No 'extensive hunt' of rare whale

Matt Walker, BBC News 17 Feb 10;

One of the rarest whales in the world was not a victim of extensive whaling as previously supposed.

Fewer than 350 North Atlantic right whales remain, with the blame for their demise laid at the harpoon tips of 16th and 17th century whalers.

But a new study of ancient whale bones confirms the population of northern right whales has for centuries been small with a limited genetic diversity.

That strongly suggests a mass cull of the animals never took place.

"This is a big surprise given what was previously thought about the species," says Dr Brenna McLeod, previously at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, who has published the latest study in the journal Conservation Genetics.

The North Atlantic right whale ( Eubalaena glacialis ) has typically been perceived as a species that was once abundant and successful in the ocean that gave it its name.

Then it was assumed that 16th century Basque whalers decimated the population, with American whalers that followed further reducing the small remaining numbers, explains Dr McLeod, now at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

That left the approximately 300 to 350 individuals that remain today.

However, the discovery in 1978 of a 16th century Basque whaling galleon by historian Dr Selma Barkham offered a way to check these assumptions.

Within that ship lay whale bones, which after years of excavation were brought to the surface.

One researcher, Dr Moira Brown, now at the New England Aquarium in Boston, US realised that if DNA could be extracted from these bones, it could reveal a host of information about the culled whales.

In earlier research, Dr McLeod, Dr Brown and colleagues managed to do just that.

They extracted DNA from 218 whale bones recovered from either the galleon or from the shores of Quebec and Labrador, whey they had been lying for 400 years at sites of long-forgotten Basque whaling stations.

Of those bones, just one came from a North Atlantic right whale, the others all coming from bowhead whales.

"There was absolutely no evidence of a right whale targeted hunt," Dr McLeod told the BBC.

In their latest study, the researchers then attempted to glean more information from this single 400-year-old North Atlantic right whale bone.

"This single bone provides us with a snapshot of the genetic characteristics of the historic population," says Dr McLeod.

By sampling 27 different parts of the bone's DNA, the researchers could evaluate the number of variations within its genetic code. Called alleles, such variations may have been carried by historic North Atlantic right whales, but have since disappeared from today's population.

The greater the collapse in the population of North Atlantic right whales, the more of these genetic variations would be lost.

Yet "we found no 'lost' alleles," says Dr McLeod.

"All that were identified are still present in the contemporary population."

The researchers also found that the overall genetic profiles of the ancient bone and those from modern North Atlantic right whales are very similar.

"This would not have been expected if the population had lost a lot of variation as a result of a large reduction in population size due to whaling," says Dr McLeod.

In short, the North Atlantic right whale population of the past was little different to today.

"Whaling did affect the species, by reducing the population size, but not nearly to the extent that was thought," says Dr McLeod.

"Instead of numbering in the 12,000 to 15,000 as was previously assumed and suggested, we think that the population in the western north Atlantic was much smaller, perhaps numbering a few thousand."

The jury is still out as to what caused the original crash in North Atlantic right whale numbers, reducing them to this level.

North Atlantic right whales tend to live near the coast.

"We speculate that the species may have been affected by historic climatic changes, such as glaciation events, which may have caused the species to shift its habitat.

"This would have altered the location and availability of feeding and calving grounds and may have affected fitness and reproductive success of individuals in the population," explains Dr McLeod.

The new finding also casts a new perspective on efforts to save this highly endangered whale.

Today the whale's recovery is hampered because individuals are being struck by ships or entangled in fishing gear.

Recent climatic changes are also preventing the whales from reproducing as fast.

But while everything should be done to prevent whales killed accidently by ships and fishermen, "in light of the data presented here, some of the conditions that are challenging recovery of the right whale have been present for thousands of years, far longer than we have thought," says Dr McLeod.

So although the surviving population may be critically small, it may be adapted to cope with many of the natural changes it faces today.

Read more!

Kenya lions, top carnivores may be wiped out by 2060: minister

Yahoo News 17 Feb 10;

NAIROBI (AFP) – Kenya's carnivores -- one of the east African country's big tourist attractions -- could all be extinct in the next 50 years unless action is taken, a minister warned Wednesday.

Fifty years ago Kenya had around 30,000 lions, 10,000 leopards, 10,000 cheetahs, 20,000 wild dogs and 50,000 hyenas, Wildlife Minister Noah Wekesa told reporters.

Experts say the country now has just 2,000 lions, between 800 and 1,160 cheetahs and just over 800 wild dogs.

"If we don't do anything ... looking at these figures in another 50 years' time we will not have any wildlife in Kenya," Wekesa warned as he unveiled conservation measures.

Habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict -- exacerbated by a series of failed rainy seasons -- are blamed for decimating the carnivores' population.

Kenya's human population, which stood at 22 million in 1988, has almost doubled and is expected to double again by 2050, pushing people to settle in areas they would previously have rejected as barren.

Among the strategies by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to boost the animals' population are the setting up of conservation zones on private and community land as opposed to just in protected areas and ensuring that local communities reap tangible benefits for conservation.

KWS scientist Charles Musyoki said the measures, some already being implemented, "seek to provide for the co-existence of large carnivores with people and livestock" by carefully examining the needs of each species.

"Humans have been here for thousands of years as have carnivores and they got on. Somehow it has been coming to a flashpoint recently," said Mordecai Ogada, a member of the KWS Large Carnivore Taskforce.

Read more!

Canada's Permafrost Retreats Amid Warming Trend

Deborah Zabarenko, PlanetArk 18 Feb 10;

WASHINGTON - The permanently frozen ground known as permafrost is retreating northward in the area around Canada's James Bay, a sign of a decades-long regional warming trend, a climate scientist said on Wednesday.

When permafrost melts, it can liberate the powerful greenhouse gas methane that is locked in the frozen soil. The amount of methane contained in permafrost around James Bay is slight compared to the vast stores of the chemical found in ancient, deep permafrost in the Yukon, Alaska and Siberia.

The southern edge of permafrost in the James Bay area has moved about 80 miles north of where it was 50 years ago, Serge Payette of Laval University in Quebec City said in a telephone interview.

It's a sign that warming is taking hold in this area that straddles the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. Payette said the sites he has studied have warmed by 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C) in the last two decades.

And it shows what dying permafrost looks like.

"This is the end of the line for permafrost," Payette said.

To track the retreat, Payette and his colleagues looked at distinctive plant-covered mounds called palsas that form naturally over ice in the soil of northern peat bogs.

There were up to 90 percent fewer palsas in bogs around James Bay in 2005 than there were in 2004, the researchers found. And that was far fewer than those palsas shown in the area in aerial photographs taken in 1957, Payette said.

The trend cannot be conclusively linked to climate change, Payette said, citing a lack of data in this remote area, but he noted that this is the most likely cause. The research was published in the journal Permafrost and Periglacial Processes.

The ability to figure out what happens when permafrost vanishes is important because of its possible impact on climate change.

Arctic emissions of climate-warming methane rose 30.6 percent from 2003 to 2007, researchers reported last month in the journal Science, a suggestion that global warming could unlock huge amounts of the gas from melting permafrost.

While too early to consider this a trend, this increase was the biggest percentage rise for any region of the world's wetlands, the Science study found. Methane has about 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, according to the International Emissions Trading Association.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Read more!

New U.S. Rules On Corn Ethanol May Hurt Environment

Ayesha Rascoe, PlanetArk 18 Feb 10;

WASHINGTON - U.S. corn growers expressed relief when the Obama administration unveiled new environmental rules that would boost use of corn-based biofuel, but green groups complained the guidelines may fill the air with nitrogen, a greenhouse gas viewed as more potent than carbon.

The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled what amounted to a tweaking of the national renewable fuel standard in early February, and still found that ethanol made from corn is still cleaner than conventional gasoline, dashing the hopes of some critics who opposed using food to create fuel.

The EPA's new assessment basically calls for corn ethanol output to rise from around 12 billion gallons this year to around 15 billion gallons annually starting around 2015, which the industry was already on track to reach regardless of agency's action.

"The effect in reality on the industry is pretty much negligible," said John Sheehan, biofuels program director at the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota.

The aim of the renewable fuel target is to move the country toward more production of advanced biofuels from sources such as wood chips.

But corn ethanol, which consumes about a third of the U.S. corn crop, will still likely make up about 42 percent of the 36 billion gallon biofuel mandate in 2022 -- something that will continue to support farmer incomes and help boost demand fundamentals of commodity markets.

Detractors of corn ethanol argue the 15 billion gallon output mandate will lead to larger corn crops, which will require the use of more fertilizers and pesticides.

Runoff from nitrogen fertilizers is already blamed for a so called "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, where poorly oxygenated water is disrupting marine ecosystems.

Also, some fertilizers release nitrogen directly into the atmosphere forming greenhouse gases that are 200 times worse than carbon, said James Coan of Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.

Rising corn harvests to meet more ethanol demand could exacerbate these issues, said Franz Matzner, a director for the environmental group, the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"We don't need more corn ethanol, what we need are more of the next generation biofuels that hold better energy potential, better climate reduction potential and better potential to protect our water quality and air quality," Matzner said.

The EPA used a method known as indirect land use change to help calculate the emissions of different fuel sources.

This method attempts to measure the emissions released when land is cleared in other countries to grow more food or biofuels to make up for the large amounts of land used in the United States to grow grains for ethanol.

The connection between U.S. agriculture and deforestation in developing countries is hotly disputed among experts and ethanol supporters.

"The responsibility for reducing C02 emissions associated with land use has to be with the folks that are actually using that land," said Robert Brown, director of Bioeconomy Institute at Iowa State University.

Still, despite its inclusion of indirect land use in final rule, the EPA determined that ethanol produced from corn at a natural gas-fired facility using efficient technologies met the law's criteria carbon emissions compared to gasoline.

This is where EPA rule took a wrong turn, the Baker Institute's Coan said.

"Corn ethanol should not be credited as better than gasoline," Coan said. "There used to be consensus that was the case, but now that nitrous oxide and land use changes are being looked at much more closely, that consensus is no longer there."

Coan, who co-authored a paper earlier this year on U.S. biofuel policy, said indirect land use changes matter because carbon emissions are a global problem and actions in the United States can affect other countries.

Ethanol backers have questioned the findings of Coan's paper because it was funded by Chevron Technology Ventures, but Coan pointed out that various papers have come out since 2007 questioning the benefits of ethanol.

One of the main selling points for corn ethanol is that it is supposed to be a green alternative to dirty fossil fuels. A 2007 law requires that corn ethanol produced at new plants release 20 percent less carbon dioxide than gasoline over its life cycle to qualify for the renewable mandate.

This standard will have little impact on most of the current U.S. ethanol capacity, because corn ethanol plants built before December 19, 2007 are exempt from these rules.

Many U.S. farmers and ethanol backers challenge the environmental complaints. Dave Nelson, an Iowa farmer and a representative of the Renewable Fuels Association, said ethanol producers will continue to reduce the biofuel's carbon foot print.

"Older plants are going to adopt new technologies because it will make them more efficient and make them more money. The feed stock that the older plants will be using will be of the newest technology," Nelson said.

(Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Read more!

Norway Outlines Ways To Reach Deep 2020 CO2 Cuts

Alister Doyle, Planet Ark 18 Feb 10;

OSLO - Norway laid out ways to reach one of the world's toughest climate goals on Wednesday with measures to clean up sectors from oil to transport that it said would trim just 0.25 percent from the economy by 2020.

The "Climate Cure," outlined by state-run agencies to guide deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, said costs would range up to 1,100 to 1,500 crowns ($188-$256) per tonne of avoided carbon dioxide emissions.

That is way above a current price of about 13 euros ($17.85) per tonne in the European Union market. Even so, one main scenario in the 300-page report projected only a 0.25 percent cut in the projected size of the oil-dependent economy by 2020.

"It means we'd be as rich by Easter in 2020 than we would otherwise be at Christmas" in 2019, Environment Minister Erik Solheim said of the small cut.

The impact on growth would be modest partly because penalties for emitting carbon would bring in tax revenues that could boost growth in cleaner sectors. The report also assumed technological advances that would spur the economy.

"Let's start with the measures that are cheapest and simplest," Solheim said of the report, which will help design legislation for fighting climate change.

Using different assumptions, the U.N. panel of climate scientists projected in a 2007 report that tough measures to combat global warming could cost 3 percent of world economic growth by 2030.

Norway has set a unilateral goal of cutting emissions by 30 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, and by 40 percent if other nations sign up for deep cuts as part of a new U.N. treaty to slow desertification, heatwaves, flooding and rising sea levels.

The targets are among the toughest in the world.

CARBON CAPTURE

The report assessed measures such as capturing and storing greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas installations, biofuels, more electric cars and energy efficiency in buildings. Among cost-effective measures were building cycle paths in cities to discourage car use.

Norway wants at least two-thirds of its cuts to be achieved domestically, rather than by a cheaper option of buying quotas on foreign markets or by investing abroad, for instance by protecting the Amazon rainforests or building wind farms.

Emissions have grown to 54 million tonnes from about 50 million in 1990. The report examined ways to cut between 15 and 17 million tonnes a year by 2020, including three million absorbed by pine forests.

Norway has no real economic problem in buying quotas if it wants -- it has a fund totaling $450 billion invested in foreign stocks and bonds built up from oil and gas revenues.

Deep cuts in Norway are likely to be more costly than in many other nations, Ellen Hambro, head of the Climate and Pollution Agency, told Reuters.

"We don't have coal-fired power plants to close," she said. Almost all of Norway's electricity comes from clean hydropower.

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 17 Feb 10

Dr. John Yong's Guides to mangroves, mistletoes and ferns
from Celebrating Singapore's BioDiversity!

great billed herons @ big sister's island
video clip from sgbeachbum and swimming anemone and sea hare

The Kings Are Raising Young Now
from Life's Indulgences

Tigers and the Belimbing
from Butterflies of Singapore

Red-breasted Parakeet eats cocoon
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Pasir Ris 的红树林
from PurpleMangrove

Photos from the Battle of Pasir Panjang Anniversary Walk 2010
from Toddycats!

Twelve-year-old on a mission to save Africa's most unusual animal, the okapi an interview with Spencer Tait from Mongabay.com news by Jeremy Hance

Read more!

18 dolphins for Resorts World Sentosa still in the Philippines

Leong Wee Keat, Today Online 17 Feb 10;

Eighteen dolphins - enroute to the Marine Life Park at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) - are reportedly stranded in the Philippines.

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the bottlenose dolphins are now at the Ocean Adventure marine park at Subic Bay.

The Feb 5 report said that the marine mammals, imported from the Solomon Islands, were to have been sent to Singapore by the end of last year. But they are still in the care of Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium, the company contracted to train them.

The delay, according to the report, is because the facilities to house them in Singapore are not finished. When contacted, RWS spokesman Robin Goh told MediaCorp that "construction of the Marine Life Park is on schedule and is slated for an opening after 2010".

Bottlenose dolphins, one of the most common in the world, are listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) and their trade is regulated. Activists have questioned the need to import wild dolphins. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) has posted the Philippine newspaper report on its Facebook page.

Executive officer Deirdre Moss said the society "objects to the keeping of dolphins in captivity, as they are usually caught/kept for the purpose of training to entertain/amuse the public" and in doing so, they are "also forced to adapt to an alternative lifestyle in a man-made structure".

Mr Goh said animals acquired for its Marine Life Park are in accordance with the Cites agreement. "In the meantime, the dolphins are in good hands and being looked after according to international standards," he added.

LEONG WEE KEAT

More background information on Will there be dolphins at Resorts World Sentosa? Part 2 on the wild shores of singapore blog.

Read more!

Bonding over a 'community cat'

Letter from Dr Tan Chek Wee
Today Online 17 Feb 10;
FIVE YEARS ago, when I moved into my block of Housing and Development Board flats, I noticed a tri-coloured cat at the void deck.

She was easily placed into a carrier and taken to the vet for sterilisation.

She was then returned to the void deck bearing a surgical cut on her left ear, a symbol of her neutered status.

Ginger (picture) - as she was affectionately called - became a mascot of the block and is cared for by several families.

One day last week, a Jewish neighbour told me that Mr Ali, a Malay resident on the third storey, was concerned that he had not seen Ginger for the past few weeks.

I went to his flat and we chatted about Ginger and cat-related things. Most importantly, a friendship was forged.

I then went to the second storey and knocked on the door of a Chinese family whom I knew was very fond of Ginger too.

Sure enough, the cat was safe and sound in the flat.

I walked up to convey the good news to Mr Ali who said he would pay a visit to the Chinese family to see our "block cat".

I then took a lift to the 11th storey to inform the Jewish lady.

It is time for Town Councils to stop "automatically" assigning "cat nuisance" to any feedback about cats.

What Ginger does to bring about inter-racial harmony and neighbourliness is akin to what some community events can achieve.

That is why cats like Ginger are aptly called "Community Cats".

This is how people really make friends ...
Letter from Raymond Lee Swee Mun
Today Online 18 Feb 10;

I REFER to "Bonding over a 'community cat' " (Feb 17). The community cats at our Housing and Development Board block in Sengkang have also worked the same magic in creating friendship among some Malay and Chinese families. My family has been feeding them from about three years ago. (Of course, we clean up thereafter.)

Along the way, we got to know a Malay couple who were also taking care of them. We named the cats together and conducted joint sterilisation exercises.

One day, a Chinese woman, unaware of what we were doing, thought we were rounding the cats up for culling and scolded us. But after she realised what we were doing, we became friends.

Another time, while taking one of the cats to the vet, a few Malay women and their children came to talk to us because they were concerned for the animal. They were relieved to hear that we were not sending the cat to be culled. Again, we made friends.

Now all of us are pretty close, but our friendships have expanded beyond the mutual goal of caring for our community cats. We go to each other's homes during festivals and once, to one of their sons' wedding.

Of late, a young Chinese boy has asked to join in our activities. His China national mother has given him the go-ahead because she thinks the boy will learn how to care and love small animals.

Once, an Indian national initiated conversation with us saying that he wanted to befriend us because he thinks we are a bunch of good people.

I hope the town councils and any related government bodies take note of what is happening on the ground - community cats do help people make friends with those from another race. My "new" friendships would never have happened if not for our cats.

We're really a community now...
Letter from Shirley Goh
Today Online 17 Feb 10;

I refer to "Bonding over a 'community cat'" (Feb 17) by Dr Tan Chek Wee.

I have been taking care of the community cats in my neighbourhood for four years and it is through these cats that I get to know many of my neighbours of various races, religions and cultures, whom I may not have got to know otherwise.

Sending greetings and presents to each other during our respective festive seasons and inviting each other to our homes for dinner are just some of the activities that we do. The bonds we forged through a common love and interests for these community cats are really far greater than those from other community events.

Playing with community cats helps relieve tensions
Letter from Lawrence Lee Today Online 18 Feb 10;

I refer to "Bonding over a 'community cat'" (Feb 17) by Dr Tan Chek Wee.

I am a resident of Pasir Ris and the community cats there have added colour and joy to to my life and that of many others. For various reasons, many residents are not able to keep pets of their own. The community cats provide an avenue for me to ease the tensions of the day by stroking and massaging them. In the process, I get to know other residents who are happy to play with the cats. They come from my block and the neighbouring blocks, and I would not have met them if not for the cats. They provide a platform for us to connect with residents of different races, including foreign nationals. The cats are properly cared for by responsible cat carers. In the interest of community bonding and fostering harmony, it would be helpful for the town councils to be mindful of the positive contributions made by the community cats and not overreact to complaint from non-animal lovers who may even exaggerate the nature of complaints in order to get the cats out of the community.

Kindness to animals is an important value to teach children
Letter from Abdul Rashid, Today Online 22 Feb 10;

The intent of this letter is purely to raise our awareness of the general lack of compassion to animals (cats, especially) in our society. Lately, it has been moving to read about the concept of community cats. But here, I hope to bring to the fore the effects of negative behaviour inculcated in our children, through our behaviour.

Here is my observation of things which happen around public places like void decks, coffee shops and even parks - some children's lack of compassion for animals manifested in the way the children treat them. I thought compassion for animals would come naturally with children but I can understand why the forces of nurture can far outnumber nature itself, in children's growing years. I have seen adults in the presence of their children, kicking animals (gently or otherwise,) or throwing things at them. Judging from the adults' behaviours and mannerisms, I can safely say that they were probably brought up seeing such behaviour in their own growing years. They seem to be overly careful about hygiene and disease such that they treat these animals as balls of plagues on four legs.

I was at the vet recently with my kids, to pay our ailing cat Louie a visit. Another cat, Dani, was in a neighbouring cage with obvious bowel control problems. It was such a sorry sight - his fur was wet with urine and we thought Dani had undergone some form of surgery. A tearful elderly lady with her daughter came to visit Dani. After some small talk, we learnt that somebody had brought Dani up to the top floor of a block near the owner's flat and threw Dani off. Dani sustained a fractured spine which rendered him paralysed on his hind limbs with loss of bowel control. Honestly, this note can never paint the horrific picture of what Dani is going through. The situation for Dani is so bad that he may be euthananised.

Getting back to the issue of how this came to be, I have seen for myself the number of times children abuse cats (probably, because they seem to be more ubiquitous in public housing estates) by kicking, spitting, throwing lighted candles at them, shooting them with rubber-bands, etc. Perhaps we can partly blame the media for casting a black shroud on cats. Cats are almost always portrayed as conniving and evil. Such images send sub-conscious negative connotations about cats in general. But how we guide our children remains at the core.

To be fair, I have seen children who are very nice and kind to animals and simply love to see animals at the zoo or some animal shows - but loving animals goes beyond just being entertained by them. Kindness to animals is an important value to teach children and for them to continue to uphold throughout life. In a society bent on achieving A-stars and educational excellence, seeing such cruelty to animals indicates a significant lacking in what we can teach our children at school as well as home. Some people may not like animals, but they can at least learn not to be mean and cruel if there is inculcation of kindness and compassion towards other creatures. Let children grow up to realise how therapeutic animals can be and how good it is to be kind to them. They are after all, a form of life, worthy of respect.

Read more!

Floating lanterns: Fire hazard

Straits Times Forum 17 Feb 10;

'Setting off fireworks is illegal here. Shouldn't these floating lanterns also be declared illegal?'

MS ANGELINE NG: 'On Chinese New Year's Eve, at around 9.30pm, I noticed a group of people setting off half a dozen sky lanterns at the end of Lentor Loop in Lentor housing estate.

One of the floating lanterns, kept afloat by a naked flame heating the air in the lantern, landed on a tree about 80m from my house. The others continued flying till they were out of sight.

I can only hope they landed somewhere safe. If these lanterns land on a house, lives and property could be lost. Even if that does not happen, in dry weather, it could cause a fire by igniting bushes and trees nearby. Setting off fireworks is illegal here. Shouldn't these floating lanterns also be declared illegal?'

Related links
Sky lanterns: deliberately released debris on the wild shores of singapore blog.

Read more!

Soon: fill 'er up - with emulsion diesel?

Business Times 16 Feb 10;

SgEF has developed a fuel that's a lot more environment-friendly. Are we ready for it? By Timothy Seow

IF JEREMY Ng - founder and CEO of Singapore Emulsion Fuel Pte Ltd (SgEF) - has his way, all of Singapore's public buses will be powered by his company's very own nano-emulsion diesel in the near future.

SgEF opened Asia's first clear nano-emulsion diesel plant in Tuas two weeks ago. With last December's Copenhagen summit yielding disappointing results, and climate change statistics under much scrutiny recently, eco-enthusiasts could consider this a small plus for Singapore's green drive.

Mr Ng, describing the emulsion diesel, said, 'our team of researchers developed a breakthrough emulsion fuel that significantly lowers the diesel content within biofuels in use in the market today'.

This is done by blending diesel with water and SgEF's biodegradable patent-pending proprietary additive, said Mr Ng.

Formerly in the semiconductor industry, Mr Ng comes across as an optimist - with big plans for a company barely three years old. For example, SgEF's new 40,000 square foot facility is targeted at meeting the needs of both Singapore and the greater Asia-Pacific region.

SgEF already has a partnership with a Malaysian company called Pamuri Green, and is finalising a joint venture with an Indonesian partner. Mr Ng also intends to test the South China and Japan markets by 2011.

Mr Ng is confident about the success of his products. 'Competition for emulsion fuels? I don't see anyone. Biofuels are not even a competitor because of the difference in volume we can provide,' he said.

SgEF currently has the capacity to produce 30,000 litres a day. 'In the next 12 months, we hope to ramp up production to 100,000 litres,' added Mr Ng. SgEF eventually hopes to add an extra digit to this figure, reaching a maximum daily capacity of 300,000 litres.

That is not all. SgEF presently has 13 staff, and Mr Ng is looking to increase this by almost 50 per cent in 2010. 'By the end of this year, we will probably increase to about 20, with additional chemists, technical and sales staff,' he said.

Mr Ng also said he expects revenue this year to be 'in the range of $3-5 million'.

Things were far less rosy when it all began in December 2006. Recalled Mr Ng: 'There were challenges such as getting funds and getting support from the government. For a niche start-up company like us, without a track record, it's not easy.'

To compound matters, SgEF met with the worst financial crisis in more than 70 years less than two years into the venture

Yet, the financial storm clouds had a thick silver lining. 'It is a fact that the recession helped us,' admitted Mr Ng.

'In 2008, a lot of big companies and MNCs began pulling out of Singapore. Only then did the government realise they needed to grow local entrepreneurs. That's when I changed my strategy and decided to look for Spring Singapore,' he continued. 'That made it easier for us to talk to Spring.'

This change of strategy proved to be a winner; in June 2009, Spring SEEDS (Start-up Enterprise Development Scheme) agreed to provide capital.

Mr Ng is also not hesitant to credit other partner government agencies like the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) and the National Environment Agency (NEA), which he said were very supportive.

In fact, it was the NEA that introduced SgEF to Poh Lian Construction. 'Poh Lian was in search of an alternative energy provider to help them manage their carbon footprint in residential areas. They have been using super green diesel to power their machinery ever since,' Mr Ng shared.

Super green diesel, along with eDiesel, are SgEF's flagship products that were released in conjunction with the opening of their production facility.

The former is designed for building and construction machines, while the latter targets the public transport, maritime and port, and industrial sectors.

Currently, in the green energy world, one of the most common forms of biofuel is biodiesel, used widely in Europe. Biodiesels are produced from renewable resources such as vegetable oils and animal fats. It is usually blended with petrodiesel, and most cars can run on a blend of 5 per cent biodiesel and 95 per cent petrodiesel without modification.

Mr Ng says that emulsion diesel is 'totally different' from biodiesel. According to SgEF, its emulsion diesel requires only 60 per cent of petrodiesel, with the other 40 per cent made up of water and their patent-pending additive. SgEF emulsion diesel also does not require any retrofitting or modification of engines.

Mr Ng believes emulsion diesel's advantage is logical. 'Just think about it: when a certain amount of fuel is replaced by water, it is logical that the emissions would have less carbon,' he said.

Mr Ng's claims appear to have stood up to the test. SMRT partnered SgEF in product testing over a period of three months, and the use of SgEF emulsion diesel reduced CO2 emissions 10 per cent and other greenhouse gases almost 50 per cent. Fuel efficiency also improved 9 per cent.

Despite these promising figures, challenges remain. 'The greatest challenge,' he said, 'is making the consumer switch to green technology. They need to understand that protecting the environment is more important than cost-saving.'

While most are cynical about the climate change summit in Copenhagen, Mr Ng is hopeful. 'Even though the outcome of Copenhagen was not quite what we expected, all nations now know how important CO2 reduction is,' he said.

He added, 'prior to this, it wasn't so easy for me to talk to people about this issue. Now, everyone realises that to go into green technology, they need to pay a premium. It makes it easier for me as well.'

And while profit margins may be thin now, Mr Ng is not worried. 'It's basically economy of scale. Eventually, cost will decrease.'

Economy of scale means getting bigger, and when asked whether the domestic transport market was a target, Mr Ng responded with a resolute 'definitely'.

If his optimism is rewarded, it might not be too long before emulsion diesel becomes an integral part of how Singaporeans get from place to place.

Water-blended diesel to fuel green drive
Singapore firm develops emulsion fuel to curb reliance on fossil fuels
Christopher Tan, Straits Times 18 Feb 10;

WATER and oil do not mix, but a Singapore start-up begs to differ.

Singapore Emulsion Fuel (SgEF) has formulated diesel that is one-fifth water, and is marketing it as fuel that is greener and more cost-efficient.

On Feb 5, it opened a $1 million, 40,000 sq ft plant in Tuas that can produce up to 300,000 litres of emulsion fuel a day.

'We are starting with 30,000 litres a day, and shall go to 100,000 litres in a year's time,' said SgEF founder and chief executive Jeremy Ng.

Mr Ng, 55, left a 20-year career in the semiconductor industry for this green pursuit four years ago.

With $300,000 seed money from Spring Singapore's Start-up Enterprise Development Scheme, and about $700,000 shared between partners, he set up SgEF in 2006 'to address the global dependence on fossil fuels and to offer a viable alternative to existing biofuels'.

Mr Ng admits that emulsion fuels are not entirely new, and that the idea goes back a century.

'For the past 10 years or so, city buses in Europe have been using emulsion fuel,' he said.

But he added that SgEF's formula is unique - a patent is pending - in that the water and diesel do not separate when left unused for extended periods.

Ultra-low sulphur diesel is blended with water (20 per cent) and a proprietary binding agent (20 per cent) to make fuel that is clear like conventional diesel, unlike other emulsion diesels.

The fuel can be used in all existing diesel engines and machinery with no need for any modification.

Because of its water content, it is said to reduce black smoke emission by up to 80 per cent, improve fuel efficiency by up to 9 per cent, and reduce exhaust temperature by 20 per cent.

Building contractor Poh Lian Construction tested the emulsion diesel and found positive results.

'We used it for our air compressor and generator sets at two private property developments and the black smoke emission dropped significantly,' said Poh Lian's senior project manager Png Koon Guan.

He said he was trying to convince the management to continue using the fuel.

Construction foundation specialist CSC Holdings tried out the fuel too, but did not obtain any conclusive results.

Its purchasing manager Eileen Wong said: 'We tested it nine months ago, but we are not convinced because we could not quantify any benefits.

'We will embark on a more detailed test after Chinese New Year.'

Transport operator SMRT said it tested the product four years ago and 'did not find it suitable for our use'. It would not elaborate but The Straits Times understands cost was one reason.

Mr Ng said the emulsion fuel 'is generally more expensive than conventional diesel' with a premium of about 5 per cent. 'But increasing environmental awareness is pushing more companies everywhere towards alternatives such as hybrids and biodiesels,' he noted.

Indeed, building contractors with green credentials 'have a higher status, which helps them in future tenders', said Poh Lian's Mr Png.

SgEF, meanwhile, is working to distribute its product to regional markets such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

Mr Ng said the company will also work towards raising the fuel's water content to 30 per cent in future, thus reducing its environmental impact further and cutting Singapore's oil dependence.

'Singapore uses between 6 million and 10 million litres of diesel a day, so even if we can reduce that by 1 per cent, it is significant,' he said.

Read more!

Leopard found mutilated in Malaysia

Evangeline Majawat, New Straits Times 16 Feb 10;

KUALA LUMPUR: It was a gruesome start to the Chinese New Year for wildlife officers who found the mutilated carcass of a leopard on Sunday.

The animal, which had been trapped in a snare, had been skinned and all its limbs had been chopped off.

But the full extent of the horror did not hit them till yesterday when they found more animals -- a clouded leopard and five wild boars -- snared in the same vicinity.

All the animals were either dead or dying.

Pahang Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) officials had rushed to Persimpangan Hutan Persit near a Sungai Yu tributary in Pahang late Sunday evening after a tip-off from an Orang Asli.

State Perhilitan director Khairiah Mohd Shariff believed that the leopard, known locally as harimau kumbang, and other animals had strayed into wire snares meant for tigers.

"When we first got the information, we thought it was a tiger. Thankfully, it wasn't. But it's still a horrible act."

The leopard, which is the second largest cat in Malaysia, was reclassified in 2008 as "Near Endangered" in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

Khairiah said officers who made the grisly discovery estimated that the animals had been dead for at least three days.

Perhilitan officers cleared a total of 17 snares within the perimeter where the initial carcass was found.

"Wire snares, whether in small or large quantities, are dangerous," she said.

Although no arrests were made, Khairiah suspected locals were acting as middlemen in the wildlife trade.

"We believe the poachers had set the snares to trap tigers," she said.

"But since a leopard was caught, I think they didn't want to waste it. So it was butchered and skinned.

"It's a sad start to the new year."

Read more!

Mycat: Most wildlife culprits in Malaysia roaming free

The Star 17 Feb 10;

PETALING JAYA: A conservation group wants the Attorney-General’s Chambers to treat cases of cruelty to wildlife with importance and urgency.

The Malaysian Conservation Alliance for Tigers (Mycat) noted that perpetrators of previous cases involving cruelty to animal had walked away free after paying paltry fines.

“This includes a man who was found guilty of illegal possession of a dead tiger five years ago. The tiger had been butchered and stored in his freezer,” said Mycat programme coordinator Loretta Shepherd.

“For that offence, he paid a fine of RM7,000 and walked out a free man.

“Compare this to the case involving the theft of 11 cans of Tiger beer and Guinness Stout worth RM70 in January this year, where a man was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.

“Clearly our values are misplaced.”

Seven orang asli are currently being investigated for brutally killing a male tiger in the Bukit Tapah Forest Reserve in Perak two weeks ago.

While the incident has angered many Malaysians, Shepherd voiced concerns that they too might only receive a slap on the wrist.

The Protection of Wild Life Act 1972 provides for a maximum sentence of five years’ jail and a RM15,000 fine for killing a tiger.

Read more!