Canada's seal hunt to close early after low harvest

Michel Comte Yahoo News 15 Apr 10;

OTTAWA (AFP) – A lack of sea ice in one of the warmest Canadian winters on record and a European boycott have ruined what was to be a banner seal hunt off Canada's Atlantic coast this month, according to officials and sealers.

Canada's Fisheries Minister Gail Shea last month increased by 50,000 the allowable catch of harp seals this season to 330,000, in defiance of a ban on seal products by the European Union.

But most of Canada's 6,000 sealers stayed home, unable to find buyers for their catch or stymied by a lack of ice floes for the first time in 60 years on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, which usually host hordes of seals birthing pups.

"The European boycott was devastating to the industry this year, as was the lack of ice on the Gulf of Saint Lawrence due to an exceptionally warm winter," Jean Richard, Canadian fisheries department conservation chief for the Quebec coastal region, told AFP.

"The hunt, as a result of reduced market demand, has been scaled back substantially," added Larry Yetman, fisheries resource management officer for the Newfoundland and Labrador coastal region.

Fewer than 50 sealing ships launched from Newfoundland ports, down from 500 in past years. Others would have eagerly set out to reap this year's higher pelt prices -- at 21 dollars, nearly double last year's prices.

But there was now only one local buyer, NuTan Furs, which said upfront it would buy less than 15,000 pelts from a dedicated group of sealers this year.

"Every sealer in Newfoundland would have considered going out on the ice for that price, but there aren't any buyers," Yetman said.

He lamented that sealing conditions were otherwise ripe for a bountiful harvest along the Labrador coast: "The ice is close to shore, not heavy, and easily penetrated by sealing vessels."

"Unfortunately, we expect market demand to be satisfied in a couple of days, and then we would talk about closing the hunt," likely after less than 15 percent of the quota has been reached, he said.

To the south, a solitary ship set off with 10 crew onboard last week from the Magdalen Islands, where former Beatle Paul McCartney led a seal hunt protest in 2006, in search of prey for Quebec eateries.

The rest of the island's fleet remained docked, each ship too small to venture far beyond the Saint Lawrence seaway.

Denis Longuepee, president of the Magdalen Islands seal hunters association, said the steel-hulled 65-foot vessel Jean-Mathieu had already returned from Labrador coastal waters after nine days, with 2,200 seal carcasses.

Rejean Vigneau, a sealer and owner of a Magdalen Island butcher shop that specializes in seal meat, said their harvest was disappointing -- half of what he had hoped for.

"Normally, we never go hunting for seal meat," he commented. "We hunt for pelts and also bring back the meat. But there's no market for seal pelts this year."

Except for NuTan, all of Canada's seasonal seal processing companies have been shuttered, forcing the Jean-Mathieu crew to "throw pelts back in the water."

"It's a disaster, really unthinkable," Vigneau said. "It's the first time ever that this has happened."

Longuepee told AFP that there remained "a lot of demand for seal meat" as a delicacy, triple what it was last year and growing, but fisheries officials insist the market for the meat is still relatively small.

To try to boost demand, Canada's Fur Institute is expected to soon launch a seal cookbook originally published by the European Union, ironically three years before EU states voted in 2009 to ban the marketing of seal products from 2010 onwards.

In Ottawa, efforts are now underway to try to open up new markets for seal pelts in Asia while the EU ban -- called for by animal rights groups -- is being challenged at the World Trade Organization.

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Iceland Volcano: Not Yet A Global Cooling Eruption

Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 16 Apr 10;

A vast cloud from an intensifying volcanic eruption in Iceland is too small so far to slow global warming as happened in 1991 with the explosion of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, experts say.

Cataclysmic eruptions, led by Pinatubo and Mount Chichon in Mexico in 1982 in the 20th century, spewed so much debris into the upper atmosphere that they cooled the planet for months, briefly offsetting the effect of industrial heat-trapping gases.

"This is not like Pinatubo. So far the scale is not big enough to have a global effect," said Hans Olav Hygen, a climate researcher at the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.

The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier -- 10 times more powerful than another nearby last month -- threw up a 6 km (3.7 mile) cloud of ash and closed down air traffic across northern Europe.

"At the moment this is a relatively small eruption, not as big as some in the past from Iceland," said Colin Macpherson, a geologist at the University of Durham in England. Experts were monitoring to see possible impacts of ash on health.

A poison cloud from the eruption of Iceland's Laki volcano in 1783-84 killed thousands of people across Europe and undermined farm output by spewing an estimated 120 million metric tons of sulfur dioxide into the air, he said.

That amount of sulfur dioxide was three times European industrial output in 2006, he said.

STRATOSPHERE

Volcanic sulfur gases ejected high into the stratosphere and swept around the globe in the jetstream can linger for 12-14 months and dim sunlight, according to the U.N. panel of climate scientists.

Heavier ash generally falls back to Earth -- where it can cause respiratory problems -- within 3 months.

Some experts advocate the deliberate injection of sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere in a "geo-engineering" short cut to slow global warming and offset more floods, heatwaves, droughts, and rising sea levels.

That option has become attractive for some after a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen in December failed to produce a binding global deal to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Others say the risks are too big -- ranging from disruptions of weather patterns to acid rain.

"Pinatubo was the last major event. The levels of aerosols in the upper atmosphere have been fairly low of late," said Geoff Dollard, practice leader on air quality at the AEA consultancy which advises the British government.

"Generally there's a cooling effect from aerosols," he said. This is a lightish dust. We are keeping an eye on it" for possible threats to health. Dust in the air is nothing new -- storms from the Sahara can bring an orange-ish dust to northern Europe.

On an index of climate change since 1980 run by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, conditions got worse every year except 1982, 1992 and 1996. It links the dips to volcanic fallout from Chichon, Pinatubo and Monserrat in 1996.

Factbox: Volcanoes and ash clouds
Reuters 15 Apr 10;

(Reuters) - A huge cloud of ash from a volcano in Iceland turned the skies of northern Europe into a no-fly zone on Thursday, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded.

The eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier -- 10 times more powerful than another one nearby last month -- showed no sign of abating after more than 24 hours of activity.

Here are a few facts on volcanic eruptions:

THE DANGERS:

* VOLCANIC GASES - The most dangerous gases released during an eruption are sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen fluoride. High concentrations of sulphur dioxide injected into the atmosphere by large explosions can result in lung ailments, acid rain, lower surface temperatures and depletion of the earth's protective ozone layer. When carbon dioxide, which is heavier than air, settles in low-lying areas or collects in the soil, it can be lethal to people and animals.

* ERUPTION COLUMNS - Billowing clouds of gas and debris can reach more than 12 miles above a volcano, posing a serious threat to aviation. Some commercial jets have nearly crashed after flying into clouds of ash. Large rock fragments falling to the ground can kill people and destroy property.

* ASH FALL - Large volumes of ash can settle on buildings, resulting in their collapse. High levels of ash particles can cause increased coughing and irritate the eyes and skin and sometimes result in serious lung conditions. When the acid coating on ash is removed by rain, it can pollute local water supplies and damage vegetation. On the other hand, ash deposits can be beneficial by improving the fertility of soil.

* PYROCLASTIC FLOWS - An avalanche of hot ash, rock fragments and gas can flow down the side of a volcano at speeds of up to 150 miles an hour during explosive eruptions, burning everything in its path. People on the margins of the flows can suffer serious injury or even death from burns and inhalation of hot ash and gases.

THE RING OF FIRE:

* Of the world's 1,500 active volcanoes, almost 90 percent are in the Ring of Fire, a horseshoe-shaped band of volcanoes and fault lines circling the edges of the Pacific Ocean. It runs from Chile, northwards along the South American coast through Central America, Mexico, the west coast of the U.S. and the southern part of Alaska, through the Aleutian Islands to Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia before curving back to New Guinea, the southwest Pacific islands and New Zealand.

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN HISTORY:

* Pompeii was buried under a deep layer of ash in an eruption of the Vesuvius volcano, which towers over the Bay of Naples in southern Italy, in AD 79.

* In 1815 the Tambora volcano eruption in Indonesia killed an estimated 92,000 people. It has been claimed that volcanic ashes swept all the way to Europe blanketing the continent in a veil and turning 1816 into a "year without summer."

* In 1883 Krakatoa erupted in Indonesia killing 36,000. The impact of the eruption spewed molten rock and sulphate aerosols into the atmosphere. The debris in the atmosphere created vivid red twilights in Europe from November 1883 through February 1884 - a fact reflected by painters of the period.

* An earthquake measuring 9.5 struck the coast of central Chile in May 1960, triggering tidal waves and volcanic eruptions. Some 5,000 people were killed and 2 million made homeless.

* Mount Pinatubo, 80 km (50 miles) north of Manila, has one of the 20th century's three largest eruptions. The June 1991 eruption killed more than 700 and 200,000 buildings are destroyed.

* The Mount St. Helens volcano in the U.S. state of Washington erupted in May 1980, creating a cloud of ash 2,500 miles long and 1,000 miles wide. The eruption was triggered by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake. 57 died.

* In June, 2006, eruptions at Mount Sakurajima, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, spews volcanic gases 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) into the air.

* An explosion from the 1,500-meter (5,000-ft) summit of Bulusan volcano in June 2006 in the Philippines sends ash and steam 1,000 meters (3,300 ft) into the air and showers ash on surrounding villages.

* In April 2010 an eruption from below the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in Iceland hurled a plume of ash six to 11 kilometers (3.8 to 7 miles) into the atmosphere.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Dominic Evans)

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South Asia Monsoon Seen Normal: Weather Official

Ratnajyoti Dutta, PlanetArk 16 Apr 10;

Monsoon rains in south Asia are expected to be normal this year, helped by weakening El Nino weather phenomenon, a senior Indian weather official said on Thursday.

"El Nino conditions have started weakening and we expect the south Asia summer monsoon to be within the normal range," A.K. Srivastava, director of the Indian Meteorological Department, told reporters on the sidelines of South Asia Climate Outlook Forum.

Last month, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said the El Nino had peaked, but was expected to influence climate patterns up to mid-year before dying out.

India's annual June-September monsoon rains, which delivers 75-90 percent of total rainfall, were the weakest in 37 years in 2009, ravaging rice and oilseed crops.

Lower output hit food supplies in the domestic market and triggered a sharp rise in prices. The food price index rose an annual 17.22 percent in the 12 months to early April.

(Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)

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Global temperatures hit hottest March on record: US agency

Yahoo News 15 Apr 10;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Global temperatures fueled by El Nino seasonal warming last month chalked up the hottest March on record, US weather monitors reported Thursday.

"Warmer-than-normal conditions dominated the globe, especially in northern Africa, South Asia and Canada," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a statement.

Combined global land and ocean average surface temperature for March 2010 was the warmest on record at 13.5 degrees Celsius (56.3 degrees Fahrenheit), which is 0.77 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average of 12.7 C, it said.

Average ocean temperatures were the hottest for any March since record-keeping began in 1880, while the global land surface was the fourth warmest for any March on record, NOAA said, citing analysis from the National Climate Data Center.

It added that the January-March period was the planet's fourth warmest on record.

The US agency cited two Asian examples of high March mercury: Tibet had its second warmest March since records began in 1951, it said citing the Beijing Climate Center, while Delhi, India had its own second warmest March since 1901 record-keeping, according to the India Meteorological Department.

NOAA stressed that while El Nino, the weather anomaly which wreaks havoc on normal weather patterns from the western seaboard of Latin America to east Africa, weakened to a moderate strength in March, "it contributed significantly to the warmth in the tropical belt and the overall ocean temperature."

El Nino was expected to maintain its influence in the northern hemisphere "at least through the spring," NOAA said.

The record March temperatures are likely to give further ammunition to those who believe climate change is an urgent crisis which must be addressed at the global level.

The United Nations and several countries have called for a legally-binding agreement on climate change, but at a summit in Copenhagen in December states failed to agree on a deadline to reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming.

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China shift to low-carbon model vital for future: U.N.

David Fogarty, Reuters 15 Apr 10;

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China should step up its drive to a low-carbon growth model to maintain economic development and preserve achievements that have made it the world's third largest economy, a United Nations report says.

The report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released on Thursday says China's current growth model will be hard to sustain as the nation becomes more urbanised and the economy keeps expanding, consuming ever more amounts of energy.

China is already the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases from power plants, industry and transport blamed for heating up the planet and is under international pressure to curb the growth of its emissions. Coal is, and will remain, a major source of energy.

The country is also the world's most populous with 1.3 billion people and the number is expected to keep growing in coming decades. Hundreds of millions expect to migrate to the cities, threatening a massive spike in carbon emissions.

"The shift to a low-carbon development pathway is imperative as China balances further economic development with environmental sustainability and the need to respond to the threat of climate change," Khalid Malik, UNDP Resident Representative in China, said in a statement.

The report, "China and a sustainable future, toward a low carbon economy and society" and written in partnership with Renmin University of China, links economic growth, carbon emissions and human development in China.

It takes into account the numerous policy initiatives the government has launched that have driven rapid investment in renewable energy, cut energy intensity for industry and boosted environmental protection and cut pollution.

For example, China has committed to reducing carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 percent to 45 percent compared with 2005 levels. And rapid growth of renewable energy such as wind and solar has created a sector already worth $17 billion and employing close to one million people.

STRATEGIC CHOICE

But more was needed in a nation vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and which was already experiencing greater extremes of weather, threatening livelihoods and the economy.

"If climate change impacts are not adequately addressed in China, there is a danger that three decades of achievements may be reversed. China's most strategic choice is therefore to embark on a low-carbon development path that will preserve and increase its human development achievements in the years to come," says the report.

It said it was crucial to balance maintaining job growth and the needs of millions of poor people to prevent social unrest.

Since China launched economic reforms in the late 1970s, more than 500 million people have been lifted out of poverty, it says. But more than 100 million still live below the poverty line.

China's total greenhouse gas emissions have also grown rapidly. From 1970 to 2007, the total amount rose over seven times, the report says.

If the government makes only some efforts to reduce carbon pollution, energy-related CO2 emissions will increase rapidly to 11.4 billion tonnes in 2020, 13.9 billion tonnes in 2030 and 16.2 billion tonnes in 2050, and will not peak before 2050.

Much stronger action meant there was potential for emissions reduction after 2030 but that this would be difficult without a large number of support measures and major investment.

The report concludes that energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage, renewables and nuclear power were crucial investment areas to achieving a low-carbon future. It says that over the next 20 years, nearly 350 million Chinese are expected to migrate to urban areas -- more than the current population of the United States.

"Since urbanization generally increases emissions, China will face enormous pressures to reduce emissions while economic development and urbanization move forward," it says.

Accelerated urbanization fed on energy-intensive raw materials such as steel products, cement and chemical materials.

To cope with urbanization, China would need to construct an estimated 50,000 new high-rise buildings and 170 new mass transportation systems. Rapid freight growth and more highways, railways and ports would also be needed.

(Editing by David Fox)

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Best of our wild blogs: 15 Apr 10

Help stop cruel "Animal Liberation" - volunteers needed
from wild shores of singapore

Lots of new posts!
from Ecological observations in Singapore

Construction of massive Sentosa boardwalk, until Oct 10
from wild shores of singapore

折纸“地球日”特别活动 Reuse paper origami for Earth day
from PurpleMangrove

NSS Kids’ Fun with Migratory Birds and Wildlife at Ubin
from Fun with Nature

Petition to save Malaysia’s rainforests
from Planet of the Monyets

Mangrove Pitta breeding: 5. Faecal sac
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Phoenix canariensis: Canary Island Date Palm
from Flying Fish Friends

The Underwater Sydney Project
from Chai's Marine Life Blog

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Putting the citizen into science

Not a scientist? Don't even have a science degree? Not a problem, scientists need your help.

Suzannah Lyons, ABC Net undated, appeared on google reader 15 Apr 10;

Mark McCallum will never forget the first time he was acknowledged in a scientific journal.

He printed the article out and said to his wife and eight-year-old son: "Look at that, Dad's on a scientific paper".

But McCallum isn't a professional scientist, he's an Aussie 'pea hunter'.

Through participating in a project called Galaxy Zoo, with thousands of other people around the globe, McCallum helped discover a group of rare galaxies that are forming stars 10 times faster than the Milky Way.

Because of the galaxies' size and shape they were dubbed the 'green peas'.

McCallum and his fellow Zooites are part of a growing number of ordinary people taking part in scientific research through so-called 'citizen science' projects.

For many their motivation is simple: you feel like you are contributing to real science, says McCallum.

And with an increasing number of projects available across a range of scientific disciplines there's never been a better time to join their ranks.

The rise of citizen science

Citizen science isn't new. Australian citizen scientists provided British naturalist John Gould with many of the specimens illustrated in his 1848 The Birds of Australia series.

One of the world's longest-running citizen science projects, the National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count in the United States, started in 1900.

But the popularity and scope of citizen science projects has really taken off with the rise of the internet.

"Clearly in the last few years these sorts of opportunities have been greatly facilitated by social networks and [the] collaborative tools that we've seen with Web 2.0," says Dr Liz Lyon, director of UKOLN at the University of Bath, who has been leading research into open science environments.

With the way that citizen journalism has enriched reporting, Lyon thinks there's a lot that scientists could learn from citizen journalists.

Not only does citizen science raise public awareness of science it also exposes people to aspects of the way it's done, "perhaps in some ways demystifying it" she says.

It also allows scientists an alternative way to do some of the things they may want to do but can't fund.

"Certainly if we want to get a better idea of how our environment works to inform discussions about global warming, climate change and so on," says Lyon. "The more data we have… provided it's reasonable data, then I think that's going to help."

SETI@home: Is that ET calling?

One of the most well-known citizen science projects is SETI@home.

First launched in May 1999, SETI@home requires users to install a free program on their computer that downloads and analyses packages of radio telescope data via the internet.

Using the computer's leftover processing power, the program looks for narrow-bandwidth radio signals from space. Not known to occur naturally these signals could provide evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

For the project's director Dr David Anderson at the University of California, Berkley the continuing success of SETI@home lies in people's desire to understand their place in the universe.

"This leads directly to the question of whether life exists outside Earth," says Anderson. "Many people regard this as the most important unanswered (but potentially answerable) question."

Taking part in SETI@home allows people to have a say in what scientific research is done, he says.

"It makes them stakeholders in science, rather than observers."

The software that underpins SETI@home was extended to other science disciplines from climate change to cancer research with the launch of the BOINC project in 2002.

"These days there are about 60 BOINC-based projects doing research in a wide range of areas," says Anderson.

So not only can you take part in whatever project you like, there's also the opportunity to forms teams and compare your performance against other users, like in the Rosetta@home project on protein folding which encourages users to "solve puzzles for science".

Anderson is also working on another software development project, called Bossa, to provide support for volunteer thinking projects that use human intelligence not computer processing power.

Galaxy Zoo and the data deluge

With both computers and bandwidth now relatively cheap, a common problem in many areas of science is how to manage the flood of data being generated by research.

It was a problem faced by the scientists behind Galaxy Zoo, who had a million galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to look at and a PhD student who'd had enough.

Their solution was to put the project on the web and ask members of the public to decipher whether the images of galaxies they were looking at, often for the first time, were spiral or elliptic.

The response was unexpected.

"We forgot how the internet worked," says Dr Chris Lintott, University of Oxford astronomer and one of the Galaxy Zoo Zookeepers.

"We had the number of classifications we thought we'd get in five years, three days after launch."

One of their top participants, or 'Zooites', is Australian Joseph Cheng, who has classified over 1.2 million galaxies.

For Cheng part of the appeal in being involved in the project was getting to see the beauty of the universe and the satisfaction of being the first person to see these images.

"It's like a treasure box, it's all opened up to you," Cheng says.

The main difference between Galaxy Zoo and projects like SETI@home is that it relies on brain power.

'When you're asking people to do image recognition the most powerful computer in the room is the person looking at the screen, not the computer powering it," explains Lintott.

"While people have proved very adept at classifying galaxies, they've been excellent at finding the weird and the unusual things."

As well as the green pea galaxies, another Galaxy Zoo volunteer, Dutch schoolteacher Hanny Van Arkel, discovered a whole new class of astronomical object.

The success of the first Galaxy Zoo has allowed the Zookeepers to trust people more in the second iteration, and look more closely at some of the galaxies they are classifying.

They've also recently launched the Zooniverse, a platform that can support a range of other citizen science projects, and are hoping to add some non-astronomy projects to it later this year.

Operation animals change attitudes

If actually going out and collecting data in the field sounds more like the sort of science you want to be involved in, there are projects for that too.

Professor Chris Daniels, the director of the Barbara Hardy Centre for Sustainable Urban Environments at the University of South Australia, has been running surveys looking at the distribution and behaviour of particular animals and people's attitudes towards them since 2007 in partnership with ABC Local Radio Adelaide.

So far South Australians have told him how they feel about bluetongue lizards, possums and magpies, as well as provided good biological data on how these animals live in urban areas. And they're now in the planning stages of Operation Spider.

"People need a fair amount of information and guidance but they can be very good data collectors," says Daniels.

Recruiting members of the public to collect data has also had some benefits.

"[Prior to Operation Bluetongue] we couldn't actually do habitat utilisation, or food or dietary preferences or anything on bluetongues in people's backyards because you can't get permission to get into them," he says.

But Daniels says using citizen scientists also brings with it certain responsibilities.

"If you're going to do citizen science you have to give the results back to people."

So far they've published one book on their research and people's stories about the animals they observed, with two more in the pipeline.

ClimateWatch: local research contributes to global policy

The dearth of Australian data about how plants and animals are responding to climate change inspired not-for-profit organisation EarthWatch to create a citizen science project called ClimateWatch.

"The IPCC report from 2007 published the fact that there's something like 29,000 data sets in the world on the response of biological systems to climate," says Andy Donnelly, Earthwatch's science partnerships director.

"In Australia there's six, none of which were nationally significant."

Drawing on similar examples in the Northern Hemisphere, Earthwatch looked for ways the community could contribute broad data sets that could be supplement scientists' existing data.

The result is ClimateWatch, which asks the community to observe regional and national species which could be affected by climate change.

"Climate change is a kind of intangible problem, the science is very complex, it's often inaccessible," Donnelly says.

"This is a way you can do climate change science, contribute to that… when you're gardening, when you go on a bushwalk, when you go to work."

The ultimate aim of the project is that the community-generated data will be used at the highest policy level.

The devil is in the data

Not all research lends itself to the citizen science approach, however, particularly more technical areas of science. And some scientists may be reluctant to trust data collected by non-specialists, concedes Lyon.

"This is a valid point, we need to have mechanisms to ensure that the research that comes out of these sort of activities maintains a high standard and is validated," she says.

There are many ways projects ensure their data is robust and reproducible.

ClimateWatch has a system which is able to automatically detect outliers in the data which can then be referred to monitors on the ground to check what is really happening at a particular location.

Galaxy Zoo has designed interfaces specifically for the public and collects multiple classifications of each galaxy they're looking at to ensure the small number of incorrect classifications don't distort their data. This also allows them to build up a more nuanced picture of how prominent the shape of a galaxy is.

And Daniels's team from the University of South Australia provides background information for participants and mechanisms by which they can contact experts with their problems or queries. They also include particular questions in their surveys to test when they've hit the limit of people's knowledge to ensure they get reproducible results.

It is also important to remember that delivering robust data is not the only aim of citizen science projects, says Daniels.

"Citizen science in biology is a very powerful form or engagement and attitudinal change… regardless of the scientific quality of the data," he says.

Citizen science goes mobile

One of the most exciting prospects for citizen science is the emerging opportunities presented by increasing use of mobile devices and development of smart phone applications for many projects from classifying galaxies to tracking cassowaries.

With a Galaxy Zoo app just around the corner, Lintott is confident increased access and some friendly competition will only help the project.

"What do you do if the person next to you [on the train] gets a more interesting galaxy than you? I think you just have to keep classifying."

With many devices now boasting GPS capabilities you can not only record data on the go but also have your phone automatically log where you were when you recorded it.

Researchers in the United States are taking this idea one step further by trialling mobile devices equipped with environmental sensors.

In the future these sensors could be used to take a range of environmental measurements from pollutant readings and pollen counts, to the ambient temperature of the street corner you're standing on.

Not only could these everyday devices contribute to data sets for professional research they could also allow people to improve life in cities, whether by being more aware of their own readings or using a collection of them to plot clean air routes through a city.

Citizen science is not only changing the way we do and perceive science, it's also empowering people to make a difference, says Lyon.

Galaxy Zoo's Lintott agrees: "Anyone can make an actual contribution to what we know about the universe and I think that's quite an inspiring thought."

We'll leave the rest up to you.

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A World Heritage Site in Singapore?

Government calls for study, observers weigh in with options
Leong Wee Keat, Today Online 15 Apr 10;

SINGAPORE - Cambodia has Angkor Wat, Malaysia boasts the town of Malacca as one and the Great Wall of China is one of the best well known - so why can't Singapore have a world heritage site too?

According to a tender that closes today, the Government is on the search for possible United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) World Heritage Sites. It is looking to engage a contractor to undertake "a comprehensive study to assess the feasibility of selected heritage sites ... as possible World Heritage Sites and to recommend a suitable tentative list".

There are 890 sites around the world, but Singapore has none. Neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have three, five and seven sites, respectively.

Ministry of Communication, Information and the Arts (Mica) deputy secretary Sim Gim Guan said the study is aimed at exploring whether Singapore has potential sites and if there were benefits of nominating one for listing. If feasible, this would help develop a process for nomination, evaluation and selection of suitable cultural landmarks and districts of historical significance for a listing.

"The entire nomination process is rigorous, and we envisage the entire process, should we proceed, will take three to five years, based on the experience of some countries that have succeeded in World Heritage Site listing," said Mr Sim.

The move has been lauded by observers and conservation advocates who in turn, have suggested the Singapore Botanic Gardens (picture) - founded in 1859 - as the sole candidate that would meet Unesco's criteria.

The Botanic Gardens has strong connections with the history of global colonial economy in the past, given its links to Britain's Kew Gardens, said Associate Professor Johannes Widodo, a jury member of the Unesco Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation. "In addition, the Gardens have very important ecological value at present and in the future, not just for Singapore but also globally."

Singapore Heritage Society president Kevin Tan said that if the Gardens succeeded in being listed, perceptions of Singapore "being a very young city with no history and large green spaces, a bit of a concrete jungle," will change. Listing it "will showcase a very significant jewel in our midst".

But observers warned that the benefits of having a site need to be balanced against potential pitfalls, such as a surge in mass tourism, over-commercialisation, and erosion of dignity. Mr Tan Wee Cheng, who has visited 247 sites worldwide, launched a Facebook group to canvass support and raise awareness. Such pitfalls can be avoided with careful planning, and it is important "not to be overly ambitious," he said.

For the study, Mica requires that the contractor identify potential threats and evaluate the implications of future re-development plans within and in proximity to the heritage sites.

To make the list ...
Today Online 15 Apr 10;

On the World Heritage List are 689 cultural, 176 natural and 25 mixed properties. Sites must be of "outstanding universal value" and meet at least one of the 10 selection criteria, which include:

- To represent a masterpiece of human creative genius

- To exhibit an important interchange of human values on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town planning or landscape design

- To bear exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or civilisation

- To contain the most significant natural habitats for the conservation of biological diversity at its original site

The sites' authenticity and integrity, and how they are protected and managed, will also be considered by committee, according to its website.

Are there places in Singapore you think should become a World Heritage Site? Write to voices@mediacorp.com.sg.

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Singapore to still consider use of nuclear energy

Straits Times 15 Apr 10;

MOVES for greater global efforts to tighten nuclear security would not affect Singapore's plans to consider the possible use of nuclear energy, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has said in Washington.

A two-day summit on nuclear security there ended on Tuesday with 47 world leaders adopting a communique and work plan that would boost efforts to lock down or destroy vulnerable atomic materials.

The summit is part of United States President Barack Obama's broader plans to toughen the international regime against nuclear proliferation, and to eventually rid the world of atomic weapons.

Asked if these developments would in any way affect Singapore's plans to consider nuclear power as a source of energy supply, Mr Lee said: 'No, it doesn't. Many countries use nuclear power, and more wish to study the possibility. But there must be proper safeguards as to how the reactors work, how the materials are secured, and in fact what sort of materials to use because there are reactors which use highly enriched uranium which can be used to make bombs.

'So these are considerations which we have to take seriously. But they should not hinder the project.'

He stressed that a final decision had not been made, and that the Government was just beginning to study the long-term feasibility of nuclear power for Singapore.

Giving his impressions of the summit, he said Mr Obama deserved credit for bringing the issue of nuclear terrorism to global attention, and bringing world leaders together to discuss what could be done to mitigate the risks. During the summit, Mr Obama warned that terrorist groups were trying to get their hands on a nuclear weapon.

Mr Lee said during a plenary session with world leaders that Singapore took the issue seriously as it posed an 'existential threat' to a city-state.

Singapore, due to its status as a major transhipment hub, has been actively involved in multilateral efforts to curb shipments of illicit nuclear cargo.

However, second-tier ports must be involved in this effort as well, he said, or terrorists would simply exploit the weakest links in the global trading system.

He added: 'We are doing what we can in Singapore because we are a major port. But if we take it seriously and others don't, then doubtful containers would bypass Singapore.

'There are so many other places they could go. So the second-tier ports also must be brought into the net, and that's a challenge.'

CHUA CHIN HON

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New Zealand territory declares new whale sanctuary

AFP Google News 14 Apr 10;

WELLINGTON — The South Pacific territory of Tokelau Wednesday declared a whale sanctuary in its waters, bringing to 11 the number of national and territorial sanctuaries in the region.

The political head or ulu of the New Zealand territory, Foua Toloa, announced the new sanctuary in Auckland at a meeting of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium.

The sanctuary will cover 290,000 square kilometres (112,000 square miles) of ocean around the three atolls of Tokelau, which lie roughly midway between New Zealand and Hawaii.

"Tokelau's decision to declare its exclusive economic zone a sanctuary for whales is based on our firm belief that we share a common responsibility in the Pacific for the protection of these species," Toloa said.

"Whales don't recognize national boundaries and Tokelau would be remiss if we failed to support our Pacific island neighbours in the quest to help recovery of the whales in our region."

Although a global moratorium on commercial whaling was introduced in 1986, more than 30,000 have since been killed by Japan, Norway and Iceland, which have exploited loopholes in the rules set by the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The establishment of the Tokelau sanctuary will have no immediate impact on whaling, but conservationists say it strengthens the anti-whaling cause.

Whale sanctuaries, including the one set up in the Southern Ocean in 1994 which covers 50 million square kilometres of ocean surrounding Antarctica, may become more important due to growing strains on the moratorium.

Members of the IWC are discussing a proposal to end a stand-off between anti-whaling countries and the three hunt nations by allowing restricted commercial whaling.

Karen Sack, director of international ocean conservation for the US-based Pew Environment Group, welcomed the new Tokelau sanctuary.

"There is a stark contrast between the growing number of countries declaring their commitment to whale conservation by establishing sanctuaries, and the negotiations on the future of the IWC," Sack said.

"This international organisation should reinforce its own whale safe havens on the high seas, particularly in the Southern Ocean, to complement and enhance country protections."

The South Pacific Whale Research Consortium meets annually and was formed by independent scientists to investigate the status of humpback and other whale species in the South Pacific region.


Tokelau declares whale sanctuary in South Pacific
BBC 15 Apr 10;

The tiny New Zealand territory of Tokelau has declared a whaling sanctuary in its waters.

The new 290,000 sq km (112,000 sq mile) sanctuary brings the number in the South Pacific region to 11.

Tokelau's leader, Foua Toloa, said South Pacific countries had a "common responsibility" to protect its whales.

The sanctuary will have no immediate impact on whaling, but conservationists say it will strengthen the 1986 worldwide moratorium on whale hunting.

"Tokelau's decision to declare its exclusive economic zone a sanctuary for whales is based on our firm belief that we share a common responsibility in the Pacific for the protection of these species," Mr Toloa told a meeting of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium in New Zealand.

"Whales don't recognise national boundaries and Tokelau would be remiss if we failed to support our Pacific island neighbours in the quest to help recovery of the whales in our region."

Scott Baker, a US member of the consortium, said the establishment of the sanctuary sent "a very strong messages to the global community and particularly to the whaling nations that they are in a minority".

Commercial whaling has been frozen by an international moratorium since 1986, but some 3,000 whales are killed every year by Norway, Japan and Iceland under loopholes in the legislation.

Japan kills several hundred whales each year for what is termed scientific research. Most of its hunting takes place in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary in the Antarctic.

Tokelau's territory is just 12 sq km (4.7 sq miles) and lies halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand.

It has a population of 1,500 and has been administered from Wellington since 1926.

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WWF-Malaysia urges PM to support Federal Laws for turtles in Memorandum

WWF-Malaysia 15 Apr 10;

15 April 2010, Selangor – WWF-Malaysia calls for better legal protection through Federal laws for Malaysia’s endangered turtles in a Memorandum to the Prime Minister handed over on 7 April 2010. The memorandum was presented by WWF-Malaysia’s CEO/ Executive Director, Dato’ Dr Dionysius Sharma to the PM’s Special Officer in Charge of Parliamentary Affairs at Perdana Putra, Putrajaya.

Essentially, the memorandum seeks to draw the Prime Minister’s attention to the plight of this national heritage. Continued trade and consumption of turtle eggs, habitat destruction and degradation, turtle poaching and mortality through accidental by-catch in fishing activities are direly impacting the species.

“The precarious situation facing turtles in Malaysia is compounded by the fact that the State laws governing turtles currently are very weak and ineffective. These laws have failed to provide any meaningful protection,” said Dato’ Dr Sharma.

The ‘Turtle Memorandum’ calls on the Federal Government to now enact comprehensive and holistic Federal laws that govern turtles.

“However, this call, from a legal standpoint poses difficulties as the jurisdiction over turtles belongs to the State according to the Federal Constitution. For the Federal government to enact such comprehensive laws, the Federal Constitution will need to be amended,” according to WWF-Malaysia’s Policy Coordinator, Ms Preetha Sankar.

She added that it is absolutely imperative that if turtles are to have a chance at survival, Federal intervention, mandate, resolve and resources must be expressed and facilitated through such Federal laws.

WWF-Malaysia has through the memorandum called on the Prime Minister to give this issue attention at the cabinet level and initiate various consultations and policy dialogues with relevant Ministries, State Excos, the Attorney General’s Chambers, scientists and NGOs alike.

This memorandum also contains opinions by renowned turtle scientists and legal experts. WWF-Malaysia intends to make this memorandum public very soon.

“We need to bring the battle to save our turtles to Parliament. We hope that our Prime Minister will initiate pivotal changes that will set the course right for these iconic species. It is still not too late,” added Dato’ Dr Sharma.

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For sale: the rarest animals on earth

A flourishing illegal online trade in exotic animals is threatening the survival of many species. Sonia Van Gilder Cooke investigates just what creatures are for sale
Sonia Van Gilder Cooke, The Guardian 15 Apr 10;

From Burmese pythons to pygmy marmosets, there is a roaring illegal trade in animals online. A recent convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species found one rare species – the Kaiser's spotted newt (an orange and black salamander in the highland streams of Iran) – now numbers fewer than 1,000 adults in the wild because of internet trading.

So what can you find on the internet? In just one day, I discovered dealers who appear to be selling some of the rarest species on earth.

Ploughshare tortoise

Within a few hours, I was staring at an advert for one of the world's most endangered creatures. It read, "Very superb, jumbo size and most of all very rare". Only 200 mature ploughshare tortoises survive in the bamboo scrublands of north Madagascar; the rest, it seems, are online. And what would this pair of 30-year-old tortoises cost? £24,000, and a trip to Kuala Lumpur: there's no international shipping.

Burmese starred tortoise

It is against the law to remove the critically endangered Burmese starred tortoise from the forests of Myanmar, but I easily found an apparent seller in Bangkok, Thailand. The dealer's picture features 35 turtles in a laundry basket lined with newspaper and wilted lettuce. Ten years ago, a survey by the Wildlife Conservation Society found few specimens in the wild. They did, however, find a tortoise trader in every village. This seller was asking £320 in cash for each specimen.

Bosc's monitor lizard and ball python

One classified advert offered a "snake show" and "horse riding" along with Bosc's monitor lizards (£70) and ball pythons (£75). International law requires that these African species come with permits from their country of origin – conservationists worry that few wild-caught Bosc's survive to maturity in captivity and supplies are replenished from wild populations. The ad doesn't mention permits.

Elephant ivory

In 2008, eBay banned the sale of ivory, finding it impossible to ensure trade was legal. It's still available online, however. I called one dealer who seemed knowledgeable about the required permits; the same can't be said of many online sellers. Some nod to legality by claiming their ivory is antique; others don't bother. On Craigslist I found an "Endangered Species Ivory Neclace" [sic] in California ($120). The seller claims it's "circa 1980", but without a permit, there's no way to tell.

Hawksbill turtle

In Japan, artisans began carving hawksbill shells – the only true source of tortoiseshell – in the 1700s, but banned import of the critically endangered sea turtle in 1993. I found what appeared to be a tortoiseshell item on eBay: a "Brand New Takayama Ex-Takahashi Chikudo Model Shamisen Bekko Bachi Plectrum". It's a pic for a banjo-like Japanese instrument. The seller in New York promised a "natural material" of premium grade. Price $370, will ship worldwide.

Shahtoosh

It takes the wool from five dead Tibetan antelope to make one shawl. That means you could get about 30,000 luxury garments from the herd estimated to remain in north-western Tibet. It's illegal worldwide to sell the wool, but I found an online dealer in Kashmir claiming to sell shahtoosh shawls along with "fancy wicker baskets". Price unlisted.

Radiated tortoise

In the wild, the radiated tortoise spends its days munching cactus in the bushlands of southern Madagascar. "Sub zero", a dealer in Prai, Malaysia, has two that are two-and-a-half years into a life that can last for 100. This pair could outlive the population as a whole: scientists have predicted it is headed for collapse in the next half century because of habitat loss and the wildlife trade. Price £710 and £1,220, although Sub zero is offering a "mega discount".

Parrots and macaws

A Google search for pet birds turned up an eight-year old Tucuman Amazon (£450) in Canada. The seller claimed the bird is from the wild, which would make it illegal: after 20,000 Tucumans left Argentina in the 1980s to become pets, international trade in the species was banned in 1990.

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