Climate change represents major challenges, but also opportunities: Teo Chee Hean

Singapore will continue to improve its carbon efficiency through a range of measures, which includes further encouraging the use of public transport and building the next generation of super low-energy green buildings, said DPM Teo.
Chang Ai-Lien Straits Times 19 Nov 18;

SINGAPORE - Climate change brings about not just great challenges but also opportunities, said Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean on Monday (Nov 19).

"Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges of our time," he said, noting that it requires a global solution, where governments, the private sector, civil society and private citizens work in unison.

But he stressed that climate change is not only about challenges and constraints; it also provides strong incentives for entrepreneurship, research and development, and creative problem-solving.

Singapore, in particular, is well-positioned to become a green growth hub and take advantage of new green growth opportunities, he said.

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Express train service on Cross Island Line off the table: Khaw Boon Wan

JANICE LIM Today Online 20 Nov 18;

SINGAPORE — An express MRT train service that would get commuters more quickly from one end of the future Cross Island Line (CRL) to the other will not materialise after all.

This is after the authorities projected that just less than 5 per cent of the rail line's users would see time savings of at least 15 minutes.

In a written reply to a parliamentary question by Mr Ong Teng Koon, Member of Parliament for Marsiling-Yew Tee Group Representation Constituency, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan also said on Monday (Nov 19) that the benefits of significant time savings do not outweigh the cost.

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Indonesia: Watch Rare Footage of the World’s Most Endangered Rhino

Joseph Hincks, Time Yahoo News 19 Nov 18;

Conservationists have released footage and photographs of the world’s rarest rhino, which counts fewer than 70 members among its population and is confined to a single national park in Indonesia.

While camera-trap images of the Javan rhino have occasionally surfaced, a WWF spokesperson says the photographs released Monday are only the third manually captured set ever published. They offer a rare glimpse of the critically endangered mammal wallowing in near-dusk light.

“Very few people have seen a Javan rhino in the wild,” says photographer Robin Moore, who snapped the images with a team from Global Wildlife Conservation and WWF-Indonesia last October. “Even some of the people who have been working on their conservation for decades have never seen one,” he says.

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Climate change: Report raises new optimism over industry

Roger Harrabin BBC 19 Nov 18;

A new report on the potential of heavy industry to combat climate change offers a rare slice of optimism.

Sectors like steel, chemicals, cement, aviation and aluminium face a huge challenge in cutting carbon emissions.

But a group including representatives from business concludes it is both practical and affordable to get their emissions down to virtually zero by the middle of the next century.

The report's been described as wishful thinking by some environmentalists.

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Best of our wild blogs: 19 Nov 18

Let's help NParks stop grasscutters from littering plastic strings
wild shores of singapore

24 Nov (Sat): 'Chasing Coral' - FREE screening at the Singapore Botanic Gardens
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

A Hike From Mandai Track 15 to Bukit Panjang
Beauty of Fauna and Flora

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Vietnam: 12 dead in floods, landslides

AFP Yahoo News 18 Nov 18;

Hanoi (AFP) - Flash floods and landslides killed at least 12 people in central Vietnam, officials said Sunday, as hundreds of troops were dispatched to clean up destroyed villages and washed out roads.

Heavy rains pounded the central Khanh Hoa province over the past few days as tropical depression Toraji blew in from the South China Sea, triggering landslides that wiped out houses and destroyed a small reservoir.

At least a dozen people have been killed so far while a search was ongoing for several others, an official from the provincial disaster office told AFP, refusing to be named.

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Best of our wild blogs: 18 Nov 18

[Event] Diving into citizen science: Marine chit-chats, 21 November 2018
Psychedelic Nature

Singapore Raptor Report – October 2018
Singapore Bird Group

Night Walk At Windsor Nature Park
Beetles@SG BLOG

Butterfly of the Month - November 2018
Butterflies of Singapore

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Indonesia: Efforts underway to save sumatran tigers from extinction

Otniel Tamindael Antara 17 Nov 18;

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) of Riau Province on Sumatra Island continues to make every effort to save Sumatran tigers (Panthera Tigris Sumatrae), which are at a high risk of becoming extinct.

Although Sumatran tigers are losing their habitat and prey fast, and poaching shows no sign of decline, the Riau Natural Conservation Agency continues to take steps to protect this endangered animal.

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Indonesia: Preserving Indonesia`s sea turtles

Rahmad Nasution Antara 17 Nov 18;

Bogor, W Java (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is an archipelagic nation that is blessed by the Almighty God with an array of flora and fauna, several of which are categorized as "iconic species."

According to the Ocean Health Index, a valuable tool for assessing ocean health, iconic species are "animals or plants which are important to cultural identity as shown by their involvement in traditional activities."

Indonesia is home to several iconic species, one of them being the sea turtle. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia has also reported that six of the seven living species of sea turtles that scientists recognize can be found in the country.

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Indonesia: Sumatran elephant found dead with missing tusks

AFP 17 Nov 18;

Rampant deforestation has reduced the species' natural habitat and brought them into conflict with humans
A Sumatran elephant has been found dead with its tusks removed in an apparent poaching case targeting the critically endangered animal, an Indonesian conservation official said Friday.

The 10-year-old male's rotting corpse was found in Blang Awe village in Aceh province earlier this week.

"His tusks were missing and there were traces of blood in the location where he was found," Aceh conservation centre head Sapto Aji Prabowo told AFP.

Officials estimated the animal had been dead for at least a week when the carcass was discovered.

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Indonesia: Cleaning up Indonesia`s land and sea

Rahmad Nasution Antara 17 Nov 18;

Bogor, W Java (ANTARA News) - Plastic waste has, since decades, undoubtedly become a major problem in Indonesia amid the government`s serious endeavor to deal with the menace by highlighting its detrimental impacts on the country`s environmental sustainability.

Plastic waste, which has a serious impact on the quality of soil and water and may threaten the existence of living creatures, is closely related to the amount of the trash produced and used by Indonesians every day.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya has noted that some 9.8 billion plastic bags are used in Indonesia every year, and almost 95 percent of it will end up as waste.

The ministry`s waste management directorate also estimated that the total number plastic straws, used by Indonesians every day, reaches some 93 million, increasing from nine percent in 1995 to 16 percent this year.

In addressing this problem, the Indonesian Government is formulating a national action plan, which has five main pillars: behavior change; suppress land-based pollution; suppress sea-based pollution; suppress plastic production and use; and improve financing mechanisms, policy reform, and law enforcement.

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Best of our wild blogs: 17 Nov 18

Can I sell my giant clam ‘pearls’ or shells?
Mei Lin NEO

Google searches reveal public interest in conservation is rising
Mongabay.com

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