Shipwreck threatens island penguins in South Atlantic

(UKPA) Google News 21 Mar 11;

A wrecked ship is threatening to cause an environmental disaster on an island which is home to endangered penguins, conservationists have warned.

The vessel has grounded on Nightingale Island, part of the Tristan da Cunha UK overseas territory in the South Atlantic, causing an oil slick around the island which is home to nearly half the world's population of northern rockhopper penguins.

Some 1,500 tonnes of heavy crude oil from the MS Olivia, which was shipping soya beans between Rio de Janeiro and Singapore, is leaking into the sea.

According to the RSPB, oil now surrounds Nightingale Island and extends into a slick eight-miles offshore, threatening the endangered penguins and the economically important rock lobster fishery.

Hundreds of penguins have already been seen coming ashore covered in oil, said the wildlife charity.

The shipwreck could also lead to any rats onboard colonising the island and posing a huge risk to the native seabird populations - whose chicks and eggs could be eaten by the invasive rodents.

The Tristan da Cunha islands, in particular Nightingale and its neighbour Middle Island, are home to millions of nesting seabirds and there are more than 200,000 northern rockhopper penguins on the island.

RSPB research biologist Richard Cuthbert said: "The consequences of this wreck could be potentially disastrous for wildlife and the fishery-based economy of these remote islands.

"Nightingale is one of two large islands in the Tristan da Cunha group that are rodent-free. If rats gain a foothold their impact would be devastating."
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Tristan conservation officer Trevor Glass said: "The scene at Nightingale is dreadful as there is an oil slick encircling the island. Members of the Tristan conservation team are doing all they can to clean up the penguins that are currently coming ashore. It is a disaster."

Race to save oil slicked penguins on remote British island
Yahoo News 24 Mar 11;

CAPE TOWN (AFP) – A race to rescue up to 20,000 endangered penguins from an oil spill in an isolated south Atlantic British island group was underway Thursday after a cargo ship ran aground.

Oil-slicked Rockhopper penguins were being collected and taken off three Tristan da Cunha islands to the main island to be stored in a shed for treatment, cleaning and eventual release.

"Five hundred Rockhoppers were brought ashore on Tristan this morning," Tristin da Cunha administrator Sean Burns said in an online statement.

But specialist cleaning fluid was in short supply and hinged on a second ship being chartered from Cape Town, a journey of several days over 2,800 kilometres (1,740 miles), after a salvage vessel arrived on Monday.

"A crucial next step is to confirm a second vessel to depart from Cape Town in the next few days with all the necessary equipment and supplies to clean up the birds, keep them healthy and hopefully return them to the ocean," said Burns.

"It will be a race against time," he added.

The MS Oliva ran aground on Nightingale island on March 16 skippered by a Greek captain and carrying a crew of 21 Filipinos who were rescued safely. It has since broken in two main parts.

"Unfortunately, the birds cannot be fed in captivity until a ship can travel from South Africa with a load of frozen fish, along with an experienced cleaning team and other essential supplies," said John Cooper of the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels in Australia.

"News of this 'second vessel' and its sailing date is still awaited," he said in a statement.

The archipelago is the home to most of the world's Rockhopper penguins which are classed endangered, with Burns saying Wednesday he hoped an earlier estimate of 20,000 affected penguins would prove to be too high.

Tristan da Cunha is an active volcanic island with 263 British residents described as the most isolated community in the world on the islands' website and has no hotels, airport, night clubs, restaurants, or safe sea swimming.

Read more!

Biodiversity Leads to Higher Productivity

ScienceDaily 21 Mar 11;

Ecosystems containing several species are more productive than individual species on their own. Using data from more than 400 published experiments, an international research team has found overwhelming evidence that biodiversity in the plant kingdom is very efficient in assimilating nutrients and solar energy, resulting in greater production of biomass.

"Plant communities are like a soccer team. To win championships, you need a star striker who can score goals, but you also need a cast of supporting players who can pass, defend and keep goal. Together, the star players and supporting cast make a highly efficient team," says Lars Gamfeldt of the Department of Marine Ecology at the University of Gothenburg.

Gamfeldt is part of an international research team led by Brad Cardinale (University of Michigan, USA) which, in a special issue of the scientific journal American Journal of Botany on biodiversity, presents a study on the significance of biodiversity of plants and algae, which form the base of the food chain. The research team based its study on the question whether ecosystems can maintain important functions such as production of biomass and conversion of nutrients when biodiversity is depleted and we lose species. In their quest for answers they have examined hundreds of published studies on everything from single-celled algae to trees. Using data from more than 400 published experiments, the researchers found overwhelming evidence that the net effect of having fewer species in an ecosystem is a reduced quantity of plant biomass.

There are two principal explanations for why species-rich plant communities may be more effective and productive. One is that they have a higher probability of including "super-species," that is to say species that are highly productive and effective in regulating ecological processes. The other is that different species often have characteristics that complement one another. The fact that there is a "division of labour" among different plant species in nature makes it possible for species-rich communities to be more productive. The researchers also note that as a result of climate change and other human impact we are now losing species at a rapid rate. This means that we need to prioritise what we want to protect and preserve, in order to maintain the goods and services humans depend on.

"Nearly every organism on this planet depends on plants for their survival. If species extinction compromises the processes by which plants grow, then it degrades one of the key features required to sustain life on Earth," the principal author of the article Brad Cardinale comments. Gamfeldt is affiliated with both the Department of Marine Ecology at the University of Gothenburg and the Department of Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

1. B. J. Cardinale, K. L. Matulich, D. U. Hooper, J. E. Byrnes, E. Duffy, L. Gamfeldt, P. Balvanera, M. I. O'Connor, A. Gonzalez. The functional role of producer diversity in ecosystems. American Journal of Botany, 2011; 98 (3): 572 DOI: 10.3732/ajb.1000364

Read more!

Record participation with 5 days until the world unites for Earth Hour

WWF 21 Mar 11;

Singapore - Just 5 days out from the global lights-out event, Earth Hour 2011 has reached record participation, with 131 countries and territories registered to take part, on all seven continents, with all G20 countries, thousands of cities, and iconic landmarks and public figures set to join with hundreds of millions across the world to celebrate action for the planet.

This Saturday, 26 March, at 8:30pm local time iconic landmarks across the globe will go dark for Earth Hour. Starting with the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand and moving to the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the lights out campaign will then sweep across Asia and the Middle East to darken landmarks and events in China, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

The Queen’s Palace in Madagascar, Table Mountain in South Africa, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the London Eye have also signed up to switch off in support of the planet.

Major landmarks in North and South America - including Niagara Falls in Canada, Times Square in New York City, the Obelisk in Argentina and the world heritage site Presidential Palace in Peru – will also take part in the global plunge into darkness on 26 March for Earth Hour.

In 2010 hundreds of millions of people across the world, in 4,616 cities, in 128 countries and territories took part in Earth Hour, but switching off the lights was only the beginning. This year Earth Hour asks people to go beyond the hour, and use Earth Hour to commit to an action, big or small, that they will sustain for the future of our planet.

“Earth Hour is a chance for people and communities across the globe to join together with the common purpose of a sustainable future for our planet,” said Andy Ridley, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Earth Hour. “This year Earth Hour asks people to commit to an action, big or small, for the coming year, taking Earth Hour beyond the hour.”

Among the thousands of cities taking part in Earth Hour 2011, many have already committed to taking action beyond the hour. In Sydney, Australia plans are in the works to switch to LED lights in parks and streets. Medellin, Colombia has committed to long-term water protection and tree planting initiatives to go “beyond 60 minutes”, while the city of Shenyang in northeast China has seeded plans to reforest 38,000 hectares of land.

Also taking actions "beyond the hour" in 2011 are high profile ambassadors including model Miranda Kerr, who has committed to buying local, organic produce to reduce her ecological footprint and cricket legend Wasim Akram, who has made a commitment to stop using plastic bags, recycle and reuse, and use his high profile to promote and encourage the same behaviour throughout Pakistan and the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, animated TV series Pocoyo will reach out to its millions of preschool-aged fans across the globe over the next year, to inform children about environmental issues.

An online platform www.earthhour.org/beyondthehour has been launched, that captures and allows individuals, governments and organisations across the globe to share their actions, acting as a tool to showcase and inspire commitments to protect the one thing we all have in common – the planet.

Going beyond Earth Hour to save the environment
Meng Yew Choong The Star 22 Mar 11;

Switching lights off for one hour a year is easy to do. However, staving off climate change takes much more work than that.

IN 2007, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (Australia) and The Sydney Morning Herald succeeded in persuading 2.2 million residents and 2,000 businesses in Sydney to turn off all “non-essential lights” for an hour as a symbolic sign for a better environment.

Since then, the Earth Hour movement has spread its tentacles all over the world. From just a single city in Australia, it is now said to be observed by more than 4,500 cities across 128 countries.

Even the most uninitiated among us cannot help but notice the swath of publicity that comes with the “darkening” of global landmarks like the Petronas Twin Towers, Sydney Harbour Bridge, CN Tower of Toronto, Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco, and Rome’s Colosseum, just to name a handful.

The symbolic turning off of “non-essential lights” for one hour on a Saturday evening was meant to show hope for a cause that grows “more urgent by the hour” but this message has either been lost or watered down by the euphoria that follows the event, with celebrations ranging from candle-lit dining to outdoor parties, concerts and a plethora of marketing-related activities to generate buzz.

Naturally, a chorus of dissenters (not necessarily global warming sceptics) have panned the movement for its seeming shallowness, if not somewhat contradictory approaches.

Firstly, all the celebrations to mark the event are hardly carbon-neutral. Knowledge management consultant Cheryl Teh has this observation: “People switch off the lights for an hour and then what? What are the changes after that?

“Personally, I think events like Earth Hour are counter-productive. Think of all the marketing-related resources, printing, and so on that goes into promoting Earth Hour to ‘save’ the earth.

“They spend so much money and then all the stuff they print go to the landfill. They have performances to celebrate but then need to hire energy-guzzlers like speakers, microphones and so on.”

For example, WWF Singapore is holding an open air concert (like it did last year) near the central business district. Although the event will be powered by generators running on biodiesel made from waste cooking oil, it is likely that more air pollution and carbon dioxide will be generated as a stand-alone diesel generator can never be as efficient as grid-derived power (in Singapore’s case, mainly from burning natural gas).

Another contradictory approach will be seen in Penang, which is celebrating Earth Hour by turning off lights at key government buildings, only to light 10,000 candles and lamps at the Esplanade from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. Burning of candles generate pollution and carbon dioxide, regardless of whether the candle is made of beeswax or paraffin.

Don Theseira, arguably one of the most fervent advocates for the environment, thinks that lighting up lights and candles and what not during Earth Hour contradicts its spirit. “I disagree with the light up activities. Why can’t we celebrate Earth Hour in darkness?”

Theseira is far from being a detractor. In fact, he hopes that at least one million Malaysians will come forward to mark it. “It is only meaningful when celebrated on a mass scale. It should not be just a case of a few landmark buildings turning off their lights,’’ said the Penang-based green activist.

Earth Hour has provoked a harsh reaction from Australia-based group Carbon Sense Coalition (carbon-sense.com) which said in its website: “To hold a candles-and-champagne party indoors, on the mildest night of the year, for just one hour, shows that the whole thing is green tokenism.

“Moreover, both candles and champagne emit carbon dioxide. Let the true believers try the real thing in one of the extreme seasons so they can appreciate the great benefits we take for granted when using all of our carbon fuels and foods.”

This group proclaims itself as being “concerned about the extent to which carbon and carbon dioxide are wrongly vilified in Western societies, particularly in government, the media, and in some business circles”.

Carbon Sense Coalition has suggested that Earth Hour be renamed “Blackout Night” and be held outdoors, for the whole night, in mid-winter, on the shortest and coldest day of the year – June 22 in the southern hemisphere.

“Supporters of alternative energy should spend just one night in the cold and the dark, emitting no carbon dioxide from coal, oil, gas, petrol or diesel for lights, TV, hot coffee, barbecues or cars,” said Viv Forbes, chairman of Carbon Sense.

“Winter nights are usually still and cold, so the candles crew can experience what it was like depending on alternate energy in the recent snowstorms in the northern hemisphere when wind turbines froze and solar panels were covered in snow.

“The back-to-nature brigade can also try living without iron roofs and concrete walls, both of which require coal and emit carbon dioxide during their production. So we support Blackout Night to prepare our population for the dark days ahead,” said Forbes, a livestock farmer and mining consultant in Queensland.

Other western commentaries noted that participants fail to get the message behind Earth Hour: a drastic reduction in energy usage on a scale they cannot imagine.

“This blindness to the vital importance of energy is precisely what Earth Hour exploits. It sends the comforting-but-false message: Cutting off fossil fuels would be easy and even fun! People spend the hour stargazing and holding torch-lit beach parties; restaurants offer special candle-lit dinners.

“Earth Hour makes the renunciation of energy seem like a big party. Participants spend an enjoyable 60 minutes in the dark, safe in the knowledge that the life-saving benefits of industrial civilisation are just a light switch away.

“This bears no relation whatsoever to what life would actually be like under the sort of draconian carbon-reduction policies that climate activists are demanding: punishing carbon taxes, severe emissions caps, outright bans on the construction of power plants,” wrote Keith Lockitch in the website of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights (aynrand.com).

Beyond the hour

In the face of criticism over the event, the organiser of Earth Hour responded by saying that the main goal of the event is to create awareness around climate change issues and “to express that individual action on a mass scale can help change our planet for the better”, and not so much about the specific energy reductions that can be achieved within that one hour.

Well aware that the mere act of turning lights off for just an hour on a Saturday evening is not going to sustain the movement, WWF International is now asking people to do more than that.

“Beyond the Hour” marks the start of a new phase for the Earth Hour movement, where people are asked to commit to an action, big or small, that they will sustain for the future of our planet (beyondthehour.org).

According to Earth Hour co-founder and executive director, Andy Ridley, everyone has the power to effect change, no matter what their station in life. “A CEO can change an organisation, a seven-year-old can change a classroom, and a president can change a country. What we are announcing today is just the beginning. It is through the collective action of individuals and organisations that we will be able to truly make a difference, which is why we are urging people across the planet to share how they will go beyond the hour this Earth Hour.”

Ridley said the Beyond the Hour platform has been built with social media at its core to allow interaction between millions of people who have committed to taking lasting action for the planet.

The platform, created with Leo Burnett, is translated into 11 languages, and integrated with most major social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Mixi, Myspace, Odnoklassniki, Cloob, Orkut, Qzone, RenRen, Vkontakte, Maktoob, Skyrock, Xing, and Zing. The online platform is expected to function as a shared space for individuals, governments and organisations to share their actions on what they are doing for the environment.

The decision to go on the social platform is a natural one, given the prevalence of smart phones and advancements in portable computing. The downside is that computers will be left on longer, and gadgets like iPhones and Blackberrys will be used more often. This is yet another instance where good intentions can have mixed results. After all, what is the point in always “being connected” when this very act consumes electricity (if not totally ironical given Earth Hour’s call for people to switch off). As extreme as their views may sound, dissenters like Carbon Sense do have a point in calling for well-intentioned folks celebrating Earth Hour to totally do away with energy use for an extended period.

A Filipino blogger called indignus (marcusapollo.wordpress.com) summed up the situation beautifully: “Therefore we also turned off all lights and equipment such as the computer on which we type this post now. However, despite these gestures of symbolic solidarity, we could not altogether ignore how little effect Earth Hour really had, in material as well as non-material (or ideological and symbolic) terms, on ecological issues. In fact, we submit that it was harmful to the goals of environmentalism because it diverted people’s attention towards a symbolic non-solution and away from the real source of, and the real solution to, the ecological problems faced by humanity.

“We do not say this to detract from the real achievements of the movements for environmental reform, or to deny the undoubted good faith of its proponents and organisers, but to warn against the dangers posed by false directions for activism. And what is the real source of the problem? It is the unsustainable and immoderate (and some believe, catastrophically immoderate) consumption and production patterns engendered by contemporary industrial capitalism.”

indignus concludes by arguing that even the most well-intentioned environmentalism will not effect meaningful ecological transformation, “unless we stop worshipping more and newer and embracing bigger and more ‘advanced’.”

“In the end, then, we can save the world of matter only if we reach beyond it to the spirit, and we can make material activity ‘ecological’ only if we reject materialism and prioritise the non-material and trans-ecological value of seeking and contemplating the holy and true, the good and beautiful.”

As such, when the lights go out this Saturday, it is not a bad idea to sit in the dark, and to contemplate upon the fourth R (we are all familiar with the 3Rs): Refuse. And in case it is still not obvious to you, it should be done totally unplugged.

Read more!

World learns from Dutch to keep head above water

Coralie Ramon (AFP) Google News 21 Mar 11;

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Dubai's Palm Island, New Orleans' upgraded dykes and Australia's water recycling plants all have one thing in common: they benefited from Dutch know-how gained in the country's age-old quest for dry feet.

"The Netherlands has always battled against this natural enemy -- water," said Hanneke Heeres of the Union of District Water Boards (UvW), which after 900 years existence is the Netherlands' oldest government body.

"And with global warming and rising sea levels the world is more and more interested in Dutch expertise," he told AFP.

Currently, Dutch companies are focusing efforts on projects on delta areas in five countries: Mozambique, Egypt, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

An abiding image of the Netherlands is the boy from a famous children's tale who plugs a hole in a dyke with his finger to save his country from inundation -- and with reason: the country's lowest point is 6.74 metres (22.2 feet) below sea level.

In all, 26 percent of the country is below sea level.

"Already 10 centuries ago, the Dutch were making sand piles on which to build their homes, out of reach of the water," Bert Groothuizen of Van Oord dredging company told AFP.

"As technology advanced, they designed machines like dredging boats," now being exported around the world along with Dutch water engineers.

Today, the country has a global reputation in "delta-technology" - claiming some 40 percent of the world's turnover in the open market. This excludes states who protect domestic makers of flood-barriers, dykes and bridges with anti-competition measures.

Out of a population of 16.5 million, the Netherlands also boasts some 2,000 companies in the field of water, employing about 80,000 people.

"As early as the seventh century, Dutch specialists were creating canals and dikes near the Elbe" River in what is modern-day Germany, said Christine Boomsma, spokeswoman for Netherlands Water Partnership (NWP), an information network of companies, government, knowledge institutes and NGOs.

Dutch savvy in the field has gone well beyond Europe and already been put to use in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

Its experts helped build storm surge barriers in St. Petersburg and Venice, helped make Jakarta flood resilient and advised on climate adaptation plans for the Maldives and southeast Asia's Mekong Delta.

"The United States became interested in our expertise after Hurricane Katrina" killed nearly 1,500 people in New Orleans in 2005, said Heeres of the UvW.

"In New Orleans, we reinforced a line of dykes to make them more solid, higher, and bigger," added Matthijs van Ledden of the engineering firm Royal Haskoning. "We also constructed new flood barriers."

Another example of Dutch ingenuity: artificial island complexes constructed in the sea off Dubai -- not only the ambitious Palm Island, in the shape of a palm tree, but another mimicking a map of the world.

Dubbed simply The World, the second complex comprises more than 300 islands in the shape of the continents, fashioned out of more than 325 cubic metres (11,477 cubic feet) of sand dredged from the bottom of the ocean.

This amount of sand "represents a wall of six metres high and two metres wide running right around the world," said Groothuizen of Van Oord, which helped create the islands.

At home, some nine million Dutch live in areas directly shielded from the sea and rivers by dikes and dunes, which a government appointed commission warned in 2009 must be upgraded at a cost of 100 billion euros (140 billion dollars) over the next century.

Floods in 1953 killed 1,835 people and left 72,000 homeless when a total 200,000 hectares (495,000 acres) of land in the southern provinces of Zeeland, Noord Brabant and Zuid-Holland were inundated.

This jolted the traumatised nation into creating its so-called Delta Plan, a water management blueprint that led to a drastic shrinkage of the Dutch coastline through the construction of barriers and dykes.

"Its advanced technology allows the Netherlands to help other countries with delta zones to be prepared" for natural disasters, according to Gaetano Casale of the UN cultural agency's (UNESCO) Institute for Water Education (IHE).

"The world has its Silicon Valley, we want to be its Water Valley," said Boomsma, referring to the area in the US state of California synonymous with high-tech innovation.

Tuesday marks World Water Day, an initiative that came out of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The theme for 2011 is "Water for Cities: Responding to the Urban Challenge".

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 21 Mar 11

Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [14 - 20 Mar 2011]
from Green Business Times

7th Anniversary Yeehar
from Pulau Hantu

Poachers @ Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
from sgbeachbum

Dugong sighting at Chek Jawa?
from wild shores of singapore

Through the looking glass
from The annotated budak and For the birds

Pet trade, palm oil, and poaching: the challenges of saving the 'forgotten bear' interview with Siew Te Wong, from Mongabay.com news

Monday Morgue: 21st March 2011
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Read more!

Animal smuggling on the rise in Singapore

Numbers climbed from 305 in 2008 to 1,511 last year
Feng Zengkun Straits Times 21 Mar 11;

DELIVERY within days. New arrivals from overseas. After-sales medical care included.

The item advertised for sale in local online forums? Star tortoises from Australia at $400 each - but whose import is banned here.

Illegal sellers also offer other prohibited animals, ranging from hedgehogs and monkeys to snakes.

These animals cannot be kept as pets to prevent the spread of diseases and introduction of species which could threaten native wildlife, and to curb illegal trade, especially in endangered animals.

Some smugglers also sell animals which can be obtained legally here, such as pedigree dogs, but at lower prices.

The number of animal-smuggling cases has climbed in recent years - from 14 in 2008 to 23 last year, said the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA).

The number of animals smuggled in rose from 305 in 2008 to 1,511 last year, with one case involving 1,200 birds, the largest single haul here.

But the actual number of animals smuggled in may be higher. Mr Chris Shepherd, deputy manager of Traffic South-east Asia, a wildlife protection group, said: 'Smuggling reports from other countries tell us there is much more going into and out of Singapore.'

The Straits Times understands that some illegal sellers make several trips a month to get animals from overseas contacts. The animals usually come from India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia, though Syria and the United States were also cited as sources.

Once an order is placed, an overseas supplier is contacted. The animal is flown in as cargo to a country near Singapore because it is difficult to smuggle it directly here.

Animals smuggled into Singapore could be sold by word of mouth or advertised on local websites such as Locanto, SGClub and Pets Fanatics. Some sellers even leave their cellphone numbers. Time from order to delivery takes four days to two weeks.

Some buyers are willing to pay from $4,000 for a monkey to $30,000 for a ploughshare tortoise.

Others will pay $250 for a hedgehog or $400 for a star tortoise, just for the novelty factor. One such post on Locanto reads: 'Interested in getting a hedgehog for my girlfriend for a Valentine's gift (something different this year).'

There are also buyers looking for a good deal. Mr Ricky Yeo, president of Action for Singapore Dogs, said these people want pedigree animals - like dogs - quickly and cheaply, and do not care whether they come with papers.

He said these dogs can be legally imported but smugglers want to skip the import papers, quarantine period and fees, which can cost at least $350.

A golden retriever puppy costs $50 in Thailand but can go for up to $2,400 in pet stores here. When brought in by smugglers, they go for $1,000 to $1,500.

Veterinarians said they have treated banned animals or have heard of others who have done so. But they urge the owners to donate them to the zoo or hand them over to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

The trade's global nature worries activists, including Mr Louis Ng, executive director and founder of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society.

They said illegal sellers are likely to be part of a syndicate as otherwise it would be difficult for them to bring in an animal from, say, the US.

X-ray machines as well as the police and ICA staff are deployed at Changi Airport and other checkpoints. Mr Ng suggests the use of sniffer dogs which have been deployed with some success in South Korea and Britain. But the AVA said they were less cost-effective than other measures.

AVA also monitors online sources. Smugglers face fines of up to $500,000 or up to two years' jail, or both.

Ultimately, greater consumer awareness is needed to curb demand for illicit animals. Said Mr Yeo: 'If people insist on papers when they buy pets, then we have a chance.'

Curb animal smuggling with deterrent sentences
Straits Times Forum 25 Mar 11;

MONDAY'S report ('Animal smuggling on the rise') reveals the scale of this illegal trade and it is evident that animal smugglers are making a mint, and think nothing of the risks involved.

Singapore's location and accessibility, together with high overall consumer demand, make it a lucrative centre for transhipment or local sales.

One vital factor to bear in mind is the cost to the animals themselves. Birds packed tightly into narrow cylinders is just but one example, with many dying during the journey.

It is a cruel trade that will be difficult to tackle unless consumers everywhere refrain from hankering after a cheap deal or from desiring to own a living being because of its novel appeal.

The authorities must monitor animal smuggling vigorously and impose deterrent sentences.

If animal lovers wish to own a pet, consider adopting from our shelter or from another animal welfare group.

The public should research thoroughly and establish the source of a pet if they choose to buy one commercially.

This will go a long way to help alleviate the suffering of many animals exploited in the illegal pet trade.

Deirdre Moss (Ms)
Executive Director
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals

Read more!

Singapore will have enough water even without new agreement: SM Goh

Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid Channel NewsAsia 20 Mar 11;

SINGAPORE : Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has said Singapore will have enough water even if there is no new deal when its second agreement with Malaysia expires in 2061.

He said investments in technology and infrastructure will enable the country's drive towards water self-sufficiency.

Mr Goh said this as Singapore celebrated World Water Day on a bigger scale this year on Sunday.

It was still dawn, and participants were already at the Kolam Ayer waterfront to kayak some five kilometres to the Marina Barrage.

The event was made possible because of Singapore's investments in enhancing its waterways and its emphasis on preserving the precious resource - water.

Environment and Water Resources Minister, Yaacob Ibrahim, said: "It is a responsibility for all of us as Singaporeans to keep this strategic resource not only clean but also not to waste it. Use it wisely, use it judiciously, because we have to pass this to the next generation."

Making sure water management is sustainable is also crucial, given the limited supply.

At Marina Barrage, Mr Goh was optimistic in his speech about meeting future needs.

He said: "When Singapore gained independence, we were almost totally dependent on imported water from Malaysia. Today, we are much less dependent. And come 2061, we will have enough water for ourselves if there is no new water agreement, when the second Water Agreement runs out.

"Besides imported water from Malaysia, we have water from local catchments, NEWater and desalinated water."

Under the second Water Agreement that was signed in 1962, Singapore is allowed to draw up to 250 million gallons from the Johor River.

Mr Goh said the country will continue to expand the water supply to meet the needs of the population and growing economy.

The plan to have Singapore's second desalination plant is on track. To be completed by 2013, the plant is expected to boost the water supply by another 70 million gallons per day.

This year's World Water Day is held in conjunction with the Inter-Religious Organisation Day.

A minute's silence was held to remember the earthquake and tsunami victims of Japan.

Mr Goh and the religious leaders also flew a 24-square metre kite at the Green Roof to launch the Inter-Religious Organisation's kite festival.

Kites representing the different faiths were distributed for donations, which will be channelled to Mercy Relief for their operations in Japan.

World Water Day was also celebrated in several locations islandwide, with ministers and MPs giving support.

They included an exercise session at Lower Seletar Reservoir - with Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam taking part - a run at Jurong Lake - flagged off by Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam - and a clean-up session at Bedok Reservoir, where Foreign Minister George Yeo was Guest of Honour.

The first Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters Learning Trail was also launched to let students discover the 130-year old MacRitchie nature reserve.

The educational programme was launched by Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, Grace Fu.

- CNA/ac/ms

Clean water a result of a wave of effort
SM: Setting up '4 national taps' needed political will, determination, creativity
Rachel Chang Straits Times 21 Mar 11;

THE clean and readily available water Singaporeans have today is a result of political will, sheer determination and creativity, said Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong yesterday.

At an event at the Marina Barrage to mark World Water Day, he recalled how Singapore, at the time of independence in 1965, was almost totally dependent on imported water from Malaysia.

That is no longer the situation following investments in technology and water infrastructure.

'Today, we talk about our four national taps as if setting them up was as easy as building roads or houses,' he said to a crowd of more than 2,000.

'Be assured it was not,' he added.

The 'four national taps' strategy, realised around 2000 when Mr Goh was prime minister, refers to the current four sources of water supply: imported water, water from local catchments, Newater and desalinated water.

Mr Goh said that come 2061, when the second of Singapore's two water agreements with Malaysia expires, the country will have enough water for itself even if new agreements are not signed.

The first water agreement will expire in August this year.

The event was among a string of celebrations held by national water agency PUB and civic groups across the island to mark World Water Day yesterday.

Singapore leaders and MPs joined cyclists, kayakers and participants in mass exercises, as well as students and members of the public in a range of activities at eight places around Singapore.

The leaders included Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who flagged off an 'amazing race' in Jurong to teach people about water conservation.

In Sembawang, Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam led a fun walk at Lower Seletar Reservoir, while Foreign Minister George Yeo teamed up with, among others, students of Damai Secondary and Temasek Polytechnic to clean up Bedok Reservoir.

In addition, several companies and schools, like Hwa Chong Institution, cleaned up or adopted reservoirs, pledging to care for the water bodies.

At Marina Barrage, the celebration had an extra touch of colour.

Sharing the spotlight was the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO), which was celebrating its 62nd anniversary. The scene was a lively picture of Catholic nuns in habits and Taoist priests in robes mingling with excited schoolchildren and grassroots volunteers.

Mr Goh later joined religious leaders on the grass-covered roof of the Barrage, where they observed a minute of silence for Japan, which was hit by a devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in the past week.

He then witnessed a taiji display by more than 700 practitioners from Taoist temples in Singapore, and helped to launch a massive, multi-coloured kite imprinted with the IRO's logo.

The joint celebration was a happy coincidence. As the IRO's honorary secretary, Sister Theresa Seow, explained to reporters, the organisation had booked the Barrage last September for its anniversary activities.

PUB had also eyed the venue for its event, and so suggested a collaboration.

The IRO, representing 10 different faiths, spent three weeks considering the offer, Sister Seow said.

'We realised that underlying all religions, there's a use of water in our rituals, as cleansing and also as a symbol of life,' she said.

'Joining the PUB today has awakened our consciousness that we really have to promote among our followers the sacredness of water and our duty to do our part to preserve it.'

Read more!

Sowing seeds of food security for Singapore

Community crop project aims to cut reliance on imports
Jessica Cheam Straits Times 21 Mar 11;

PRIMARY 6 pupil Hui Ling Ler, 12, of Yu Neng Primary School in Bedok has developed a habit of regularly checking on the school's gardens.

During recess and after school, she and her classmates will diligently water the plants in the school's 20 experimental plots. They are anxiously awaiting the first harvest of some seeds they planted earlier in January - square watermelons.

Yu Neng's little plots are but one of a growing number of urban farms emerging across the island.

The square watermelon plots are part of a larger initiative by The Living Project - a joint venture between Alpha Biodiesel and farming and landscaping firm Garden Asia. It works with emerging gardens across Singapore and aims to source for corporate funding to keep the gardens going. So far, it has secured funding from Starbucks and Brewerkz and is in negotiation with other companies.

Alpha's chief executive Allan Lim said the idea was hatched late last year with Garden Asia director Kenny Eng because they 'wanted to change the way Singapore society eats'.

And so, Comcrop - short for 'community crop' - was born.

The Living Project, which has 10 gardens, plans to groom at least 25 more this year and even more the next. It will do so by recruiting Singapore's almost 400 community gardens which are managed by residents' committees islandwide.

The firm has calculated that with 100 farms of an average conservative size of 25 sq m - about half the size of a standard studio apartment - it could harvest enough vegetables to provide up to 2per cent of Singapore's needs, and do its part in helping to reduce the country's reliance on food imports.

'It seems small, but actually, it is a sizeable quantity to produce. And every little bit counts towards improving Singapore's food security,' said Mr Lim.

The project is timely, given that food security has been a pressing issue for governments worldwide recently as global food prices soared for the eighth consecutive month in February to hit a new record.

World Bank chief Robert Zoellick warned last month that global food prices have reached 'dangerous levels', adding that the impact could complicate fragile political and social conditions in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Climate-related disasters, such as storms and droughts which have damaged the world's agriculture-producing countries, will continue to disrupt supply even while demand is expected to go up.

The United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) has said that global food production needs to rise by 70 per cent to meet the world's population growth - expected to rise from sevenbillion this year to ninebillion by 2050.

So what does this mean for Singapore?

Industry experts interviewed by The Straits Times say it is high time food security featured more prominently in national debates. After all, Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of its food and is a price taker in global markets.

Inflation, which has been on the rise, has been partly fuelled by the rising costs of food, which accounts for 22 per cent of the consumer price index. In Singapore, food prices rose 0.9 per cent in January this year, compared with the month before.

Singapore Environment Council executive director Howard Shaw said: 'We should consider food security with as much urgency and vigour as we have considered water and energy security.'

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has been taking steps to improve this over the years. It has diversified the city's sources of food and partnered the private sector in projects such as the Jilin Food Zone in China, where key food items will be produced and secured for Singapore.

It has also set higher standards for the industry. Last week, it announced targets for local fish farms to increase productivity or face losing their licences.

The Government is also promoting local farming, which plays an important supporting role in ensuring food supply resilience. The AVA's $10 million food fund, launched in 2009, helps firms raise farm efficiency by automating labour-intensive processes such as vegetable packing and feeding of fish.

Ifad regional economist of Asia-Pacific Ganesh Thapa said there is more Singapore can do to improve the stability of food supply in the region.

Ifad, which aims to eradicate rural poverty and ensure global food security, has 166 member states but Singapore is not one of them.

Mr Thapa said Singapore could consider joining the organisation, supporting it through donations or contributing to policy work.

Singapore's strength as a finance centre can also play a role in empowering these communities, Ifad president Janayo Nwanze told The Straits Times in Rome last month. 'Many of the farmers in South-east Asia lack access to loans. Through access to financial services and markets, such farmers can increase their productivity and strengthen the supply of food to the cities.'

Mr Nwanze also highlighted one other obstacle in ensuring the sustainability of global food production: Farmers suffer a poor image, and young people in particular do not think it is a respectable job.

In this regard, The Living Project hopes to help Singaporeans appreciate farming. Said Garden Asia's Mr Eng: 'We want them to appreciate growing their own food, appreciate what they eat.'

Read more!

Malaysia: Environment-friendly Artificial Reefs For Sandakan Waters

Bernama 20 Mar 11;

SANDAKAN, March 20 (Bernama) -- The Sandakan waters at Batu Sapi, near Pulau Shanghai, will be the second location in the country to be installed with environment-friendly artificial reefs produced by Sirim.

Eight artificial reefs made from ceramic that does not pollute the water, will be implanted in the area.

The implanting ceremony was officiated by Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili here Sunday, and the project will benefit about 400 fishermen in the area.

Ongkili said the environment-friendly reefs were the result of research conducted by Sirim using ceramic which was suitable for making artificial corals as the substance would not react to its surrounding environment.

"Seaweed and other marine plants which provide food for the fishes and other marine life are expected to grow on the artificial reefs in six months to two years' time." Ongkili said Sabah became the first and second location for this type of artificial reef, with the first implanting done at Pulau Sebatik, off the eastern coast, in January by the community in Sulabayan, Semporna.

He said the project was under the ministry's technology application for the community programme or TopMosti@Komuniti to assist grassroot communities improve their livelihood.

He added that 200 technologies had been shortlisted for implementation according to the local communities' needs and these included solar energy generation, computerisation, fishing technology, new crop cultivation and fertilising technique.

-- BERNAMA

Read more!

'EU not supporting NGOs against palm oil'

Rupa Damodaran Business Times 21 Mar 11;

THE European Union is not using environmental non-government organisations as a "fifth column" to help it achieve its Renewable Energy Directive (RED) which places palm oil for biofuel at a disadvantage, says Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht.

"RED is a result of a legislative decision between the council and parliament. We're advancing sustainability in palm oil especially biofuel but it is not restricted to palm oil only.

"We're not supporting NGOs for doing that (attacking the palm oil industry) but we're also not restricting them. Of course, they try to influence what is happening in the European Parliament but they are entitled to do so on their own behalf," he said.

He was speaking in an interview with the Business Times during his two-day stopover in a visit to Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea last week.

He was asked to comment on recent allegations and comments by government officials and think tanks and claims that the EU has been running afoul of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) guidelines.

Many felt that Western edible oil producers were resorting to environmental NGOs since they cannot use trade protectionist measures.

He said he was not aware of a proposed joint action by both the Malaysian and Indonesian authorities to the WTO against the 27-member EU for the way it has formulated the RED as well as reports of it funding up to 70 per cent of the operating budgets of environmental NGOs.

The palm oil industries of both major producers, worth over US$50 billion (RM152 billion) annually, and commanding a 60 per cent market share of the world's 17 oils and fats market, are finding themselves hapless against this European strategy.

De Gucht did not want to respond to British Member of European Parliament Roger Helmer's allegation, saying it was the position and view of an individual MEP out of a total of 750. (Helmer claimed in Kuala Lumpur last month that the European Commission alone had provided more than euro60 million [RM356.8 million] to these pressure groups through a programme called LIFE+). Such funding implicates the EU for creating barriers to trade for agricultural products from developing countries.

"We're not putting restrictions on the exports of palm oil to the European market - we're simply giving advantage to palm oil that is produced in a sustainable manner.

"RED applies to biofuel and not other applications for palm oil in the food industry or cosmetics," he argued, adding that recent market trends showed that less palm oil was finding its way to biofuel.

For 2010, Malaysia and the EU conducted trade totalling RM122.8 billion, of which palm oil came in a far second to the exports after electrical and electronics (E&E), commanding a 7.6 per cent share of exports, totalling RM5.25 billion.

On the ongoing bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) talks between Malaysia and the EU, de Gucht said there will be a sustainability chapter which will address the import of palm oil into the region.

The part on labour will be done with reference to the International Labour Organisation while the aspect on environment will be based on the environment conventions of the United Nations, he explained.

"The way it is implemented may vary from one FTA with another, and so it will be a subject of discussion between both countries."

Malaysia is also engaged with the EU on the FLEGT ( Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) Voluntary Partnership Agreement for trade in timber products.

"We're negotiating with Malaysia and we are confident that it will come into play in a short notice. The delay is on the Malaysian side, and we hope the government will be able to work it out."

Would environment play a stumbling block in furthering exports to the EU?

"We expect countries to respect our requirements. Malaysian companies are doing so. For example, fish exporters adopted a self-imposed ban to ensure that their long term reputation on the EU market remained intact."

In the long run, trade between both the EU and Malaysia will be served by high environment standards, he added.

Read more!

Think globally, but act locally when studying plants, animals, global warming, researchers advise

University of Texas at Austin EurekAlert 20 Mar 11;

AUSTIN, Texas—Global warming is clearly affecting plants and animals, but we should not try to tease apart the specific contribution of greenhouse gas driven climate change to extinctions or declines of species at local scales, biologists from The University of Texas at Austin advise.

Camille Parmesan, Michael C. Singer and their coauthors published their commentary online this week in Nature Climate Change.

"Yes, global warming is happening. Yes, it is caused by human activities. And yes, we've clearly shown that species are impacted by global warming on a global scale," says Parmesan, associate professor of integrative biology.

Policy makers have been recently pressing biologists to dissect how much of the changes observed in wild species are due specifically to greenhouse gas driven climate change verses other possible factors, including natural changes in the climate.

However, research funding is limited, and the scientists feel it should be directed more toward studies on species adaptations and conservation of compromised species rather than trying to figure what percent of each species' decline is due to rising greenhouse gases. One reason is that, from the perspective of wildlife, it doesn't matter what proportion of climate-change impacts are caused by humans.

"A changing climate is a changing climate, irrespective of its cause," write the scientists.

They argue that the focus ought to now be placed on the interactions of climate change with impacts of other human activities, such as air pollution, invasive species, urban sprawl and pressures from agriculture.

"Effects of climate change are everywhere, but they act on top of all these other stresses faced by wild species," says Parmesan. "What we need to do now is to focus on extensive field experiments and observations that try to understand how multiple factors, such as exploitation or habitat fragmentation, interact with a changing climate to directly affect these species."

Take, for example, the Quino checkerspot butterfly in Southern California.

The butterfly became endangered in the 1980s principally because of growth of Los Angeles and San Diego. Only a handful of populations remain in the United States, and they suffer from a complex of factors. A warming and drying climate is shortening the life of host plants, causing caterpillars to starve. The plants themselves are suffering from competition with introduced Mediterranean geraniums, likely encouraged by nutrients in rain falling through polluted air.

"All of these things have been happening, so when we see one of these populations wink out we suspect them all," says Singer, a professor of integrative biology who has been working on this species since the 1960s. "Climate change is definitely part of the context for this butterfly in this system, but it isn't the only driver."

The scientists offer another example in corals. Incidences of coral bleaching have increased since the 1970s due to unusually high ocean temperatures associated with global climate change. Corals can recover from bleaching, but biologists have noted that recovery is worse in areas that have been hit directly by human activities, such as over-fishing, introduced species and water pollution.

For conservation biologists and policy makers, it's critical to understand those local driving forces, so they can make appropriate, and sometimes immediate, interventions. Tackling climate change itself is a problem on a different level.

"Think globally about climate change and how that's going to affect your national park, or your reserve or your endangered species," says Parmesan, "but in terms of action, you've got to think locally about what you need to do in terms of habitat restoration, removing invasive species, assisting species migration, etcetera. Those are things you can and should do something about in the short term."

###

Parmesan shares a Nobel Prize with the authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their 3rd Assessment Report.

Read more!

Tokyo at risk: Can megacities cope with disaster?

Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 20 Mar 11;

PARIS (AFP) – The cascade of catastrophe that has befallen Japan highlights the vulnerability of megacities to disaster, including fallout from a nuclear accident, say experts on urban risk.

Greater Tokyo, home to 35 million people, mostly escaped the devastation wrought by the March 11 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that swept the coast of northeastern Honshu.

Tokyo is also, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), beyond the reach of the radioactive plume emanating from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant -- at least for now.

But what if the quake had struck nearer the city, like the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923? Or if the tsunami had occurred opposite Tokyo Bay? Or if the nuclear plant that had been crippled was an ageing facility at Hamaoka that lies 200 kilometres (120 miles) south, and thus upwind, of the capital?

"This incident puts in clear evidence the fragility of megacities in every aspect: physical, social, economic and ecological," said Fouad Bendimerad, head of the Earthquakes and Megacities Initiative, an international scientific organisation that analyses disaster risk.

"Many previous assumptions about the resiliency of megacities will be put into question."

Tokyo is hardly the only supercity facing multiple threats from natural and manmade disaster.

For Chris Ipsen, head of the Emergency Management Department for the city of Los Angeles, the drama unfolding in Japan is a reminder of how things might go horribly wrong in a crowded metropolis.

"It is something we definitely relate to. Obviously we have a lot of earthquake threat, it's our number one hazard. We face tsunami hazard as well," he said by phone.

But, Ipsen said, the chaos that could arise from a nuclear accident remains poorly understood.

"The new one for us is the radiation. We have several power plants here," he said.

Los Angeles' new 110-million dollar emergency operations center in downtown L.A. was put through its paces last July in a simulated radiation emergency -- the detonation of a small nuclear device, or "dirty bomb," somewhere in the city.

"We were quickly overwhelmed by the scenario," Ipsen said. "There are a lot of things we need to tweak."

South of Los Angeles, eight million people live within a 50-mile (80-kilometre) radius of North San Diego County's San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, built in the 1970s.

In the eastern United States, the governor of New York state, Andrew Cuomo, last week called for the closure of the 40-year-old Indian Point nuclear plant, located only 55 kilometres (35 miles) from New York City.

The scenario that most haunts emergency planning experts is how to evacuate millions of people from a city when key infrastructure is down.

"The major problems in the evacuation of a megacity where you have a disaster are about transport, access roads, clogging and energy supplies that stop working," said Helena Molin Valdes, deputy head of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).

For Jorn Birkmann, an expert on vulnerability assessment and risk management at the UN University in Bonn, emptying the Japanese capital is simply not an option.

"An evacuation of over 35 million people within the urban agglomeration of Tokyo in a short time period seems to be very unrealistic if not impossible," he said by email.

Birkmann pointed out that a fifth of Tokyo's population is aged over 65, and thus less able to prepare and execute an evacuation. "If you assume that only half this group will need assistance, you are still talking about 3.5 million people."

Tokyo's municipal government has long had emergency response plans for earthquakes and tsunamis, the first involving evacuation to open spaces such as large parks to avoid fire hazard, and the latter to more distant higher ground.

In 1999, the city added measures for nuclear emergencies, said Takaaki Kato, a professor at the University of Tokyo's School of Engineering and one of the country's top experts and government advisors on earthquake risk.

"At present, Tokyo's metropolitan government has a plan for nuclear accidents composed of a preparedness plan and emergency response. the latter focuses on gathering information and distributing it to the public," he said by email.

Kato emphasised that evacuation of large numbers of people remains a hypothetical scenario, but said it was feasible.

"The most important factor will be orderly behaviour of the citizens and cool-headed understanding of the situation," he said.

All the experts interviewed agreed that cultural factors weigh heavily and Japan -- especially Tokyo -- is as well prepared for disaster as any society can be.

"If this had happened in a megacity with less preparedness capacity, the toll would have been in the millions, at least the hundreds of thousands," said Valdes, citing Mumbai and Dhaka as being particularly vulnerable.

"In this sense, the scenario in Japan is positive despite all these horrible impacts."

Since World War II, government at all levels in Japan has developed what is now a deeply-rooted, three-layered strategy for dealing with calamities.

They call it 'self help, mutual assistance, public assistance' -- people are trained since kindergarten," Valdes said.

But Birkmann said the unprecedented amalgam of disasters may have overloaded even Japan's capacity to cope.

"The cascading event of an earthquake, a tsunami and ... major difficulties with critical infrastructures might have reached a tipping point that one could not be prepared for," he said.

Read more!