Climate change could make half the world uninhabitable

Climate change could make half of the world uninhabitable for humans as a rise in temperature makes it too hot to survive, scientists have warned.
Louise Gray, The Telegraph 12 May 10;

Researchers from the University of New South Wales in Australia and Purdue University in the US said global warming will not stop after 2100, the point where most previous projections have ended.

In fact temperatures may rise by up to 12C (21.6F) within just three centuries making many countries into deserts.

The study, published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said humans will not be able to adapt or survive in such conditions.

Professor Tony McMichael, one of the authors, said if the world continues to pump out greenhouse gases at the current rate it will cause catastrophic warming.

"Under realistic scenarios out to 2300, we may be faced with temperature increases of 12 degrees or even more," he said. "If this happens, our current worries about sea level rise, occasional heatwaves and bushfires, biodiversity loss and agricultural difficulties will pale into insignificance beside a major threat - as much as half the currently inhabited globe may simply become too hot for people to live there."

Professor Steven Sherwood, a fellow author, said there was no chance of the Earth reaching such temperatures this century.

But he said there was a good chance temperatures could rise by at least 7C (12.6F) by 2300, that would also make much of the world inhabitable.

"There's something like a 50/50 chance of that over the long term," he said.

Prof Sherwood said climate change research had been "short-sighted" not to probe the long-term consequences of the impact of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

"It needs to be looked at," he said. "There's not much we can do about climate change over the next two decades but there's still a lot we can do about the longer term changes."

::The world should shift to a low carbon economy not to stop climate change but to preserve 'human dignity', according to a report from a self-styled "eclectic" group of academics.

The UN process has failed, they argue, and a global approach concentrating on CO2 cuts will never work.

They urge instead the use of carbon tax revenue to develop technologies that can supply clean energy to everyone and provide 'human dignity'.

Their so-called Hartwell Paper is criticised by others who say the UN process has curbed carbon emissions.

The paper is named after Hartwell House, the Buckinghamshire mansion, hotel and spa where the group of 14 academics from Europe, North America and Japan gathered in February to develop their ideas.

Earth may be too hot for humans by 2300: study
(AFP) Google News 12 May 10;

SYDNEY — Climate change could make much of the world too hot for human habitation within just three centuries, research released Tuesday showed.

Scientists from Australia's University of New South Wales and Purdue University in the United States found that rising temperatures in some places could mean humans would be unable to adapt or survive.

"It would begin to occur with global-mean warming of about seven degrees Celsius (13 Fahrenheit), calling the habitability of some regions into question," the researchers said in a paper.

"With 11-12 degrees Celsius warming, such regions would spread to encompass the majority of the human population as currently distributed."

Researcher Professor Steven Sherwood said there was no chance of the earth heating up to seven degrees this century, but there was a serious risk that the continued burning of fossil fuels could create the problem by 2300.

"There's something like a 50/50 chance of that over the long term," he said.

The study -- which examined climate change over a longer period than most other research -- looked at the "heat stress" produced by combining the impact of rising temperatures and increased humidity.

Sherwood said climate change research had been "short-sighted" not to probe the long-term consequences of the impact of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

"It needs to be looked at," he told AFP. "There's not much we can do about climate change over the next two decades but there's still a lot we can do about the longer term changes."

In a commentary on the paper, published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Australian National University academics said climate change would not stop in 2100.

"And under realistic scenarios out to 2300, we may be faced with temperature increases of 12 degrees (Celsius) or even more," Professor Tony McMichael said.

"If this happens, our current worries about sea level rise, occasional heatwaves and bushfires, biodiversity loss and agricultural difficulties will pale into insignificance beside a major threat -- as much as half the currently inhabited globe may simply become too hot for people to live there."

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UN urges 18 million dollars aid for Mongolia's severe cold

Yahoo News 12 May 10;

GENEVA (AFP) – The UN warned on Wednesday that a drought which has devastated Mongolia during one of the worst winters for decades could continue for another year, as it appealed for 18.1 million dollars in aid.

UN interim humanitarian coordinator Rana Flowers said the aid appeal presented to donors in Geneva would assist nearly 800,000 Mongolians, mainly herders and their families who have lost the livestock they depend on their survival.

The impoverished landlocked nation is still grappling with a severe winter after a dry summer, a combination known locally as "dzud".

Fifteen of the country's 21 provinces have declared a state of disaster and another four are on the brink of doing so as the extreme cold and lack of rain continues well into spring, Flowers said.

"At this point in time we are considering that we're at the end of the beginning of the dzud," she told journalists.

"We are predicting that the dzud will continue until this time next year."

The last major "dzud" occurred over three straight winters at the beginning of the 2000s, and tens of thousands of herders who lost everything moved to the capital Ulan Bator in search of work.

However, some 8.1 million livestock -- 18 percent of the country's total -- have died so far in the latest episode, about twice as many as recorded over a similar period during the most severe dzud, Flowers said.

Meanwhile infant mortality increased by 35 to 40 percent in the affected areas over the winter, and by 60 percent in one province, according to the United Nations.

Herding is a backbone of livelihoods for 30 percent of the population, and also provides food and energy from animal dung fires for families who live on the Mongolian steppe.

Flowers emphasised that the extent and duration of the cold was exceptional, with animals used to sharp winters unable to reach beneath the deep frozen snow.

"It really is an example of climate change at work," she claimed.

In late March the international Red Cross launched an appeal for 935,000 dollars, accounting for 4.5 million dead livestock at the time.

Unemployment soared as destitute herders headed for the capital in the wake of the previous dzud. Aid agencies fear thousands more migrants could follow in the aftermath of the current disaster.

Silent Spring For Mongolians After Winter Kills Herds
Jargal Byambasuren, PlanetArk 13 May 10;

The winter camps of southern Mongolia are quiet during this year's breeding season, after an unusually harsh winter wiped out herds and left nomadic families with little but debt to their name.

The bitter winter killed an estimated 8 million animals, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), leaving exhausted, poverty-stricken herders struggling to survive and increasing demands on Mongolia's already-stretched national budget.

"If a market burns down, the government offers money as compensation. Then why can't the government help the herders now?" asked Nyamiin Zagdsuren, a 39-year old herder, who lost more than two thirds of his 580 animals this winter.

He is counting on the cashmere combed from his remaining 140 goats to tide over his family, and to pay back a $360 bank loan he took out to clothe and buy school supplies for his three children.

The combination of a dry summer, followed by heavy snow and low winter temperatures is known in Mongolian as a 'zud'.

Roughly one-quarter of the country's 3 million people are nomads, while others also raise livestock in fixed settlements.

In Mongolia's southern Dundgobi province, about three-quarters of nomads now live below the poverty line, from half before the winter struck. Most herders are left with less than 250 animals.

At least 335 families in Dundgobi lost all their animals over the winter as temperatures dropped to 40 degrees Celsius below zero or colder.

"We have had so many sleepless nights, especially when a blizzard struck, or it started to snow. There was no time to change clothes, let alone sleep," said herder Tsegmediin Purevsuren, whose family is left with 92 animals out of a herd that once numbered 800 head.

"You would spend all night checking the sheds to make sure no animal was buried in the snow. If one was, you dug it out. The herders have worked without rest, from dusk till dawn, in all weather."

CASH FOR CORPSES

Snow was still falling in Dundgobi province on May 8, signaling that this zud, the worst for several years, is far from finished.

Herders said a decade-long drought has depleted the grass their horses need, while many have difficulty affording the gas for their motorcycles.

Some herders are scraping up some cash by burying their dead livestock. The UNDP promises 870 tugrug (0.63 U.S. cents) for each goat or sheep and 2300 ($1.66) for each cow, horse or camel buried in pits.

The project has helped to clear about a third of the carcasses from three of the most severely affected provinces, preventing disease and water contamination, the UNDP resident representative Akbar Usmani said.

"I'd like to appeal to the international communities for additional support to the herders in order that we can meet the needs of them at this critical time," he said.

"As you have noticed there are herders who have lost close to 90 percent of their herds. In fact there are cases also where the entire livestock that they had has been wiped out," he said.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Egypt refuses to give up one drop of its right to Nile water

Samer Al-atrush Yahoo News 12 May 10;

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt is refusing to relinquish a drop of its legal right to the lion's share of Nile river water, despite demands from other African countries for a more equitable sharing agreement.

Following years of barren negotiations, seven upstream African countries -- Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi-- are on Friday expected to push forward with a new water-sharing deal to replace an agreement that gives Egypt and Sudan majority control of the water flow.

Egypt has repeatedly cited its "historical" right on the river which provides the country of 80 million people with 90 percent of its water needs.

The upstream countries want to be able to implement projects, in consultation with Egypt and Sudan, but without Egypt being able to to exercise the veto power it was given by a 1929 colonial-era treaty with Britain.

A 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan -- following Sudan's independence in 1956 -- allocated 55.5 billion cubic metres of the Nile to Egypt, and 18.5 billion to Sudan, a combined total of 87 percent of the Nile flow.

Egypt's water needs are expected to exceed its supply by 2017, according to a government report last year.

"Egypt is exerting efforts with leaders of the upstream countries to persuade them to delay the agreement," said Hani Raslan, a Nile expert with the Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.

"The only way out of the problem is cooperation," he added.

Raslan said that the Nile Basin Initiative -- a basin countries umbrella group funded by the World Bank -- had studied 22 projects including energy projects, saving lost water and irrigation.

"Unilateral signing will abort these projects. And Egypt will object to any project that affects its share," Raslan said.

Egypt says it is still hoping to negotiate, failing that it has threatened legal action.

"If certain countries of the Nile Basin sign an agreement without consensus, Egypt will insist that all countries respect international law," Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told a local newspaper on Saturday.

"If necessary, we will treat this in the adequate legal way," he said, adding that his country's water rights were a "red line."

The outcome of the next meeting could unravel the 10-year-old Nile Basin Initiative, which the World Bank credits with helping keep the countries talking with each other on quotas.

Raslan says that an agreement on May 14 that excluded Egypt and Sudan would bring an end to the initiative, a message Abul Gheit says has been delivered to the basin countries.

"Egypt has been careful to affirm to the Nile Basin countries and donors that opening the door to signing the agreement means the end of negotiations and an announcement that the Nile Basin Initiative has failed," he said.

Egypt has proposed to help manage its African partners' water resources, and vowed to better make use of its own.

But Egyptian diplomats say the African countries will have a hard time financing large projects if there is no consensus among the Nile countries.

Cairo "will not accept the construction of any project in the Nile basin that could affect its water resources," Abul Gheit said.

Some observers say Egypt is not serious about negotiating.

"Egyptians are behaving with the Africans the way they accuse Israel of behaving with the Palestinians: they say they are ready to negotiate but without committing to the difficult issues," one western diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

And Egypt insists that the Africans have other sources of water.

"Egypt only has water coming from the river. The Africans have it from the rains," one Egyptian diplomat said.

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Solar Can Provide 22 Percent World's Power By 2050: IEA

Martin Roberts, Reuters 12 May 10;

Solar power can provide up to a quarter of the world's electricity by 2050, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday, but it needs government lifelines in the next decade until it can compete with conventional power.

Solar power currently accounts for 0.5 percent of world supply, but the IEA said this needed to grow in order to cut greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels.

"Without decisive action, energy-related emissions of CO2 will more than double by 2050 and increased oil demand will heighten concerns over the security of supplies," an IEA report said.

Leading solar producers like Spain and Germany pay solar plants "feed-in tariffs," a subsidy designed to gradually cut the technology's costs to the level of conventional power, a condition known as "grid parity."

The IEA, adviser to industrialized nations on energy policy, predicts roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) panels will not reach grid parity until 2020, and utility-scale PV not until 2030.

Concentrated solar power (CSP) can achieve grid parity at times of peak demand by 2020 in sunny places, the IEA added in a series of "road maps" unveiled at a conference hosted by the Spanish government in the eastern city of Valencia.

The German and Spanish governments have already announced that they will cut back on feed-in tariffs, which has sent solar power stocks tumbling across the world.

"The problem is to give a clearer predictable future, a gradual decline (in subsidies)," IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said in an interview.

"Without decline you cannot give an incentive for the industry to innovate. Just providing subsidies doesn't make sense."

PV technology directly converts the sun's rays into electricity, whereas CSP plants collect sunshine to boil water and drive an electricity generator.

THE ROAD TO 2050

Both technologies can produce 9,000 terawatt-hours of electricity by 2050, or almost a quarter of global demand, which the IEA estimates will cut carbon emissions by almost 6 billion tonnes.

The IEA estimates that solar power output in 2010 will be 37 TWh, almost all of it from PV plants, which it expects to account for 5 percent of global electricity by 2030.

Few CSP plants have been built yet, but they can produce much more than PV installations. The IEA predicts they will account for 5 percent of electricity consumption by 2020 in parts of Central Asia, India, Latin America and the United States.

Between them, the IEA says CSP and PV can provide 2.3 percent of the world's power by 2020, rising to 8.8 percent in 2030, when grid parity kicks in.

By 2050, PV and CSP can each provide 11 percent of global electricity, the IEA added.

(Editing by James Jukwey)

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Countries Pledge Record $4.25 Billion For Environment

Lesley Wroughton, PlanetArk 13 May 10;

Donor countries on Wednesday pledged a record $4.25 billion over the next four years for the Global Environment Facility, the world's largest public green fund that helps developing countries tackle climate change.

The commitments are a 52 percent increase in new resources for the GEF made by 30 countries at a pledging session in Paris, the group said in a statement.

GEF Chief Executive Monique Barbut said the replenishment of funds is the first "tangible confirmation of financial commitments" made during international climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

In Copenhagen, negotiators from developed and developing nations tried to settle on the basic terms of a new global climate agreement in the lead-up to the next summit in Mexico in December.

Part of that agreement was aimed at providing financing to developing countries to help them adapt to a changing climate. Some of those funds will be directed through the GEF into projects implemented by U.N. agencies and development institutions like the World Bank.

Barbut said about $1.35 billion of the funds committed on Wednesday would be directed at tackling climate change.

The rest will be directed at better management of protected areas and endangered areas, improving cooperation on trans-boundary water systems management, reducing pollutants in land and water, and expanding and protecting the world's forests.

The new funds are "testimony to the international donor community's commitment to the environmental agenda," said Axel van Trotsenburg, the World Bank's vice president for concessional finance and global partnerships.

The GEF has been replenished four times since its inception in 1991 starting with $2.02 billion in 1994, $2.75 billion in 1998, $2.92 billion in 2002 and $3.13 billion in 2006.

To date, the GEF has provided $8.7 billion in grants for more than 2,400 environmental projects in over 165 developing countries and emerging economies.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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U.S. Lags China On Climate Change: Europe Climate Chief

Michelle Nichols, PlanetArk 13 May 10;

The United States' future as a global economic power depends on what it does to fight global warming and it is lagging behind other countries like China, Europe's climate chief said on Wednesday.

European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard told Reuters it was a positive step for the United States to have "finally" unveiled legislation to combat climate change on Wednesday.

"This is one of the crucial battlefields over who is going to be the economic leaders of our century," Hedegaard said of the fight against global warming.

Democratic Senator John Kerry and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman presented a long-awaited climate bill on Wednesday, which aims to cut planet-warming emissions by a 17 percent in the next decade.

While President Barack Obama supports the legislation, it has slim chances of passing unless Kerry and Lieberman win over a group of moderate Democrats and Republicans.

"It's not something an ordinary European citizen would say 'Wow, that's really ambitious,'" Hedegaard said. "On the other hand, we know that the United States has been among the later starters, so the important thing now is to get started."

The 27-nation European Union has long claimed to be a world leader in the fight against climate change.

While the United States and China bicker in negotiations for a new global deal to combat climate change, Hedegaard said Beijing was making great strides against global warming.

"The irony is that in the real world outside the negotiation rooms they are just moving," she said of China's efforts to fight global warming. "They are just doing it and they are doing it big scale."

Hedegaard praised the United States for including a cap and trade system for reducing carbon pollution by electric utilities and factories in the new climate bill. She said such a system had worked in Europe and China was also considering such a move.

Negotiators from 194 nations will gather in Cancun at the end of the year to try to build on the Copenhagen accord signed last December with the ultimate aim of reaching a legally-binding treaty that would set the tempo for global CO2 cuts over the next decade.

"There is this feeling now that there is something to build upon," Hedegaard said.

(Editing by Mark Egan and Chris Wilson)

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'Climate dice' now dangerously loaded: leading scientist

Yahoo News 12 May 10;

PARIS (AFP) – Evidence for global warming has mounted but public awareness of the threat has shrunk, due to a cold northern winter and finger-pointing at the UN's climate experts, a top scientist warned Wednesday.

James Hansen, a leading NASA scientist whose testimony to the US Congress in 1988 was a landmark in the history of climate change, said he was worried by "the large gap" in knowledge between specialists and the public, including politicians.

"That gap has increased substantially in the last year," Hansen told a press conference during a visit to Paris.

"While the science was becoming clearer, the public's perception became less clear, in part because of the unusually cold winter in both North America and Europe, and in part because of the inappropriate over-emphasis on small minor errors in IPCC documents and because of the so-called Climategate."

The IPCC -- the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- is under fire for several errors that appeared in a key 2007 report.

Its authors have acknowledged the mistakes, but say the overall conclusions of the report, that man-made greenhouse gases are changing the climate, remain solid.

The "Climategate" affair relates to stolen emails exchanged among British scientists that, sceptics said, showed they had ignored evidence that natural, rather than man-made, causes were to blame for climate change.

The scientists have been cleared by a British parliamentary panel.

"The winter was not cold if you look over the whole world: December, January, February was the second warmest in 130 years," Hansen noted.

"It was cool at mid-latitudes in the northern hemisphere but unusually warm in the Arctic and that has a simple explanation: there is a chaotic variation in the pressure in the Arctic region. But it's just chaotic variation, there is no reason that it will be repeated."

He added: "We have to look at the frequency of events. Seven out of the last 10 winters in Europe have been warmer than the long-term average, and eight out of 10 in the United States.

"So the climate dice are being loaded at a rate which is in very close agreement with what was predicted ago a few decades ago based on the expected global warming."

Hansen is director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, but stressed he was speaking in a private capacity.

He blasted governments for "ignoring... basic scientific facts" by continuing to depend on fossil fuels, build more coal-fired plants and drill for oil in the deep ocean and the Arctic.

And he said that the poor outcome of December's climate summit in Copenhagen was predictable.

"Frankly, there was a realisation that you can't have 180 countries making the initial agreement, it has to be the major players. So, Europe, the US and China, and probably India, need to agree that there needs to be a carbon price and then it's very easy to make that global."

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Best of our wild blogs: 12 May 10

International Museum Day at RMBR!
from Raffles Museum News and Celebrating Singapore's Biodiversity

Nature walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk - every 4th Saturday from Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

22 May (Sat): Acres Gala Dinner 2010
from wild shores of singapore

Stop Burying Our Head in the Sand
from AsiaIsGreen

Been to Cyrene: Sea Star Paradise!
from the brand NEW Cyrene Reef Exposed!

Protect Cyrene Reef
from Protect the Cyrene Reef

Wood pecker
from The annotated budak

Dragonfly (28) - Diplacodes Trivalis (侏儒蜻蜓)
from Nature Photography - Singapore Odonata

五月华语导游 Mandarin guiding walk @ SBWR II
from PurpleMangrove

Raffles Museum Treasures: Sumatran rhinoceros
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Taxi pooling now available!
from Green Drinks Singapore

Blue-throated Bee-eaters sunning
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Can One man and One cow Save our Planet?
Seeding the real Green Revolution from EcoWalkthetalk

Will and equity - does climate alternative offer enough?
from BBC NEWS blog by Richard Black

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NParks to conduct coastal protection and restoration works at Pulau Tekong

Channel NewsAsia 11 May 10;

SINGAPORE: It is the largest of Singapore's outlying islands and is used exclusively for army training.

Now, more than 1,000 mangrove trees on the north-eastern coastline of Pulau Tekong are at risk of falling due to coastal erosion.

To protect the coast and mangroves in the area, the National Parks Board (NParks) will be conducting, for the first time, coastal protection and restoration works at the north-eastern coastline of Pulau Tekong.

Deputy director of NParks' National Biodiversity Centre, Dr Lena Chan, said that the erosion - with mud being scraped out - is due to movements of ships and strong waves in the area.

The erosion has affected 3km of north-eastern shore, posing a threat to the 92 hectares of mangroves in Pulau Tekong which is one of the largest remaining mangrove areas in Singapore with a mature and undisturbed habitat.

From a study it commissioned in 2006, NParks found that 1.65km of the north-eastern shore is most severely affected.

At some points, the extent of the erosion was as deep as 1.2 metres below the level of the mangrove berm.

NParks' works will concentrate on restoring this 1.65km stretch.

"The coastline is very precious to us. It is important that we make sure it is not seriously eroded and we have good mangroves right next to the coastline," said Dr Chan.

The first stage in the restoration process will be to fill the eroded parts below the mangrove berm with mud-filled biodegradable sacks.

Next, loosely-placed stones will be placed in front of the berm as a shoreline stablisation measure.

Around 8,000 mangrove saplings will be planted in front of the stones to help deflect the waves.

The saplings will also serve to increase the biodiversity of the mangroves population on Pulau Tekong.

As a further anti-erosion measure, two rows of bakau (a type of mangrove tree) poles will be set up in front of the saplings to be the "front battle line" to further reduce the effect of the waves, said Dr Chan.

A tender will be called in June for the work and NParks expects the project to be completed by June next year.

MediaCorp understands that the works on the north-eastern shore will not affect army training on Pulau Tekong as training is not conducted there.

- CNA/jy

Saving Tekong's coastal greenery
NParks' pilot project to stem erosion of mangroves by waves from passing vessels
Grace Chua Straits Times 12 May 10;

THE north-east coast of Pulau Tekong is being swept away by the sea, and taking a stretch of pristine mangroves with it.

To stem the erosion, the National Parks Board (NParks) is planting more mangroves in a pilot project on the military island off Singapore's east coast. And if it succeeds, the same methods could be used in other threatened coastal areas here.

Click on image for larger view.

The 92ha, 3km-long stretch of mangrove swamp is home to rare birds and mangrove trees. But strong waves from passing vessels have scooped out chunks of the coast to form horizontal berms (see graphic) held in place only by the mangrove roots. In 2006, NParks found that a number of trees had fallen along a 1.65km stretch of coastline. Another 1,300 were in danger of toppling.

It began collecting data on the site, and in February last year started work on modelling the area's wave movements and investigating the soil.

With development consultants Surbana, NParks designed a set-up of mud-filled bags, rocks, mangrove seedlings and poles to not only replace lost mangroves but also stop repeat erosion. NParks also plans to plant certain hardier species of mangroves farther out to sea to stymie the waves.

In their assessment, environmental consultants DHI assured that the project would not cause the coastline to creep outwards towards international boundaries, and there would be no cross-border physical or ecological impact. The site is just 760m from the Singapore-Malaysia boundary.

Construction is expected to begin in the middle of this year and take about 12 months. The same methods may one day be applied to other eroded areas like Sungei Buloh near Kranji.

'We hope this will be a good test-bedding site, though conditions might be different at different areas. But this is a good model for areas that have mangroves and are eroded,' said NParks' National Biodiversity Centre deputy director Lena Chan.

Even though the Tekong mangrove area is off-limits to the public, it remains an important part of Singapore's natural heritage and a source of genetic diversity, reminded Dr Chan.

National Institute of Education plant biochemist and mangrove expert Jean Yong said it was important to plant multiple tree species on such engineered structures to boost biodiversity.

The public can view the project's environmental impact assessment report till next month - by appointment with NParks - when a tender for the project will be put up.

Taking on the Pulau Tekong threat
Project to contain erosion to be completed in a year
Ong Dai Lin, Today Online 12 May 10;

IT IS the largest of Singapore's outlying islands and is used exclusively for military training. Now, coastal erosion is threatening more than 1,000 mangrove trees on the north-eastern coastline of Pulau Tekong. To protect this natural habitat, the National Parks Board (NParks) will for the first time be conducting coastal protection and restoration work in the area.

Deputy director of NParks' National Biodiversity Centre, Dr Lena Chan, said that the erosion - with mud being scraped out - is due to the movement of ships and strong waves in the area.

The erosion has affected 3km of the north-eastern shore, posing a threat to the 92 hectares of mangroves in Pulau Tekong which is one of the largest remaining mangrove areas in Singapore with a mature and undisturbed habitat.

From a study it commissioned in 2006, NParks found that 1.65km of the north-eastern shore is most severely affected. At some points, the extent of the erosion was as deep as 1.2 metres below the level of the mangrove berm.

NParks' work will concentrate on restoring this 1.65km stretch.

"The coastline is very precious to us. It is important that we make sure it is not seriously eroded and we have good mangroves right next to the coastline," said Dr Chan.

The first stage in the restoration process will be to fill the eroded parts below the mangrove berm with mud-filled biodegradable sacks. Next, loosely-placed stones will be set in front of the berm to stabilise the shoreline.

Around 8,000 mangrove saplings will be planted in front of the stones to help deflect the waves. The saplings will also serve to increase the biodiversity of the mangrove population.

As a further anti-erosion measure, two rows of bakau (a type of mangrove tree) poles will be set up in front of the saplings to be the "front battle line" to further reduce the effect of the waves, said Dr Chan.

NParks expects the project to be completed by June next year.

MediaCorp understands that the work on the north-eastern shore will not affect army training on Pulau Tekong as training is not conducted there.

NParks is also studying the extent of coastal erosion at East Coast Park and the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

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Singapore: Paradise island for the birds

Straits Times 12 May 10;

Singapore has 367 species of birds on the official checklist.

Many nature areas are easily accessible, making the country one of the best places for bird-watching.

Nature book to raise funds for the elderly

A book comprising a professional photographer's work on birds in Singapore is being sold to raise funds for the needy elderly and their care-givers here.

'Birds In A Garden City' is an effort supported by The Photographic Society of Singapore, of which Lianhe Zaobao chief photographer Lee Tiah Khee is a member.

The $50 book, now in major bookstores, will raise money for the SMRT Silver Tribute Fund. To buy photo prints, e-mail smrtstf@smrt.com.sg

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More hospitals seen going green in Southeast Asia

Nisha Ramchandani, Business Times 12 May 10;

DEMAND for green hospitals is expected to rise in South-east Asia as the healthcare industry continues to look for ways to cut energy and resource consumption, says GE Healthcare.

'An increasing number of healthcare facilities will be built in Singapore and South-east Asia over the next five to 10 years, which will lead to growth in demand for green solutions that help hospitals reduce their carbon footprint and achieve resource optimisation,' said Tommy Tan, Asean government relations director for GE Healthcare, a unit of the General Electric Company.

Hospitals typically use three times as much energy as commercial buildings, so significant cost-savings can be had from going green.

This could be achieved by more efficient water, energy and waste management, more environmentally friendly facilities and better design lay-out to boost productivity.

'Unlike green buildings, green hospitals are a fairly new concept in this region,' said Mr Tan. 'Most hospitals would have implemented such concepts in bits and pieces. We want to see the industry embrace the concept of green hospitals.'

Implementing such features once a hospital is up and running could require more effort.

In Singapore, GE Healthcare has been working with Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), Alexandra Hospital and the National University Hospital (NUH).

For example, it has implemented its Radiology Information System and Picture Archival and Communication System at TTSH and NUH to help them digitise their radiology departments. According to Mr Tan, the systems reduce the steps required to process an X-Ray, resulting in reduced film and chemical use, reduced storage space and greater efficiency.

'What we are doing next is to tie all the green concepts specifically for hospitals,' he said. 'We have already started conversations with public and private hospitals here.'

Besides Singapore, markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are also open to adopting green concepts when it comes to the healthcare industry, Mr Tan said.

Last year, GE Healthcare generated US$143 million of revenue from its Asean businesses.

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Coral bleach in Australia 'points' to warmer seas

The Cairns Post 12 May 10;

THE worst coral bleaching Torres Strait islanders have seen in about 40 years is thought to be linked to global warming.

Large patches of coral between Horn and Thursday islands have taken on a ghostly appearance in the past month.

The bleaching has coincided with a sudden rise in sea temperature in the region.

Residents claim the bleaching, which has hit shallow inshore coral reefs, is the worst they’ve seen in at least 40 years.

A coral expert at the University of Queensland, Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, said satellite mapping had shown a temperature anomaly had recently happened in the Torres Strait.

"Putting the two (events) together, you’d have to say there is a high likelihood that this is probably driven by elevated sea temperature," he said.

Coral bleaching happens when sea temperature rises more than 1C above coral’s normal range, forcing it to expel its symbiotic algae, which supplies coral with nutrients.

Prof Hoegh-Guldberg said it was too early to tell whether the Reef would recover from the bleaching.

"Some of the long-term effects that might occur in the next few months, if not years, are things like the fish populations will eventually change, and probably not for the best," he said.

"In the case of reef-building corals, if you lose the corals, you lose things that build the reef, and these are of course where fish live and what we depend on for pleasure and industry."

Horn Island resident Liberty Seekee, 38, who took photographs of the bleaching, said the devastated inshore soft corals looked like limp vegetables.

"It’s like limp flowers leaning over. I’ve never seen it before. I’ve been up here all my life," Mr Seekee said.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority will not be investigating the phenomenon as it lies outside the marine park.

A GBRMPA spokeswoman said bleaching had affected every reef region in the world.

"The spatial extent and severity of impacts of coral bleaching have been increasing throughout the world over the last few decades," she said.

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