UK parliamentary committee calls for biofuel moratorium

Reuters 20 Jan 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - Most biofuels harm rather than help the environment and the British government should call a moratorium on increasing their use, a parliamentary committee said on Monday.

"Biofuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from road transport -- but at present most biofuels have a detrimental impact on the environment overall," Tim Yeo, chairman of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) said.

Biofuels can be substituted for fossil fuels and are seen by advocates as a way of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases believed to contribute to global warming. Grains, vegetable oils and sugar are among the industry's current feedstocks.

Britain has ordered transport fuel suppliers to supply five percent of their UK road fuel from renewable fuels by 2010.

The Royal Society, the national academy of science, issued a report last week saying the government directive would do little to combat climate change because it lacked targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"There are many different types of biofuels and it's key that the ones we use provide the best greenhouse gas savings and are produced in ways that are good for people and the environment," Dianna Bowles of the Royal Society's biofuels working group said in response to the EAC report.

The EAC report said a large biofuel industry based on current technology is likely to increase food prices and could damage food security in developing countries.

Research is under way to develop so-called second generation biofuels which would use waste products rather than food commodities. The committee noted that these technologies are some years away.

Britain's National Farmers Union rejected the conclusions.

"Biofuels represent the only renewable alternative for replacing fossil fuel in transport and a way of tackling one quarter of UK carbon emissions which transport is responsible for," NFU president Peter Kendall said in a statement.

"UK biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 53 percent and UK wheat bioethanol by 64 percent compared with their fossil fuel equivalents.

"Those savings can and should be improved. But for the committee to conclude that, because the savings are small, they are not worth having at all, is illogical and ill-informed," Kendall added.

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Call to abandon biofuels targets
Roger Harrabin, BBC News 21 Jan 08;

The EU should abandon its biofuels targets because they are damaging the environment, a committee of MPs says.

The Environmental Audit Committee says biofuels are ineffective at cutting greenhouse gases and can be expensive.

It also says problematic emissions from cars can be cut more cheaply and with lower environmental risk.

The report comes in the week the EU launches a huge, over-arching climate change strategy which includes rules aimed at reducing damage from biofuels.

In a draft, the EU admits that the current target of 5.75% biofuels on the roads by 2010 is unlikely to be achieved. But it maintains its target of 10% road biofuel by 2020.

It states that in future biofuels should not be grown on forest land, wetland - including peat - or permanent grassland, a move that will please critics.

The EU will also stipulate that biofuels should achieve a minimum level of greenhouse gas savings.

But these figures have been contested, and it looks as though the calculation will exclude the carbon released by disturbing soil when the biofuels are planted. That would prove very controversial.

It is also unclear how the EU will ensure that its biofuels production on agricultural land does not push up food prices or displace food production, forcing local communities or agri-businesses into felling virgin forest to grow crops.

The committee of MPs says the targets are putting up food prices and threatening food supplies for the poor.

The EU and the UK government should concentrate on the use of "sustainable" biofuels such as waste vegetable oil and the development of more efficient biofuel technologies, it adds.

Sustainability fears

The Environmental Audit Committee says the UK government and the EU have been "misguided" in prioritising biofuels for road transport when it is much more efficient under current technology to use them for heating and cooling.

The committee notes that last week BBC News published an admission by the EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas that the EU had not foreseen all the problems entailed in biofuels.

The MPs say this proves the need for a moratorium on the target until it is proved that biofuels can be produced sustainably.

It says current agricultural support for biofuels is largely unsustainable.

Committee chairman Tim Yeo said: "Biofuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from road transport - but at present most biofuels have a detrimental impact on the environment overall."

The report is strongly backed by the RSPB which calls current biofuels targets "farcical".

The Royal Society shares the committee's concern that the EU should ensure that the most efficient biofuels are encouraged - but fears a backlash against biofuels which might deter investment in better biofuel technologies.

Read more!

Abu Dhabi says to invest $15 bln in green energy

Stanley Carvalho, Reuters 21 Jan 08;

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Gulf Arab oil exporter Abu Dhabi plans to spend $15 billion in the first phase of an initiative to develop green energy and build the world's largest hydrogen power plant, it said on Monday.

The investment would be part of the Masdar initiative, set up to develop sustainable and clean energy, Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan told the World Future Energy Summit in the emirate. He gave no time frame.

"I would like to underscore the government of Abu Dhabi's commitment to the Masdar initiative by announcing an initial investment of $15 billion," he said. "Next month ground will be broken on Masdar city, the world's first carbon-neutral city."

The money will go into infrastructure, renewable energy projects such as solar power, and manufacturing, to position Abu Dhabi as a leader in the global clean energy market, said Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, or Masdar.

The project includes plans to start building a zero carbon, zero waste city of up to 15,000 residents in the desert in the first quarter of this year. "Achieving a zero carbon city is doable," he said.

Abu Dhabi, capital of the seven-member United Arab Emirates federation, would also build the world's largest hydrogen power plant with 500 megawatts of capacity, said Jaber.

Masdar will hold a 60 percent stake in the "multi-billion-dollar joint venture," a Masdar official said, adding that the rest would be equally held by British Petroleum and Rio Tinto.

The project's engineering and design would be concluded by the end of 2008, he said.

Masdar has said it plans to develop a network of carbon capture and storage projects (CCS) to pump greenhouse gases into oilfields, reducing emissions while boosting oil output.

CCS, an as yet commercially unproven technology, should free up natural gas that is now reinjected to push oil out of oilfields. The UAE needs the gas for power generation to meet rising demand as petrodollars fuel an economic boom.

According to a U.N. Development Programme report issued last year, UAE greenhouse gas emissions were 34.1 metric tons per head in 2004, the third highest in the world after Qatar and Kuwait and well above U.S. per capita emissions of 20.6 metric tons.

Abu Dhabi signed an agreement with France this month for cooperation on the development of nuclear energy in the world's fifth-largest oil-exporter.

Sheikh Mohammed also announced the establishment of the Zayed Future Energy Prize, with an annual prize pool of $2.2 million, designed to reward achievements in energy innovation.

Masdar's $250 million Clean Technology Fund has already invested in different projects and Jaber said there were plans to launch another fund soon.

(Writing by Lin Noueihed and Inal Ersan, editing by Anthony Barker)

Abu Dhabi to build world's first zero-carbon city
by Laith Abou-Ragheb, Yahoo News 22 Jan 08;

Construction work on the world's first zero-carbon city housing 50,000 people in a car-free environment will begin in the oil-rich Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi next month, the developers said on Monday.

In Masdar City, which will be run entirely on renewable energy including solar power to exploit the desert emirate's near constant supply of sunshine, people will be able to move around in automated pods.

"This is a place that has no carbon footprint and will not hurt the planet in any way," Khaled Awad, director of the Masdar project's property development unit of the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), told AFP.

"At the same time the city will offer the highest quality of life possible for its residents," he said on the sidelines of the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Once completed in 2013, residents will be able to move around the six-square-kilometre (2.4-square-mile) city using a light railway line and a series of automated transport pods.

"They're like a horizontal elevator. You just say where you want to go, and it takes you there," Awad said of the pods.

Unlike the gleaming towers of nearby Abu Dhabi, a model of the Foster and Partners-designed Masdar City displayed at the summit showed only low-rise buildings with solar panels on each roof.

The city will be sited to take advantage of sea breezes, and a perimeter wall will protect it from the hot desert air and noise from the nearby Abu Dhabi airport.

Abu Dhabi sits on most of the UAE's oil and gas reserves, ranked respectively as fifth and fourth in the world. Proven oil reserves on their own are expected to last for another 150 years.

But like most oil-producing countries, the UAE also wants to diversify to ease its traditional economic dependency on oil.

The zero-carbon city, part of the wider Masdar Initiative launched by the wealthy Abu Dhabi government in 2006, is also a flagship project of the global conservation group WWF.

Masdar chief executive Sultan al-Jaber described Masdar -- Arabic for "source" -- as as an entirely new economic sector fully dedicated to alternative energy, which will have a positive impact on the emirate's economy.

The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed al-Nahayan, pledged 15 billion dollars to Masdar at the opening of the three-day summit on Monday.

"Rest assured, the Masdar initiative and Abu Dhabi will continue to play its part" in developing alternative energy sources, Sheikh Mohammed told some 3,000 delegates gathered for the annual event.

Masdar has also announced plans to build a 350-million-dollar 100-megawatt solar plant, which will later be boosted to 500 megawatts to help ease peak-time pressure on the national grid.

The initiative is also founding a university for future energy studies in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Despite its constant access to sunshine, only parking meters in the UAE are currently powered by solar energy. Even solar water-heaters -- popular in several hot-climate countries -- are seldom seen.

Other Gulf countries have a similar poor record in exploiting solar energy.

Abu Dhabi plots hydrogen future
Richard Black, BBC News 22 Jan 08;

The government of Abu Dhabi has announced a $15bn (£7.5bn) initiative to develop clean energy technologies.

The Gulf state describes the five-year initiative as "the most ambitious sustainability project ever launched by a government".

Components will include the world's largest hydrogen power plant.

The government has also announced plans for a "sustainable city", housing about 50,000 people, that will produce no greenhouse gases and contain no cars.

The $15bn fund, which the state hopes will lead to international joint ventures involving much more money, is being channelled through the Masdar Initiative, a company established to develop and commercialise clean energy technologies.

"As global demand for energy continues to expand, and as climate change becomes a real and growing concern, the time has come to look to the future," said Masdar CEO Dr Sultan Al Jaber.

"Our ability to adapt and respond to these realities will ensure that Abu Dhabi's global energy leadership as well as our own growth and development continues."

Technology bridge

The portfolio of technologies eligible for funding under the Masdar Initiative is extensive, but solar energy is likely to be a major beneficiary.

The hydrogen plant, meanwhile, will link the world's currently dominant technology, fossil fuel burning, with two technologies likely to be important in a low-carbon future - carbon sequestration and hydrogen manufacture.

Hydrogen will be manufactured from natural gas by reactions involving steam, producing a mixture of hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

The CO2 can be pumped underground, either simply to store it away permanently or as a way of extracting more oil from existing wells, using the high-pressure gas to force more of the black gold to the surface.

When hydrogen is burned, it produces no CO2. Eventually hydrogen made this way could be used in vehicles, though in Abu Dhabi it will generate electricity.

"It's important because it shows that you can generate hydrogen without carbon release from fossil fuels," commented Keith Guy, an engineering consultant and professor at the UK's Bath University.

"When you look at how hydrogen could be made economically, the route that many people have been looking at, through electrolysis of water, is incredibly expensive."

The Masdar Sustainable City, another component of the Abu Dhabi government's plans which is being designed with input from the environmental group WWF, is envisaged as a self-contained car-free zone where all energy will come from renewable resources, principally solar panels to generate electricity.

Buildings will be constructed to allow air in but keep the Sun's heat out. Wind towers will ventilate homes and offices using natural convection.

The fund and the Masdar City plans were formally unveiled at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.

Read more!

Alarm bells ringing about Antarctic thaw: Norway PM

Alister Doyle, Reuters 20 Jan 08;

TROLL STATION, Antarctica (Reuters) - Alarm bells are ringing about risks of a quickening thaw of Antarctica that would drive up world sea levels, Norway's Prime Minister said on Sunday after a visit to the icy continent.

Scientists say there are hard-to-quantify chances that newly detected lakes under Antarctica's ice sheets might lubricate a slide towards the oceans, or that climate change could warm southern seas and melt floating sea ice holding back glaciers.

"It is alarming. Alarm bells are ringing. It is irresponsible for decision-makers to ignore these signals," Prime Minister Jen Stoltenberg told Reuters at the end of a two-day visit to Norway's Troll station in east Antarctica.

Norway set an ambitious goal last week of becoming "carbon neutral" by 2030 -- cutting its net emissions from burning fossil fuels to zero.

However, its plan includes a measure to include big forests that soak up greenhouse gases, although it is controversial because current U.N. rules do not allow states to count forests as part of carbon neutral plans.

"We need more exact knowledge. Scientists don't say that they know what is happening (in Antarctica) but they fear...that the ice on land can slip out into the sea and melt," Stoltenberg said in the station, about 250 km (155 miles) inland.

Stoltenberg visited glaciers, opened a satellite monitoring station and was told about climate change research around Troll, where the mountains are home to thousands of birds such as snow petrels. Temperatures were around -10 Celsius (14.00F).

Antarctica, about 1.5 times the size of the United States, contains enough ice to raise world sea levels by almost 60 meters if ever all melted. If Greenland melted seas would rise by about seven meters.

The U.N. Climate Panel, which shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, says that world sea levels will rise by between 18 and 59 cms (7 and 24 inches) this century because of human emissions of greenhouse gases.

Stoltenberg said risks were on the upside. Rising seas would threaten coastal cities, islands such as the Maldives and low-lying parts of Bangladesh or Florida.

DEEP FREEZE

Most of east Antarctica has been stable in a deep freeze with little sign of melt linked to global warming. Temperatures in west Antarctica, however, have been rising.

A Norwegian-U.S. expedition will next year examine whether vast lakes recently detected deep below the surface of the Antarctic ice could act as lubricants that accelerate a slide.

"There is preliminary data from the ice over these lakes...that shows that the ice speed is increasing," Jan-Gunnar Winther, head of the Norwegian Polar Institute, told Stoltenberg in a video link from the South Pole.

Ice above the lakes covered about eight percent of East Antarctica -- an area roughly the size of Greenland, he said.

Norway will also study whether signs of rising sea temperatures could eat away at the Fimbulisen ice that floats on the sea north of Troll and acts as a plug preventing part of the ice sheet from slipping into the sea.

Norwegian officials say that Norway will buy greenhouse gas emission quotas to offset Stoltenberg's flights. "There's a big difference between reading about climate change and being here," Stoltenberg said.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)

Read more!

Massive volcano exploded under Antarctic icesheet, study finds

Yahoo News 20 Jan 08;

A powerful volcano erupted under the icesheet of West Antarctica around 2,000 years ago and it might still be active today, a finding that prompts questions about ice loss from the white continent, British scientists report on Sunday.

The explosive event -- rated "severe" to "cataclysmic" on an international scale of volcanic force -- punched a massive breach in the icesheet and spat out a plume some 12,000 metres (eight miles) into the sky, they calculate.

Most of Antarctica is seismically stable. But its western part lies on a rift in Earth's crust that gives rise to occasional volcanism and geothermal heat, occurring on the Antarctic coastal margins.

This is the first evidence for an eruption under the ice sheet itself -- the slab of frozen water, hundreds of metres (feet) thick in places, that holds most of the world's stock of fresh water.

Reporting in the journal Nature Geoscience, the investigators from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) describe the finding as "unique."

It extends the range of known volcanism in Antarctica by some 500 kilometres (300 miles) and raises the question whether this or other sub-glacial volcanoes may have melted so much ice that global sea levels were affected, they say.

The volcano, located in the Hudson Mountains, blew around 207 BC, plus or minus 240 years, according to their paper.

Evidence for this comes from a British-American airborne geophysical survey in 2004-5 that used radar to delve deep under the ice sheet to map the terrain beneath.

Vaughan's team spotted anomalous radar reflections over 23,000 square kilometres (8,900 sq. miles), an area bigger than Wales.

They interpret this signal as being a thick layer of ash, rock and glass, formed from fused silica, that the volcano spewed out in its fury.

The amount of material -- 0.31 cubic kilometres (0.07 cubic miles) -- indicates an eruption of between three and four on a yardstick called the Volcanic Explosive Index (VEI).

By comparison, the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, which was greater, rates a VEI of five, and that of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 is a VEI of six.

"We believe this was the biggest eruption in Antarctica during the last 10,000 years," BAS' Hugh Corr says.

"It blew a substantial hole in the icesheet and generated a plume of ash and gas that rose around 12 kms (eight miles) into the air."

The eruption occurred close to the massive Pine Island Glacier, an area where movement of glacial ice towards the sea has been accelerating alarmingly in recent decades.

"It may be possible that heat from the volcano has caused some of that acceleration," says BAS professor David Vaughan, who stresses though that global warming is by far the greater likelier cause.

Volcanic heat "cannot explain the more widespread thinning of West Antarctic glaciers that together are contributing nearly 0.2mm (0.008 of an inch) per year to sea-level rise," he adds.

"This wider change most probably has its origin in warming ocean waters."

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 21 Jan 08

Things you can do
a campaign for a better world by Raffles Junior College and ECO Singapore

Sharkwater - the movie
some thoughts on the blooooooooooo blog

First TeamSeagrass monitoring for 2008
out on a hot HOT day at Chek Jawa on the teamseagrass blog and nature scouters blog

First guided walk on Chek Jawa
crabs, stars and more on the tidechaser blog

Nesting Failure of the Red-wattled Lapwing
on the bird ecology blog

Flying Tigers of Singapore
on the butterflies of singapore blog

Green Tip #5 - Reduce your refrigerator’s energy consumption
on the AsiaIsGreen blog

Read more!

Singapore: Forgoing the rat race for the 'lilies of the field'

Straits Times 21 Jan 08;

In the end, we are judged in our lives for all our work - not just the work we are paid to do.

Taking a year off from work may not add to his bonus, but Yen Feng discovers a different measure of wealth

THE season for announcing promotions and bonuses is, for many rookies, the annual measure of success.

But it does not account for work we put into our personal relationships, which is harder to quantify - you do not exactly get cash for how good a son, brother, friend or spouse you have been.

That part belongs to another race: the silent marathon to show we are more than the sum of our bank accounts. It is a race we seldom talk about over drinks. It is a race that is easy to forget because we are our own arbiters.

But it exists.

So I consider myself fortunate to have had a reminder of it at the start of my career.

A year ago, I turned in my press pass to take care of a dying loved one.

In that time, my peers whizzed ahead, bagging awards I knew would give them an edge over me in the company. At first, I was envious. Then I thought: How much of it really matters?

A recent e-mail from a senior executive in the newsroom last week brought the point home.

It cited a speech by Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Anna Quindlen. In it, she tells a class of graduating students that life's measure isn't about 'the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house', but about cultivating one's soul.

'Consider the lilies of the field,' she said.

As Singaporeans, we have been trained from a young age to covet success in its most admired form: cash.

We compute our worth in dollars and cents. We work hard - the result of being ranked and banded in school from the age of nine.

And, if you take literally what Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said last week - 'Retirement is death' - we will be working not only harder, but longer than ever.

But it is precisely because we push ourselves so hard that Ms Quindlen's words are all the more relevant.

The challenge is to expand our definition of the words 'success' and 'reward', beyond promotions and bonuses.

In the end, we are judged in our lives for all our work - not just the work we are paid to do.

Since my loved one died, I have adjusted certain priorities in my life.

After a year away from the office, I am ready to buckle down and earn my keep. But I am also working on that other, 'lilies' race.

I know how much it means to listen, to show up, to make time for the people who mean something in our lives.

After all, time, unlike money, is finite. At the end of one's life, no one has been known to say: 'I wish I spent more time in the office.'

So me, I am looking up an old friend. Or lighting a candle at dinner.

That's the part I'm leaving for the lilies.

Read more!

Singapore: Exports no longer key engine of growth?

Chuang Peck Ming, Business Times 21 Jan 08;

Is the Singapore economy relying less on external trade and more on the domestic market for growth?

IT WAS not supposed to have happened the way it did. The world economy did well in 2007, which means trade-dependent economies like Singapore would have done well too. It did, scoring 7.5 per cent growth.

But it wasn't so much higher exports that contributed to this; it was something else. If it were just exports, the outcome for the economy would have been disappointing. Singapore's non-oil domestic exports (NODX) last year rose just 2.3 per cent, its worst showing in five years.

This key barometer not only fell short of the official projection of 4-6 per cent - and 2006's 8.5 per cent growth - it lagged behind the larger economy. This is a big departure from past growth pattern.

The NODX used to grow faster or expand more or less in tandem with Singapore's economy. Bigger economies have a large home market to depend on for growth. But with a small domestic market, Singapore must turn to the world for a living. It has always relied on exports to drive the economy. Is this no longer the case?

It seems not. Despite land reclamation, Singapore is still a little red dot on the map. Its population and their spending power have multiplied. But a population touching four million - and straining Singapore's infrastructure to almost bursting point - is still far from enough to even keep Singapore's export-oriented economy running at its current pace. Which is why the government is working hard to increase its number to six million.

The folks at International Enterprise Singapore, the government's trade promotion arm, are sticking to the old belief that the economy and trade share the same fate. They are tipping the NODX to expand more in line with the overall economy in 2008 - by 4-6 per cent, against a 4.5-6.5 per cent growth forecast for the economy.

How do they expect the NODX to do better in a year when the US economy is in danger of going into a recession - if it hasn't already - and dragging the larger part of the global economy down with it, when exports failed to make the mark last year when external conditions were in a far better shape?

IE Singapore says the NODX performed below par last year because of poor electronics shipments, which were hit by a sharp drop in chip prices and 'consolidation' of the disk drive business. Non-electronic exports, led by volatile pharmaceutical shipments, failed to provide the fallback to help pick up the slack.

IE Singapore sees chip prices bottoming out and is counting on a recovery in electronics shipments, stronger exports in chemical products and still-robust Asian economic growth for a pick-up in the NODX in 2008.

The answer is simple - even if it reflects more hope than realism. It would be easier to register a leap in the NODX number this year as any improvement will be made on a smaller base than would have been the case if exports had put up a stronger showing in 2007.

But the answer also leads back to the key question posed here - where did last year's economic growth come from and are exports no longer Singapore's main engine of growth?

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in unveiling last year's economic growth figure in his New Year Message, singled out the construction and financial services for doing especially well. Reports also point to thriving business in the retail and hospitality industries.

These are economic activities that belong to the domestic sector. In other words, it seems that 2007's economic growth was driven mainly by the home market.

Local spending power has risen and while the numbers might still not be enough to provide a really big lift for the economy, they are joined by a massive inflow of foreign money.

In the past year, Singapore has attracted many of the well-heeled from emerging economies to put their money here with fund managers and in luxury properties. Tourists also came in record numbers - crossing the 10 million mark - filling up hotels here and keeping local shopping malls and restaurants busy.

A globalised economy means the world is fast becoming one big market. It means we do not just have to go out to sell our goods and services. We can also draw customers here to buy them.

But our economic planners are still right in one thing - whether we export to make a living or attract foreigners to come here to spend and invest their money, Singapore's fortune is still very much tied to the health of the global economy.

Read more!

Social networking sites may impact how traditional businesses work

Channel NewsAsia 20 Jan 08;

SINGAPORE: Social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, have been around for less than five years, but they are already very much part of the Web 2.0 revolution taking place right now.

Not only are they changing the way people socialise, they are also making traditional businesses sit up and take notice.

It is estimated that about 194 million people around the world are managing at least one profile on a social networking site.

And with 800 million internet users still not registered with such sites, the potential for growth is overwhelming.

A recent study showed Friendster leading the race in the Asia Pacific region, followed by Facebook, Orkut and MySpace.

As proof of its popularity, 14 per cent of Friendster's global traffic comes from Singapore compared with only 3 per cent from the United States.

Friendster's global marketing vice-president David Jones said, "We started in the San Francisco Bay area in California where there are several Chinese, Asian communities. And it quickly vectored to Asia like four or five years ago, and it has just taken off from there."

And according to a UK report, the phenomenon of these sites is set to go bigger with more commercialisation of services.

The report also suggested sites like MySpace and Facebook will make tremendous improvements in being able to send out branding messages according to profiles of users, making it a goldmine for marketing companies.

The various applications on such sites also allow for better advertising.

Google's Open Social platform, for example, is being used by developers to create one-size-fits-all applications or widgets.

The Web2.0 fever has even caught on with highly successful bands like Radiohead, who has ditched traditional record label and used social networking sites to promote its music. And the band has topped the US and UK charts this month. - CNA/ac

Read more!

HDB should reconsider replacing ban on cats with 'motivational' regulations

Letter from Tan Chek Wee, Straits Times Forum 21 Jan 08;

I READ with amusement the article in The Sunday Times about 'Getting to know your neighbours" with a cartoon by Miel showing a smiling lady poking her head from her flat and a cat beside her (The Sunday Times, Jan 13). The problem we face nowadays is really 'not knowing your neighbours".

In my neighbourhood, I am fortunate to share a common concern with a few fellow residents on the plight of the community cats.

Cats are pushed to the brink by an increasing human population and decreasing tolerance. They are killed for reasons ranging from noise made during mating, defecation in 'upstairs" common areas (usually caused by cat owners who let their cats roam out), residents' phobia of cats, scratches on cars, etc.

Incensed by the ineffective killing of about 13,000 cats every year for more than two decades and at the public expense of more than half a million dollars annually, we decided to get our butts out of our flats and spent many evenings trapping the cats in our neighbourhood and brought them to the vet to be sterilised.

After about three years, we achieved a near 100 per cent sterilised colony of cats. We also work with the town council to help resolve complaints about cats.

Through this community work, we met fellow residents from all walks of life, of all ages and of all races. We also got to meet residents who complained about cats and residents who owned cats but were unaware of responsible pet ownership (that includes sterilisation and keeping them indoors).

We were touched by the fact that almost all the residents who complained about cats did not want killing as a solution. This was often not known to some town council property officers who assumed that engaging pest controllers to remove 'downstairs" community cats was the solution. This naturally resulted in a recurrence of complaints. By identifying the right cause of the complaints, we could offer a solution that costs only a bottle of vinegar and a packet of camphor balls (to clear the smell of cat poo and to repel the cats).

However, the lack of HDB regulations on responsible cat ownership is a major setback to the success of a managed colony of cats. Irresponsible owners abandon cats and kittens for reasons ranging from moving house, spring cleaning and unwanted litters from unsterilised home cats.

Irresponsible owners let their cats roam freely, resulting in complaints from neighbours. Town Council officers are reluctant to speak to such owners about pet responsibility because they said that 'HDB does not allow cats". Referring such recalcitrant cat owners to their HDB colleagues will only result in the abandonment of these cats in the estate instead. This will only transfer the problem to the Town Council which may then blame the expanding population on caregivers like me and my fellow residents.

I appeal to the HDB to urgently reconsider replacing the ban on cats with regulations so that such irresponsible owners will be 'motivated" by fines to keep their cats indoors and to have them sterilised. This is a win-win situation to residents in general, to caregivers and also to the property officers in the town council.

Read more!

Mosquito-borne diseases: efforts stepped up in Singapore

Efforts to stop virus stepped up; no new cases
Straits Times 21 Jan 08;

THE authorities are stepping up efforts to destroy mosquito breeding grounds in Little India in a bid to prevent a new, dengue-like disease from securing a foothold here.

Workers are 'doing whatever they need to do' to remove pools of stagnant water in the wake of an outbreak of chikungunya fever, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday.

'We already have a dengue challenge. We do not want another challenge on the public health front. So, we want to try and contain this as soon as possible,' he said.

Eight people have tested positive for chikungunya since last Monday. All the cases were reported around the Clive Street area in the heart of Little India.

No new cases have surfaced in the past two days.

The virus, which is endemic in neighbouring countries like Indonesia, is spread by the Aedes mosquito.

It is rarely fatal, although its symptoms are similar to those of dengue, such as joint pain, chills and nausea.

The National Environment Agency is currently working with medical authorities and property owners in Little India to ensure the area is kept free of standing water, said Dr Yaacob.

'We are confident that, given the current level of effort we've put in place, we can get this under control.'

Health officials learnt important lessons in the dengue outbreak of 2005, Singapore's worst, said Dr Yaacob.

Procedures to contain mosquito-borne illnesses are 'working very, very well,' he said.

Dr Yaacob asked residents across the island to check their households for potential breeding sites.

'If Singaporeans keep their place clean and free of stagnant water, we will not have this problem,' he said.

He also said more measures to combat the spread of the chikungunya virus will be discussed in Parliament this year.

The Ministry of Health was first notified of chikungunya by a general practitioner last Monday when a 27-year-old Bangladeshi patient tested positive for the disease.

Soon, more bite to dengue fight
Leong Wee Keat, Today Online 21 Jan 08;

As the authorities grapple with the latest mosquito-borne disease, chikungunya fever, they have not forgotten about the other, perennial virus: Dengue.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said his ministry would announce in Parliament in March new measures to ensure the number of dengue cases head south for good.

While he did not elaborate, Today understands that enforcement is going to be more stringent, and more stakeholders would be roped in to curb the spread of the virus.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) is likely to come down harder on offenders, said MP Lim Wee Kiak, a member of the government parliamentary committee (GPC) for national development and environment.

While the GPC has not been briefed yet on the ministry's plans, Dr Lim thinks the authorities may no longer warn offenders before issuing a fine.

NEA has consistently pointed to homes as the weak link. The first-time fine for mosquito breeding in residential premises is $100. Commercial operators, for example, of construction worksites, face heavier fines of up to $5,000 for the first offence.

These laws were last updated in 2002, and Major (Ret) G Surajan, who was part of the Dengue Task Force when he served as president of the Singapore Pest Management Association from 2004 to 2006, thinks the fines should be raised to get the message to hit home.

"When their pockets are hit, people will realise it is serious," he told Today.

While most people are doing their bit to stop mosquito breeding, Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Water Resources, told Today that safeguards must be put in place to guard against a small minority.

"We still have a lot of lapses … individuals who do not view it as a serious problem - the bo chup (don't care) attitude. All you need is a minority," she said.

Dr Yaacob, who spoke to reporters yesterday after a community event, said the ministry's fight against dengue was to ensure that Singapore "can maintain our public health standards at a very, very high level".

But he does not think there is cause for alarm about the eight cases of chikungunya fever detected last week at Clive Street in Little India, as the NEA's standard operating procedures are tighter after the 2005 dengue epidemic. And they will be tightened further, he said.

"We will continue to monitor this very, very closely until we are satisfied," he said, adding that there were no new infections.

There were 10 cases of the mosquito-borne, dengue-like illness here last year, but none were locally

transmitted, unlike the cases last week.

Dr Lim said this latest outbreak is also of concern because previous cases were sporadic. "This is the first time we had a cluster," he said. "There's a real possibility the chikungunya virus may, from sporadic, become endemic. It could potentially become a second problem for us if left unchecked."

As of yesterday, the NEA had inspected 2,300 premises and had widened its search for mosquito breeding - from the usual 150m radius for dengue - to areas bounded by Sungei Road, Serangoon Road, Lavender Road and Jalan Besar.

Besides conducting checks on the ground, the NEA will hold discussions today with agencies such as the Land Transport Authority and the Urban Redevelopment Authority to explore ways to control the spread of the virus.

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Giant Newt, Tiny Frog Identified as Most at Risk

Jeremy Lovell, PlanetArk 21 Jan 08;

LONDON - A giant Chinese salamander that predates Tyrannosaurus rex and the world's smallest frog are among a group of extremely rare amphibians identified by scientists on Monday as being in need of urgent help to survive.

The Olm, a blind salamander that can survive for 10 years without food, and a purple frog that spends most of its life four metres underground are also among the 10 most endangered amphibians drawn up by the Zoological Society of London.

"These species are the 'canaries in the coalmine' -- they are highly sensitive to factors such as climate change and pollution, which lead to extinction, and are a stark warning of things to come," said EDGE head Jonathan Baillie.

EDGE, which stands for Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered, is a project set up a year ago to identify and start to protect some of nature's most weird and wonderful creatures.

"The EDGE amphibians are amongst the most remarkable and unusual species on the planet and yet an alarming 85 percent of the top 100 are receiving little or no conservation attention," said the project's amphibians chief Helen Meredith.

While last year's launch focused on at risk mammals, this year the focus shifted to neglected amphibians.

"These animals may not be cute and cuddly, but hopefully their weird looks and bizarre behaviours will inspire people to support their conservation," Meredith added.

Not only are the target species unique, the project itself is breaking new ground by using the internet at www.zsl.org/edge to highlight threatened creatures and encourage the public to sponsor conservation.

Global warming and human depredation of habitat are cited as root causes of the problem facing the creatures from the massive to the minute.

The Chinese giant salamander, a distant relative of the newt, can grow up to 1.8 metres in length while the tiny Gardiner's Seychelles frog when full grown is only the size of a drawing pin.

Also on this year's list is the limbless Sagalla caecilian, South African ghost frogs, lungless Mexican salamanders, the Malagasy rainbow frog, Chile's Darwin frog and the Betic midwife toad whose male carries fertilised eggs on its hind legs.

"Tragically, amphibians tend to be the overlooked members of the animal kingdom, even though one in every three amphibian species is currently threatened with extinction, a far higher proportion than that of bird or mammal species," said EDGE's Baillie. (Editing by Jon Boyle)

Weirdest and most endangered creatures
Paul Eccleston, The Telegraph 21 Jan 08;

They could all merit a place in a gallery of Nature's strangest creatures. But apart from their strange looks and shapes they have one thing in common - they are all in danger of extinction.

Amphibians as a rule are not cute and cuddly which puts them way down the pecking order of species that need to be saved.

But they are a key indicator species and if they start to decline it is a clear warning that the environment is in trouble.

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has drawn up a list of some of the world's most extraordinary creatures threatened with extinction.

They found 85 per cent of the top 100 of the 'world's weirdest and most endangered creatures' are receiving little conservation attention and will disappear if no action is taken.

They include exotically-named species such as the Lungless salamander and the Betic midwife toad.

All amphibian species were assessed according to how Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered they are and as a result ZSL has launched an amphibians conservation and fundraising initiative which it has called EDGE.

The amphibians are those with few close relatives and are highly distinct genetically. They are also critically endangered and desperately in need of immediate action to save them.

By mathematically combining a measure of each species' unique evolutionary history with its threat of extinction, the scientists were able to give species an EDGE value and rank them accordingly.

Helen Meredith, EDGE Amphibians coordinator, said: "These animals may not be cute and cuddly, but hopefully their weird looks and bizarre behaviours will inspire people to support their conservation"

ZSL has identified and is starting work to protect 10 of the most unusual and threatened EDGE amphibian species this year. They include:

*Chinese giant salamander (salamander that can grow up to 1.8m in length and evolved independently from all other amphibians over 100m years before Tyrannosaurus rex)

*Sagalla caecilian (limbless amphibian with sensory tentacles on the sides of its head)

*Purple frog (purple-pigmented frog that was only discovered in 2003 because it spends most of the year buried up to 4m underground)

*Ghost frogs of South Africa (one species is found only in the traditional human burial grounds of Skeleton Gorge in Table Mountain, South Africa)

*Olm (blind salamander with transparent skin that lives underground, hunts for its prey by smell and electrosensitivity and can survive without food for 10 years)

*Lungless salamanders of Mexico (highly endangered salamanders that do not have lungs but instead breathe through their skin and mouth lining)

*Malagasy rainbow frog (highly-decorated frog that inflates itself when under threat and can climb vertical rock surfaces)

*Chile Darwin's frog (a frog where fathers protect the young in their mouths, this species has not been officially seen since around 1980 and may now be extinct)

*Betic midwife toad (toads that evolved from all others over 150m years ago - the males carry the fertilised eggs wrapped around their hind legs)

Gardiner's Seychelles frog (perhaps the world's smallest frog, with adults growing up to just 11mm in length - the size of a drawing pin)

Dr Jonathan Baillie, head of the EDGE programme, said: "Tragically, amphibians tend to be the overlooked members of the animal kingdom, even though one in every three amphibian species is currently threatened with extinction, a far higher proportion than that of bird or mammal species.

"These species are the "canaries in the coalmine" - they are highly sensitive to factors such as climate change and pollution, which lead to extinction, and are a stark warning of things to come.

"If we lose them, other species will inevitably follow. The EDGE programme strives to protect the world's forgotten species and ensure that the weirdest species survive the current extinction crisis and astound future generations with their extraordinary uniqueness."

Further information about the EDGE programme can be found at www.zsl.org/edge.

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Chinese Police Seize Endangered Pangolins from Home

PlanetArk 21 Jan 08;

BEIJING - A foul stench led Chinese police to a home where they found 16 protected pangolins in cages and plastic bags, and another 37 dead ones in the refrigerator, the Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

The rescued pangolins, an endangered scaly ant eater sought for their skin and for use in Chinese medicine, ranged in size from the palm of a human hand to four kilograms, Xinhua said, citing the local Forest Police Station.

One bear paw was also found in the fridge in the house in southern China's Guangdong Province.

Four suspects were arrested, Xinhua said.

The solitary and nocturnal pangolin is found only in Asia and Africa. Its meat is considered a delicacy for some, its scaly skin can be made into handbags and shoes, and its scales and blood are used in Chinese medicine to treat allergies and sexually transmitted disease.

All international trade in the animals was banned in 2000.

Earlier this month, two men in the southern city of Xiamen received suspended death sentances for smugging 17 containers of pangolin meat and scales worth 23 million yuan (US$3.2 million) into China. (US$1 = 7.242 Yuan) (Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by David Fogarty)

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