies director Ong Keng Yong will do the same for the sustainability and identity focus group.

The group discussions will take place over four months, after which they will present recommendations, which will include the public's views from the online survey, at a public forum in the middle of this year.

The final plan will be unveiled at the end of next year.

More links
SPEECH BY MR MAH BOW TAN, MINISTER FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE CONCEPT PLAN 2011 REVIEW PUBLIC CONSULTATION EXERCISE ON SATURDAY, 23 JANUARY 2010, AT THE URA CENTRE on the MND website

URA launches public consultation for the review of Concept Plan 2011 on the URA website

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$10m gift for natural history museum

Offer from unnamed donor boosts NUS bid to set up gallery for vast collection
Tan Dawn Wei, Straits Times 24 Jan 10;

Singapore is one major step closer to having its own natural history museum, and it will be situated in the heart of the National University of Singapore's (NUS) new University Town in about three years.

A $10 million gift has just come in from an undisclosed donor, giving a big boost to the fund-raising efforts spearheaded by NUS' department of biological sciences.

The department is the custodian of about 500,000 specimens of mammals, birds, amphibians and other invertebrates, which belong to the oldest natural history collection of animals in Singapore.

The collection started from the days of the Raffles Museum founded by Sir Stamford Raffles, and boasts some century-old artefacts and extinct animals.

A sampling of the specimens is currently displayed at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR), a modest public gallery run by the department and housed within its premises on the NUS campus.

The unnamed donor, who apparently read a Sunday Times report in June last year about the need for Singapore's own natural history museum, called the department shortly after the article appeared to express interest in donating money.

'It was a strange moment,' recalled Professor Peter Ng, head of RMBR and the Tropical Marine Science Institute at NUS. 'He contacted us, asked us what we needed and asked for a game plan.'

Despite their suspicions, Prof Ng and his team put together a concept plan within a month. A subsequent meeting put their minds at ease.

'It was all very professional. He was interested and made all the necessary assurances that he was representing one or a few donors who would like to make a donation, but stay off the radar screen for the moment,' said Prof Ng.

The conditions spelt out: The museum had to be accessible to maximise public education; the collection should be taken care of; and the exhibition space had to be bigger.

From an initial $1 million, the undisclosed donor later pledged $10 million.

'It's a strong motivation to raise the remaining sum. Now that we are talking to prospective sponsors, it will be easier too,' said Prof Ng.

The museum has received a groundswell of public support since media reports last year highlighted the vast, little-known collection .

That led to about 3,000 people showing up at the museum's gallery on International Museum Day in May.

In 2008, the museum had only 400 walk-in visitors the entire year.

Since then, some smaller donations have also come in.

It is estimated that setting up the museum would cost about $55 million, but Prof Ng and his team are gunning for a minimum $35 million, which will fulfil a smaller scale museum and also solve the problems of the current museum, such as space crunch and safety issues.

Built from scratch, the new museum will be at least 7,000 sq m in size, with a minimum 2,000 sq m - or 10 times the current museum's size - devoted to exhibition space.

Less than 1 per cent of the museum's entire collection, one of the largest of South-east Asian animals in the region, is on display now at NUS.

The team hopes it will be a focal point for biodiversity research and education, and that it will be accessible to other universities, national agencies and nature lovers.

'It will highlight our history, but also be a museum for South-east Asia,' said Prof Ng.

Professor Leo Tan, director of the Singapore Science Centre from 1982 to 1991, and another driving force of the new museum, hopes to reinstate the collection to its former glory.

Thrown out of the National Museum in 1970 when the Government decided to focus the exhibits on art and ethnography, the prized collection languished in poor condition for years without a permanent home.

It was only in 1998, after the botany and zoology departments at NUS merged to become the department of biological sciences, that the collection found a home in the RMBR.

'Our young people are born into a modern, built-up Singapore. They have no idea how much struggle went into making this metropolis. This museum will play a very important educational role for our young people to appreciate what they have if they know where they came from,' said Prof Tan, now director of special projects at NUS' science faculty.

Of the collection being accorded the long-overdue recognition it deserves, NUS president Tan Chorh Chuan said it was 'better late than never'.

'We feel we haven't tapped the full potential of the collection. It will be something of great interest to many young people,' he said, adding that a purpose-built museum will add to the diversity and vibrancy on campus.

The new museum is expected to attract more than 80,000 visitors and researchers from Singapore and abroad annually.

Natural history museums in New York and London draw millions of visitors each year.

The team hopes to raise the funds needed by the middle of the year, in tandem with the building plans of the new University Town.

'There's only one way ahead. Failure is not an option,' said Prof Tan.

'The last piece of the puzzle is finding the right donor or donors.'

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Changi race track: Finance hurdle ahead?

Straits Times 24 Jan 10;

The finish line is within sight - but do all three bidders have a 'full tank' of money?

As things stand, the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) will announce by March its choice of consortium to build, finance and manage a permanent race track in Changi.

But there are signs of a road hump facing one of the three bidders in the contest to run the Changi Motorsports Hub.

Sources said the group led by Singapore Agro Agriculture (SAA) has recently been tapping the financial sector for funds.

'To be doing this at such a stage of the bidding process does seem odd,' said an insider who has been following the project since it was announced in October 2007.

If the winner lacks secured funding - which must come from the private sector - it could lead to delays to the facility's completion.

This is slated for late next year.

Another mega facility - the $1.87 billion Sports Hub in Kallang - was hobbled by financing issues after the Singapore Sports Hub Consortium (SSHC) trumped bids from two other groups in January last year.

It failed to garner enough loans because of the recession but the financing issue has since been cleared up.

The Changi project, which will occupy a 41ha site, will include space for restaurants, bars and shops. It is expected to cost between $200 million and $300 million to build.

The other two bidders are Sports Services, backed by public-listed leisure and health-care products firm Haw Par Corporation, and SG Changi, fronted by Jurong Kart World.

The Sunday Times spoke to Mr Jason Wong, chief operating officer of SAA Holdings, which is also behind food-and-retail hub Turf City.

'I'm in the middle of doing this and just spoke to SSC about the matter. I can't talk about this now so don't bring it up again,' said Mr Wong last Wednesday, when asked about financing.

Haw Par executive director Chng Hwee Hong and SG Changi director Thia Yoke Kian separately said they had secured the funds.

Mr Chng said the money would come entirely from within the company.

Mr Thia's group will bank on a mix of its own funds and equity from financial institutions.

SSC spokesman Alvin Hang said that as the bids are still being evaluated, it would be inappropriate to comment on market speculation.

It is understood that SSC had put in a requirement for bidders to have funding secured before they submitted their design proposals last August.

But this was apparently removed just before the bid period closed, so as to drum up more interest during a recessionary year.

The Motorsports Hub is seen as crucial to revving up Singapore's aspirations to be an international motorsports destination. The country has already hosted two Formula 1 races.

The winning bidder for the Changi hub will have to stage several prestigious races annually, including MotoGP - motorcycling's equivalent of F1.

Meanwhile, work is expected to commence later this year on the Sports Hub, with completion slated for late 2013 or early 2014.

There has been significant interest from banks since the SSHC launched a competition to raise funds last year.

It is evaluating the proposals and aims to sign the final contract by mid-year.

Speculation over when the National Stadium will be demolished should finally be laid to rest then.

Leonard Lim

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Chase butterflies in Orchard Road

Nature lovers plan urban butterfly trail that's billed as the first of its kind in the world
Tracy Quek, Straits Times 24 Jan 10;

Can butterflies thrive among the glitzy malls and tall office buildings in Orchard Road?

Yes, says a group of nature lovers and butterfly enthusiasts who are working to create an urban butterfly trail.

Spearheaded by the Nature Society of Singapore (NSS), the 4km-long trail starts at the gates of the Botanic Gardens, continues down Orchard Road and ends in Fort Canning Park.

It is envisioned as a self-guided walking route that will lead you to 15 butterfly spots.

These include tucked-away green oases between the malls, little-known rooftop and private gardens, and public green spaces.

Visitors will get specially produced maps to help them navigate their way. Brass markers will be put up to guide people to the spots and provide information on the butterflies and plants.

The trail is being billed as the first of its kind in the world.

The first phase - from the Botanic Gardens in Napier Road to Tanglin Road - will be launched in June. The project is supported by the National Parks Board (NParks) and Singapore Environment Council.

'People think Orchard Road is a concrete jungle, but if you look carefully, you'll discover a lot of natural beauty,' said Ms Margaret Clarkson, an American who is part of the project team.

Dr Shawn Lum, NSS president and a key collaborator, said that the project will 'bring colour and life to the shopping district'.

It will highlight the rich biodiversity in the country, create something that would appeal to Singaporeans and visitors, and provide a platform for educational and conservation activities, he added.

Singapore is home to about 280 butterfly species. Not all can thrive in urban areas but there are outdoor, fun-loving species that can, said Mr Gan Cheong Weei, chairman of the Nature Society's Butterfly Interest Group.

The key is to provide them with the plants they need for food, shelter and breeding. Nature Society experts are identifying and propagating the plants that will be introduced at the hot spots over the next few months.

The experts reckon that some 50 species of butterflies will be attracted to the trail.

The project will cost about $70,000 to get off the ground, said Ms Christine Davis, an American who owns a business management consultancy firm here and is managing the project.

The team is working to secure sponsors. So far three companies have expressed interest. Schools will be invited to adopt hotspots and individuals can sponsor anything from a park bench to a brass marker.

Said Ms Davis: 'Butterflies make people happy, and in today's world, simple pleasures are really important.'

How the idea of a city nature trail came about
Straits Times 24 Jan 10;

Ms Margaret Clarkson, 51, relocated to Singapore with her investment consultant husband and five-year-old daughter from Washington, DC in August 2008.

Ms Clarkson, who has a background in cultivating corporate sponsors, government bodies and non-governmental organisations for conservation efforts, said Singapore's garden city concept inspired her to get involved in a green project.

She met Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at- Large with the Foreign Ministry and patron of the Nature Society of Singapore (NSS).

He introduced her to NSS president Shawn Lum, the society's butterfly experts and Mr Howard Shaw, executive director of the Singapore Environment Council.

They told her about the island's desire to take the garden-city concept further by moving beyond aesthetics to focusing on ecology and increasing biodiversity. They cited existing butterfly gardens such as the one at Alexandra Hospital.

She thought of the Freedom Trail in Boston, Massachusetts, a 4km-long path leading visitors to 16 historic landmarks.

'Why not adapt the concept for Singapore and have a nature trail in the city centre with butterflies as the main attraction?' she said.

Ms Clarkson and her family returned to the US late last year but she has brought in Ms Christine Davis, an American expatriate running a business management consultancy in Singapore, to manage the trail.

Prof Koh said the project 'will enrich our quality of life and hopefully make Singaporeans appreciate the wonders of nature and the need for us to live in harmony with mother earth'.

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Jurong residents turn vacant plot into garden

Jamie Ee Wen Wei, Straits Times 24 Jan 10;

It's not every day that a government minister gets playful and sprays water on schoolchildren.

But this happened yesterday when Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam was at an event honouring the efforts of Corporation Walk residents who created a pocket of greenery in their estate in Taman Jurong.

Mr Tharman, who is also an MP for Jurong GRC, was watering a bonsai that he had planted in the garden when he gave a wet surprise to some pupils from Lakeside Primary School.

They squealed in delight.

Mr Tharman also took a walk around the 10-year-old estate, which now comes with a lush garden, thanks to the efforts of nine residents.

They took two months to transform a vacant plot into a miniature Chinese and Japanese garden, complete with a waterfall.

Two of the residents even flew to Guangzhou in China and spent four days sourcing for figurines of pagodas and monks to decorate the garden.

The residents have also built a barbecue pit in the garden. So far, they have organised four barbecue sessions, with about 40 people attending each time.

Businessman Tony Yau, 56, who engineered the project, said the residents spent $7,000 to build the garden.

'Every evening, we would come to the chit-chat corner and have tea or snacks. We are getting to know more neighbours and we are like one big family here.'

The group, which has registered itself with the People's Association as a gardening club, has also gone from house to house to offer help.

So far, they have worked with 30 households.

Manager Syed Ismail, 52, who received help in turning the area outside his house into a herb garden, said: 'I've been living here for 11 years but I've had only a 'hi-bye' relationship with my neighbours. After they came to help me with my garden, we got to know one another better and even went to the nursery together.'

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