Malaysia: Government seeks to eliminate illegal forest activities

New Straits Times 12 Aug 14;

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has stepped up efforts to integrate all enforcement agencies to achieve zero forest encroachment.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G.
Palanivel said it had designed strategies and action plans to improve a standardised integrated enforcement action.

He said the ministry would first ensure that the outer boundaries of reserve forests were clear and identifiable.

“This could help enforcement agencies to detect and prevent illegal activities at an early stage,” he said yesterday.

He said the ministry’s research institute was working towards shifting the practice of manual forest enforcement to high-tech visual enforcement.

The ministry, he said, was involving agencies. such as Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, police, Rela, Immigration Department and the armed forces, to combat illegal activities in forests, especially those involving illegal immigrants.

He said the integrated operation at the federal and state levels would be intensified through the 1NRE enforcement team and centralised enforcement team.

Palanivel said the ministry was actively involved in programmes to expand green areas and work towards achieving the government’s commitment at an international level to maintain wooded areas at 50 per cent of the country’s land area at least.

“Efforts are being made to educate society, especially the younger generation, to get involved in activities that combat illegal logging and forest encroachment.

“The government is confident that these illegal activities could be prevented with the cooperation of Malaysians, who could be the eyes and ears of enforcement agencies.”

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Malaysia: Our blood cockles are dying. Can we stop the killing?

lim chia ying The Star 11 Aug 14;

Selangor fishermen are no longer assured of bountiful cockle harvests. Sea pollution is to blame for the disappearing clams, they say.

In May 2012, fisherman Kahar Buntal had a shock when he hauled up his harvest of blood cockles from the sea – it was mostly empty shells. This happened throughout the entire season which spanned six months. “The yield for that year was low. We estimated that half of the harvest was dead,” recalls the 62-year-old from Bagan Sungai Buloh, a fishing settlement in Jeram, off Kuala Selangor.

“In past seasons, almost 90% of the harvest was healthy cockles. But that isn’t the case anymore these days. The dwindling population and slow growth rate are signs of deteriorating water quality in the cockles’ breeding environment. We couldn’t harvest anything last year because of the cockles’ delayed growth. It took one year and two months for them to reach the size that previously took just seven or eight months,” Kahar laments.

He started harvesting cockles in 2007 and is one of 20 licensed cockle collectors in Bagan Sungai Buloh. Alongside areas in Sekinchan and Bagan Nakhoda Omar, the 40ha site is part of the northern Selangor mudflats that harbour Peninsular Malaysia’s main cockle culture area.

Scientifically known as Anadara granosa, blood cockles feed a market demand that's reflective of the public’s voracious appetite for them, whether tossed in char kway teow or lightly blanched. What worries Kahar and other fishermen is that supply can no longer keep up with demand, based on his seasonal rakes that show declining numbers of clams and moderately high mortality.

“In the past, we could harvest at least 30 sacks of cockles weighing 68kg each in a day. Now our yields are halved to about 16 or 17 sacks. The situation went downhill in 2012 after pollution became really bad. Last year, the black water reeked, and my hands itched after coming into contact with the water,” says Kahar.

His son, Mohd Fadillah Kahar, 28, also a cockle collector, says even till today, the smell is especially nauseating during low tide.

Stunted growth

Wild cockles require a healthy environment to thrive, from the mangrove mudflats that's a source of rich nutrients to clean waters bereft of contaminants.

Universiti Putra Malaysia biologist Dr Ahmad Ismail, an expert in eco-toxicology, has been studying coastal pollution over the last 25 years using cockles as a bio-indicator for heavy metals pollution in the intertidal environment (the area between the low tide and high tide line). He says there's no monitoring or sampling being done right now on hazardous chemicals that might have accumulated in blood cockles, which could have affected their breeding and growth rate.

He explains that coastal wildlife such as migratory shore birds and small marine invertebrates such as snails and mussels are sensitive towards changes in their habitat. He believes the pollution comes from rivers since currents flow directly into the cockle beds, which are usually found on intertidal flats.

During a boat trip, the fishermen demonstrate their deft cockle harvesting skills using a steel cage tied to a long mangrove wood pole. A pedal is fitted to the pole for them to step on, which then thrusts the cage into the water to scoop up the clams. The fishermen can tell if the cage has raked up a bounty of cockles from the bubbling sound generated by the shellfish, as well as by the weight of it.

The cockles are automatically sorted by size – the small ones will fall out through the gap between the bars on the cage. These are thrown back into the sea to mature further. An unsightly part of the harvests is the litter that are inadvertently heaved up; most notable are plastic bags.

“We think pollution is causing the decline in the cockles,” says Mohd Fadillah. “Previously, there were prawn aquaculture farms not too far from here. Effluent containing chemicals used to clean the ponds were discharged into the same sea water that we fish in. There used to be several breeders, but some have ceased operating. The aquaculture activity has to stop in order for the water to return to its initial state.

“It doesn’t help too that nowadays, the soft sediment layer in the seabed that cockles depend upon for growth has been washed away by strong waves and heavy surface runoffs. Boats that navigate here, too, could have changed the seabed surface.”

He says factories in the vicinity could have compounded the problem of unmonitored discharge.

Need for monitoring

Dr Ahmad says the fishermen’s claims should be addressed, starting with proper assessment and sampling that can be made on water quality as well as on cockle seedlings and their growth rate.

“If pollution is detected from these samples, then the authorities have to come in. Elements such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, copper and zinc have to be looked into due to their toxicity, to see if they are within permissible limits or at elevated levels. Anthropogenic activities have to be taken into account, too, as they will contribute to the accumulation of hazardous chemicals in the environment.

“Right now, what we lack is specific data on the impact of pollution towards cockles. Rhis despite the alarm bells that have rung since 2012 on how cockle harvesters in Sungai Yu, Kuala Selangor, have suffered from chemical pollution in rivers that had threatened to destroy the lucrative cockle industry.”

In 2012, Selangor Times reported that cockle spats in Sungai Yu had died over a span of two months the previous year, and a 12km stretch of cockle bed from Pasir Penampang to Sasaran was ruined. The harvest in 2012 was reduced to one fifth of what it was two years earlier when the pollution was not as bad. What followed was the appointment of Japanese experts by the Agriculture and Agro-Based Ministry to examine the waters, which was found to be polluted.

However, no concrete action was taken to address the issue.

Dr Ahmad says a challenge remains, in the absence of monitoring effort and co-operation between agencies, which would have prevented the current state of affairs. “Right now, what we can do is train the fishermen to monitor basic biology and ecology parameters. For more extensive research to be carried out, funding is required. What’s really urgent now is for the authorities to establish the next step in order to save the cockle industry.”

A Selangor Fisheries Department officer acknowledges the pollution at Bagan Sungai Buloh to be at a drastic level.

“The water condition is clearly bad, though there are certain times that it is fine. However, we have no in-depth data on the water quality and it’s beyond us to enforce pollution control (this comes under the jurisdiction of the Department of Environment). We have had meetings with the respective agencies and stakeholders on this, but no solution has been found,” says the officer, who declined to be named.

"We are monitoring together with the fishermen, who have brought us to the site to highlight their plight. We have relocated some fishermen to new sites identified as suitable (for cockle breeding), but there is limited space, so not everyone can be relocated."

He says productivity of the cockle beds are also hampered by infertile sediment on the seabed. The department is surveying existing cockle farms to determine if they are still suitable for aquaculture.

Last year, a Universiti Selangor research paper Declining Production of Cockles in Relation to Ammonia Concentrations in Sungai Buloh River, Selangor reported that high ammonia levels in the waters of Bagan Sungai Buloh had caused the decline in cockle production there. The research was conducted by Mohd Fadzil Shuhaimi Ramli, Faizal Riza Abu Hasan and Mohd Nasir Saadon of the Science and Biotechnology Faculty.

In samples taken between January and June 2013, they found ammonia concentrations of 0.3mg/L (miligrammes per litre) to 4mg/L, which exceeded the cockles’ maximum tolerance level towards the substance. The paper stated that cockle production was between 300 tonnes and 400 tonnes in periods of low ammonia concentrations, but decreased to 270 tonnes in the presence of higher ammonia levels (figures are from January to June last year).

For the folk at Bagan Sungai Buloh, the mangrove mudflats which the cockles rely on for food have been given periodical clean-ups with the aid of the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) and its rubbish collection efforts. The conservation group has been conducting education awareness programmes in the area since 2009. MNS programme officer Ashok Kumar has been assisting the cockle farmers to understand the effect of a compromised environment on cockles and other marine creatures.

While conservation is the topmost agenda, he helps the fishermen earn extra income through river cruises for visitors, especially during periods when the fishermen have no cockles to harvest. “On the boat tours, the public can learn about biodiversity and see why conservation is important. At the same time, they can experience the hard work of a fisherman,” says Ashok.

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Indonesia: No civil suits for haze pollution - Official

The Jakarta Post 11 Aug 14;

The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution does not include any punitive measures to be applied in cases in which dense haze from Indonesia affects other countries, an Indonesian official says.

“There is not even one article in the agreement indicating that the country could be hit with a civil suit,” the Environmental Ministry’s deputy to minister for environmental damage control and climate change, Arief Yuwono, said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Arief was speaking to civil servants of the Riau provincial administration in preparation for a meeting with the House of Representatives related to the ratification of the agreement and the coordination of efforts to prevent forest fires.

According to Arief, the agreement states that Malaysia will take responsibility for prevention, Singapore for monitoring, while Indonesia for the mitigation of forest fires.

Under the agreement, both Singapore and Malaysia, as well as other affected countries, agree not to file civil suits against Indonesia when forest fires caused haze.

The government is expected to pass a bill, which is in its final stage of deliberation in the House, to ratify the agreement, before the next government takes office, Antara news agency reported.

Arief explained that Indonesia had an interest in ratifying the agreement to maintain the traditional spirit of cooperation among ASEAN countries — cross-border cooperation, institutional capacity and human resources building, and the provisional efforts for monitoring and quick response.

He said that the agreement did not touch on sovereignty and national resilience issues, but was completely based on cooperation and partnership values.

The Environmental Ministry previously requested approval at the House twice and was unsuccessful because of the concerns of threats to national sovereignty.

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Swamped by Rising Seas, Small Islands Seek a Lifeline

Thalif Deen IPS 11 Aug 14;

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 11 2014 (IPS) - The world’s 52 small island developing states (SIDS), some in danger of being wiped off the face of the earth because of sea-level rise triggered by climate change, will be the focus of an international conference in the South Pacific island nation of Samoa next month.

Scheduled to take place Sep. 1-2, the conference will provide world leaders with “a first-hand opportunity to experience climate change and poverty challenges of small islands.”

According to the United Nations, the political leaders are expected to announce “over 200 concrete partnerships” to lift small islanders out of poverty – all of whom are facing rising sea levels, overfishing, and destructive natural events like typhoons and tsunamis.

“We are working with our partners – bilaterally and multilaterally – to help resolve our problems,” said Ambassador Ali’ioaiga Feturi Elisaia, permanent representative of Samoa to the United Nations.

“You don’t have to bring the cheque book to the [negotiating] table,” he added. “It’s partnerships that matter.”

The issues on the conference agenda include sustainable economic development, oceans, food security and waste management, sustainable tourism, disaster risk reduction, health and non-communicable diseases, youth and women.

The list of 52 SIDS covers a wide geographical area and includes Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Nauru, Palau, Maldives, Cuba, Marshall Islands, Suriname, Timor-Leste, Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu.

The conference is expected to adopt a plan of action, also called an outcome document, ensuring some of the priorities for SIDS. A preparatory committee, co-chaired by New Zealand and Singapore, has finalised the outcome document which will go before the conference for approval.

Responding to a series of questions, Ambassador Karen Tan, permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations, and Phillip Taula, deputy permanent representative of New Zealand, told IPS SIDS have “specific vulnerabilities, and the difficulties they face are severe and complex. The small size of SIDS creates disadvantages.”

These can include limited resources and high population density, which can contribute to overuse and depletion of resources; high dependence on international trade; threatened supply of fresh water; costly public administration and infrastructure; limited institutional capacities; and limited export volumes, which are too small to achieve economies of scale.

They noted that geographic dispersion and isolation from markets can also lead to high freight costs and reduced competitiveness. SIDS have limited land areas and populations concentrated in coastal zones. Climate change and sea-level rise present significant risks.

The long-term effects of climate change may threaten the very existence and viability of some SIDS, Tan and Taula said in the joint interview. “SIDS are located among the most vulnerable regions in the world in terms of the intensity and frequency of natural and environmental disasters and their increasing impact. And they face disproportionately high economic, social and environmental consequences when disasters occur.”

These vulnerabilities accentuate other issues facing developing countries in general, such as challenges around trade liberalisation and globalisation, food security, energy dependence and access; freshwater resources; land degradation, waste management, and biodiversity.

Asked how many SIDS have been identified by the U.N. as in danger of being wiped off the face of the earth, they said no such assessment has yet been undertaken.

However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently released its fifth assessment report (AR5), and its Working Group II has recently issued its contribution to that, on ‘Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability’.

The report warned that small islands in general are at risk of loss of livelihoods, coastal settlements, infrastructure, ecosystem services, and economic stability.

For low-lying atoll nations particularly, the high ratio of coastal area to land mass will make adaptation to climate change a significant challenge.

Some small island states are expected to face severe impacts such as submergence, coastal flooding, and coastal erosion, the report added. These could have damage and adaptation costs of several percentage points of gross domestic product (GDP).

The report notes the risk of death, injury, ill-health, or disrupted livelihoods in low-lying coastal zones in small islands.

However, the WGII report also notes that significant potential exists for adaptation in islands, but additional external resources and technologies will enhance response.

Asked if there will be a plan of action adopted in Samoa, they said the outcome document will highlight the challenges that SIDS face and actions that SIDS and their partners will take to address these challenges.

“The theme of the conference, sustainable development of SIDS through genuine and durable partnerships, recognises that international cooperation and a wide range of partnerships involving all stakeholders are critical for the sustainable development of SIDS.”

As host, Samoa has made it clear that “no partnership is too small to count but what is essential is that they have clear targets, outputs, planned outcomes and timelines.”

Meanwhile, Afu Billy, capacity building volunteer at Development Services Exchange in Solomon Islands, told IPS the experiences that would be shared during the conference will be invaluable for small island states as they learn from each other how they are dealing with these issues and also learn from the international community on how they too are addressing these priorities of SIDS.

The fact that the conference will be bringing together governments and non-government stakeholders, including the private sector, provides a learning opportunity and one that will pose collaborative efforts on how everyone can work together in partnership to assist SIDS.

The conference will also create a space for civil society organisations (CSOs) to have an independent voice and also for governments to hear their views, she noted.

This may create further collaborative initiatives between governments and CSOs for sustainable developments in the SIDS.

Asked whether she expects any concrete outcome, Billy said the idea to form partnerships among all stakeholders including the governments to assist SIDS to do things for themselves “is one outcome that we anticipate the conference delivering.”

Any plan of action that the conference adopts should be inclusive of all stakeholders, she added.

“There should be emphasis on SIDS doing things for themselves to ensure sustainable development and that stakeholders and partners are seen as ‘friends’ who come to their rescue when they get bogged in a ‘rut’ but then let’s them carry on with what they are doing after being ‘rescued’”.

This is to alleviate or minimise donor dependency but also promote sustainable development.

“We expect better and stronger official development assistance (ODA) to be directed on development effectiveness rather than on a dominant aid effectiveness approach,” she said.

“Finally, we expect that the issue of reducing corruption and increase transparency at all levels will be an overarching subject at the Conference and sound recommendations to alleviate corruption will be adopted and incorporated into the Plan of Action,.”

Edited by: Kitty Stapp

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Extreme weather becoming more common, study says

Rise in blocking-patterns – hot or wet weather remaining stuck over regions for weeks – causing frequent heatwaves or floods
Damian Carrington theguardian.com 11 Aug 14;

A pedestrian hangs on to a trash can along Central Avenue as rainwater flows towards downtown Albuquerque, N.M., August 1, 2014. Heavy rains late Friday night caused the flash flooding and road closures in parts of downtown and in other areas. A man hangs on to a trash can as rainwater gushes towards Albuquerque in New Mexico, US. Heavy rains caused flash flooding and road closures in the city earlier this month. Photograph: Roberto E. Rosales/AP

Extreme weather like the drought currently scorching the western US and the devastating floods in Pakistan in 2010 is becoming much more common, according to new scientific research.

The work shows so-called “blocking patterns”, where hot or wet weather remains stuck over a region for weeks causing heatwaves or floods, have more than doubled in summers over the last decade. The new study may also demonstrate a link between the UK’s recent flood-drenched winter and climate change.

Climate scientists in Germany noticed that since 2000 there have been an “exceptional number of summer weather extremes, some causing massive damage to society”. So they examined the huge meanders in the high-level jet stream winds that dominate the weather at mid-latitudes, by analysing 35 years of wind data amassed from satellites, ships, weather stations and meteorological balloons. They found that blocking patterns, which occur when these meanders slow down, have happened far more frequently.

“Since 2000, we have seen a cluster of these events. When these high-altitude waves become quasi-stationary, then we see more extreme weather at the surface,” said Dr Dim Coumou, at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “It is especially noticeable for heat extremes.” The intense heatwaves in Russia in 2010, which saw 50,000 people die and the wheat harvest hit hard, and in western Europe in 2003, which saw 30,000 deaths, were both the result of blocking patterns. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in 2011 that extreme weather would become more common as global warming heats the planet, causing both heatwaves and increasingly severe rain storms.

The rise in blocking patterns correlates closely with the extra heating being delivered to the Arctic by climate change, according to the research which is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS). Coumou and his colleagues argue there are good physical reasons to think there is a causal link, because the jet streams are driven by the difference in temperature between the poles and the equator. As the Arctic is warming more quickly than lower latitudes, that temperature difference is declining, providing less energy for the jet stream and its meanders, which are called Rossby waves.

Prof Ted Shepherd, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, UK, but not involved in the work, said the link between blocking patterns and extreme weather was very well established. He added that the increasing frequency shown in the new work indicated climate change could bring rapid and dramatic changes to weather, on top of a gradual heating of the planet. “Circulation changes can have much more non-linear effects. They may do nothing for a while, then there might be some kind of regime change.”

Shepherd said linking the rise in blocking events to Arctic warming remained “a bit speculative” at this stage, in particular because the difference between temperatures at the poles and equator is most pronounced in winter, not summer. But he noted that the succession of storms that caused England’s wettest winter in 250 years was a “very good example” of blocking patterns causing extreme weather during the coldest season. “The jet stream was stuck in one position for a long period, so a whole series of storms passed over England,” he said.

Coumou acknowledges his study shows a correlation – not causation – between more frequent summer blocking patterns and Arctic warming. “To show causality, computer modelling studies are needed, but it is questionable how well current climate models can capture these effects,” he said.

Prof Tim Palmer, at the University of Oxford, wrote in a PNAS article in 2013 that understanding changes to blocking patterns may well be the key to understanding changes in extreme weather, and therefore to understanding the worst impacts of climate change on society. But he said climate models might have to run down to scales of 1km to do so. “Currently, national climate institutes do not have the high-performance computing capability to simulate climate with 20km resolution, let alone 1km,” he wrote. “[I] look forward to the day when governments make the same investment in climate prediction as they have made in finding the Higgs boson.”

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Best of our wild blogs: 11 Aug 14

Impact of fish farm on Pulau Semakau?
from wild shores of singapore

Checking up on Pulau Semakau South
from wild shores of singapore

Restoring Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
from mndsingapore

Butterflies Galore! : Common Dartlet
from Butterflies of Singapore

Favourite Nectaring Plants #5
from Butterflies of Singapore

Honeybees in my garden!- Crazy Insect Challenge
from My Nature Experiences

Aceh's largest peat swamp at risk from palm oil
from Mongabay.com news by Rhett Butler

Apple Snails (Pomacea sp.) @ Tampines
from Monday Morgue

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Chan Chun Sing: What if population falls below four million?

Robin Chan The Straits Times AsiaOne 10 Aug 14;

WHEN discussions here turn to Singapore's potential population size, numbers such as six million and 10 million have been bandied around.

But yesterday, Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing offered another possible figure: a population size of below four million.

"Strangely, when we talk about any number, there is another scenario - a number below four million... It is not inconceivable that we have a scenario where the transient workers or others may not find us so attractive," he said at the annual dinner of the Economic Society of Singapore (ESS).

He noted that Singapore's current resident population is just about three million, while the rest who make up the total population of 5.3 million are foreigners who come and go.

Immigration and integration remain key challenges going forward and Singapore's ability to attract the right kind of immigrants is not a given, he pointed out.

Mr Chan, recalling the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, said that before it hit, there had been about 100,000 people in the queue for Housing Board flats.

But when the crisis hit, there was then a surplus of flats, in places such as Sengkang town.

"My sister got a unit in Sengkang. She had no neighbours for five years."

His point was that the Government had to not only plan for when there is an increase in the population size, but also for the possibility of a decline.

"I don't think people will say there is a number and we will go towards it. A lot depends on how attractive people find us as a place to work and live," he said.

He was asked by moderator Yeoh Lam Keong, vice-president of the ESS, at the dinner at the Mandarin Orchard Hotel, about what population size he thought would suit Singapore.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last year at the end of the debate on the Population White Paper that he expected the population in 2030 to be "significantly below 6.9 million", while former chief planner Liu Thai Ker said Singapore should plan for a population of 10 million possibly by the year 2100, Mr Yeoh noted.

Mr Chan said "nobody knows" what Singapore's future population size would be.

With technological changes, the type and quality of housing would also change and the living environment we can build is open to possibilities, he said.

"Will it be 10 million? Will it be less or more? Nobody knows."

Asked by Nanyang Technological University economics professor Ng Yew-Kwang whether the Government could resist anti-immigration pressures, because immigration had "enormous advantages for Singaporeans", Mr Chan said there were economic, social and political considerations, and much depended on how well immigrants could be integrated.

"What we hope to do is, first and foremost, not focus on numbers, but ask ourselves what are the opportunities we need to create for our younger generation to fulfil their dreams and aspirations."

He added that even as Singapore was slowing down the inflow of foreign labour, "we are clear in our mind, we can never compete on numbers".

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Authorities turn to public shaming of litterbugs, again

Siau Ming En Today Online 11 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE — Litterbugs beware, the authorities are turning to public shaming again to get you to stop tossing your trash indiscriminately.

In the first half of this year, 318 Corrective Work Orders (CWO) have been imposed by the courts, surpassing the 261 in the whole of last year, figures from the National Environment Agency (NEA) showed.

CWO, a penalty added to anti-littering laws here in 1992, involves making litterbugs pick up trash at places with high human traffic, such as neighbourhood centres. The punishment is meted out in lieu of or in addition to fines, which were doubled in April.

Littering has been thrown under the spotlight again in recent months, partly because of a spate of killer-litter incidents, including one that caused the death in June of an elderly woman, three weeks after she had been struck by a bicycle wheel allegedly flung from the 14th floor of a building by a teenage boy.

The authorities have tried various measures in the past year or so to tackle this anti-social behaviour, including installing surveillance cameras to catch litterbugs red-handed and enhancing fines. They have also considered giving volunteer littering police the power to book offenders.

The authorities are out in force to punish litterbugs: From January to June this year, the NEA issued 9,271 littering tickets, nearly as many as the 9,346 issued in the whole of last year. In 2012, 8,195 littering tickets were issued.

Various solutions to tackle littering have been thrown up in the media, ranging from punitive — such as splashing litterbugs’ faces on websites to shame them — to softer approaches, such as increasing education efforts. To the latter’s end, a Keep Singapore Clean Movement in Schools to get students to take ownership of community spaces was launched last month as an updated version of the Use Your Hands campaign, which started in 1976.

In response to TODAY’s queries, Mr Derek Ho, NEA director-general of the environmental public health division, said: “There is undoubtedly an element of public shame in being identified as litterbugs sentenced by the courts to perform supervised cleaning of public areas under CWOs.”

The NEA added that only 3.3 per cent of offenders who had performed CWO in the past two years have been caught littering again.

Asked if it would be a bigger deterrent if litterbugs were made to perform CWO at more public and crowded places, general-secretary of the Singapore Kindness Movement William Wan said that as a “shaming approach, the more public, the better”. However, he noted that CWOs alone will not be effective as they have other undesirable psychological consequences on offenders.

Instead, he noted that CWOs should be stepped up and sustained over a short period, so people get the message, after which other efforts such as education can be taken to tackle the problem.

Chief executive officer of the Singapore Environment Council Jose Raymond added: “Ultimately, it is still down to personal behaviour, community ownership and responsibility.”

Both Dr Lee Bee Wah and Mr Liang Eng Hwa, chairperson and deputy chairperson of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, respectively, also agreed that littering boils down to an attitude problem.

Dr Lee said: “When people are not socially disciplined (or) responsible, when people do not regard public areas as part of their own, they will be inclined to litter.”

Noting that there are numerous dustbins scattered in public places here, president of the Singapore Institute of Planners Evlyn Cheong said it is not as if people have no choice but to litter. She also cited the example of Japan, where it is difficult to find a dustbin, yet people do not litter because they take pride in keeping their surrounding environment clean.

Singaporeans can be less civic-conscious, thinking that someone will clean up their mess, she said, adding that Singaporeans need to be mindful of the need to dispose of litter into a dustbin even in places where they cannot be found.

Stepped-up blitz nets more litterbugs
Samantha Boh My Paper AsiaOne 11 Aug 14;

FACT: The number of litterbugs nabbed in the first six months of the year matches the total number nabbed throughout all of last year.

Fact: More people have been served with Corrective Work Orders (CWOs) in the first six months of this year than all of last year.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) said the sharp rise is a result of stepped-up enforcement efforts. Otherwise, we seem to be littering twice as frequently.

Slice the numbers any way you like, they don't make for pleasant reading.

The first six months of this year saw 9,271 people slapped with littering tickets. The total number for last year was 9,346.

The first six months of the year saw 318 CWOs served. All of last year saw just 261.

In fact, the spike began in the second half of last year, when 6,928 tickets for littering were issued. This was three times the number issued in the first half of last year.

This ties in with NEA's claim about ramping up enforcement.

Since May last year, NEA's officers have been putting in 35,000 enforcement hours each month, compared to 24,000 before that.

Wherever there are littering hot spots - NEA has identified 90 of them around hawker centres, MRT stations and shopping malls - there are more eyes waiting to nab litterbugs.

Derek Ho, NEA's Director-General, Environmental Public Health Division, said: "It is regrettable that some members of our society are not house-proud, even though Singapore is their home."

Jose Raymond, chief executive of the Singapore Environment Council, said it was a minority who were spoiling it for the majority that want a clean environment.

Lee Bee Wah, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, said that the spike in the numbers could also signal that there is a "high percentage of people who are littering indiscriminately".

This, despite harsher penalties.

Since April this year, penalties for littering are twice as harsh.

Offenders face a maximum fine of $2,000 for the first conviction, $4,000 for the second conviction and $10,000 for the third and subsequent convictions.

Of those who performed corrective work in the past two years, only 3.3 per cent were subsequently caught for littering again, said the NEA.

But stiffer penalties can go only so far.

Said Mr Raymond: "Ultimately, it is still down to personal behaviour."

Ms Lee said some might litter because they feel they are "entitled to as they pay for cleaners to clean up after them".

She added: "At the end of the day, there will be no quick fix. It will take some more years before the message sinks in, just as we got rid of spitting in public."

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Large-scale clean-up operation after NDP

Khoo Fang Xuan Channel NewsAsia 10 Aug 14;

SINGAPORE: Hours after the National Day Parade ended on Saturday (Aug 9), the clean-up began at the Marina Bay floating platform and the F1 Pit Building. The organisers said they used more equipment and machinery this year compared to previous years and picked up about 13 tonnes of waste.

The audience was encouraged to dispose of their litter with trash bags included in this year's Funpacks. But there was still plenty of rubbish to clear.

Organisers said the clean-up began at about 10pm. It involved about 50 workers who used blowers to gather small pieces of trash, as well as heavy machinery.

The clean-up was completed by 4:30am, well before the National Environment Agency's cut-off time of 6am.

Seah Yong Huat, amenities, works and services manager at NDP Committee, said: "Between the seats, the spaces are narrow, and there's a small gap. People tend to put the litter in between the seats. So with the blower, we can blow out all the small litter, and with the vacuum cleaners, we can suck out the small litter. This will help the cleaners and the entire cleaning process."

- CNA/xq

49 years old, still badly behaved
The New Paper AsiaOne 13 Aug 14;

Ugly: Rubbish left behind at the National Day Parade.

SINGAPORE - After the spectacular show of the National Day Parade came the stupendous clean-up.

After the VIP guests, the cheering crowds and the troupes of performers left the Marina Bay area on Saturday night, a legion of cleaners moved in.

And after all the flag-waving, some of those flags had to be swept into trash bags.

It was a rather sad picture on the first day of Singapore's 50th year as an independent nation.

Even sadder was an act of mischief in Ang Mo Kio.

National flags that had been put up for Singapore's 49th birthday were found damaged yesterday morning.

Town council workers were seen putting up new flags in the HDB estate in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3.

The flag poles had been broken, but there was no damage to the flags themselves, Channel NewsAsia quoted them as saying.

Police said they had classified the case as an act of mischief and were investigating.
- See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/49-years-old-still-badly-behaved#sthash.PJ9lvdYU.dpuf

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Summer temperatures spark fears for Gulf coral reefs

Vesela Todorova The National 10 Aug 14;

With summer temperatures in the Arabian Gulf generally beyond the tolerance threshold of many coral species, forecasts of unusually warm seas this year are being met with trepidation by marine scientists.

Climate experts have predicted a high likelihood of extreme warming of the water this year because of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, a cyclical periodic shift in the Pacific Ocean that affects weather around the world. In 1997-1998, the phenomenon caused elevated water temperatures in many parts of the world, resulting in large-scale coral die-offs, known as coral bleaching.

In the Arabian Gulf, the highest magnitude of coral bleaching ever was observed, said Dr John Burt, an associate professor of biology at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD). “We lost 90 per cent of the live coral in many of the reefs,” said the school’s head of the marine biology laboratory. “That had a devastating impact on reefs here and in the wider region. The reefs are still recovering.”

Warnings of a significant increase in water temperature this year have raised the concerns.

“Virtually all of the models were predicting a 90 per cent chance of an extreme El Nino event this year,” said Dr Burt.

During routine monitoring of local coral sites earlier this summer, Dr Burt recorded a higher than usual maximum sea temperatures of 32°C in the Gulf of Oman and 34°C in shallower waters near Abu Dhabi. Such temperatures were not unusual for the region at this time of year.

“It has not gone the way they thought it would,” he said, adding that experts were predicting a 60 to 70 per cent chance of moderate to strong warming.

Dr Burt and his associate, Dr Emily Howells, have also been monitoring reefs in Kuwait and Qatar. Their observations showed slightly higher water temperatures in Fujairah where some bleaching of corals was found and reefs were at risk.

Overall, however, a warming event capable of causing mass coral damage and die-off was unlikely.

“We are keeping an eye on things in case they change,” said Dr Burt, noting that August and early September were the highest-risk months for coral reefs.

Coral lives in a symbiotic relationship with marine algae, known as zooxanthellae. Algae lives in the coral tissue, which otherwise would be mostly transparent. Like plants, algae uses sunlight to photosynthesise, producing sugars the coral needs for sustenance.

Heat stress disturbs this symbiotic relationship. Around the world reefs thrive at temperatures of about 28°C. If the temperature is higher this can disturb the algal photosynthesis inside the coral tissue, resulting in the production of damaging oxygen radicals.

When the temperature rises above a certain threshold, coral starts expelling the algae from its tissue. Coral bleaching, as the phenomenon is commonly referred to, occurs when the white coral skeletons shine through the coral tissue, deprived of algal pigments. Bleached coral can sometimes recover but in many cases it dies.

In Australia, coral starts to bleach if the water reaches 31°C. In the Arabian Gulf, it starts at 35°C to 36°C.

While it is impossible to control natural fluctuations in water temperatures, governments can help to protect coral by ensuring additional stress factors are kept at a minimum, Dr Burt said.

“It is important to reduce any man-made stressors resulting from coastal development, nutrient input and intensive [scuba] diving.”

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/uae/environment/summer-temperatures-spark-fears-for-gulf-coral-reefs#ixzz3A3ThjExe
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Massive red tide bloom washing off Florida's Gulf of Mexico coast

Letitia Stein PlanetArk 8 Aug 14;

The largest red tide bloom seen in Florida in nearly a decade has killed thousands of fish in the Gulf of Mexico and may pose a greater health threat if it washes ashore as expected in the next two weeks, researchers said on Thursday.

The patchy bloom stretches from the curve of the Panhandle to the central Tampa Bay region. It measures approximately 80 miles (130 km) long by 50 miles (80 km) wide.

Red tide occurs when naturally occurring algae bloom out of control, producing toxins deadly to fish and other marine life. The odorless chemicals can trigger respiratory distress in people, such as coughing and wheezing.

"It could have large impacts if it were to move inshore," said Brandon Basino, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). "It has been killing a lot of marine species, especially fish, as it waits offshore."

The agency has received reports of thousands of dead fish, including snapper, grouper, flounder, crabs, bull sharks, eel and octopus. This is the largest bloom seen since 2006.

The phenomenon has existed for centuries, but such a large bloom is being closely monitored in Florida because it could impact beach tourism and commercial fishing.

A smaller red tide bloom, closer to shore, contributed last year to a record number of deaths among Florida manatees, an endangered sea mammal.

"I have seen analogies that equate red tide with a forest fire," said Kellie Dixon, manager of the ocean technology program at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. "There is an ecosystem reset."

Researchers at that laboratory recently helped deploy two underwater robots, nicknamed Waldo and Bass, to collect data on the slow-moving red tide, which could linger for months or be rapidly dispersed by a storm.

To map the bloom and try to predict its movement, state wildlife officials also organized this week a three-day boating expedition, sending researchers to test water samples across 2,000 square miles (5,180 sq km).

The team found evidence of red tide at the bottom of the ocean, where it is expected to be swept by currents and carried to land, potentially affecting beaches north and south of Tampa.

"It looks like it's coming in," said Alina Corcoran, an FWC research scientist on the expedition, adding that the bloom would not arrive at once. "All of southwest Florida is not doomed. This is normal. It happens all the time."

(Reporting by Letitia Stein; Editing by Scott Malone and Sandra Maler)

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Deep emissions cuts needed by 2050 to limit warming: U.N. draft

Alister Doyle PlanetArk 8 Aug 14;

Deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions of 40 to 70 percent by mid-century will be needed to avert the worst of global warming that is already harming all continents, a draft U.N. report showed.

The 26-page draft, obtained by Reuters on Thursday, sums up three U.N. scientific reports published over the past year as a guide for almost 200 governments which are due to agree a deal to combat climate change at a summit in Paris in late 2015.

It says existing national pledges to restrict greenhouse gas emissions are insufficient to limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, a U.N. ceiling set in 2010 to limit heatwaves, floods, storms and rising seas.

Average global surface temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 C (1.4 F) since the Industrial Revolution, the draft said.

"Deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to limit warming to 2 degrees C ... remain possible, yet will entail substantial technological, economic, institutional, and behavioral challenges," according to the draft due for publication in Copenhagen on Nov. 2 after rounds of editing.

Cuts in greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, of between 40 and 70 percent by 2050 would be needed from 2010 levels to give a good chance of staying below 2C, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) draft.

Such a shift would also require a tripling or a quadrupling of the share of low-carbon energies including solar, wind or nuclear power, it said.

That would be a radical change. Emissions, buoyed by coal-fuelled industrial growth in emerging economies led by China and India, rose to 49 billion tonnes in 2010 from 40 billion in 2000.

The IPCC says it is at least 95 percent probable that human influences are the main cause of climate change, although opinion polls show that many people doubt such findings and reckon that natural variations are to blame.

"Human influence on the climate system is clear, and is estimated to have been the dominant cause of the warming observed since 1950," the draft says.

The draft Synthesis Report, dated April 21, merges data from three previous IPCC studies that focused on the science of climate change, the impacts and possible solutions. It clarifies many findings but does not include new research.

REVISED

IPCC spokesman Jonathan Lynn said the draft obtained by Reuters had already "undergone thorough revision since the authors met at the end of June/beginning of July."

A final draft will be sent to governments at the end of August, he said, before editing at the Copenhagen meeting from Oct. 27. It will round off a year-long cycle of IPCC reports running to thousands of pages by hundreds of experts.

Still, final drafts are often similar to earlier work.

The draft says climate change is causing more heat extremes, disrupting rainfall, harming many crop yields, causing an acidification of the oceans and thawing ice in Antarctica and Greenland that are raising sea levels.

Unchecked climate change was projected to damage economic growth and can even indirectly increase risks of armed conflict by aggravating underlying causes such as poverty, it says.

Costs of strong action to cut emissions would slow consumption growth by a fractional 0.06 percentage point a year this century from an estimated 1.6 to 3.0 percent, it says.

The IPCC focuses on consumption, which is gross domestic product minus investments, in case big investments are needed to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies. That could stoke GDP and give a misleading impression of economic benefits.

The IPCC says it is impossible to compare costs and benefits of action for any given temperature level. Many factors are hard to quantify - a shift from fossil fuels, for instance, could curb health bills by reducing air pollution.

(Reporting by Alister Doyle; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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