Indonesia: Flood emergency status declared in West Aceh

Antara 3 Dec 18;

A resident takes out chair from his flooded home at Cot Amun Village, West Aceh District, Aceh Province, in October 2018). Floods that hit 10 sub-districts in West Aceh have affected 4.653 families or 15,309 people.(ANTARA FOTO/Syifa Yulinnas/wsj).

Banda Aceh, Aceh Province, (ANTARA News) - West Aceh District Head H. Ramli MS confirmed that the district was classified as a flood emergency area, as hundreds of villages were frequently flooded from September to December 2018.

"A flood emergency status is now declared in West Aceh District, so we are in dire need of support from the Aceh provincial government and central government," Ramli remarked while visiting flood victims in West Woyla on Sunday.

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World's strangest sharks and rays 'on brink of extinction'

Helen Briggs BBC News 4 Dec 18;

Some of the world's most unusual sharks and rays are on the brink of extinction because of threats such as commercial fishing, scientists have said.

A shark that uses its tail to stun prey and a ray half the length of a bus are on the list of 50 species.

The scientists say sharks have a bad image and people do not understand how important and threatened they are.

And losing even one of these "living fossils" would wipe out millions of years of evolutionary history.

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World Bank to invest $200bn to combat climate change

Sum available for 2021-25 represents doubling of current five-year plan
Fiona Harvey The Guardian 3 Dec 18;

The World Bank is to make about $200bn (£157bn) available to fund action on climate change from 2021-25, helping countries adapt to the effects of warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The sum represents a doubling of the five-year investment plan put in place after the landmark Paris agreement of 2015.

Governments will meet in Poland this week and next to thrash out an implementation plan for the Paris accord, which binds countries to hold global warming to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an aspiration of a 1.5C limit.

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Act now or risk disaster, nations told at UN climate summit

Patrick GALEY, AFP Yahoo News 3 Dec 18;

Katowice (Poland) (AFP) - After the starkest warnings yet of the catastrophic threat posed by climate change, nations gathered in Poland on Sunday to chart a way for mankind to avert runaway global warming.

The COP24 climate summit comes at a crucial juncture in the battle to rein in the effects of our heating planet.

The smaller, poorer nations that will bare the devastating brunt of climate change are pushing for richer states to make good on the promises they made in the 2015 Paris agreement.

Three years ago countries committed to limit global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and to the safer cap of 1.5C if at all possible.

But with only a single degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has already seen a crescendo of deadly wildfires, heatwaves and hurricanes made more destructive by rising seas.

UN General Assembly president Maria Espinosa told AFP that mankind was "in danger of disappearing" if climate change was allowed to progress at its current rate.

"We need to act urgently, and with audacity. Be ambitious, but also responsible for the future generations," she added.

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Best of our wild blogs: 3 Dec 18

Beting Bemban Besar South
Offshore Singapore

8-9 Dec: Kids' art workhop and film screening
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

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Why some see Chile's plastic bag ban as a rubbish proposal

Paige Sutherland BBC 2 Dec 18;

"They are just everywhere and they are polluting our oceans, our fields, our cities," says Guillermo González of the 3.4 billion disposable plastic bags used in Chile every year.

Mr González heads the recycling department at Chile's environment ministry and is only too aware of the problems caused by the huge amount of plastic bags used by his compatriots.

It takes up to 400 years for a single plastic bag to degrade and very few get recycled, he says. "It is a very visible kind of waste and one that people are very concerned about."

In August, Chile became the first country in Latin America to ban stores from handing out free plastic bags to shoppers. Under the new rules, anyone who goes to a store will either have to buy a re-usable bag or bring their own.

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Act now or risk disaster, nations told at UN climate summit

Patrick GALEY,AFP Yahoo News 3 Dec 18;

Katowice (Poland) (AFP) - After the starkest warnings yet of the catastrophic threat posed by climate change, nations gathered in Poland on Sunday to chart a way for mankind to avert runaway global warming.

The COP24 climate summit comes at a crucial juncture in the battle to rein in the effects of our heating planet.

The smaller, poorer nations that will bare the devastating brunt of climate change are pushing for richer states to make good on the promises they made in the 2015 Paris agreement.

Three years ago countries committed to limit global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and to the safer cap of 1.5C if at all possible.

But with only a single degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has already seen a crescendo of deadly wildfires, heatwaves and hurricanes made more destructive by rising seas.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 2 Dec 18

16 Dec (Sun) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk
Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

The Park that Never Ceases to Amaze Us: Pasir Ris Park
Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

Night Walk At Pasir Ris Park (30 Nov 2018)
Beetles@SG BLOG

Butterfly Photography at Our Local Parks - Kranji Marshes
Butterflies of Singapore

Giant clam girl explains the how and why fish talk!
Mei Lin NEO

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The banana money trail: Prices rising in Singapore, but farmers not gaining

The cost of bananas from the Philippines has shot up, but farmers are struggling with losses, so where is the money from consumers going to, ultimately? The series For Food’s Sake! investigates.
Derrick A Paulo and Anna Tolentino Channel NewsAsia 1 Dec 18;

DAVAO, Philippines: Of all the types of bananas his family’s fruit business sells, the Philippine Cavendish variety is the most popular, owing to its appearance.

“They look almost perfect. There are fewer blemishes and fewer scratches, compared to the Malaysian ones,” said retailer Ben Phua. “Malaysian bananas have black spots.”

Those spots are actually sugar spots and thus equate to sweeter bananas, but “not many consumers are willing to accept the look of the bananas”.

The price he pays for the Cavendish variety, however, has gone up by 25 per cent in the past three years. That works out at around 50 cents more per kilogramme, which is passed on to customers.

The reason for the hike is a fungal disease – one that all banana growers fear – which struck the Philippines hard in 2015 and has since wiped out plantations.

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Indonesia: ‘We’re only fighting fires of past sinners’: Luhut defends govt's palm oil support

The Jakarta Post 2 Dec 18;

Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has rebuffed claims that he and the government were not paying attention to the deforestation and forest fires caused by oil palm plantations.

He said he was also worried about their environmental impacts on younger generations, but he claimed the government was struggling to make progress since the land concessions for the plantations, some of which were on fire-prone peatlands, had been given out by past governments.

“We’re just fighting fires [created by] past sinners,” he said during a press conference at his office in Central Jakarta on Friday, as quoted by tempo.co.

Luhut reiterated his derision for environmental group Greenpeace Indonesia, which had disrupted the operations of a tanker carrying palm oil belonging to the Wilmar trading company in the Bay of Cadiz near Spain, saying that the government has every right to question the local chapter of an international group.

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Indonesia: Injured Sumatran elephant rescued, fitted with tracker

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani
The Jakarta Post 1 Dec 18;

An injured elephant was found in Panca village, Aceh Besar, Aceh, on Thursday, after she had been roaming around plantations in the area for days.

Residents reported sighting the female, which had injuries to her tail and the left side of her chest, to the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA Aceh). The agency sent a team to start searching for the elephant on Wednesday night and she was located on Thursday.

The chairman of BKSDA Aceh, Sapto Adji Prabowo, and his team conducted surgery on the elephant on the same day. The team had to amputate the tail as the injury and resulting infection was too severe to save it.

“The surgery ran smoothly and the elephant has been given antibiotics and vitamins,” Sapto said in a written statement.

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Indonesia: Walhi calls for protection of Sumatran tiger

Antara 1 Dec 18;

Medan, N Sumatra, (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) has called for protection of Sumatran tiger or Panthera Tigris Sumatrae and called on the people to not hunt it.

"Protecting Sumatran tiger is not only the responsibility of the government but also the people," the executive director of Walhi North Sumatra, Dana Prima Tarigan, said here on Saturday.

She said tigers that entered neighborhoods must not be hurt or killed, adding that the animal had done it because their habitat has been damaged by the irresponsible people.

She said the killing of a tiger that recently entered Bangkelang village in the district of Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra, must never happen again.

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