Davao City hosts Asia’s first regional bird fair Sept. 24-26

Manuel T. Cayon Business Mirror 30 Aug 10;

DAVAO CITY—Asia’s premier avian-conservation and eco-tourism groups will hold their first regional fair of migratory birds and endangered avian species in their bid to widen conservation efforts and to encourage attraction of tourists to the beauty of ecology in their undisturbed habitat.

This city will claim the honor of hosting this pioneering event in Asia from September 24 to 26 this year, to coincide with the holding of the Sixth Philippine Bird Festival, also the country’s major bird-conservation and eco-tourism event.

The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines said in a statement the Asian Bird Fair would be held in time for the migration of birds in autumn from Japan, China and parts of Siberia. Some of these birds flock to warmer countries like the Philippines.

Organizers here said participants, visitors and local residents will get a glimpse of some of these birds in a guided tour at the tidal flats at the Davao Gulf during low tide.

The place is just off the beachfront of the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao, the venue of the bird fair.

 Spectators would have a close look at marine species, like fiddler crabs and mudskippers, as well as spectacular views of herons, egrets and shorebirds.

The bird fair will highlight the respective bird festivals of participating countries, handled by such organizations as the Bird Conservation of Thailand, the Chinese Wild Bird Federation, the Wild Bird Society of Taipei, the Malaysian Nature Society, and the Nature Society of Singapore.

The fair includes a bird-conservation forum and turnover of hosting rights next year to the Chinese Wild Bird Federation in Tainan City. International and Philippine delegates will also be toured to the Philippine Eagle Center and Eden Garden Resorts here.

“The Asian Bird Fair seeks to enrich eco-tourism through bird-watching, and promote the natural and cultural heritage of host cities,” said Michael Lu, president of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines.

Lu said he expects the event to draw bird watchers, conservationists, eco-tourism promoters, sustainable-development providers and nature lovers from around the country, Asia and Europe.

Alice Villa-Real, chairman of the organizing committee, said “this latest initiative would be a significant move to draw attention to pressing conservation issues.” “We can make a significant difference to protect the rich bird life and habitats of our islands while promoting responsible enjoyment of nature and encouraging related sustainable businesses in local communities,” she said.

Aside from the main conservation groups, others attending are the Shanghai Wild Bird Society, Fujian Bird Watching Society, Kaoshiung Wild Bird Society, Wild Bird Society of Tainan, Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Eco-education and Resources Center, Asian Raptor Research and Conservation Network, Borneo Bird Club, Hornbill Research Foundation, the Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association, Bird Conservation Nepal and the Oriental Bird Club.

Local groups include Conservation International, Fauna and Flora International, Katala Foundation, WWF-Philippines, Birding, Adventure-Philippines, Kaakbay, Malagos Garden Resort, Monfort Bat Cave and Conservation Foundation, Philippine Association of Wildlife Veterinarians, Philippine Wild Bird Photographers, My Zoo Foundation, the City of Alaminos and the City of Balanga.

The Philippine Eagle Foundation and the city government of Davao are the cosponsors of the fair.

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Activists ready to sabotage French bird-hunters

John Lichfield The Independent 31 Aug 10;

French ornithologists are waging an increasingly sophisticated war against the hunting of the ortolan, a songbird which is regarded by gastronomes – when eaten beak, bones and all – as the ultimate in sinful pleasure.

Over the next two weeks, bird lovers in south-west France will be systematically springing "live" traps set to capture the tiny ortolan buntings as they migrate from northern Europe to Africa. Although the capture of the ortolan has been illegal in France for more than a decade, hunting as an "age-old tradition" is tolerated semi-officially in the Landes, south of Bordeaux.

Up to 50,000 birds are captured each September and sold to chefs and gourmets as far away as New York, despite a ban on their sale. An ortolan, which weighs roughly 25g (less than one ounce) can fetch more than €100 (£80) on the international black market. The Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) – led by Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, a television presenter and former boyfriend of the animal-loving actress Brigitte Bardot – accuses the French government of bowing to the local hunting lobby. It has decided to take enforcement of the law into its own hands.

In recent years, the LPO has hired helicopters and light aircraft to survey the maize fields, thick scrub and pine forests of the Landes to locate the main hunting sites. The traps consist of rings of cages, some of which contain live ortolans. The bird's distinctive call – and the prospect of food – brings other migrating ortolans into the cages. Over the last few days, and up to mid-September, volunteers will be raiding the trapping sites and opening the cages.

"This practice is unacceptable," said Mr Bougrain-Dubourg. "The population of these birds is in decline all over Europe. Hunting has been outlawed in France since 1999. Although the government has promised zero tolerance this year, the captures are going on in many areas. Afterwards, the birds are fattened in darkness for one month and then killed by drowning in armagnac."

Ortolans are, by Gascon tradition, served whole and aflame. Only the feet are removed, although some chefs are now said to take off most of the feathers. By tradition an ortolan must be eaten with a large white napkin draped over the diner's head. Some experts say this is intended to heighten the intensity of the experience. Others concede that it hides the messy act of chomping into a charred, red-hot ortolan. The ritual was described in 1997 in a book about the last months of the late president François Mitterrand.

The author, Georges-Marc Benamou, revealed that at a New Year's Eve supper in the Landes in 1995, the dying Mr Mitterrand consumed 30 oysters and two ortolans. Twelve of the little birds had been bought by a local politician, who was giving the feast (even though their capture was already doubtfully legal in France). After most of the guests had eaten one bird each, Mr Mitterrand reached for a second.

"Those who had already been through the ordeal once, looked at each other in astonishment," wrote Mr Benamou. The table listened in embarrassment as the former president chewed the tiny bird to a paste behind his napkin before swallowing it. Then Mr Mitterrand lay back in his chair, his face beaming in "ecstasy". Eight days later he died.

François Simon, the feared restaurant critic for Le Figaro newspaper, admits to having tried ortolans on several occasions. "It's absolutely delicious: rather crunchy, with the texture and flavour of hazelnuts," he once said.

Henri Emmanuelli, former treasurer of the Socialist party and president of the département of the Landes, yesterday criticised the "publicity-seeking" actions of the LPO. He said the hunting of ortolans was a "tradition for older people" in his department, which should be tolerated. He insisted that their numbers were not necessarily as low as ornithologists claimed.

The celebrated party in which Mr Mitterrand swallowed two ortolans was organised by Mr Emmanuelli.

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Is Genetically Altered Fish OK? U.S. To Decide

Susan Heavey PlanetArk 31 Aug 10;

U.S. health officials are set to rule on whether a faster-growing, genetically engineered fish is safe to eat in a decision that could deliver the first altered animal food to consumers' dinner plates.

The fish, made by Aqua Bounty Technologies Inc, is manipulated to grow twice as fast as traditional Atlantic salmon, something the company says could boost the nation's fish sector and reduce pressure on the environment.

But consumer advocates and food safety experts are worried that splicing and dicing fish genes may have the opposite effect, leading to more industrial farming and potential escapes into the wild. Side effects from eating such fish are also unknown, with little data to show it is safe, they say.

"They're basically putting the fish on permanent growth hormone so it grows faster ... so they can sell bigger fish faster," said Jaydee Hanson, a policy analyst for the nonprofit Center for Food Safety.

It also raises questions about the industrialization of the nation's food supply at a time when consumers -- exasperated by massive egg and other food recalls -- are growing increasingly concerned and seeking more locally produced meals.

The small Massachusetts-based biotechnology company is seeking Food and Drug Administration approval to sell its salmon, called AquAdvantage, to fish farmers nationwide.

If given the green light, the salmon could be followed by the company's engineered trout and tilapia. Other scientists are also developing altered pigs and cows for food. The United States already allows genetically modified plants.

On September 19, the FDA kicks off a three-day meeting to discuss whether to approve the salmon. Outside advisers will weigh available data and offer advice, although the FDA will later make the final call.

"This is an Atlantic salmon in every measurable way," said Aqua Bounty Chief Executive Ronald Stotish. "When you look at the fish, it's impossible to see the difference."

Whether consumers accept such genetic tinkering could make or break the biotech, which has staked its future on the technology since filing for U.S. approval in 1995. In 2009, it saw a $4.8 million net loss after restructuring in 2008 to preserve cash and focus on completing FDA's approval process.

The company has seen its shares rise 75 percent this year in the run-up to the FDA's decision to a year high of 10.50 British pounds ($16).

TASTES 'GREAT'

Stotish said the company has analyzed its salmon and found no differences that warrant any kind of special labeling.

Using technology developed by Canadian researchers, AquAdvantage grows to full size in less than 250 days compared with about 400 days for a traditional Atlantic salmon, according to the biotech.

But some groups say little is known about hazards -- such as allergies or potential digestive problems. And they have criticized the FDA for not releasing any data. The agency has said it hopes to make data public by Friday but that by law it does not have to release it until two days before the meeting.

Aqua Bounty has submitted all the FDA-required data, Stotish said, but has done no animal or human clinical trials. It has, however, conducted several taste tests, and Stotish says people like it just fine.

An FDA biotech official, who asked not to be named because Aqua Bounty's bid is pending, said testing whole foods' impact on animals would be impossible because of the massive amounts they would have to be fed.

"I've eaten the fish, and it tastes great," said Stotish, whom the company promoted to the top slot in 2008 to try to push approval worldwide, except in Europe where it would face a certain cultural backlash.

Stotish, who trained in biochemistry, has a long history serving in research and development roles at companies focusing on genetics and livestock health products.

PRESSURE ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Until the early 1800s, U.S. Atlantic salmon was abundant in the rivers of the country's Northeast.

But pollution and overfishing took their toll, and despite restoration efforts, much of the Atlantic salmon consumed in the United States is imported. In 2009, the nation spent nearly $1.4 billion buying from Chile, Canada, Norway and elsewhere.

Aqua Bounty says its fish can help reduce the pressure on wild salmon populations and curb costly imports. "We're not saying if they approve our salmon we're going to feed the world," Stotish told Reuters, but "there's a general consensus that overfishing is a fact of life."

Farming fish is already a controversial endeavor, with critics concerned about the methods used and commercial feed.

Food & Water Watch's fish program director, Marianne Cufone, said food supply issues are a concern, "but there are better ways to produce fish in the United States." Her group and others also worry the salmon may escape and harm other fish.

Even if the salmon wins FDA approval, it is not clear how soon U.S. consumers would see it on store shelves.

Few fish farmers in the United States cultivate salmon, according to Stotish, who hopes farmers will convert their facilities to try the altered salmon.

September's salmon meeting marks just the second time the FDA has publicly considered a genetically engineered animal.

Last year, the agency approved GTC Biotherapeutics Inc's modified goats used to produce its anticlotting drug Atryn for patients with a rare inherited disorder.

Other engineered food animals could be on the way.

Canadian researchers are seeking FDA approval for their Enviropig with more environmentally friendly manure. Hematech Inc, part of Kirin Holdings Co Ltd's Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co, is also developing "mad cow" disease-resistant cattle.

Center for Food Safety's Hanson said such animals are the exact opposite of what U.S. consumers want. "All of these are not to make our food healthier ... All of these are to make it profitable for companies to grow animals in less-healthy conditions, more industrial conditions," he said.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)

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Biofuel Demand Driving "Land Grab" In Africa: Report

Tim Cocks PlanetArk 31 Aug 10;

Biofuel demand is driving a new "land grab" in Africa, with at least 5 million hectares (19,300 sq miles) acquired by foreign firms to grow crops in 11 countries, a study by an environmental group said on Monday.

The contracts by European and Asian companies for land to grow sugar cane, jatropha and palm oil to be turned into fuel will involve clearing forests and vegetation, taking land that could be used for food and creating conflicts with local communities, Friends of the Earth said in the study.

Proponents of biofuels argue they are renewable and can help fight climate change because the growing plants ingest as much carbon dioxide from the air as the fuels made from them emit when burned.

Critics say there is a risk of the crops infringing on land that could be used for growing food and that destruction of rainforests to make way for palm oil and sugar outweighs any carbon benefits gained from the use of such fuels.

"The expansion of biofuels ... is transforming forests and natural vegetation into fuel crops, taking away food-growing farmland from communities, and creating conflicts with local people over land ownership," Mariann Bassey, a Friends of the Earth Nigeria activist, said in a statement.

The report said Kenya and Angola each had received proposals for the use of 500,000 hectares for biofuels and there was a similar plan to use 400,000 hectares in Benin for palm oil.

Rice farmers had been forced off their land for a sugar cane project in Tanzania, it added.

"The competition for land and the competition for staple food crops such as cassava and sweet sorghum for agrofuels is likely to push up food and land prices," the study said.

Other studies have suggested biofuel expansion would not be harmful and could even be beneficial for African agriculture.

Last month, researchers from Britain's Imperial College, carbon trader CAMCO, and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) said biofuels would boost investment in land and infrastructure.

They said this could have a positive effect on food production, and if properly managed would not mean destroying natural forests.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)

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Asia: Making the most of disaster experience

IRIN Reuters AlertNet 30 Aug 10;

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
BANGKOK, 30 August 2010 (IRIN) - Greater regional cooperation and decentralization are key to meeting the challenges of disasters in Asia, specialists say.

"The Philippines has expertise in earthquakes and Vietnam in flooding," Adelina Kamal, head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) [http://www.aseansec.org/], disaster management and humanitarian assistance division, told IRIN in Bangkok. "If each country focuses on their specialties and shares that with the rest of the region, we'll be better off," she said.

Her comments coincide with the Post-Nargis Lessons Learning Conference held by ASEAN and the UN Economic Social Commission Asia Pacific (UNESCAP) [http://www.unescap.org/] on 30 August in the Thai capital.

With Asia as the continent most at risk [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89305] - accounting for the highest number of disaster-related deaths since 1980 - the conference shared the lessons learned from Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis and examined ways to institutionalize them at a regional level.

"How we work together regionally is critical to how we can manage future disasters," Noeleen Heyzer, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ESCAP, said.

Cyclone Nargis struck southern Myanmar in May 2008, killing 140,000 people and severely affecting the lives of more than 2.4 million across the country's Ayeyarwady delta.

SEAN facilitated international assistance efforts by working with the government and UN within the Tripartite Core Group (TCG), a collective response that was unprecedented in its regional coordination.

"Cyclone Nargis provided an opportunity for ASEAN to challenge its collective response to a major disaster in a member state," Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN's Secretary-General, said.

But with a variety of threats facing the region, [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90280] concern remains that disaster preparedness efforts will always be focused on the most recent disasters.

"We always plan the future according to the latest disaster," Margareta Wahlström, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, told IRIN in June. "We have to make sure we don't get dragged away by that."

Accordingly, the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management and Emergency Response was ratified in December 2009.

Kamal says the spirit of the agreement is to share information and expertise to improve preparedness for any kind of humanitarian emergency.

The agreement comprises provisions for disaster risk identification, monitoring and early warning, prevention and mitigation, preparedness and response, rehabilitation, technical cooperation and research, mechanisms for coordination, and simplified customs and immigration procedures.

It also provides for the establishment of an ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) to undertake operational coordination of activities under the pact.

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Five Years After Katrina, An Important Lesson Goes Unlearned

Sandra L. Postel, National Geographic Freshwater Fellow
NatGeo NewsWatch 30 Aug 10;

This post is part of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative.

It's getting harder and harder to blame Mother Nature for the disasters that befall humanity. While hurricanes, floods, droughts and storm surges are natural events, to be sure, the degree of disaster that unfolds when such events strike is often now heavily influenced by human activities.

When Hurricane Katrina smacked the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the protection from powerful storm surges provided by coastal wetlands and barrier islands had gradually been whittled away. Since the 1930s, Louisiana had lost 1.2 million acres of coastal wetlands. More than two dozen dams and thousands of miles of levees on the Mississippi River had trapped sediment that otherwise would have replenished them. At the same time, wetlands were drained and filled to enable oil and commercial development in the Gulf region. Even as the Army Corps of Engineers failed to adequately maintain levees to keep the floodwaters at bay, this loss of natural protection worsened the catastrophe.

Similarly, there is a human hand in the devastating floods now ravaging villages and farmlands in Pakistan's Indus River valley. Torrential monsoon rains are of course the proximate cause of this disaster, but river engineering plays into its severity and extent. The Indus emerges from the Himalayas carrying millions of tons of sediment from the young, eroding mountain chain. Under natural conditions, the river would carry most of that nutrient-rich load across a gently sloping sandy plain to its delta adjoining the Arabian Sea, helping sustain mangrove forests and fisheries there.

But today the vast majority of the river's water is diverted into irrigation canals, leaving too little flow in the main channel to transport the sediment. As the silt settles out, the capacity of the channel to contain flood flows decreases. With little active floodplain left to absorb flows overtopping the banks, the result is catastrophic flooding - in this case covering one-fifth of the country and forcing 20 million people from their homes.

And on December 26, 2004, the tsunami that struck coastal Asian nations and claimed some 273,000 lives cast a spotlight on another valuable service performed by intact ecosystems--the storm and wave protection provided by mangroves and coral reefs. The tangled roots and dense vegetation of mangroves, which thrive where salt water meets fresh water, act like a shock absorber against storm and wave energy. Vast areas of these natural protective barriers had been cleared for hotels, shrimp farms, and other commercial developments, including half the coastal mangroves in Thailand.

These are extreme, but hardly isolated cases. Floods, droughts, storms and other weather-related natural disasters displaced 20 million people worldwide in 2008. According to Munich Re, the large German re-insurance company, some 850 weather-related disasters occurred in 2009, compared with an annual average of 770 over the previous decade. Economic losses from natural catastrophes in the ten years prior to Katrina exceeded the combined losses from 1950 through 1989.

With climate scientists warning of more extreme floods and droughts in the decades to come, the human and economic losses are bound to increase.

Certainly more people now live in harm's way-along coastlines, on floodplains, and in deltas. But the hidden factor in many "natural" disasters is the loss or degradation of "ecological infrastructure." Healthy rivers, floodplains, wetlands and forested watersheds provide services of enormous value to society just as roads, bridges and treatment plants do. They help mitigate floods and droughts, buffer storms, transport sediment, filter pollutants, purify drinking water, and deliver nutrients to coastal zones. In 2005 scientists participating in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimated that wetlands alone provide services worth $200-940 billion per year.

Around the world, however, these services are rapidly disappearing. Some 25-55 percent of the world's wetlands have been drained, 35 percent of global river flows are now intercepted by large dams and reservoirs, and more than 100 billion tons of nutrient-rich sediment that would otherwise have replenished floodplains, deltas, and coastal zones instead accumulates in reservoirs. Post-Katrina, the Gulf coast continues to lose a football field's worth of wetlands every 38 minutes.

Just as we buy home insurance and life insurance to protect ourselves and our families from catastrophic losses, so society now needs to "buy" disaster insurance to reduce the damage caused by floods and other weather-related events. By strategically investing in the protection and restoration of ecological infrastructure, we can begin to re-gain the benefits of nature's services.

Some nascent efforts in this direction have at least been floated. Within a month of the Asian tsunami, officials in Indonesia--where more than 126,000 of the tsunami deaths had occurred and where some 1.6 million acres of coastal mangroves had been lost in the preceding few decades--announced a large-scale effort to restore the nation's mangrove defenses. In the aftermath of Katrina, U.S. scientists have been studying the idea of diverting Mississippi River water back toward Louisiana's disappearing coastal swamps, to supply the nutrients and sediments needed to rebuild them.

Overall, however, the story is one of inertia, neglect and missed opportunity. After the Great Midwest Flood of 1993, U.S. researchers estimated that restoration of 13 million acres of wetlands in the upper portion of the Mississippi-Missouri watershed, at a cost of $2-3 billion, would have absorbed enough floodwater to have substantially reduced the $16 billion in flood damages from that event. But instead of calling floodplains and wetlands back into active duty, officials in the region permitted even more floodplain development. Nicholas Pinter of Southern Illinois University estimates that 28,000 new homes and 6,630 acres of commercial and industrial development have since sprung up on land that was under water in 1993.

Climatic change and its anticipated effects on the hydrological cycle will make the protective resilience of ecological infrastructure all that more critical and valuable. With the pace of "natural" disasters picking up, an international effort to shore up the planet's natural defenses cannot begin too soon.

Sandra Postel directs the independent Global Water Policy Project and lectures, writes, and consults on international water issues. She is also Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society, and serves as lead water expert for the Society's freshwater initiative.

Sandra is the author of several acclaimed books, including Last Oasis, which appears in eight languages and was the basis for a 1997 PBS documentary, and is co-author, with Brian Richter, of Rivers for Life. Her essay "Troubled Waters" was selected for Best American Science and Nature Writing. She is a 1995 Pew Scholar in Conservation and the Environment.

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New Type of El Niño Emerges as Climate Changes

LiveScience.com Yahoo News 30 Aug 10;

A relatively new type of El Niño, featuring warmer waters in a different part of the Pacific Ocean, is becoming more common and stronger, according to a new study that suggests the development may help scientists tease out the relationship between El Niños and climate change.

The warm surface waters of this El Niño type are in the central equatorial Pacific rather than in the eastern equatorial Pacific. The intensity of El Niño in the central Pacific has nearly doubled since 1982, with the most intense event occurring in 2009-10, according to the study.

The stronger El Niño is alternately known as the "Central Pacific El Niño," "warm-pool El Niño," "dateline El Niño" or "El El Niño Modoki" - Japanese for "similar but different." Scientists say it helps explain a steady rise in central Pacific sea surface temperatures observed over the past few decades - a trend often attributed to global warming.

"These results suggest climate change may already be affecting El Niño by shifting the center of action from the eastern to the central Pacific," said study team member Michael McPhaden of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. "El Niño's impact on global weather patterns is different if ocean warming occurs primarily in the central Pacific, instead of the eastern Pacific.

"If the trend we observe continues," McPhaden added, "it could throw a monkey wrench into long-range weather forecasting, which is largely based on our understanding of El Niños from the latter half of the 20th century."

Despite a rise in sea surface temperatures during El Niño years, no significant temperature increases were seen in years when ocean conditions were neutral or when El Niño's cool-water counterpart, La Niña, was present.

"Our study concludes the long-term warming trend seen in the central Pacific is primarily due to more-intense El Niños rather than a general rise of background temperatures," said study team member Tong Lee of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Scientists measured changes in El Niño intensity since 1982. They analyzed NOAA satellite observations of sea surface temperature, checked against and blended with directly measured ocean temperature data. The strength of each El Niño was gauged by how much its sea surface temperatures deviated from the average.

Further research is needed to evaluate the impacts of these increasingly intense El Niños and determine why these changes are occurring, Lee said.

"It is important to know if the increasing intensity and frequency of these Central Pacific El Niños are due to natural variations in climate or to climate change caused by human-produced greenhouse gas emissions," Lee said.

El Niño, Spanish for "the little boy," is the oceanic component of a climate pattern (called the El Niño-Southern Oscillation) that appears in the tropical Pacific Ocean on average every three to five years.

El Niños can influence global weather patterns and the occurrence and frequency of hurricanes, droughts and floods. El Niños can even raise or lower global temperatures by as much as 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius).

The study was detailed in the July 24 edition of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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U.N. Climate Panel Urged To Reform, Stick To Science

Louis Charbonneau PlanetArk 31 Aug 10;

The U.N. climate panel should make predictions only when it has solid evidence and should avoid policy advocacy, scientists said in a report on Monday that called for thorough reform of the body.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was widely criticized after admitting its 2007 global warming report wrongly said Himalayan glaciers would vanish by 2035 and that it overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level.

Such firm forecasts should be made "only when there is sufficient evidence," said a review group supported by the academies of science from the United States, Netherlands, Britain and around 100 other countries.

Critics of the idea of mandatory limits on so-called greenhouse gas emissions have said the IPCC errors show the science behind global warming is questionable.

The United Nations has been concerned that focusing only on errors by the panel, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for work on global warming, could undermine the broader U.N. message that climate change is a real phenomenon requiring urgent action.

The report said the IPCC's mandate calls for it to be "policy relevant" without advocating specific policies. But some senior IPCC officials have been criticized for remarks that appeared to support specific policy approaches.

"Straying into advocacy can only hurt IPCC's credibility," the report said.

SHOULD HE STAY OR SHOULD HE GO?

The review said the limit of two six-year terms for the chair of the IPCC, currently Rajendra Pachauri of India, was too long and should be shortened to one term, as should the terms of other senior officials on the U.N. climate panel.

The report did not call for replacing Pachauri, the IPCC chairman since 2002. Asked if he would resign if requested to by the IPCC's 194 member states in October when they discuss the scientists' recommendations, Pachauri told reporters he would abide by any decision the U.N. climate panel made.

The report also called for an overhaul of the panel's management, including the creation of an executive committee that would include people from outside the IPCC.

The review touched on concerns about Pachauri's work as an adviser and board member for energy firms, as well as IPCC scientists reviewing their own work. The report noted the IPCC lacks a conflict of interest policy and recommended it adopt a "rigorous" one to avoid biases.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has acknowledged there were mistakes in what is known as the Fourth Assessment Report published in 2007, a document of more than 3,000 pages that cited more than 10,000 scientific papers. But he has insisted its fundamental conclusions were correct.

Ban's office issued a statement welcoming the review of the IPCC and reiterating he "firmly maintains that the fundamental science on climate change remains sound."

Harold Shapiro, a Princeton University professor and chair of the committee that reviewed the IPCC's work, told reporters one IPCC report "contains many statements that were assigned high confidence but for which there is little evidence."

Shapiro said the IPCC's response to errors when they were subsequently revealed was "slow and inadequate." The errors, he said, "did dent the credibility of the process."

Asked about the Himalayan glaciers error, Shapiro said: "In our judgment, it came from just not paying close enough attention to what (peer) reviewers said about that example."

Pachauri said the IPCC "will be strengthened by the (scientists') review and others of its kind this year."

But Shapiro made clear the review did not assess the validity of the science behind the IPCC reports, leaving open the possibility the panel could face a new wave of attacks from its critics.

The next IPCC report on climate change will be published in 2013 and 2014.

(Editing by Jerry Norton and John O'Callaghan)

FACTBOX-Errors, findings by UN panel of climate scientists
Reuters AlertNet 30 Aug 10;

Aug 30 (Reuters) - Experts will recommend reforms to the U.N. panel of climate scientists on Monday to avoid errors such as an exaggeration of the rate of melt of the Himalayas in a 2007 report.

The InterAcademy Council, comprising experts from national science academies, will hand a review to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York outlining ways to bolster the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The United Nations hopes the recommendations (1400 GMT) will restore confidence in climate science. Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme, said he would be surprised if the council urges a major overhaul of how the IPCC works. [ID:nLDE67S076]

Following is an overview of errors and overall findings in a 2007 IPCC report:

MISTAKES

In July, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said it "found no errors that would undermine the main conclusions in the 2007 report" after a review. It urged more transparency about how conclusions were reached [ID:nLDE66415U].

It said the IPCC exaggerated the rate of melt of Himalayan glaciers by saying they could all vanish by 2035. The IPCC wrongly said that 55 percent of the Netherlands is below sea level -- the real figure is 26 percent. The IPCC projected that between 75 million and 250 million people in Africa are at risk of experiencing stress on water supplies by 2020 due to climate change -- the real range is between 90 and 220 million.

OVERALL FINDINGS IN 2007 IPCC REPORT

* OBSERVED CHANGES - "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal".

* CAUSES OF CHANGE - "Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in ... greenhouse gas concentrations" from human activities. ("Very likely" means at least 90 percent)

Annual greenhouse gas emissions from human activities have risen by 70 percent since 1970. Concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, far exceed the natural range over the last 650,000 years, it said.

* PROJECTED CLIMATE CHANGES - Temperatures are likely to rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius (2.0 and 11.5 Fahrenheit) and sea levels by between 18 cm and 59 cm (7 inches and 23 inches) this century, without accounting for risks of an accelerated thaw of Greenland and Antarctica.

Africa, the Arctic, small islands and Asian mega-deltas are likely to be especially affected by climate change. Sea level rise "would continue for centuries" because of the momentum of warming even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilised.

"Warming could lead to some impacts that are abrupt or irreversible". About 20-30 percent of species will be at increasing risk of extinction if future temperature rises exceed 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius.

* SOLUTIONS/COSTS - Governments have a wide range of tools -- higher taxes on emissions, regulations, tradeable permits and research. An effective carbon price could help cuts.

Emissions of greenhouse gases would have to peak by 2015 to limit global temperature rises to 2.0 to 2.4 degrees Celsius (3.6-4.3F) over pre-industrial times, the strictest goal assessed.

The costs of fighting warming will range from less than 0.12 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) per year for the most stringent scenarios until 2030 to less than 0.06 percent for a less tough goal. In the most costly case, that means a cumulative loss of GDP by 2030 of less than 3 percent.

(Editing by Charles Dick)

UN climate panel ordered to make fundamental reforms
Yahoo News 30 Aug 10;

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – An international review panel on Monday called on the UN global climate change body to carry out fundamental reforms after embarrassing errors in a landmark report dented its credibility.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was caught in an international storm after it admitted its landmark 2007 report exaggerated the speed at which Himalayas glaciers were melting.

The review panel said the IPCC has been "successful overall" but called for leadership changes, stricter guidelines on source material and a check on conflicts of interest.

The five-month probe ordered by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the IPCC should have a stronger scientific basis for making its predictions and recommended an overhaul of the position of IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri.

The InterAcademy Council, which groups 15 leading science academies, was brought in after an uproar over the IPCC's 2007 study, which highlighted evidence that climate change was already hurting the planet.

In the run-up to a climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009, the IPCC was rocked by a scandal involving leaked emails which critics say showed that they skewed data.

The mistake over the Himalayan glaciers -- a claim which was found to be sourced to a magazine article -- and an earlier error over how much of the Netherlands is below sea level also tainted the IPCC's image.

"I think the errors made did dent the credibility of the process -- there's no question about it," said Harold Shapiro, a former president of Princeton University who led the review.

"Trust is something you have to earn every year," he told reporters. "We think what we recommended will help."

The IPCC has admitted its mistakes but insisted its core conclusions about climate change are sound.

The review said the glacier reference showed the IPCC did not pay close enough attention to dissenting viewpoints.

"There were a number of reviewers who pointed out that this didn't seem quite right to them and that just was not followed through," Shapiro said.

The UN review said guidelines on source material for the IPCC were "too vague" and called for specific language, and enforcement, on what types of literature are unacceptable.

The review called for a new chief executive to run the IPCC and for the chairmanship to become a part-time post with a new holder for each landmark study carried out.

Pachauri, an Indian scientist primarily employed by the TERI think-tank, has come under criticism, with some arguing he had a vested interest due to his business dealings with carbon trading companies. He has strongly denied any conflict of interest however.

Pachauri told a press conference after the report that he would let member-states decide his future. The 194 nation IPCC is to hold a general meeting in Busan, South Korea in October.

The IPCC chairman criticized what he called "ideologically driven posturing" in the attacks on the climate group, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore.

Ban said the review had in no way weakened the strength of basic climate science but he said nations had to act on the recommendations.

"Given the gravity of the climate challenge, the secretary general believes it is vital that the world receives the best possible climate assessments through an IPCC that operates at the highest levels of professionalism, objectivity, responsiveness and transparency," his spokesman said in a statement.

In Brussels, European Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard also said that "after all the fights" the main findings of the 2007 report are "still unchallenged."

"The bottom line, and this report says it, is that overall the IPCC has done a very good job, but there were some minor errors and they were corrected," she told AFP.

Environmental group Greenpeace pointed to severe weather this year -- including Pakistan's flood disaster and Russia's worst-ever heat wave -- as new evidence of global warming.

"Despite the muckraking and crude attempts to undermine the findings of the IPCC, the scientific consensus is clear, climate change represents a serious threat to the future of the environment and humanity," Greenpeace said.

Report: Climate science panel needs change at top
Seth Borenstein, Associated Press Yahoo News 30 Aug 10;

WASHINGTON – Scientists reviewing the acclaimed but beleaguered international climate change panel called Monday for a major overhaul in the way it's run, but stopped short of calling for the ouster of the current leader.

The independent review of the U.N. climate panel puts new pressure on chairman Rajendra Pachauri, who has been criticized for possible conflicts of interest, but shows no sign of stepping down.

"It's hard to see how the United Nations can both follow the advice of this committee and keep Rajendra Pachauri on board as head," said Roger Pielke Jr., a frequent critic of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The University of Colorado professor praised the review findings as a way of saving the climate panel with "tough love."

The InterAcademy Council, a collection of the world's science academies, outlined a series of "significant reforms" in management structure needed by the IPCC, a body that won a Nobel Prize with former Vice President Al Gore in 2007.

Last year, a batch of errors embarrassed the authors of the climate report. Among the most prominent were misleading statements about glaciers in the Himalayas. The IPCC incorrectly said they were melting faster than others and that they would disappear by 2035 — hundreds of years earlier than other information suggests.

"Those errors did dent the credibility of the process, no question about it," said former Princeton University president Harold Shapiro, who led the review of the IPCC.

Climate change science took a parade of public hits last winter, starting with the release of hacked e-mails from a British climate center. Then there was the failure of a summit in Copenhagen to come up with mandatory greenhouse gas pollution limits, followed by the mistakes discovered in the IPCC report. On top of that, the winter seemed unusually cold in many places, undercutting belief in global warming.

The mood seems different now. Several outside reports — including those by the British, Dutch and American governments — have upheld the chief scientific finding of the climate panel: that global warming is man-made and incontrovertible. This year, so far, is on target to be the hottest on record worldwide with a number of extreme weather events.

IPCC chief Pachauri, an academic from India who also is a professor at Yale, said many of the recommendations outlined are steps he already has started. Critics, including those in the U.S. Senate, have called on him to resign, but on Monday he gave no indication he would.

"This has nothing to do with personalities," Pachauri told The Associated Press. "I think we're jumping the gun if we're talking about taking any action before the IPCC takes a look at the report."

Shapiro said if fundamental changes are made, the IPCC — created in 1989 by the United Nations and World Meteorological Organization — can regain its credibility. The IPCC involves scientists mostly volunteering work with only 10 staffers, and even Pachauri is a part-time volunteer.

The 113-page review was requested by the IPCC and the U.N. after the errors were found. It didn't study the quality of the science itself, although Shapiro said the key recommendations in the climate report "are well supported by the scientific evidence."

Still, he said the way the report expressed confidence in scientific findings was incomplete and at times even misleading. In the panel's first report, which addresses the physical causes of global warming, scientists may have underestimated how confident they were in their conclusions, Shapiro said. In the second report, about the effects on daily life, in at least one instance they may have overestimated the scientific backing for their conclusions, he suggested.

The InterAcademy Council said the climate change group overall has done a good job. But the council said it needs a full-time executive director, more openness and regular changes in leadership. It also called for stronger enforcement of its reviews of research and adoption of a conflict of interest policy, which the IPCC does not have, even though its parent agencies do. The conflict of interest issue was raised because of Pachauri's work as adviser and board member of green energy companies.

Pachauri said he has been cleared of any conflict claims, especially since he gave away all the money he was paid to sit on companies' boards.

Scientists who have been among the IPCC authors praised the study. Andrew Weaver of the University of Victoria in Canada said the recommended changes include some that scientists have urged, but he doesn't see these changes as being major.

Weaver said the focus on IPCC structure misses the point when it comes to global warming: "The Titanic is sinking and we're arguing about the nature of the deck chairs."

Achim Steiner, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, said the review would help the IPCC recover some of the credibility it lost when it came under a "concerted effort" to attack its integrity.

Steiner said in a telephone interview said the new report restores "in the public mind a level of confidence which is critical for the IPCC's work to be used as a basis for international negotiations and policy making."

Associated Press writers Edith Lederer in New York and Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report

Online:

The InterAcademy Council's review: http://reviewipcc.interacademycouncil.net/

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: http://www.ipcc.ch/

Stricter controls urged for the UN's climate body
Paul Rincon BBC News 30 Aug 10;

The UN's climate science body needs stricter checks to prevent damage to the organisation's credibility, an independent review has concluded.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has faced mounting pressure over errors in its last major assessment of climate science in 2007.

The review said guidelines were needed to ensure IPCC leaders were not seen as advocating specific climate policies.

It also urges transparency and suggests changes to the management of the body.

The IPCC has admitted it made a mistake in its 2007 assessment in asserting that Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. But it says this error did not change the broad picture of man-made climate change.

The review committee stressed that previous IPCC science assessments had been successful overall, but it said the body's response to revelations of errors in its 2007 report had been "slow and inadequate".

Critics have previously called on the IPCC's chair, Dr Rajendra Pachauri, to resign. Responding to the report, Dr Pachauri said he wanted to stay to implement changes at the organisation.

He stressed that none of the reviews set up in the wake of recent climate controversies found flaws with the fundamental science of climate change.

In the past year, climate science and political negotiations aimed at dealing with global warming, such as the Copenhagen summit, have come under unprecedented scrutiny.

In February, the UN panel suggested setting up an independent review, feeling that its 20-year-old rules might need an overhaul. It was overseen by the Inter-Academy Council (IAC), an international umbrella body for science academies.

There was also a sense the UN body might have been ill-equipped to handle the attention in the wake of "Glaciergate" and the release of e-mails hacked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) and the the University of East Anglia, UK.

The e-mails issue came to light in November last year, when hundreds of messages between CRU scientists and their peers around the world were posted on the internet, along with other documents.

Critics said the e-mail exchanges revealed an attempt by the researchers to manipulate data and three independent reviews were initiated into the affair.

This review of the IPCC's workings was released at a news conference in New York on Monday. Among the committee's recommendations was that the UN body should appoint an executive director to handle day-to-day operations and speak on behalf of the panel.

It also said the current limit of two six-year terms for the chair of the organisation was too long.

The report favoured the post of IPCC chair and that of the executive director being limited to the term of one climate science assessment.

Dr Pachauri became head of the organisation in 2002 and was re-elected for his second term in 2008.

A conflict of interest charge has also been levelled at Dr Pachauri over his business interests. The IPCC chair has vigorously defended himself over these charges, but the report said the UN organisation needed a robust conflict of interest policy.

Speaking in New York, Harold Shapiro, who led the IAC review, said that although the IPCC's assessment process had "served society well", fundamental changes would help the IPCC continue to perform successfully under a "public microscope".

Dr Shapiro conceded that controversy over errors in climate science assessments had dented the credibility of the process.
'Slow' response

The IAC report concentrates on review processes at the UN body, including the use of non-peer reviewed sources, and quality control on data.

It said the IPCC should establish an executive committee that could include individuals from outside the climate science community in order to enhance credibility and independence.

The IAC committee said processes used by the UN panel to review material in its assessment reports were thorough.

But it said procedures needed tightening to minimise errors. And the IAC urged editors to ensure genuine controversies were reflected and alternative views were accounted for.

Speaking to the BBC, Dr Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a "sceptical" climate think-tank, welcomed the recommendations, but added: "We really want the IPCC to accept these recommendations and implement them not in 2015, but now. Otherwise, their next report will not be credible."

Mike Hulme, professor of climate science at the University of East Anglia, called the reforms radical and far-reaching.

"If the recommendations are fully implemented, the way the IPCC reports and communicates its findings will be very different in future," he told the BBC.

The IAC says part of the IPCC 2007 report contained statements that were based on little evidence, and urges IPCC authors to make future projections only when there is sufficient support for them.

The use by the IPCC of so-called "grey literature" - that which has not been peer-reviewed or published in scientific journals - has sparked controversy, partly because this type of material was behind the glacier error.

The committee said such literature was often appropriate for inclusion in the IPCC's assessment reports. But it said authors needed to follow the IPCC's guidelines more closely and that the guidelines themselves were too vague.

The report's recommendations are likely to be considered at the IPCC's next plenary meeting in South Korea in October.

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Best of our wild blogs: 30 Aug 10

ReefFriends Reef Survey Dive @ Pulau Semakau Instead
from colourful clouds

Falling trees
from The Green Volunteers by Grant W.Pereira

Learning outdoors survival skills @ ICCS Briefing?
from News from the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore

How best to balance economic growth and protection of the environment?
from Mongabay.com news

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Captive hawsbill turtles released in Malaysia

'City' turtles find sea legs
Satiman Jamin New Straits Times 29 Aug 10;

PULAU REDANG: Sea Turtle Research Unit (Seatru) at Cagar Hutang Turtle Sanctuary here scored another first yesterday when it released a pair of juvenile hawksbill turtles into the sea attached with satellite transmitters.

The turtles, named "Duke Aziz" and "Myrtle Adie" were flown from Subang airport in Selangor to the island two days ago.

The pair were hatched at the sanctuary four years ago but had been living at Aquaria KLCC since they were hatchlings as part of Seatru's long-term experiment to see whether it was viable to raise turtles in captivity.

Seatru chief Dr Juanita Joseph said raising turtles in captivity was called "head-starting", referring to the head start the turtles were given in the safe environment in captivity.

She said although juvenile turtles were stronger than hatchlings, the head-starting programme was not without its risks as the turtles raised in captivity might have lost their ability to survive in the open ocean, their natural habitat.

"The satellite transmitter package costs about RM50,000 each including the data retrieval, satellite usage and data recording functions. The one on Duke was sponsored by Aquaria KLCC while Myrtle's was sponsored by The Body Shop."

She said the transmitters would enable researchers to know the location of the turtles as well as how deep they dive and how long they stayed underwater.

"The data would be more comprehensive compared with other transmitters attached to turtles. Previously we only got to know the approximate position of the turtles," she said.

Seatru is a unit of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu and Duke Aziz was named after UMT vice chancellor Prof Dr Aziz Deraman.

The other turtle was named Myrtle by Aquaria KLCC, and the the name Adie was after Adie Mahadi Mustaffa, the longest serving employee at the sanctuary.

Seatru adviser Associate Professor Dr Liew Hock Chark said the data obtained from the voyage of the turtles would help determine the next step in their turtle conservation programme.

"If they cope well after spending their early years in captivity, we may do more head-starting programmes in future," he said.

Although Duke looked a little lost at first as he wandered around the beach, it eventually made it to the water. Liew, Joseph and Seatru staff filming Duke's maiden voyage were pleased when the city-bred turtle proved that it still had not forgotten its roots.

Duke whizzed past the researchers and was gone as soon as his flippers touched the crystal-clear water.

Myrtle Adie, whose gender has yet to be determined, displayed the same behaviour once released from the transport box in which it had travelled from Kuala Lumpur.

It seems the turtles totally agreed with the programme's motto of "Tracking For Freedom".

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Green turtle satellite tagged for the first time in India

Shyam Balasubramanian Express Buzz 30 Aug 10;

CHENNAI: For the first time in India, a Green Turtle, a large species of sea turtle, was satellite tagged on Sunday. The turtle, Greenie, is expected to give great insight into the feeding and migration patterns of the species.

Sunday’s tagging also marks the third such instance of a sea turtle being tagged on the Chennai coast. Greenie was released into the sea near Marakkanam on Sunday evening by Tamil Nadu’s Chief Wildlife Warden R Sundararaju.

“This is fresh lease of life for Greenie. It was found entangled in a fisherman’s net near Marakkanam. It was very tired from struggling against the net and persistently refused to return to the sea. So we went and brought the turtle to our facility in Neelankarai, where we rehabilitated the turtle,” said Dr Supraja Dharini, founder of the TREE Foundation, a voluntary organisation that works for marine biodiversity conservation along the Chennai coast.

Volunteers held Greenie down, as the satellite tag was attached to its back using waterproof adhesive. “We cannot tell yet if Greenie is male or female because it is not mature yet. But it will grow up to at least four feet in length,” says Saba Natesan, volunteer with TREE Foundation.

The two previous sea turtles which were satellite tagged in Chennai were both Olive Ridleys, of which one stopped transmitting signals. The other Ridley, Arnavi has travelled 6,185 km in the sea since she was released on March 13 this year. Her movements have shed light on the central role that ocean currents play in the movement of sea turtles as well as their feeding patterns.

Greenie’s movement, as is also the case with the previous two Ridleys, will be tracked by six satellites to which the transmitters will send signals every time the turtle surfaces to breathe. To track the movements of Greenie and Arnavi, visit www.seaturtle.org.

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Thousands flee as long-sleepy Sumatra volcano erupts

Reuters AlertNet 29 Aug 10;

JAKARTA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Thousands of Indonesians were evacuated from the slopes of a volcano on Sunday after it erupted for the first time in more than 400 years, spewing out lava and sending smoke and dust 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) into the air.

Mount Sinabung, in the north of the island of Sumatra, began erupting around midnight after rumbling for several days, prompting some villagers to panic before the mass evacuation got under way.

Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and geological fault lines triggering frequent earthquakes around the Pacific Basin. The eruption triggered the highest red volcano alert.

Two people died, one from breathing problems and the other from a heart attack, and two suffered injuries in road accidents as trucks, ambulances and buses were mobilised in the rescue operation.

"This is the first time since 1600 that Sinabung has erupted and we have little knowledge in terms on its eruptive patterns," said Surono, head of Indonesia's vulcanology centre.

Authorities took at least 12,000 people from high risk areas on the slopes of the 2,460-metre volcano to temporary shelters. Local TV showed showed women and children wearing face masks in cramped tents.

The area around the volcano is largely agricultural.

"Since this is the first eruption we've had in Sinabung, we're anticipating residents to remain at the shelters for at least a week while waiting for further status alert," said Priyadi Kardono, a spokesman at the national disaster management agency.

Residents panicked when the volcano started erupting overnight and some of them who live in safer areas chose to take refugee at shelters, Kardono added.

The eruption has not damage roads or bridges. The nearest big city is Medan where there were no disruptions to flights.

(Reporting by Karima Anjani; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Volcano quiet for 400 years erupts in Indonesia
Associated Press Yahoo News 29 Aug 10;

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A volcano in western Indonesia spewed hot lava and sand high into the sky early Sunday in its first eruption in 400 years. Government volcanologist Surono, who uses only one name, said Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra province started rumbling a few days ago and the minor morning eruption had mostly stopped.

It sent sand and ash up to a mile (1.5 kilometers) high but lava only moved near its crater. It caused no major damage and "only dust covered plants and trees," he said.

He said Mount Sinabung last erupted in 1600, so observers don't know the volcano's eruption pattern and are monitoring it closely for more activity.

Evacuations on the volcano's slopes started Friday at the first signs of activity. Up to 10,000 people who fled are staying in government buildings, houses of worship and other evacuation centers in two nearby towns.

The government has distributed 7,000 masks to refugees and set up public kitchens so people can cook food, said Priyadi Kardono, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is on the so-called "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.

Ash won't reach Singapore
Straits Times 31 Aug 10;

THE volcanic ash thrown up by an Indonesian volcano is not expected to cloud the skies over Singapore.

Mount Sinabung erupted on Sunday and again yesterday morning, sending ash 2km into the air. The volcano is about 648km from Singapore in the north of Sumatra. Records dating back 400 years do not show any eruptions over that time.

The prevailing winds are not expected to blow the volcanic ash towards Singapore, however. Said a spokesman for the National Environment Agency (NEA): 'The low-level winds over Singapore are light and from the south-east, while the upper-level winds are from the north-east to east.

'Around northern Sumatra, near Mount Sinabung, low-level winds are light and variable with upper-level winds blowing from the north-east to east.'

He added that wind conditions are expected to remain unchanged for the next few days.

The Meteorological Services Division of the NEA is monitoring the situation closely.

Dormant volcano eruptions do happen, with about one incident every decade.

VICTORIA VAUGHAN

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