Pollution rise 'worsens' South Asia's winter smog

Navin Singh Khadka BBC News 6 Jan 12;

A rapid rise in air pollution from fossil fuels and biomass burning has worsened winter smog and extended its duration in many parts of South Asia, scientists and officials have said.

In Bangladesh, India and Nepal the temperature has plummeted and clouds of fog and smoke hang in the sky blocking sunlight for several days.

Normal lives have been affected with many flights diverted and suspended and trains delayed because of low visibility.

Experts say they have noticed that the intensity of smog has grown in the Indo-Gangetic plains in the last few years, leading to increased impacts.

"Since 1990 onwards, there has been increase in the number of [smog-affected] days in northern India," says BP Yadav, director of the Indian Meteorological Department.

"It is not a linear trend showing an increase every year. There are, of course, year-to-year fluctuations.

"But there are more years that have seen dense fogs."

Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology director-general Keshav Prasad Sharma agrees the issue of smog is becoming increasingly serious in the plains in southern Nepal bordering India.

"Until 10 years ago, we did not have such dense fog for long durations like we have these days," he says.

"Although the 10-year period is too short for statistical trends, it is indeed being seen as a major issue now."

Some are also investigating whether the conditions can be linked to health problems in parts of the region. Although widely reported as the direct effect of a cold wave, medical professionals say deaths and illnesses are often related to respiratory diseases.

"None of our patients died of hypothermia," says senior consultant physician Gaurang Mishra of a regional referral hospital in south-eastern Nepal where dozens of people have been reported to have died during the last three weeks that saw many smoggy days.

"They mostly suffer from chronic pulmonary obstructive disease that is caused by burning of wood and cow-dung cake and pollution from industries and vehicles, mainly during winter season."

The number of such patients, particularly children and elderly people, is also in the rise in Bangladesh.

"But it is not just about people's health in our country," says Iqbal Habib of the Bangladesh Environment Movement (BAPA). "At times, all means of transport come to a complete halt because of zero visibility and all walks of lives are affected.

"The working hours come down to as little as four hours a day."

Experts say besides regular sources like vehicles, industrial factories, power plants and dust from gravelled roads, air pollution in some areas in Bangladesh is getting worse because of fast increasing numbers of brick kilns.

Some studies have shown that they account for around 40% of air pollution in and around the capital Dhaka.

"Since we have a sustainable economic growth rate, we need more bricks and the number of brick kilns is going up day by day," admits Monowar Islam, director general of Bangladesh's Department of Environment.

"We know the situation is becoming serious but it is not alarming.

"We have been demolishing unauthorised brick kilns and have been implementing the World Bank-supported clean air and sustainable environment project through which we patronise new technologies that reduce air pollution."

Just like in Bangladesh, India also sees lots of constructions during winter as this is the dry season before the region gets monsoon rainfall preventing such works.

"Construction works too are major contributors for the smog in this season as they lead to more pollution in the air," says the Indian Meteorological Department's BP Yadav.

That is in addition to pollutants from energy sources.
Energy demand

In its World Energy Outlook 2010, the International Energy Agency said: "India is the second-largest contributor to the increase in global energy demand to 2035, accounting for 18% of the rise."

Scientists say pollutants and aerosols in the air enhance condensation of water in the atmosphere causing dense smog.

"The more pollutants in the air, the denser the smog," says Keshav Prasad Sharma at Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. "In some Nepal-India bordering areas, smog blankets can be seen from early evening."

When such blankets of smog block sunlight, sending temperatures down, people make fire from wood, cow-dung cake and hay to warm themselves and that creates more air pollution which leads to denser smog.

Scientists say the real trouble is that smog during winter cannot escape to the upper atmosphere as it can during other seasons, because of meteorological conditions.

"During winter, the cold air that blows towards the southwest from the northeast tends to push the boundary layer (the layer of atmosphere closest to the Earth surface) low," William Lau, deputy director for atmospheres at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center told BBC News.

"As a result, all the pollutants get trapped in the boundary layer that is pushed down to as low as one kilometre from the Earth's surface while it is more than five kilometres away during other seasons.

"The cold wave becomes severe because of this local trapping of the aerosols and other pollution that block off the solar radiation and create very unhealthy air in this part of the world."

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Best of our wild blogs: 7 Jan 12

Checking up on the oil spill near Pulau Pawai
from wild shores of singapore

Preliminary result of Mandai mapping project
from Mangrove Action Squad

White-throated Rock Thrush
from Life's Indulgences

Asian Koel comfort call?
from Bird Ecology Study Group

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Carrefour to stop selling shark's fin too

Supermarket will pull product by year end
Ng Kai Ling Straits Times 7 Jan 12;

A DAY after Singapore's biggest supermarket chain announced that it will stop selling shark's fin, another supermarket has said it intends to do so by the end of the year.

A spokesman for Carrefour told The Straits Times yesterday it will no longer sell shark's fin after its current stock runs out.

He said the French supermarket chain, which has outlets at Suntec City and Plaza Singapura, is doing this on its own initiative, as a socially responsible retailer.

Three other supermarket chains - Sheng Siong,

Giant and Shop N Save - said they have no plans to stop selling shark's fin. However, all three added that they do not advertise or run any promotions on their shark's fin products.

FairPrice announced on Thursday it would become the second supermarket chain here, after Cold Storage, to stop selling shark's fin. This followed a public outcry over an insensitive Facebook post made by one of its suppliers.

The comment 'Screw the divers' - an apparent reference to diving enthusiasts campaigning against the shark's fin trade - appeared on the Facebook page of Thern Da Seafood. It was announcing the launch of a new shark's fin product at FairPrice outlets.

Outraged netizens began posting on FairPrice's

Facebook page on Wednesday, urging it to stop selling shark's fin. Within 24 hours, the chain announced that shark's fin will no longer be available at its more than 230 retail outlets from April.

Following FairPrice's announcement, similar comments made their way onto Sheng Siong's Facebook page.

Animal rights groups welcomed the latest announcement, which they say is a significant move by a major retailer.

They noted, however, that there are still many businesses that trade in shark's fin.

Ms Sarah Ong, a campaign manager at World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Singapore, said it will continue to work with companies to stop the sale of sharks.

'We proactively approach hotels and restaurants that still serve shark's fin... usually the key discussion is to see how they can progressively remove shark's fin from their menus,' said Ms Ong.

Some major businesses which have said no to shark's fin, such as Fairmont Singapore and Cold Storage, have done so in partnership with WWF Singapore.

WWF Hong Kong was also instrumental in the Peninsula Hotel Group's decision to stop selling shark's fin from Jan 1.

Other groups like Project: Fin and the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society have also campaigned against consumption of shark's fin.

WWF's Ms Ong said she spoke to FairPrice about nine months ago about pulling shark's fin off its shelves, but it said it was not ready.

'We were already talking about it, but it's interesting to see how the backlash from their consumers accelerated the decision,' she added.

A Cold Storage spokesman said yesterday its decision to stop selling shark's fin in October last year was primarily based on its own corporate values and responsibilities. He added that the practice had not affected its bottom line.

Cold Storage also made a commitment last year to sell only sustainable seafood and other products as part of its conservation efforts. Sustainable seafood is fished or farmed in ways that do not harm the ecosystem.

In 2010, WWF Singapore launched a pocket-size pamphlet called the Singapore Seafood Guide, which advised consumers what seafood came from sustainable sources and what did not.

According to the guide, some local favourites like tiger prawns, humphead wrasse and polkadot grouper caught in South-east Asia should be avoided as their populations are under threat. So far, WWF Singapore has distributed about 180,000 copies of the guide.

Conservationists said supermarkets should adopt the list and label their seafood accordingly, so shoppers know what they are buying.

Ms Jennifer Lee, founder of Project: Fin, said there is still a long way to go and her focus will still be on educating both consumers and businesses about shark's fin.

'Recently, I saw one organisation selling gift hampers with canned shark's fin and I wrote to them immediately,' she said.

Carrefour joins shark fin boycott in Singapore
(AFP) Google News 8 Jan 12;

SINGAPORE — French retail giant Carrefour will halt sales of shark fin products in its Singapore outlets after current stocks run out as a supermarket boycott of the delicacy gains steam, media reported Saturday.

A Carrefour spokesman told the Straits Times it will not replenish its stocks of the environmentally controversial products after they sell out.

The company is the world's second-largest retailer and operates two supermarkets in Singapore's city centre.

It told the paper the decision was made on its own initiative as a socially responsible retailer, but it could not be reached for comment on whether the ban would extend to its other outlets worldwide.

Shark fin remains a sought after delicacy in Singapore, where it is largely served at Chinese festive celebrations and wedding receptions.

According to the conservation group WWF, the city-state is the world's second largest shark fin trading centre after Hong Kong.

WWF-Hong Kong says the consumption of shark fins is a driving factor behind the threat to shark populations, with more than 180 species considered threatened in 2010 compared to only 15 in 1996.

The Carrefour report came a day after Singapore's largest supermarket chain NTUC FairPrice declared it was halting sales of shark fin products.

NTUC FairPrice -- a cooperative run by the city-state's national trades union -- said it would drop the products from April after an inflammatory comment by one of its suppliers attracted a flurry of complaints.

The supplier had said "Screw the divers!" in an online promotional message for a new product to be launched at FairPrice outlets during the upcoming Lunar New Year.

The comment, apparently directed at divers campaigning against the shark fin trade, went viral on Facebook and microblogging site Twitter.

Retailer Cold Storage was the first Singapore chain to stop selling shark fin, which it did in September last year as part of a collaboration with WWF, local media reported.

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Five kinds of seafood to avoid

Straits Times 7 Jan 12;

THE Singapore Seafood Guide, published by the World Wide Fund for Nature, recommends that consumers avoid 18 kinds of fish and seafood, as their populations are under threat. Here are five of them:

Bluefin tuna wild-caught from global oceans (right)

The populations of bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic and Southern Oceans are overfished. They are considered critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Bluefin tuna fisheries also generate a high amount of bycatch - species caught by accident - including endangered wildlife such as dolphins, marine turtles and sharks.

Humphead wrasse wild-caught in South-east Asia

This species grows slowly and matures late, making it at risk of being overfished. It is considered endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Polkadot grouper wild-caught in South-east Asia

Considered a rare species in the wild, the polkadot grouper is listed as vulnerable on the Red List and likely to face extinction if no action is taken to protect it.

Tiger prawns farmed in Indonesia and Thailand (right)

Poorly managed prawn farms are causing problems such as pollution and the spread of diseases in the marine environment.

All sharks

Many shark species are overfished, and more than 180 are listed as threatened on the Red List.

Every year, 73 million sharks are killed, primarily for their fins.

As the top predator in the marine food chain, sharks play a vital role in maintaining the whole ecosystem.

Source: World Wide Fund for Nature Singapore

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Heritage debate a good sign

Goh Yi Han Straits Times 7 Jan 12;

FOR many Singaporeans, the recent debate over what should be done to preserve the Bukit Brown area might have been their introduction to the notion that cemeteries have some kind of heritage value beyond the quirky or offbeat (read: ghost stories and spirits offering 4-D lottery numbers).

But not for me. In secondary school, I joined some schoolmates in designing a tourism package as part of a project for a geography contest. Determined to show an alternative side of Singapore, we settled on promoting tours of cemeteries.

Beyond generic concerns about 'respecting our forebears', you'd be surprised at how much one can learn about this country's culture and history from the final resting places of its people.

A traditional Chinese tombstone usually states the dead person's province of origin. Round pillars on a Muslim grave mean a woman is buried there, and flat ones indicate a man. The Armenian and Jewish quarters of some older cemeteries are a testament to the communities within our society that have come and gone in years past.

We thought we had a sure winner, but we came in second. The reason? The judges felt our idea was not feasible as visitors would not care, or they would be too superstitious to sign up. So you can understand why recent events made me want to turn to anyone and say 'I told you so'.

Vindication aside, I am glad to see how many people are helping to prove those judges wrong. Clearly, more Singaporeans are starting to think about how best to preserve collective memories, whatever the aesthetic merits. They want to have a say, rather than leave the heritage board to decide what is worth keeping and what isn't.

Many of those speaking up seem older - for instance, the Methodist Girls' School alumni working to save the Old School buildings at Mount Sophia. Besides the fact that they were the ones who attended MGS before it moved in 1992, perhaps it is also because they grew up in a landscape that changed rapidly post-independence, erasing many memories of their growing-up years.

In fact, I do wonder if today's young people feel the same way. What significance do we attach to the school where we spent nights cramming for exams? Are we thinking about what we want to have around 50 years later that we can reminisce about with our grandchildren? By the time we decide to do anything, it might be too late.

So whatever the outcome of the debate, at least we are having one. Better sooner than later. If not, the day may come when we have nothing but malls and curiously named condominiums to hang on to - and nobody to blame for it but ourselves.

The writer, 23, is a second-year law student at Columbia University.

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HK environmentalists outraged at landfill proposal

(AFP) Google News 5 Jan 12;

HONG KONG — Environmentalists lashed out Thursday at a proposal by the Hong Kong government to create 25 man-made islands off the city's coast, claiming effects on marine ecology would be "irreversible".

In a desperate attempt to ease land shortage, officials proposed the creation of a 1500-hectare man-made giant island and 24 other smaller islands on Wednesday.

If constructed, the mega artificial island would have an area larger than the island reclaimed for Hong Kong's international airport and would require claiming land from sea up to 14.5 metres deep, the government said.

But environmentalists are concerned that the proposed sites will affect the Southern Chinese city's natural shorelines.

"The impacts brought by reclamation projects are irreversible and particularly damaging, and it should be avoided in and around areas of high ecological and fisheries importance," Samantha Lee, senior conservation marine officer of World Wildlife Fund Hong Kong told AFP Thursday.

In particular, the landfill will affect areas of "extremely high ecological importance", she said, including the habitats for the Hong Kong endemic Bogadek's burrowing lizard and 30 species of soft corals, gorgonians and black corals.

"WWF urges that the government think thoroughly about such far-reaching plans," Lee added.

Government officials would not confirm that sites chosen for reclamation were only intended for housing and said they could become sites for facilities such as oil depots or factories, which would free up land in the urban area for other developments.

Last year, Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang pledged to tackle the city's soaring property prices and vowed to further boost the city's land supply in response to rising public anger over soaring property prices.

Demand from wealthy Chinese investors has driven apartment prices beyond the reach of many low and middle-income earners in the Asian financial hub of around seven million people.

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Best of our wild blogs: 6 Jan 12

Eunuch Spiders
from Macro Photography in Singapore

Other Critters @ Bukit Brown
from Beauty of Fauna and Flora in Nature

Brahminy Kite passing on prey in midair
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Screw the divers: The sad tale of Thern Da Seafood Pte Ltd.
from Mad As A Marine Biologist

Read more!

No shark's fin products at FairPrice by end March

Sumita Sreedharan Today Online 6 Jan 12;

SINGAPORE - Shark's fin products will no longer be sold at over 100 FairPrice outlets by the end of March this year. The retailer will cease selling shark's fin products at all its retail outlets, which include FairPrice supermarkets, FairPrice Finest, FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets, Cheers and FairPrice Xpress petrol stations, and FairPrice Online.

NTUC FairPrice CEO Seah Kian Peng told Today that it has been looking into the area of shark's fin products for the last few months, "in our commitment to be a socially responsible retailer."

"FairPrice has always focused our efforts on social sustainability by reaching out to the less privileged in the community, helping them to have access to daily needs but, at the same time, we recognise that there are other areas of sustainability such as environmental sustainability that need to be addressed," he said.

FairPrice will no longer be extending new commitments for shark's fin products but will honour current commitments to its suppliers. "In other words, this will be the last Chinese New Year in which customers can buy shark's fin products at all our stores," said Mr Seah.

This announcement comes after an incident in November last year when an employee of Thern Da Seafood, a supplier of shark's fin products to FairPrice, made disparaging remarks about divers who were against shark finning on his Facebook page. This sparked an online protest, with many raising their concerns on the wall of FairPrice's Facebook page.

FairPrice said on its Facebook page yesterday that all its suppliers are required to clear joint promotional materials and messages before implementation. In this incident, the supplier had not complied with the standing instructions.

Stating that it takes the matter very seriously, FairPrice will be withdrawing all products from Thern Da Seafood across all their stores, it said.

Cold Storage ceased the sale of shark's fin products in October last year. When contacted, a spokesperson for Sheng Siong, which operates 25 stores in Singapore, said that they do not have concrete plans to do so at the moment.

Outrage over posting on supplier's webpage
FairPrice to stop selling shark's fin products after...
Ng Kai Ling Straits Times 6 Jan 12;

SINGAPORE'S largest supermarket chain, FairPrice, yesterday announced that it will stop selling shark's fin products from April this year.

The move follows an outcry over a post on the Facebook page of one of its suppliers.

The comment 'Screw the divers' - an apparent reference to diving enthusiasts campaigning against the shark's fin trade - appeared on the Facebook page of Thern Da Seafood. It was announcing the launch of a new shark's fin product at FairPrice outlets.

The post drew much criticism and went viral on the social networking site and also microblog Twitter. Many who commented called for a boycott of both the supplier and FairPrice.

Comments also made their way onto FairPrice's Facebook page. Among them were calls for FairPrice to look again at its corporate social responsibility policy and to stop selling shark's fin.

In a statement yesterday, FairPrice chief executive Seah Kian Peng said it would stop selling shark's fin products by the end of the first quarter of this year.

This will be in effect across FairPrice's more than 230 retail outlets, which include FairPrice Finest stores, FairPrice Xpress petrol stations and also its online store.

Mr Seah said FairPrice had been looking into the sale of shark's fin products in the past few months as part of its commitment to being a socially responsible retailer. He also said it would be withdrawing all products from Thern Da Seafood.

'We do not condone such insensitive remarks. As a standing instruction, all our suppliers are required to clear their joint promotional materials and messages with us before implementation... the supplier had not complied with our standing instruction,' he said.

A spokesman for Thern Da Seafood said the company had been unaware of the post, which was put up in November last year, until Wednesday.

He said the post was not representative of the company's position, and was made by a staff member tasked with managing the Facebook page, which was deactivated on Wednesday night.

The spokesman said: 'We have immediately, upon notice of the matter, removed the comments and reprimanded the staff member. We have also dismissed and terminated the employment contract of the staff member concerned.'

In recent years, the consumption of shark's fin - considered a delicacy in traditional Chinese culture - has been a controversial issue.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, six species of sharks are considered critically endangered.

Conservationists have also pointed out that shark's fin, on its own, has no taste nor nutritional value.

In Singapore, imports of shark's fin have nearly doubled since 2003 to about 2,500 tonnes in 2010, up from 1,300 tonnes about eight years ago.

The growing calls for sharks not to be eaten have prompted many companies, like upmarket Hong Kong hotel chain the Peninsula Hotel Group, to stop selling shark's fin from Jan 1 this year.

Last September, local supermarket chain Cold Storage was the first to pull all shark's fin products from the shelves of all its 42 outlets.

It is unclear how much shark's fin is sold yearly by FairPrice, but one supplier said demand typically picks up during the lead-up to Chinese New Year.

Mrs Doreen Goh, who runs Yeow Seng Shark's Fin, said yesterday that her company has supplied between 3,000kg and 4,000kg of frozen shark's fin and 2,000 cartons of canned shark's fin to FairPrice for sale during this Chinese New Year.

'We are one of FairPrice's biggest suppliers of shark's fin, and we have not heard anything from them,' said Mrs Goh, who was surprised to hear the news.

However, the news of FairPrice's withdrawal of shark's fin products was welcomed by netizens.

Within five hours of the announcement being made on the That's My FairPrice Facebook page, it drew close to 400 'likes' and more than 100 comments.

Ms Jennifer Lee, founder of Project: Fin, which aims to reduce the consumption of shark's fin through the education of both consumers and businesses, noted that FairPrice's move could have some impact on other businesses.

'This may get others that still sell shark's fin, such as restaurants, to rethink their policy,' she said.

Going forward, Ms Lee and others like biologist Xu Qiaoling hope that supermarkets will in future stock only seafood from sustainable sources - in other words, from areas where the ecosystem is not threatened by overfishing.

Said Ms Xu: 'FairPrice's recent move to stock locally farmed fish was a good start, but I hope they will not stop there.'

NTUC FairPrice withdraws all Thern Da products
The New Paper AsiaOne 7 Jan 12;

THIS will be the last Chinese New Year where you can buy shark’s fin products from FairPrice outlets.

Singapore’s largest supermarket chain announced yesterday that it will stop selling such products by the end of March.

In another surprise move, FairPrice is also withdrawing from its shelves all products from one seafood supplier – Thern Da Seafood – after one of its employees made insensitive comments about divers who were against shark finning.

A Mr Chris Lee had announced in a recent Facebook post that a product supplied by his company – containing shark’s fin – would be launched this month at FairPrice outlets during Chinese New Year.

Mr Lee, who is listed as Thern Da’s sales manager, said: “S***w the divers!”

He then went on to mock the divers for being unable to stop his company from supplying the product.

Mr Lee even directed an expletive at them, saying: “I’m not the one who slashed the sharks.”

His comments, which were made last November, angered netizens.

On Wednesday, they complained about the matter on FairPrice’s Facebook page. And yesterday, FairPrice acted.
Withdraw

The supermarket announced it was withdrawing all Thern Da products from its stores.

Its chief executive officer, Mr Seah Kian Peng, told The New Paper in an e-mail reply: “We know many customers are upset by the insensitive post.

“We do not condone such insensitive remarks.”

Mr Seah explained that as a standing instruction, all FairPrice’s suppliers are required to clear their joint promotional materials and messages with the retailer before implementation.

Thern Da had not done so in this instance.

Said Mr Seah: “We take this matter very seriously.”

He also announced that FairPrice will cease the sale of shark’s fin products by the end of March.

This will apply across all its retail formats, including its supermarkets, hypermarkets, Cheers outlets and its online platform.

The decision was made after a review over the last few months. Said Mr Seah: “We recognise that there are areas of sustainability, such as environmental sustainability, that need to be addressed. “As such, we have been continually assessing various policies in our commitment to be a socially responsible retailer.

“We will no longer be extending new commitments for shark’s fin products.” Netizens applauded FairPrice’s decision.

One said: “I’m so happy to see NTUC make such a courageous stand.

“Thanks for making sure future generations will have healthy fish stocks in the ocean.”

But another netizen said: “Well done, FairPrice, though removal of shark’s fin products before CNY will send an even stronger message in your commitment to sustainability.

“Such an announcement before CNY might result in an abnormal spike in demand, which will be detrimental to your cause.”

It was reported last October that Cold Storage was the first supermarket chain in Singapore to stop selling shark’s fin and other shark products.

Thern Da, a private company registered in 2008, could not be reached for comment.

Its Facebook account, as well as Mr Lee’s, appear to have been deleted.

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Thai Elephant Killed, Mutilated ‘for Restaurants’

Jakarta Globe 5 Jan 12;

Bangkok. Thai wildlife officials on Thursday said body parts from a dead wild elephant found without its tusks, tail and penis were likely destined for restaurants in tourist areas.

The creature, which was discovered in Kaeng Krachan National Park near the Burma border in central Thailand on Monday, is believed to have died at the hands of a local gang of poachers.

“They cut its tusks, trunk, sexual organ and tail. Those parts must be sold to the middleman and will be sent to restaurants in the main tourist spots like Phuket, Surat Thani and Hua Hin,” park head Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn told AFP.

“There is a team of elephant hunters in this area. They are stateless people who live along Thai-Myanmar [Burma] border,” he added.

The wildlife department has found four elephant carcasses killed by poachers in the past three years.

Chaiwat blamed ineffective laws for the increase in the crime and putting more than 250 wild elephants and the officers in danger.

Thailand is known as a global hub for the illegal ivory trade, with a dramatic rise in seizures of tusks in recent years as the decimation of the kingdom’s elephants has seen poachers turn to Africa for their plunder.

The country has an ivory sculpting tradition dating back to the late 19th century when an estimated 100,000 elephants roamed the kingdom.

Since then most have been lost to poachers and the clearing of their forest habitat, and now just a few thousand remain, many working in the tourism industry.

Benefiting from its location, Thailand exports much of the ivory to China — where it is traditionally used in medicinal powders — and Japan.

Agence France-Presse

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Malaysia: Strong winds, rough seas warning off coastal areas

The Star 5 Jan 12;

PETALING JAYA: A Category Three strong winds and rough seas warning has been issued for waters off several areas including the east coast until Tuesday.

The Meteorological Department said conditions were dangerous for all coastal and shipping activities including workers on oil platforms.

“Strong northeasterly winds over 60kph with waves more than 5.5m occurring over waters off Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, east Johor, Samui, Tioman, Bunguran, Condore, Reef North and Layang-Layang are expected to continue until Tuesday.

“The coastal areas of the east coast are also vulnerable to sea rise,” it said.

The department also issued a Category Two strong winds and rough sea warning with waves of up to 4.5m for waters off Sarawak, FT Labuan, Sabah (Interior, West Coast and Kudat), Reef South and Palawan, making it dangerous for fishing and ferry services.

Strong winds and high waves warning in several states
The Star 6 Jan 12;

KUALA LUMPUR: Intermittent to moderate rain expected in several areas in Pahang and Johor from Sunday is likely to prolong until Monday, the Meteorological Department said.

In a statement, it identified the areas in Pahang as Kuantan, Pekan, Rompin and Maran and those in Johor as Mersing and Kota Tinggi.

The department also issued a warning of north-easterly winds of 60kph and waves higher than 5.5 metres in the waters off Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, eastern Johor, Samui, Tioman, Bunguran, Condore, Reef North and Layang-Layang until Jan 10.

It also issued a warning of winds of between 50 and 60kph and waves higher than 4.5 metres up to Jan 10 in the waters off Sarawak, Reef South, Palawan, Sulu, Federal Territory of Labuan and several areas in Sabah such as Pedalaman, Pantai Barat, Kudat and Sandakan. The department said the wind and sea conditions would be dangerous for beach activities, shipping, fishing and ferry services. BERNAMA

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Australia: Urban estuaries 100-fold weaker as ‘Blue Carbon’ sinks

ECOS Magazine a href="http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features/20120501-22971-2.html">Science Alert 6 Jan 12;

Australian scientists have reconstructed the past six thousand years in estuary sedimentation records and found that changes in plant and algae abundance point to a possible undermining of these natural coastal carbon sinks.

The findings, published in Global Change Biology, show an increase in microalgae relative to seagrass in the past 60 years. This shift could diminish the ability of estuaries to mitigate climate change.

‘We have effectively gone back in time and monitored carbon capture and storage by coastal ecosystems, finding a 100-fold weakening in the ability of coastal ecosystems to sequester carbon since the time of European settlement,’ said University of Technology Sydney’s Dr Peter Macreadie.

‘This has severely hampered the ability of nature to reset the planet's thermostat’.

The scientists collected soil cores from sites in and around Botany Bay. A chronology for the cores was determined using radiocarbon dating. Changes in plant and algae composition over time were then determined according to the change in isotopic ratio of the organic matter in the sediment.

The team's analysis suggests the relative reduction in seagrass and increase in microalgae coincided with a time of rapid industrial expansion and increased nitrogen deposition.

These findings are critical because plants such as seagrass have a relatively large carbon sink capacity, which plays a critical role in mitigating climate change.

‘Unfortunately, this outcome is common to urbanised estuaries throughout the world, therefore the study adds further support for the inclusion of Blue Carbon habitats (seagrasses, saltmarshes, and mangroves) in greenhouse gas abatement schemes,’ said Dr Macreadie.

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U.S. Forecaster Warns La Nina May Linger To Spring

Rene Pastor PlanetArk 6 Jan 12;

The U.S. government forecaster warned on Thursday that La Nina, the weather phenomenon widely blamed for withering drought in the southern United States and South America, may persist longer than expected, into the Northern Hemisphere spring.

In a monthly update, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center said the latest sea temperature data suggests La Nina "will be of weak-to-moderate strength this winter, and will continue thereafter as a weak event until it likely dissipates sometime between March and May". A month ago it said La Nina should dissipate "with the onset of the northern spring".

The prolonged phenomenon, although weaker than it was a year ago, threatens to roil commodity markets from corn to coffee as dry conditions in Argentina and Brazil whither crops while the southern United States -- a prime growing area for cotton and some wheat -- suffers through a once-a-century drought.

La Nina, which can last for several years, is the opposite number of the more infamous El Nino anomaly and is caused by an abnormal cooling of waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

El Nino leads to warming of those waters. Both wreak havoc in weather patterns from South and North America to India and possibly even Africa.

"During December 2011 - February 2012, there is an increased chance of above-average temperatures across the south-central and southeastern U.S. below-average temperatures over the western and north-central U.S.," said the report from the CPC, part of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

"Also, above-average precipitation is favored across the northern tier of states, excluding New England, and drier-than-average conditions are more likely across the southern tier of the U.S."

The effects of the current phenomenon are already being felt keenly in Latin America, where estimates for the 2011/12 corn crop from Argentina, the world's No. 2 supplier, have been slashed by as much as a fifth, while Brazil's soybean crop is also withering due to a prolonged dry spell.

Without persistent rains within the next two months, Argentina's soybean crop could also be at risk.

In the United States, an extended dry period could cause problems for farmers from the Carolinas to Kansas planning for sowing cotton in the spring, analysts said, particularly in top growing state Texas.

Although recent storms have helped restore moisture in Kansas, the severe Southern drought in Oklahoma and Texas has already drained the soil there, Sterling Smith, senior analyst at Country Hedging Inc said.

"It could worsen the possibility of a dry spell in Texas," said Smith.

In leading palm grower/exporter Malaysia, severe monsoon rains from La Nina could disrupt harvesting and boost palm oil prices.

Rains in the December to March period are also posing a threat to the coffee crop in Colombia, the world's top source of high quality beans.

La Nina lasting until the Northern Hemisphere spring would also bring it to the cusp of the start of the annual Atlantic hurricane season on June 1.

In the last two years when La Nina was present, more storms formed in the Atlantic Ocean, but most veered away from the U.S. mainland, with the exception of Hurricane Irene and the severe damage it caused in states from New Jersey to Vermont.

(Editing by David Gregorio)

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