Ash could darken Singapore skies one day

Several volcanoes in region, but no big eruptions anticipated
Victoria Vaughan, Salim Osman in Jakarta & Alastair McIndoe in Manila
Straits Times 22 Apr 10;

A VOLCANIC ash cloud like the one that disrupted air traffic over Europe could form here someday, experts say.

'There are quite a few volcanoes in the region that could erupt that much ash, but we don't know of any big eruptions brewing in the immediate future,' said Professor Chris Newhall, volcano group leader at Nanyang Technological University's Earth Observatory Singapore (EOS).

Singapore is near the Pacific Ring of Fire, the range of volcanoes that skirts the Pacific Plate from New Zealand across Indonesia, through the Philippines and Japan, and down the coasts of North and South America.

Climatologist Matthias Roth at the National University of Singapore said that given Singapore's location, the possibility of an ash cloud here cannot be excluded. The wind direction and the location and size of the eruption are crucial factors.

'However, Singapore's frequent rainfall would work to mitigate any impact, unless the eruption were to occur during an unseasonably dry period,' he said.

A National Environment Agency (NEA) spokesman said: 'It is possible for Singapore to be affected if prevailing winds blow the ash cloud from eruptions in neighbouring countries towards us.'

This happened when Mt Pinatubo in Luzon Island, the Philippines, erupted in 1991. 'The air quality went into the moderate range for three days,' he said. 'The ash cloud remained in the upper atmosphere and spread around the world for many months following the eruption.'

Air travel from Singapore carried on, but at least 20 commercial aircraft were affected by encounters with ash clouds.

In fact, two planes lost engine power, according to a report by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) and two American geological institutions.

Indonesia and the Philippines both have systems in place for aviation and civilian safety during volcanic eruptions.

'Each time there is an eruption, we monitor how far the volcanic ash is being blown and at what level,' said Dr Surono of Indonesia's Volcanology and Geology Centre in Bandung. 'We would issue an alert to all aircraft flying into our airspace to stay clear of the area.'

Reports of seismic activity and volcanic eruptions in Indonesia are relayed to the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Darwin, Australia, which then advises the international aviation industry of the location and movement of volcanic ash clouds. The centre covers Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and parts of the Philippines.

Dr Surono said Indonesia last experienced a volcanic ash scare in June 1982, when a British Airways Boeing 747, flying to Australia from Malaysia, flew over the erupting Mt Galunggung in West Java.

'The aircraft's four engines were shut down within minutes,' he said.

The plane plunged about 20,000 feet (6,000m) before the crew could restart the engines and land the plane safely in Jakarta. Reports said a Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 also lost power in three of its four engines when it hit ash from the same eruption a few days later, but also landed safely.

In the Philippines, Philvolcs has observatories on all 23 active volcanoes in the country. It also reports to the Australia centre when a volcano erupts.

'That is the standard operating procedure even when the volcanic activity is quite minor,' said Mr Jaime Sincioco, its officer in charge of volcano monitoring.

Based on Mt Pinatubo's eruption history, Philvolcs believes the chance of renewed activity is unlikely for generations.

But EOS's Prof Newhall, 61, said predicting eruptions is not an exact science. Typically, predictions can only be made days, weeks or possibly months ahead.

He added EOS scientists are studying volcanoes across the region to gather data to help better understand the process.

'We are good at picking up signs that a volcano could erupt,' he said. 'But more work needs to be done.'

Read more!

After Avatar comes a flock of green films to Singapore

Esther Au Yong my paper, Asia One 22 Apr 10;

ARISING global awareness of environmental conservation issues is paving the way for an increasingly viable eco-film industry.

More environmental documentaries - like the Academy Award-winning An Inconvenient Truth, the Leonardo DiCaprio-narrated The 11th Hour and Disneynature's blockbusters Earth and Oceans - are being turned out.

And it is not just the hippie tree-hugger types that are going to see them - general moviegoers are growing keen on such movies as their own awareness of conservation issues begins to rise.

Oceans will make its debut in the United States today in celebration of Earth Day.

Disneynature was set up in 2008 precisely to make nature films that entertain and educate the masses.

Its head, Mr Jean-Francois Camilleri, said in a press release announcing its launch: "By working with the best wildlife directors, we will offer nature as never seen before, help the audience to discover the incredible beauty of our world but also understand the challenges for future generations."

In Singapore, distributors are also seeing a steady demand for such environmental documentaries.

For example, Shaw Organisation has been distributing an eco-film every year since Sharkwater in 2008, which raked in close to US$1.7 million (S$2.3 million) in total worldwide.

Tonight, the Disneynature film, Earth, will make its Singapore premiere. To date, worldwide sales stand at more than US$108 million.

Shaw Organisation's executive vice-president, Mr Mark Shaw, said: "While supporting environmental causes are a part of our corporate social-responsibility programme, it is undeniable that there is increasing demand for eco-movies from our consumers.

"This is especially so for documentaries which are filmed from breathtaking angles with cutting-edge technology.

"We have picked up these films, as we feel that they have educational value specific to our local audiences."

However, he pointed out that it would not be fair to judge eco-films against mainstream movies.

"Eco-films occupy a different market space as compared to mainstream commercial products. While I can't comment on the profitability of eco-films, I think that they are definitely highly successful as far as the documentary genre goes," he said.

Environmental organisations here are also using these green films as a way to educate and reach out to their target audience.

Tonight, Young NTUC will be screening Tapped - a film which examines the business of bottled water - as part of its environmental outreach.

Mr Steve Tan, Young NTUC's executive secretary, said: "Green films help raise awareness among the audience. To be able to review, discuss and think (about the environment after watching) them is an approach we take to arouse interest among our members."

Future screenings include the films Fuel and Addicted To Plastic.

Last week, the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) organised a charity screening of Earth, with sponsorship from L'Oreal.

Mr Howard Shaw, the executive director of SEC, said: "We see film as a great way to raise awareness about the importance of environmental conservation.

"The moving image is a powerful tool in changing perceptions and bringing a person to action."

However, Professor Kirpal Singh, a board member of this year's Singapore International Film Festival committee, feels that there is still a lack of sustainable enthusiasm from the local audience.

He said: "In Singapore, it's still a niche audience. Most people are not ready or willing to pay a lot of money to watch an eco-film.

"People are also aware of social propaganda. There is a high potential for the green film industry but not now, maybe in the future."

Related links
More details about environmental films being screened in Singapore on wildsingapore happenings.

Read more!

Tuas solar plant to power Norway's REC

World's biggest cell complex can lift firm's output 4-fold
Ronnie Lim 22 Apr 10;

(SINGAPORE) Some sunshine is breaking through again after a dreary 2009 for solar cell makers.

And Renewable Energy Corporation's new solar manufacturing complex at Tuas - which is 'now close to completion' and built at a significant 22 per cent cost savings of S$2.6 billion (from an original estimated S$3.4 billion) - is expected to boost the Norwegian group's competitiveness this year.

Providing this Singapore update in its latest Q4, 2009, financial report, REC said that the Tuas facility - which will be the world's biggest solar cell complex - could support close to a four-fold increase in the group's production volumes 'if the market allows'.

'The new plant will allow REC to increasingly offer products that will compete with traditional, grid-based electricity. REC's ambition is to achieve manufacturing costs of below one euro per watt in the new Singapore plant,' it said.

REC, which sank in the first piles for the Tuas complex in June 2008, said that 'progress has continued to be good in the construction . . . and production line equipment installation, and testing has run according to plan'.

Marking what it considered a significant positive development, REC said that 'Singapore has been below budget and on schedule', compared to its other expansions back in Norway.

The Tuas complex will manufacture the entire gamut of wafers, solar cells and modules.

REC said that production of the solar cells has already started this year at the first of eight production lines here, while the first of four production lines for modules is expected to start up in Q2. Wafer production is expected to commence in Q3, it added. 'Production ramp-up will be aligned to market demand and prudent working capital management,' it said.

Singapore will increase REC's wafer production by about 40 per cent, cell capacity by 240 per cent and module capacity by almost 400 per cent.

'Overall, the Singapore project is expected to increase REC's total nameplate wafer capacity to approximately 2.4 GW (gigawatts) and nameplate solar cell and module capacity to more than 700 MW when fully up and running in 2011.'

On market outlook, REC said that global demand for solar cells which was weak last year - as a result of supply exceeding demand, and adverse effects of changes in renewable policies in key markets - improved at the year-end.

Demand growth this year will depend on the effect of changes in renewable policies, and REC expects a global module demand growth in the lower end of the 7-10 GW estimated by analysts. So while its new Singapore facility will provide it with a four-fold increase in capacity this year 'actual cell and module production will be aligned with overall market conditions and product demand', it stressed.

Nevertheless, while 2010 will mark a year of ramping up of capacity, its new expansions - including in Singapore, the US and Norway - which will be in full production from mid-2011 'will form a solid base for future competitiveness', especially with market growth expected to return in 2011.

REC meanwhile is still continuing to recruit for its Singapore complex, which needs 1,350 people.

Staffing at its wafer plant here is expected to reach about 300, while the cell plant will employ about 400. The headcount at its modules plant will be about 650.

Read more!

Earth Day: No more burning rivers, but new threats

Seth Borenstein Associated Press Google News 22 Apr 10;

WASHINGTON — Pollution before the first Earth Day was not only visible, it was in your face: Cleveland's Cuyahoga River caught fire. An oil spill fouled 30 miles of Southern California beaches. And thick smog choked many cities' skies.

Not anymore.

On Thursday, 40 years after that first Earth Day in 1970, smog levels nationwide have dropped by about a quarter, and lead levels in the air are down more than 90 percent. Formerly fetid lakes and burning rivers are now open to swimmers.

The challenges to the planet today are largely invisible — and therefore tougher to tackle.

"To suggest that we've made progress is not to say the problem is over," said William Ruckelshaus, who in 1970 became the first head of the Environmental Protection Agency. "What we've done is shift from the very visible kinds of issues to those that are a lot more subtle today."

Issues such as climate change are less obvious to the naked eye. Since the first Earth Day, carbon dioxide levels in the air have increased by 19 percent, pushing the average annual world temperature up about 1 degree Fahrenheit, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"We've cleaned up what you can see and left everything else in limbo," said Kathleen Rogers, president of the Earth Day Network.

Improvements took shape in the form of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and changes in the way businesses treat the environment, said Denis Hayes. Those reforms, he added, grew out of the first Earth Day, an event Hayes helped coordinate.

"It is the most powerful, sweeping, society-wide change America has had since the New Deal," Hayes said. "The air is cleaner despite the fact that we have twice as many vehicles traveling twice as many miles."

Nancy Sutley, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said progress in the past 40 years is about more than just laws. It's also about innovation that made cleaner cars. And that innovation, Sutley said, "is going to be the answer for tackling climate change."

No place illustrates progress more than the Cuyahoga River.

Cleveland's main river used to periodically catch fire. On June 22, 1969, trash and an oil slick ignited. The river burned for half an hour, drawing national attention to water pollution nationwide.

People didn't swim in the river at the time, and anyone who fell in needed to be checked by a doctor.

"The river bubbled like a cauldron. There were all kinds of chemicals in there, and that was what was bubbling at the bottom," said Wayne Bratton, a boat captain then and now, and the first president of the Cleveland Harbor Conservation Committee.

On Tuesday, Wayne Bratton was aboard his boat, The Holiday. He looked over the starboard side at Collision Bend and described by telephone what he saw: "I'm looking at a lot of gulls, there's a loon, a lot of black heron."

People now fish in the river, which holds 60 species. There's a spiffy amphitheater on the river bank, which never would have been built when the water had a dreadful stench, Bratton said.

It's not just the Cuyahoga. In 1957, the Public Health Service declared the Potomac River unsafe for swimming. Now Rogers lets her children swim in it.

"I don't even wash them off any more," she said.

In Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s, the joke was that if you moved in during the summer you wouldn't notice the nearby mountains until the winter. Now peak smog levels are only one-third as high as 40 years ago, he said.

"Unfortunately, it leads some people to think that we don't have a problem any more," said Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

The region still has 6,000 yearly premature deaths linked to unseen tiny particles in the air that cause heart and lung problems, Atwood said.

In 1970, Ruckelshaus said, about 85 percent of pollution was from places like factories or power plants that the government could regulate. Now such sites account for only 15 percent, with most pollution coming from sources like farms that are harder to control.

That makes fixing the remaining problems politically difficult, said Russell Train, chief environmental adviser in 1970 to President Richard Nixon.

"Back in the '70s, people felt the threat of environmental mistakes and misbehavior," Train said. "There was a real threat to your health and people knew that. Today, people will accept that as a general principal, but don't feel any immediate threat from climate change or indirect source pollution from farmers."

Last month was the hottest March on record worldwide. It was 1.4 degrees warmer than March 1970, according to NOAA.

The average temperatures for the last 40 years are higher than the rest of the 130 years of record-keeping, said Deke Arndt, head of climate monitoring at NOAA's National Climate Data Center.

And, this week, German scientists published an analysis in the scientific journal Nature that says the greenhouse gas agreement reached by some international leaders last December in Copenhagen would lead to a 10 to 20 percent increase in carbon dioxide levels in 2020.

That puts "in dire peril" chances for limiting the effects of warming, the researchers said.

Still, the White House's Sutley is optimistic.

"The Cuyahoga River is not on fire anymore, and air quality in Los Angeles is not as bad as it was 40 years ago. I think people get those connections," Sutley said. "People get that something is changing about our climate."

Read more!

Business and Biodiversity: Are You a Green Leader?

UNEP 21 Apr 10;

Seoul (Republic of Korea), 21 April 2010 – Biodiversity is a building block for the natural system on which much of the world's wealth depends directly or indirectly: yet too few in business realize the extent of the risks and potential rewards of managing their impact on this key nature-based asset.

A new publication from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), previewed at B4E, the Business for Environment Global Summit, in Seoul today, helps companies understand the challenges and opportunities by examining the impact of their sector and revealing what other companies are doing to manage biodiversity issues.

As such it is a new and additional insight into how the corporate sector can be part of the transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient, 21st century Green Economy.

Are you a green leader? Business and biodiversity: making the case for a lasting solution, prepared by UNEP's Paris-based Division of Technology, Industry and Economics and its Cambridge-based World Conservation Monitoring Centre, looks at a broad spectrum of business, including mining, energy, agrifoods, fisheries and aquaculture, construction, forestry, tourism, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, fashion and finance.

Many sectors rely on raw materials such as timber, fish, cotton, crops and clean water, or work with supplies and suppliers throughout the life cycle of production processes. But many do not realize how threatened those supplies are, and fail to include this in their calculations and business plans.

For instance:

* Biodiversity is disappearing at up to 1,000 times the natural rate, and ecosystems are functioning less and less effectively.

* The economic loss of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation to the world economy is estimated to be $US2-4.5 trillion.

* About 60 per cent of ecosystems have been degraded or used unsustainably, including provisioning (food and fibre) and regulating services (climate, flood, water purification).

* Around 50 countries face moderate or severe water stress

* By 2030, it is thought that water scarcity could cut agricultural harvests by 30 per cent.

* In Indonesia, coffee yields have dropped by 18 per cent in some areas because of falling pollination rates.

* The cost of environmental degradation related to water loss in the Middle East and North Africa is estimated at $US9 billion a year.

"The message is simple," said Achim Steiner, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP. "Most if not all businesses rely directly or indirectly on natural or nature-based assets, many of which are becoming increasingly scarce as a result of mismanagement and a lack of investment and re-investment. This translates into a business risk, but also a business opportunity."

"Indeed how a company translates the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services - such as those from forests and soils to freshwaters and the atmosphere - into their business strategies will increasingly define the bottom line in terms of profit and loss and sales to a new generation of more aware and demanding consumers," he added.

Are you a Green Leader?, the executive summary of which is released today, helps companies to begin this transition by helping them assess their risk. It outlines the business case that a failure to address biodiversity issues could affect supply of resources, access to markets, brand and reputation, licence to operate and access to finance. In addition, companies could face a consumer backlash, as more and more customers are demanded sustainably produced products and services.

The full-length publication of Are you a Green Leader? will be launched at the first Global Business of Biodiversity Symposium in London in July.

The executive summary is available for downloading at http://www.unep.fr/scp/business/

Read more!

World's Longest Bug And 'Ninja' Slug Discovered in Borneo

Jeanna Bryner, livescience.com Yahoo News 22 Apr 10;

An eccentric bunch of species have recently come out of hiding in the rainforests of Borneo, including the world's longest known stick insect - think two skinny pencils end-to-end, a slug that shoots "love darts," and a color-changing frog, scientists announce today.
The new WWF report details the 123 newly identified species that have been discovered since February 2007 when the three countries that make up Borneo agreed to conserve 85,000 square miles (220,000 square kilometers) of tropical rainforest, designated as the Heart of Borneo (HoB).

That's a rate of discovery of three species per month. Previously, scientists have estimated that there are about 2 million known species of life on Earth, and anywhere from 5 million to 100 million species that remain undiscovered.

"As the past three years of independent scientific discovery have proven, new forms of life are constantly being discovered in the Heart of Borneo," said Adam Tomasek, who leads the WWF project.

Here's an introduction to the new gang:

Longest insect - Measuring more than 1.6 feet (0.5 meters) in length, the world's longest stick insect, called Phobaeticus chani, was found near Gunung Kinabalu Park, Sabah. So far, only three specimens of the species have been found, all in the Heart of Borneo.

Fiery snake - Kopstein's Bronzeback snake (Dendrelaphis kopsteini) is about 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. Its neck is colored a bright orange, which fuses into an iridescent and vivid blue, green and brown pattern that extends the entire length of its body.

Color-changing frog - Called Rhacophorus penanorum, this small frog species, whose males grow to just 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters), was discovered in Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, in the Heart of Borneo. Also called the Mulu flying frog, the amphibian has a small pointed snout and is unusual in that the species has bright green skin at night but changes color to display a brown hue during the day. Its eyes follow suit to change color as well. And while the minute animal may not fly with the birds, it uses its webbed feet and aerodynamic flaps of skin on the arms and legs to glide from tree to tree.

Spectacled bird - Named because of its prominent eye-rings, the spectacled flowerpecker has a grey body with bright white arcs above and below its eyes, a white throat and white tufts at the breast sides. Scientists think the flowerpecker is a canopy specialist, feeding off fruits high in tree canopies.

Ninja slug - This green and yellow slug (Ibycus rachelae) was discovered on leaves in a mountain forest at altitudes up to 6,233 feet (1,900 meters) in Sabah, Malaysia. The slug sports a tail that's three times the length of its head, which it wraps around its 1.6-inch-long (4 cm) body as if a pet cat. In fact, its discoverers initially planned to name the slug Ibycus felis, after its feline inspiration. Instead, they named it after the girlfriend of one of its discoverers, Menno Schilthuizen of the Netherlands Centre for Biodiversity 'Naturalis.'
Maybe there's more to the name than meets the eye: The slug species makes use of so-called love darts. Made of calcium carbonate, the love dart is a harpoon-like structure that pierces and injects a hormone into a potential mate. The dart could increase the slug's chances of reproduction.

"The distinction between slugs and snails is not so strict in that part of the tropics, because most of the slugs, including the new one we described, are semi-slugs meaning they still have a shell but the shell is so small that it can't retract its body into it," Schilthuizen told LiveScience.

And though they've found several new slug and snail species, Schilthuizen said this rainforest environment isn't ideal for the animals. That's because the soil is highly acidic, which dissolves the animals' limestone shells.

Overall, the Heart of Borneo is now called home by 10 primate species, more than 350 birds, 150 reptiles and amphibians and a staggering 10,000 plants that are found nowhere else in the world, according to the new report.

To keep these species and their lush home safe from demise, under the 2007 agreement, the three governments have committed to conserve and sustainably manage the area.

More photos on livescience.com website.

Heart of Borneo emerges as home of world’s longest insect, lungless frog and “ninja” slug
WWF 22 Apr 10;

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei: A frog with no lungs, a “ninja” slug firing love darts at its mate, and the world’s longest insect are among new species discovered in the three years since the Heart of Borneo conservation plan was drawn up by the three governments with jurisdiction over the world’s third largest island.

New WWF report Borneo’s New World: Newly Discovered Species in the Heart of Borneo details 123 new species discovered since the February 2007 agreement by Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia to conserve 220,000 km2 of irreplaceable tropical rainforest, designated the Heart of Borneo (HoB).

“As the past three years of independent scientific discovery have proven, new forms of life are constantly being discovered in the Heart of Borneo,” said Adam Tomasek, leader of WWF’s HoB Initiative.

Explorers have been visiting the island of Borneo for centuries, but vast tracts of its interior are yet to be biologically explored, he said.

“If this stretch of irreplaceable rainforest can be conserved for our children, the promise of more discoveries must be a tantalising one for the next generation of researchers to contemplate,” he added.

The HoB, an “island within an island” is home to ten species of primate, more than 350 birds, 150 reptiles and amphibians and a staggering 10,000 plants that are found nowhere else in the world, the report says.

The rate of discovery since the foundation of the HoB is more than three new species per month, providing ample justification for the decision to protect the region.

Speaking at the launch of the report during a meeting of the three Heart of Borneo governments, Brunei Darussalam’s Minister of Industry & Primary Resources, the Honourable Pehin Dato Yahya, paid tribute to the dedicated scientists who spent countless hours in challenging conditions to uncover the staggering bio-diversity.

“These amazing new findings highlight the importance of our efforts to implement the HoB Declaration’s bold vision,” he said of the region which also contains the pygmy elephant, orangutan, rhinoceros, and clouded leopard.

With so many new species discovered every month, WWF has made the region a global priority through its Heart of Borneo Initiative. WWF offices in Malaysia and Indonesia support tri-government efforts to conserve and sustainably manage the HoB.

Under the 2007 agreement, the three governments have committed to enhance protected area and trans-boundary management, develop eco-tourism and support sustainable resource management.

“Three years on, the Heart of Borneo Declaration is proving to be an irreplaceable foundation for conservation and sustainable development by establishing a framework for action to protect Borneo’s globally outstanding biodiversity, eco-system services and livelihoods,” WWF’s Tomasek said.

“The discovery of these new species in the Heart of Borneo underlines the incredible diversity of this remarkable area and emphasizes the importance of the commitments already made by Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia to protect it,” he added.

The discoveries also highlight the need to increase financial and technical support to ensure their continued survival, he said.

'Love-dart' slug, lungless frog among new species on Borneo
Romen Bose (AFP) Google News 22 Apr 10;

KUALA LUMPUR — Wildlife researchers said Thursday they have discovered around 120 new species on Borneo island, including a lungless frog, the world's longest insect and a slug that fires "love darts" at its mate.

Conservation group WWF listed the new finds in a report on a remote area of dense, tropical rainforest that borders Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei on Borneo.

The three governments in 2007 designated the 220,000-square-kilometre (88,000-square-mile) area as the "Heart of Borneo" in a bid to conserve the rainforest.

"We have been finding on average three new species a month and about 123 over the last three years, with at least 600 new species found in the last 15 years," Adam Tomasek, head of WWF's Heart of Borneo initiative told AFP from Brunei.

"The new discoveries just show the wealth of biodiversity on Borneo island and the promise of many more future discoveries that could eventually help cure illnesses like cancer and AIDS and contribute to our daily lives," he said.

The "Heart of Borneo" region is home to 10 species of primate, more than 350 birds, 150 reptiles and amphibians and about 10,000 plants that are not found anywhere else in the world, the report said.

Among the finds are a seven-centimetre (three-inch) flat-headed frog, known as "Barbourula kalimantanensis", discovered in 2008, which breathes entirely through its skin instead of lungs.

Researchers in the same year also discovered "Phobaeticus chani", the world's longest stick insect, with a body 36 centimetres long. Only three specimens of the creature have ever been found.

Another interesting find was a long-tailed slug that uses "love darts" made of calcium carbonate to pierce and inject a hormone into a mate to increase the chances of reproduction.

The WWF urged governments act sensitively when developing the area's economic potential.

"We know that it is impossible for the three governments not to have development in mining, oil palm plantations and logging in the area," Tomasek said.

"What we want to have is a balance so that we have a foundation of conservation and sustainable development in order to protect this unique site for future generations," he added.

Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's two largest exporters of palm oil, account for 85 percent of global production.

Palm oil -- used extensively across the globe for biofuel, processed food and toiletries -- has been vilified by environmental campaigners for causing deforestation and threatening the survival of near-extinct species.

Tomasek said the "Heart of Borneo" initiative is also important for protecting the habitat of endangered species such as the pygmy elephant, orangutan, rhinoceros and clouded leopard.

"In many ways this is the last stronghold for the long-term survival of these species," he said.

The Sumatran rhinoceros is one of the world's most endangered species, with only about 200 remaining in the wild, up to 180 in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia.

The Bornean sub-species is the rarest of all rhinos, with just 30 left in the wild on Borneo island.

Conservationists also warned the world has less than 20 years left to save about 50,000 to 60,000 of the charismatic red-haired orangutans left in the wild.

Read more!

Thai customs seize illegal haul of 296 ivory tusks

Yahoo News 21 Apr 10;

BANGKOK (AFP) – Thai authorities said Wednesday they have seized a massive ivory haul worth 2.2 million dollars, confiscating 296 tusks sent from Qatar to Bangkok international airport.

The customs department said they acted on a tip-off to discover the tusks Saturday in a shipment declared as "printing metal", bound for a Thai company based in the capital.

A customs official said the elephant tusks, weighing 1,390 kilos (3,058 pounds) and valued at 70 million baht (2.2 million dollars), most likely originated from southern Africa.

The case is under investigation and no arrests have been made as yet, the official said. The shipment is illegal under international laws that ban the trafficking of endangered species and their products.

Read more!

What Country Is the Best at Protecting the Environment?

Remy Melina, livescience.com Yahoo News 21 Apr 10;

After dropping more than 20 spots this year in one ranking that measures how well countries are working to protect the environment, the United States is taking steps to improve its environmental impact.

The 2010 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks 163 countries based on 10 indicators of environmental protection, such as levels of air pollution, marine protection laws, water quality, and their rate of planting new trees. The EPI is composed biannually by a team of environmental experts at Yale University and Columbia University.

The U.S. came in 61st place with a score of 63.5 out of 100, a significant drop from landing in 39th place with an EPI score of 81.0 in 2009.

"We're the only country that has a significant amount of people that don't believe in climate change," said Marc Levy, deputy director of Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN). "The central challenge of our time is to help people understand what's happening around them."

Iceland led in the ranking with an EPI score of 93.5. Switzerland came in second on the list with a score of 89.1, followed by Costa Rica with 86.4 and Sweden with 86.0.

Levy, who is one of the EPI project leaders, said that although the year to year results are not strictly comparable due to varying data collection methods, some categories can be compared. For example, data collected by CIESIN show that the U.S. has been lagging behind European countries in curbing greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and climate change for the past 20 years.

"Judging how well a country recycles is extremely complicated, it's not just about recycling but also about managing waste and limiting how much is produced to begin with," Levy said.

"The countries that are really trying to reduce waste are working to change people's behavior so that they use fewer materials," Levy said.

One way that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is currently working on decreasing the release of hazardous waste during the industrial production is by setting the National Waste Minimization Goal. This measure aims to work with industries and the public in reducing the use and release of four million pounds of toxic chemicals found in America's manufacturing processes by 2011.

Read more!

New Book Urges Reversal Of DDT Ban To Fight Malaria

Tim Cocks, PlanetArk 22 Apr 10;

Six years after the insect killer DDT was globally outlawed on grounds of environmental damage, two researchers say there are new reasons for doubting the chemical is harmful and are urging its use against malaria.

In a book launched on Wednesday, Donald Roberts, professor of tropical medicine at the U.S. military's Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, and Richard Tren, head of lobby group Africa Fighting Malaria, argue that DDT is the only effective weapon against the deadly mosquito-borne parasite.

Environmental group Greenpeace defended the United Nations' aim of eventually eliminating DDT use worldwide and said evidence that it harms wildlife and human health was sound, even if not conclusive.

DDT's unprecedented power to kill insects won its inventor a Nobel prize in the 1940s and it was considered a wonder chemical until evidence emerged of its toxicity to wildlife and people, leading Western nations to ban it in the 1970s.

A treaty to forbid its use worldwide along with a dozen other industrial chemicals came into effect in 2004, but some countries like South Africa and Ethiopia still take advantage of tightly limited exemptions allowing indoor spraying.

Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloromethylmethane (DDT) has been blamed for birth defects in humans and threatening endangered birds such as the bald eagle by thinning their egg shells.

"There are an almost endless list of claims that DDT causes one kind of harm or another but ... with each claim, the evidence that the DDT is the cause is simply not there," Roberts told Reuters in a telephone interview.

NETS, INSECTICIDES

"The Excellent Powder" claims new evidence shows DDT is harmless because it is similar to organic chemicals found in nature that animal life can deal with.

The book also tackles the issue of resistance to the poison, saying DDT is a good repellent, not just killer, of mosquitoes.

Malaria kills roughly a million children a year, mostly in Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

In the tropical West African nation of Ivory Coast, malaria kills 176 children under five each day, the government's top malaria official, Dr Sam Koffi Moise, told Reuters.

"The challenge is to give access to better prevention. We need mosquito nets but also insecticides like DDT," he said.

Roberts and Tren's book examines a 2009 study linking DDT in South Africa to birth defects and argues the data doesn't support it.

"Millions of malaria deaths ... occurred during ... decades of environmental activism (against) DDT," the book concludes.

Tren, a free market lobbyist who has also criticized tobacco control, said bird species harmed by DDT were already under threat and that DDT was "a minor source of harm compared to the hunting, shooting, poisoning and land use changes."

Greenpeace scientist David Santillo told Reuters greens approved use of DDT where there was no alternative, but evidence of it accumulating in birds and polar bears was clear, and evidence of harm to humans worrying enough to urge caution.

"If we're to wait until we have absolute confirmation that (health problems are) a direct result of DDT exposure that's something we'll probably never have because you can't expose humans deliberately to DDT to measure the effect," he said

"There's a need to develop a broader range of malaria controls to break this reliance on DDT ... as a silver bullet."

(Editing by Giles Elgood)

Read more!

Green Groups Point To Ash Cloud Silver Lining

Gerard Wynn and Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 22 Apr 10;

Iceland's erupting volcano has spewed plenty of ash but far less greenhouse gas than Europe's grounded aircraft would have generated.

Carbon dioxide emissions totaled 150,000 tonnes a day in the early days of the eruption, according to Durham University. That compares with 510,000 tonnes per day emitted when planes are flying as normal over the continent.

But experts cautioned it was hard to draw conclusions about the overall impact of pollution because more cars and buses were on the roads to help stranded travelers and the volcano is emitting a nasty cocktail of toxins.

Europe's skies were open for business on Wednesday after an ash cloud wrecked timetables for six days, stranding passengers and costing the airline industry $250 million a day. Ash can scour and even paralyze jet engines.

Planes add to global warming through emissions of carbon, other chemicals and their vapor trails, scientists say.

They also produce pollutants and noise around airports.

The first analysis of air quality around London's two busiest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, showed that pollutants which can causes respiratory problems had plummeted, said the London Air Quality Network.

"That entire signal dropped to zero (from Thursday through Saturday)," said Ben Barratt at King's College London, who helps coordinate the Network's data, referring to nitrogen dioxide.

"The quality of life difference is mostly down to noise, and we're getting lots of emails saying how lovely it is," he added.

Aviation in 32 European nations emitted 510,000 tonnes a day of CO2 in 2007, according to the European Environment Agency. Assuming two-thirds of flights are canceled, that means a cut of 340,000 tonnes a day, not counting non-European carriers.

Colin Macpherson, a geologist at the University of Durham in England, estimated the volcano's initial emissions at 150,000 tonnes of CO2 a day, drawing on data from a previous eruption.

Northerly winds helped limit health damage from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland, blowing the ash off-shore to Europe. And air quality in nations including Britain and Norway has been largely unaffected because little ash has reached the ground so far.

(Editing by Janet McBride)

Ash cloud's silver lining: bluer skies
Joji Sakurai And Karl Ritter, Associated Press Yahoo News 22 Apr 10;

LONDON – As volcanic ash cast a shadow over millions of lives, Londoners and other city dwellers across Europe were treated to a rare spectacle of nature: Pristine, blue skies brighter than any in recent memory.

The remarkable sight happened in part because mass flight groundings prevented busy airspace from being crisscrossed with plumes of jet exhaust that create a semi-permanent haze — and other effects beyond the white contrails themselves.

Just as city lights make it necessary for us to go to the desert to appreciate the true glitter of stars, so has modern aviation dulled us to what the noontime sky can really look like — until the erupting volcano in Iceland offered a reminder.

Britain's poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, was inspired to write verses about the unusually clear skies above London: "Five miles up the hush and shush of ash/Yet the sky is as clean as a white slate/I could write my childhood there."

Scientists cast the phenomenon in more prosaic terms. Without aircraft contrails, "the skies have been particularly blue," said meteorology professor Chris Merchant of the University of Edinburgh.

The clearer skies are primarily due to a high pressure system in the region, but Merchant said the blue tone has been deeper than normal because of the lack of vapor from aircraft engines. Depending on weather conditions, the vapor trials can expand into thin cirrus clouds.

It's as if somebody suddenly ripped a veil away, exposing the true colors of the heavens.

Amid frustration at the travel disruptions caused by the volcano, some European urbanites have also found something eerily pleasant in the sight of a sky without planes.

In fact, part of the surreal quality of the whole affair has been the illusion of going back to a calmer, less complicated age in which the air was cleaner, life was less harried (no cross-planet shuttles for one-day meetings in Hong Kong), and jets didn't rumble constantly in our ears.

"It's definitely quieter without the planes," said Margaret Mellard, a 63-year-old retiree in London's Regent's Park. "You really do see the difference. It's been really pleasant."

The crisis has caused some to reflect, perhaps nostalgically, on the age when people spent weeks or months en route to their destination. Hopping on a plane, popping an Ambien and waking up 10 hours later in a different time zone and culture seems somehow less romantic.

There was also introspection in the notion of humankind's vulnerability to the whims — or is it laws? — of nature. Would even the climate be affected? In an era of unprecedented concern about the environment, that, too, captured attention.

For skygazers, the ash cloud produced another fringe benefit: spectacular fiery sunsets caused by dusk light filtering through ash.

At least for now, the powerful eruptions from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull (ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) volcano have not knocked the global climate off balance like past eruptions. The ash has not fallen to earth in any significant amounts outside Icelend.

The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines spewed a massive cloud of sulfur dioxide that quickly spread across the globe, blocking enough sunlight to reduce average global surface temperatures by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (half a degree Celsius).

In 1783, a toxic ash cloud released by a volcanic eruption on Iceland killed tens of thousands of people and had a strong cooling effect on Europe and North America.

Unlike those eruptions, the Icelandic plume has not climbed into the stratosphere, about 40,000 feet (12,000 meters) above the Earth's surface. That layer of the atmosphere is more stable than lower levels where rain clouds rinse the dust particles from the air.

"Once the volcanic material comes up to those altitudes, it can stay for a year or so," said Eigel Kaas, a climate expert at the University of Copenhagen. "Because once the particles are up in the stratosphere there is no precipitation."

Should the Icelandic eruption persist and grow stronger, however, there is a chance that the summer could become a tad cooler in Europe, Kaas said.

"If it continues for a month with a rather high altitude, 8-10 kilometers (5-6 miles), then it will definitely impact climate in a regional manner, mainly Europe," he said.

Calculating the impact of reduced carbon emissions — a key contributor to global warming — is a more complex equation.

On an average day, European air travel generates more than 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide — representing about 3 percent of total greenhouse emissions — according to the European Environment Agency. Those aircraft emissions have been cut by more than half in recent days as aircraft were grounded across the continent.

But many of the stranded passengers have chosen to travel by road — in some cases thousands of miles — burning fuel that otherwise would have been left in the tanks.

It's hard to estimate the added emissions, since it remains unclear how many extra vehicles are on the road as a result of the airspace closures and how far they are traveling.

Then there's the volcano's own CO2 emissions.

Colin Macpherson, a professor in earth sciences at Britain's Durham University, estimates that the volcano belched out 150,000 tons of CO2 a day over the first three days of the eruption, and then progressively less.

By comparison, the world's volcanoes release an average of 44 million tons of CO2 annually, Macpherson said.

Alice Bows, a climate scientist at the University of Manchester, said "a back-of-the-envelope calculation" suggests that because aviation is so carbon-intensive, there should be a net reduction in emissions.

Even if the flight stoppage yielded only a small reduction in man-made emissions, Bows wondered whether the travel chaos would have a more lasting effect — on people's minds.

"In the grand scheme of things, the interesting thing for me is, does this change behavior in any way? Does it make people consider different forms of travel?" she said. "Anecdotally we're hearing about people using video conferencing to conduct interviews with people abroad, when they would normally have flown for the interview."

___

Ritter reported from Stockholm. Associated Press Writer Sylvia Hui contributed to this report.

Read more!

Volcanic climate change? Not likely, say experts

Richard Black, BBC News 21 Apr 10;

Watching the enormous plumes of dust and ash rising from Eyjafjallajokull, it is hard to imagine that this almost week-long eruption would not have any effect on weather and climate.

But that is the likelihood; that the impact on Britons, Europeans and the citizens of the wider world will be limited to cancelled flights, with no other effects on the skies.

Volcanoes produce tiny particles - aerosols - which have a net cooling effect on the world because they reflect solar energy back into space.

They also produce carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Historically, the cooling has outweighed the warming. The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in The Philippines lowered global temperatures by about 0.4-0.5C - but Eyjafjallajokull, dramatic as it looks, is simply not in that league.

"Icelandic scientists have made a first estimate of the volume of material ejected, and it's about 140 million cubic metres," says Mike Burton from Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology.

"That's a lot in five days; but Pinatubo ejected 10 cubic kilometres - that's 100 times as much.

"So this is not the big climate changing eruption that some people seem to think it is."

As well as the sheer volume of aerosols, the other factor influencing the size of its climatic impact is the altitude they attain.

If material reaches the stratosphere, it can remain aloft for several years; but if it stays in the troposphere, the lowest layer, it tends to come back to Earth in days or weeks.

"At the moment, the eruption cloud reaches around 22,000 feet (7km)," says Anja Schmidt from the School of Earth and Environment at the UK's Leeds University.

"That's high enough to affect aviation but is unlikely to be high enough to have a strong effect on the climate system."

Low carbon life

Dr Burton's team has spent more than a decade refining methods for measuring the gas output from volcanoes, and made a trip to Iceland in early April, before the Eyjafjallajoekull eruption began but after the earlier, less vigorous spell of activity at nearby Fimmvorduhals.

They found Fimmvorduhals was producing about 20-25,000 tonnes of CO2 each day.

Based on the relative size of the volcanoes, he estimates that Eyjafjallajoekull could have emitted about 10 times that amount per day at its peak.

But that lasted for less than a week; things now appear to be much quieter.

And even over that peak period, its daily CO2 output was only about one-thousandth of that produced by the sum total of humanity's fossil fuel burning, deforestation, agriculture and everything else.

In fact, the extra CO2 produced from the volcano is probably less than the volume "saved" by having Europe's aeroplanes grounded.

But any precise comparison of those two effects will depend on the eventual duration of the grounding as compared with the eventual duration and intensity of the eruption.

The last Eyjafjallajokull eruption lasted for two years, and it is possible that this one will do the same; whether it does or not is anyone's guess at present.

"But the thing to realise is that there are already a number of volcanoes around the world, including Etna and Popocatepetl, that are continually outgassing CO2 now," says Dr Burton.

"The amount of CO2 output still pales into insignificance beside human emissions."

The Italian team is planning another trip to Iceland as soon as travel conditions allow, to get more precise measurements of gas emissions from Eyjafjallajokull.

Weather whys

Ash in the sky, but no aeroplanes: a recipe, you might think, for a change in the weather.

When US authorities banned flying following 9/11, the temperature difference between night and day over the continental US increased by at least 1C.

Jet contrails were effectively acting as cirrus clouds, researchers concluded - reflecting solar energy in the day, acting as a blanket by night.

But nothing of that kind has been observed following the Eyjafjallajokull eruption - or indeed any other impact on weather, according to UK Met Office scientist Derrick Ryall.

"Given the size of the eruption, we wouldn't expect any impact, except perhaps around Iceland itself," he says.

"If it goes on for a few months, someone will certainly be keeping an eye on it but it would be hard to ascertain - you'd need some pretty sophisticated analysis."

Dramatic though the pictures from Eyjafjallajokull have been, the likelihood is that history will not rank it as a volcano that shook the world - not a Pinatubo, not a Krakatoa, and definitely not a Toba - the eruption some 70,000 years ago that apparently brought on a six-year global freeze.

Read more!

Japan Eyes Households To Help Cut CO2 Emissions 25 Percent

Risa Maeda and Chisa Fujioka, PlanetArk 21 Apr 10;

Japan will step up its call this week to use greener household technologies to cut CO2 output to shift away from sharp emission caps or carbon taxes on industry proposed in parliament that labor worries could cost jobs.

Japan's Democratic Party-led government has pledged to cut greenhouse gases 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, more than triple the amount proposed by the previous government.

A recent environment ministry however report suggests that households cutting fossil energy use and expanding renewable and nuclear power instead of caps on industry are the better ways to achieve the goal than targeting industry.

But some analysts have dismissed the report, saying a structural change in combating emissions without breakthroughs in costly "green" technology that industry would need to meet caps would hurt the economy.

One analyst said that without emission caps or buying carbon credits to offset pollution, the new target is unrealistic.

"Japan will sooner or later lower itself down from the minus 25 percent hurdle," said Yasuhiko Tabaru, a senior consultant at the Mizuho Information and Research Institute, referring to the portion to be cut domestically.

"Former Prime Minister Taro Aso's government spent reasonable time for research before he came up with the minus 8 percent target, and I still think that that target is not far from the very limit Japan can do on its own efforts."

But with the government mum on carbon credit purchases for now, it will kick off a series of public meetings from Thursday aimed at sharing a sense of urgency to meet the 2020 target by explaining Japan's long-term energy and environment policy.

A key reason for the focus on households, analysts say, is to appeal to public concern about climate change while keeping labor support ahead of crucial mid-year upper house polls.

JAPAN A LOW EMITTER

Voluntary emission cut efforts since the 1970s have helped Japan pump out only half as much CO2 as the EU or the United States per unit of economic output.

Manufacturers, which account for the bulk of emissions in the world's fifth-biggest emitter, have also led efforts to put Japan on track to achieve its binding emissions reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol for the 2008-2012 period.

But a climate bill before parliament that has suggested a carbon tax on industry, being debated this week, may cost political support for the government as it attempts an ambitious fiscal reform program.

The environment ministry report instead emphasizes meeting the climate pledge by more mundane efforts like promoting smart meters, double glazing windows, using low-carbon central heating, and energy-saving bulbs as well as solar panels and hybrid and electric cars.

The appeal of such an approach, the environment ministry says, is to generate demand of as much as 32 trillion yen ($347 billion) by households and small businesses in the next decade.

Such new "green" demand is a key hope for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who came to power in September after more than 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party, to prop up Japan's economy, which has been trapped in deflation for more than a decade.

Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa has said the priority is on funding efforts by households and regional communities to cut CO2, areas which Japan has neglected in the past compared to other environmentally-conscious countries.

But Ozawa has not elaborated how Japan will encourage such efforts without increasing its already heavy fiscal debt.

(Editing by Ed Lane)

Read more!