US Land Once Preserved Now Being Farmed

Kent Garber, Yahoo News 1 Apr 08;

Since the mid-1980s, the U.S. government, in an attempt to reduce the environmental fallout from large-scale farming, has been paying farmers to set aside less-than-ideal land for conservation.

The results have been overwhelmingly positive: Soil erosion has been reduced; chemical and fertilizer runoff has eased; habitats for game birds and endangered species have been created and enlarged.

The pushback to climate change has been equally noteworthy: In 2007, the lands trapped 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, making the Conservation Reserve Program the most effective government-funded defense against greenhouse gases on private lands.

"We use this program for everything," said John Johnson, a U.S. Department of Agriculture deputy administrator. "We protect New York City's drinking water with it. We preserve groundwater with it. We protect the salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest with it. It's a wonderful program."

But dark clouds are forming on the protected fields. Historically, farmers have been eager to participate in the program, and many still are. But as prices for crops have soared, a growing number of farmers have opted to put conservation land back into production.

The trend is expected to accelerate--to the grave concern of many observers who caution that years of steady environmental progress could be halted, or even reversed, as buffers and habitats are converted into farmland.

Congress, meanwhile, could further strain the program as it races to complete massive farm legislation this spring. (After several extensions, the bill now has a mid-April deadline.)

Conservation programs, according to those familiar with negotiations, are at risk of being slashed as negotiators try to keep funding levels under control.

So far, the shift in land use has been modest but significant. In September 2007, according to the USDA, 36.8 million acres were enrolled in the program; last month, 34.7 million acres remained. In other words, in a relatively short time, more than 2 million acres came out after years of solid expansion.

Much of the slide occurred between September and November, when thousands of farmers with contracts up for renewal chose not to renew them.

The atrophy has been well distributed geographically, but it has been particularly acute in states that grow lots of corn and soybeans: In Iowa, 128,000 acres went back into farming; in North Dakota, 250,000 acres; in South Dakota, 300,000 acres.

"Wheat, soybean, and corn markets are providing very strong incentives to plant more acreage this fall and next spring," then acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner said at the time. "Producers responded strongly, with corn acres increasing to their highest level since 1944."

The transition of land from conservation to farming is projected to continue, according to available figures. By 2010, more than 4.5 million acres of conservation acres will be put into farming, and some estimates have put the figures even higher. Within the next five to 10 years, nearly a quarter all CRP land could be removed.

"Right now, given the current economic climate, many farmers are trying to find every available piece of ground to put into production," says Ferd Hoefner, policy director for the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

The shift is being echoed abroad on a larger and even more severe scale: From Brazil to Indonesia, farmers are razing millions of acres of rainforest and wilderness and overtaking pasturelands to grow crops that can be used to feed the global demand for biofuels.

On balance, a majority of farmers are choosing, for the moment, to stay in the program. Though high crop prices can provide incentives to switch, other considerations still matter.

Some of the land in conservation, for instance, is "marginal," meaning that it's harder to grow crops on it, especially in numbers that bring in good money. Returning land to production also requires labor and investment--in fuel, fertilizer, and other items that, like crops, are also increasingly expensive. "If you are getting good rental rates and no production costs, other than having someone mow it every few years," Hoefner says, "it's not a bad deal [to stay in], especially if you're using it as retirement savings."

But with crop prices so high--corn, for instance, closed at $5.56 a bushel on Wednesday, compared with $2.20 in 2006--the stakes are getting higher. Most farmers in the program are committed to 10- or 15-year contracts; when their contracts expire, they can renew or opt out. So if crop prices stay high--as estimates suggest--the lure of productive land will be something with which each wave of farmers in the program will be grappling.

Congress, which sets aside money for the program, could either sweeten or dull the pot, depending upon what it does with the farm bill. Farmers who are now in the program receive, on average, about $49 per acre. The average enrolled farm in 2008 will receive $4,139. To compete with the market, those prices, some observers say, are too low. Both the House and Senate versions of the farm bill would increase conservation funding by close to $5 billion.

But recent discussions suggest that those increases might be scaled back or even cut. Other reductions are being discussed as well. In 2002, when Congress wanted the conservation program to grow, it boosted the number of acres it would maximally support to 39.2 million. Now there is talk of whittling the cap back down to 32 million acres as Congress seeks to write a less costly bill that the Bush administration will sign. If farmers are already opting out, the thinking goes, why not give it less funding?

There is also chatter, much to the consternation of environmentalists, about bundling energy policy together with conservation efforts. The worries were amplified earlier this month when Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, speaking in Las Vegas, said, "I'd like to see all the [conservation reserve program] acres out there growing switch grass"--switch grass being a warm-season prairie grass that can be used to make ethanol.

Environmentalists say the proposal is based not on data but wishful thinking. "The USDA is doing what it can to push corn production and biofuels," said National Wildlife Foundation Senior Program Manager Julie Sibbing. The thinking on conservation, she says, is, "Why not have your cake and eat it, too?"

Congress, Sibbing said, could do a number of things in the farm bill to make the conservation program stronger: set a floor--a minimum--for conservation acreage, rather than a cap; make information about payment rates, which tend to vary from state to state, more accessible to farmers; and keep those rates competitive.

She and others emphasize the annual payback: hundreds of millions of pounds of nitrogen and phosphorous kept out of water; nearly half a billion tons of soil, critical to any farming operation, preserved; increases in vulnerable animal populations.

"The way our farm subsidy system works, you could farm and lose your crop everywhere and still make money because there are so many safeguards," she said. "But without CRP, we won't have the space for wildlife."

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Brazil biodiesel sputters on social, green goals

Raymond Colitt, Reuters 2 Apr 08;

But the second generation biofuel is not as propitious as the government would have it. Nearly 95 percent of the 1 billion liters of biodiesel produced per year is made from cow fat and soybean oil, both less energy efficient and made by big farm businesses.

IRAQUARA, Brazil (Reuters) - Booming demand for biodiesel has become a lifeline for some poor farmers who plant oil seeds in Brazil's dry northeast but critics say the fuel is not as clean, equitable and bountiful as the government boasts.

"Nobody ever wanted this stuff and now they can't get enough," farmer Joel Queiroz said of the drought-resistant castor beans he sells to a biodiesel refinery in Iraquara, 310 miles west of the Bahia state capital, Salvador.

Investors, including many foreigners, have flocked to Brazil's vast hinterland with its large farm potential and highly competitive production costs to produce biofuels.

"Brazil is the new Saudi Arabia," said Ricardo Alonso, plant manager of biofuel maker Ecodiesel in Iraquara.

The refinery's tall steel structure and the sleek 36-wheel tanker trucks parked outside are a stark contrast to the crumbling adobe shacks of local peasants.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva billed the biodiesel program he launched in 2004 as a key to slashing poverty and slowing global warming.

Diesel sold to motorists contains 2 percent of biodiesel. That ratio will increase to 3 percent in July and eventually 5 percent. Brazil is already the largest exporter of ethanol, which it derives from sugar cane, and Lula wants biodiesel to follow suit.

But the second generation biofuel is not as propitious as the government would have it.

Nearly 95 percent of the 1 billion liters of biodiesel produced per year is made from cow fat and soybean oil, both less energy efficient and made by big farm businesses.

"If we are not careful, biodiesel will generate the same concentration of wealth that ethanol did over the decades," said Erico Sampaio Souza, head of a Bahia farm cooperative.

Small farmers lack credit and know-how, he said.

The supply of premium raw materials has been erratic. Last year Ecodiesel was left empty-handed as farmers ignored a contract and sold part of their castor beans to the higher-bidding chemical industry.

Authorities are eager to downplay the environmental impact of biofuels. Crops for biodiesel and ethanol together occupy only 13.59 million acres, under 2 percent of all farm and cattle land, they say.

"The impact on the environment or food prices is negligible," said Ricardo Dornelles, director of renewable fuels at the energy ministry.

He says there are 224.9 million acres of unused farmland. Still, farmers and cattle ranchers help cut down country-sized chunks of the Amazon every year. They are driven by high commodity prices, the environment ministry says.

An increase of biofuels is likely to put additional pressure on land and commodity prices, forcing farmers deeper into the Amazon forest in search of cheaper land, critics said.

"It amazes me how authorities say biofuels don't affect the Amazon -- of course there's a relation," said Paulo Barreto, coordinator at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute.

Increased cane growing for ethanol in Sao Paulo has helped push less profitable cattle ranching north and biodiesel could do the same, Barreto said.

"Brazil is not ready for a biofuels boom," he said.

Still, with policy corrections, biofuels may still be viable in Brazil, said Luis Laranja, farm and environment coordinator with WWF Brasil.

If Brazil's cattle industry, were to increase its low productivity by only 10 percent, it would free up 20 million hectares (49 million acres) for biofuels, he said.

"With more controls in the Amazon and more rational land use, 'planting fuels' could be good for Brazil's economy and the global climate," Laranja said.

(Editing by Jackie Frank)

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'IPCC seriously underplays climate change'

Roger Highfield, The Telegraph 2 Apr 08;

The UN body which won the Nobel prize for warning the world about climate change has seriously underplayed the problem, leading scientists say today.

Their analysis suggests that assumptions about the rising efficiency of cars, appliances, power stations and air conditioning, based on complex analyses, are too optimistic, although they do not go into details.

Reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide over the coming century will be more challenging than society has been led to believe by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to the commentary entitled "Dangerous Assumptions" published today in the journal Nature.

Roger Pielke Jr, University of Colorado, Boulder, Prof Tom Wigley, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, and Christopher Green of McGill University, Quebec, argue that the IPCC, the pre-eminent body engaged in crystal-ball gazing about future climates, has sent out the wrong signals about the need for new technology to curb emissions.

After studying what would happen if there were no improvements in technology, they conclude that the emissions scenarios that the IPCC has developed for looking at future climate change assume that "business as usual" will include continuous significant increases in energy efficiency, so that the emissions of carbon for a given amount of energy generation will continually decrease.

"The huge relative magnitude of the spontaneous emissions reductions is not widely known or appreciated," said Prof Wigley.

The IPCC plays a "risky game in assuming that spontaneous advances in technological innovation will carry most of the burden of achieving future emissions reductions," the authors write.

By assuming continuous improvement in technology, the IPCC has had the paradoxical effect of underplaying the dire need to develop radical new clean and efficient energy technologies.

Recent changes in emissions per unit of energy consumed already are higher than those predicted by the IPCC because of rapid economic development, says Dr Pielke Jr. In Asia, for instance, the demands of more energy-intensive economies are being met with conventional fossil-fuel, a process expected to continue there for decades and eventually move into Africa.

"Not only is this reduction unlikely to happen under current policies, but we are moving in the opposite direction right now. We believe these kinds of assumptions in the analysis blind us to reality and could potentially distort our ability to develop effective policies."

The Nature commentary points out, for example, that to stabilise CO2 levels at around 500 parts per million (compared to the present level of about 390 ppm), IPCC scenarios assume that 57 to 96 per cent of the total carbon removed from the energy supply over the coming century would occur spontaneously, from energy efficiency improvements.

The IPCC was aware of this issue, says Dr Pielke, though why it did nothing to address it is "a question most appropriate for the IPCC."

"Stabilisation is a more daunting challenge than many realise," Prof Wigley adds. "Global energy demand is projected to grow rapidly, and these huge new demands must be met by largely carbon-neutral energy sources - sources that either do not use fossil fuels or that capture and store any emitted CO2."

U.N. climate panel seen downplaying technology need
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 2 Apr 08;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.N. climate change panel seriously underestimated the need for new technology in its reports on what it will take to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming, ecology and economy experts said on Wednesday.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change based its global warming predictions issued last year on the assumption that technology would automatically improve, giving the world even greater energy efficiency, which would help lower climate-warming emissions over the coming decades.

But this automatic technology improvement has not happened so far this century, according to the authors of a commentary in the current issue of the journal Nature.

"We argue that the size of this technology challenge has been seriously underestimated ... diverting attention from policies that could directly stimulate technological innovation," they wrote.

While energy efficiency has continued to improve in the richest countries, including the United States and Europe, it has declined in fast-developing countries like China as demand increases there, lead author Roger Pielke Jr. said in a telephone interview.

SURGING DEMAND FOR ENERGY

"There are more than 2 billion people worldwide with no access to electricity," said Pielke, who is based at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "And as they demand, rightly, access to energy, their carbon emissions have nowhere to go but up."

Carbon dioxide is emitted by coal-fired power plants, petroleum-fueled vehicles and some factories as well as by natural sources including human respiration. It is one of several so-called greenhouse gases that exacerbate global climate change by trapping heat near the Earth's surface.

Pielke likens the U.N. panel's technology assumptions to the assumption that any individual will automatically get a raise in pay every year.

If you figure you will always get an annual raise, you will spend more based on that assumption, and have to rethink things if the expected raise does not materialize, Pielke said.

He acknowledged a decades-long trend toward greater energy efficiency but said the last decade or so has deviated from that trend.

"It may be that 100 years from now ... we will look back and see that this was a temporary excursion from that trend," Pielke said. "The point would be that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during this excursion from the trend could be quite significant and a lot larger than is accounted for in the range of scenarios used by the (U.N. climate panel)."

Nothing less than a technology revolution is required, Pielke said, with investments in research and development comparable to the U.S. military's investments during the Cold War.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

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Venice flood barrier blossoms into coral reef

The Telegraph 2 Apr 08;

A coral reef has bloomed in the Adriatic Sea on the site where a tidal barrier is being constructed to protect Venice.

Marine biologists said the Mose project - a Thames Barrier-style defence around the Venetian lagoon - has proven an irresistible magnet to rare coral, fish and crustaceans.

They have discovered more than 150 different species, including the giant pen shell (Pinna Nobilis), an endangered bivalve that can grow up to 3ft long and is normally found in the warmer waters around Sardinia.

The reef, on the mile-long rock and cement barrier, has taken hold in just two years and is also being visited by the Dustbin-Lid jellyfish (Rhizostoma Octupus), the largest in the Mediterranean, which can measure up to 2ft across.

Andrea Rismondo, a marine biologist at the University of Padua said: "This barrier was built for an entirely different purpose. However, the structure has become an amazing meeting point for all sorts of fish, flora and fauna."

He added that because of global warming, the waters around Venice can now host the sort of fish and coral that were previously found only in the southern Mediterranean or Red Sea.

"This is a paradise for sport fishermen and divers," he said, adding that the reef should be used as a tourist attraction and turned into a marine park.

Fulco Pratesi, the founder of WWF Italy, said he was not surprised that a tropical reef had taken hold.

"This is not the first time that human construction has provided a refuge for wild creatures," he said.

"Oil platforms often become a sort of paradise for anemones and oysters after a few years of use."

• One of Venice's most famous landmarks, the bell tower in St Mark's Square, is being fitted with two titanium "bands" in a £7 million project to save it from collapse.

The 325 ft tower, constructed in the 16th century on thousands of wooden posts driven deep into the mud, is now leaning by almost 3in.

The bell tower has collapsed before, in 1902. Remarkably, no one was killed, except for the caretaker's cat. An exact copy of the tower was rebuilt in 1912.

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Showdown building in Malta over spring hunting of migrating birds

Gina Doggett, Yahoo News 2 Apr 08;

Maltese bird hunters and conservationists are headed for a showdown in the Mediterranean island state over the plight of migrating birds such as quail and turtle doves that pass through every spring.

The European Court of Justice was to decide on Wednesday whether to ask the Maltese government to temporarily bar spring hunting until it reaches a definitive ruling on the issue.

Birdlovers are up in arms over spring hunting of wild birds, which is illegal under EU law but a deep-seated tradition in Malta, an important resting place for birds migrating between Africa and Europe and an EU member since 2004.

Since "the hunters are killing birds that are about to breed, ... what happens here is having a knock-on effect in other countries," said Andre Raine, the conservation manager of BirdLife Malta.

A government decision to ban spring hunting "should have been announced several weeks ago," Raine told AFP.

"It's kind of like a chess game," Raine said, noting that the issue has long been politically sensitive in Malta, but that in the wake of elections last month, "it's crunch time. They have to make a decision."

Malta's Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FKNK) declined an interview with AFP, but its general secretary Lino Farrugia told Malta's Sunday Times last month: "God forbid the hunting season doesn't open this spring!"

Asked if the FKNK feared trouble if spring hunting is stopped, Farrugia said: "I do not rule out anything. ... Nobody can understand our love for hunting."

Raine, for his part, said hunters "have eradicated native breeding species" in Malta, a densely populated island state with ever-dwindling green spaces and a population of some 400,000, of whom at least 20,000 are hunters.

Turtle doves and common quails -- the two species for which spring hunting is banned -- "don't breed here anymore," he said. "They have no chance because of high hunting pressure."

Malta is the only EU member state that allows spring hunting of the two species, both of whose populations are declining rapidly in Europe.

The dispute has allegedly led to a spate of violence and vandal attacks widely blamed on the FKNK, though few have been pinned directly on the association.

In February the prehistoric Hagar Qim temples, a UNESCO World Heritage site near a hunting and trapping ground, were daubed with pro-hunting slogans, three cars belonging to BirdLife Malta and its volunteers were torched and four amateur birdwatchers were beaten up.

In the run-up to the elections on March 8, assailants ripped up two of five BirdLife Malta billboards with an image of 13 Maltese celebrities urging the prime minister and opposition leader to oppose spring bird hunting, Raine said.

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Dozens of Philippine rivers destroyed by pollution: official

Yahoo News 2 Apr 08;

Fifty rivers in the Philippines have been destroyed because people are using them to dump their rubbish, leaving some ecologically dead, an official said Wednesday.

Of the country's 421 major rivers and 20 large river basins, 50 are "highly degraded because of man's abuse and neglect," Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Joselito Atienza said in a statement.

"History tells us that rivers have played an important role in the country's economic growth. Yet, we have disregarded this and continue to dirty our rivers and lakes by turning them into giant septic tanks and trash bins," he added.

One of the ecologically dead rivers is the Pasig which bisects Manila. The government has been relocating thousands of squatters from its banks, but those who remain "continue to throw their domestic waste into the river," he said.

Atienza said 53 percent of the pollution in Philippine rivers is due to domestic waste.

"In the face of climate change, it is important that Filipinos should now adopt water conservation as a way of life," the official said, urging them to plant trees.

"Trees moderate water flows by absorbing large amounts of water during heavy rainfall and releasing it gradually during the dry season.

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Green hotels and resorts reach out to eco-conscious travellers

Charlie McDonald-Gibson, Yahoo News 1 Apr 08;

As climate change guilt among tourists grows, hotels and resorts are finding they need to do more to please the green consumer than simply ask them to re-use their towels.

Under-sea air cooling systems, intelligent lighting, organically-fertilised herb gardens and spas constructed entirely from mud are all being employed to woo tourists concerned about their carbon footprint.

Businesses are also realising that environmentally-friendly policies are not only good for their conscience, but their wallets and reputations too.

"Now the environment is very important for people," says Nantiya Tulyanond, owner of the Old Bangkok Inn, a small hotel in the Thai capital with an impressive range of energy-saving technologies.

"I think it is very important, not to save the world, but to save the money as well."

At the Six Senses Hideaway just south of the Thai seaside resort town of Hua Hin, staff in airy pyjama-like uniforms zip around the 30-acre (12-hectare) resort on bicycles under the shade of palms and banana plants.

Guests relax in private villas built from locally-sourced materials. Hardly anything in the room is plastic, and a leaflet encouraging guests to offset the harmful gases emitted by their flights sits by the bedside.

Srichan Monrakkharom, the resort's social and environment manager, enthuses about the mushroom farm, mud spa, herb gardens, solar water heating, and air conditioning systems which switch off if guests leave their doors open.

"European people, they feel guilty that they have to fly a long way and generate a lot of carbon emissions," says the environmental science graduate.

A United Nations report last year found that tourism, in particular air travel, accounted for about six percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide -- the main greenhouse gas that traps the sun's heat and fuels global warming.

And with the number of global travellers predicted to double by 2020, emissions also look set to increase.

Six Senses guests Will and Lyn Swayne, both in their early 30s, work in advertising in Hong Kong and try to research a resort's environmental credentials before booking in.

"What we are trying to do at the moment is cut down the amount of travel that we do, going on less holidays," says Will Swayne.

Many guests, however, say they simply do not know how to research a resort's eco-policies.

"It's always hard to judge when you are far away from the place -- you have the marketing materials but you wouldn't always know what was going on," says Geoff Thompson, 34, a computer programmer from New Zealand.

A search engine request for "eco-resort Thailand" comes up with about 34,000 results, with the "eco" prefix sometimes meaning just that the resort is built on a pristine stretch of beach or offers adventure travel.

There are resources for eco-conscious travellers such as the website EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com and the private Green Globe 21 certification given to resorts that meat certain criteria.

But Oliver Martin, an associate director at industry body the Pacific Asia Travel Association, says there are so many different "green" standards on the market right now that tourists are left scratching their heads.

"Consumers will want to know more and they will want to know that the dollars that they are spending are actually making a difference, but right now it is the Wild West," he tells AFP.

European travellers in particular are demanding more from hotels than token efforts toward the environment, he says, meaning the travel industry needs to adapt and grow in a sustainable way.

Michael Kwee, social responsibility manger for the upmarket Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts, says the Singapore-based chain is on the verge of announcing a company-wide water management and energy efficiency policy.

Six Senses even toyed with the idea of cooling their new Thai resort by piping cold air from under the sea -- only to find that the nearby waters were not deep enough for the innovative green technology.

Back at the cosy 10-room Old Bangkok Inn, Nantiya enthuses about the little things modest hotels can do to help save the environment.

Low flush toilets, energy-saving appliances, sky lights making use of Thailand's abundant sunshine and furniture made from salvaged wood all help her hotel go green while cutting the energy bills in the long run.

"We love to be with nature, we love flowers, we love trees, we love animals -- and I think all the green things go together with this," she says.

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Australia trials underground carbon storage

Rob Taylor, Reuters 2 Apr 08;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia on Wednesday began pumping 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide underground in a test of carbon storage that environmentalists said would do little to tackle climate change.

The CO2 is stripped from a natural gas well but the idea is to see if the scheme can be expanded to capture CO2 from coal-fired power stations, whose emissions are blamed in part for global warming.

Government-backed researchers pumped compressed CO2 into a depleted natural gas reservoir tomb two kilometers (6,500 feet) below dairy country in the Otway basin, west of Melbourne.

"What we'll have is probably the most comprehensive monitoring program for stored carbon dioxide anywhere in the world," said Peter Cook, chief executive of the government and industry-backed CO2 Cooperative Research Centre.

The project is one of a handful in the world, but is far smaller than a similar project in Algeria's Salah gas field which is capable of storing around 1 million tons of CO2 each year in 1,800 meter-deep wells.

Cook said the Australian test plant for so-called geosequestration would hopefully lead to a larger commercial plant shipping gas from coal-fired electricity plants to other underground storage basins, possibly offshore.

It could also eventually help strip out atmospheric CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal, blamed for climate warming, he said, and was being assessed by major greenhouse emitting countries, including the United States and Japan.

"The project has a very important role in demonstrating the technical and environmental feasibility of geosequestration to Australia and the world and preparing the way for its widespread application," Cook said in a statement. Australian Greens Senator Christine Milne said the A$40 million ($36 million) project had come no closer to the holy grail of capturing and removing CO2 emissions from coal-fired power stations. China, India, Australia, South Africa and many other nations rely heavily on coal to power their economies.

"Years after being first proposed as Australia's carbon solution, there has still been no pilot plant demonstration of capture technology," Milne said.

Australia, which signed the Kyoto Protocol last year, is the world's largest coal exporter and top emitter per-capita of greenhouse gases.

Other green groups said much of the technology behind geosequestration and risks were yet to be tested, including the possible danger of leaking gas, which can cause asphyxia.

Cook said he was confident the plant was safe as the carbon was being pumped into a sandstone layer holding CO2 naturally.

But Milne said governments globally would be better placing their efforts into proven greenhouse-friendly technologies, such as solar and wind energy.

"Surely we should leapfrog straight into the renewable energy technologies which don't create pollution in the first place," she said.

($1 = A$1.10)

(Editing by David Fogarty)

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Best of our wild blogs: 2 Apr 08

A chat with Resorts World
on the leafmonkey blog

Siti shares her passion for nature
on the teamseagrass blog

"There's nothing to see"
amidst the forest bristling with life on the budak blog

Nudi review
of new nudibranch book on the ashira blog

Malaysian programme for International Year of the Reef 2008
links from the singapore celebrates our reefs blog

Pulau Ubin in the news
on the pulau ubin stories blog

Hike from Teck Whye Park to Tree Top Walk
on the Mountain and Sea blog

Clementi no more?
reminiscing about an old cinema from the Metroblogging Singapore blog

Lime butterfly
the life history on the butterflies of singapore blog

Bogus bugs
on the budak blog

Birds from a bike
on the budak blog

Pink-necked Green Pigeon: Nesting in an urban garden
on the Bird Ecology Study Group blog

The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry
from Story of Stuff blog

Delta Airlines Serves Shark Fin
on the FiNS Blog

Job Opportunities at DHI: Coral Biologist & EIA Specialist
on the eco-tax mailing list

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Industry players laud decision for Singapore's new cruise terminal

Channel NewsAsia 1 Apr 08;

SINGAPORE: Industry players from the tourism industry said that Singapore's new cruise terminal is necessary if the country wants to become a cruise hub.

The new International Cruise Terminal at Marina South becomes operational in 2010. And by then, international cruise infrastructure will double in capacity.

The cruise terminal in Marina South is suitable to handle larger cruise ships as the area has deep waters and no height restrictions.

Robert Khoo, CEO of NATAS, said: "Although we can take in large cruise ships it is still inadequate because some of the big ships that come to Singapore and call here, we really don't have the facilities to have them... They're parked at the PSA warehouse and it's very inconvenient for the passengers to come out and get back to the cruise ships."

When the new terminal is ready in 2010, there will be two berths.

Robin Yap, Chairman of the Tourism Management Institute of Singapore, said: "I'm sure there'd be a lot more new ships coming to our port and with that we can expect more options for Singaporean travellers. I think that's good news for all."

Royal Caribbean, which set up office in Singapore in 2007 is excited by the prospects of new and better facilities in Marina South.

Rama Rebbapragada, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Asia, said: "We are very pleased and thrilled because our plans are to grow and be a long-term player in this region and having a terminal that can double its capacity and also take on the bigger ships will only bode well for Singapore."

So the cruise liner is looking at bringing some of its bigger and newer ships to Singapore by 2010.

But even before the new terminal is completed, the Singapore Tourism Board said Singapore will already be a port of call for a host of ships.

These include Cunard's Queen Victoria which will make her maiden world cruise later this year and ships from Princess Cruise, P&O, and Holland America Line. - CNA/vm

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Living past 100: on Pulau Ubin, Singapore

GOING... GOING... GOING...
Teh Jen Lee, The New Paper 2 Apr 08;

Madam Asiah prefers to grow old on the island. 'All I did on the mainland was eat and sleep,' she recalled. 'I fell sick. My joints ached from lack of use.

He's 101 but he can read without glasses. She's a great-great grandma but she can walk 6km a day. Both are among a vanishing breed of long-lifers on Pulau Ubin

EVER wondered what your life would be like if you ever live past 100?

Well, take a leaf from the book of Mr Tan Hai Liang, a 101-year-old Pulau Ubin resident.

But Mr Tan is probably even older.

Though his IC says he was born on 1 Jan 1907, Mr Tan said he was actually born earlier than that. He has no birth records from his hometown, Guangdong province in China.

But Mr Tan looks not a day older than 90. He eats whatever his family eats and does not need a special diet.

He can walk for short distances without the help of a cane and read the newspapers without glasses.

The father of five lives with one of his sons in a one-storey zinc-roofed house in Pulau Ubin's town centre, a five-minute walk from the jetty.

His son runs a seafood restaurant and grocery store next to the house.

Mr Tan has lived on Pulau Ubin ever since he arrived in Singapore in the 1940s. He worked odd jobs and later opened a grocery store there.

In his younger days, he served in the island's residents' committee and even hosted a visit by Singapore's first president, Mr Yusof Ishak, in the 1960s.

But these days, Mr Tan leads a leisurely life.

He wakes up at 9am, brushes his dentures and eats breakfast. His daughter-in-law, Madam Koh Siew Hong, 56, said: 'Whatever we eat, he eats. His dentures are strong enough.'

When the Chinese newspapers are delivered, he pores over them.

After that, he would watch the TV or Teochew movies on DVD.

Madam Koh said: 'We just had to teach him once how to use the DVD player.'

Every few months, he goes to the mainland for a medical check-up as there is no clinic on the island. He suffers from high blood pressure.

His hearing is also failing him. But Mr Tan has generally been healthy.

He told this reporter in Teochew: 'I'm old already, more than 100 years old, but still not dead.'

Madam Koh said that when her father-in-law was in his 90s, he was still taking baths in the sea and riding his motorcycle around the island.

When a Chinese worker we met during the interview found out Mr Tan's age, he said: 'He's special.'

Indeed he is. And he's not alone.

He's part of a small group of aged residents who still call Pulau Ubin home.

Over the last few weeks, The New Paper team caught up with a few of them. Like Mr Tan, Madam Asiah Ibrahim is older than the 86 years that her IC shows.

She recalls not having a birth certificate and getting her IC only when she got married. She was around 17 then.

The sprightly woman walks at least 6km a day from her home to the town centre. She lives in a village about 3km from the town centre.

Madam Asiah is used to being on her feet as she used to work standing in a bottle factory in Ang Mo Kio.

After her husband died in the 1980s, she moved to Pulau Ubin as she wanted a more relaxed life.

She has five children, 30 grandchildren, 25 great grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren.

Her children visit her every week, and bring her food and money.

One of her sons works with the Outward Bound School and goes to Pulau Ubin frequently.

Madam Asiah, who lives alone with her cat, spends her free time gardening. On the island, water has to be pumped from wells using diesel generators, which are also used to generate electricity.

Despite this, Madam Asiah prefers to grow old on the island.

'All I did on the mainland was eat and sleep,' she recalled. 'I fell sick. My joints ached from lack of use.

'Here, I can plant trees, walk around and collect leaves and plants.

'All the people here are old. When we are gone, these villages will go back to the cats and monkeys.'

Related links

Oldest man on Pulau Ubin
on the pulau ubin stories blog

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Singapore schools step up checks as more kids hit by hand, foot and mouth disease

Another 702 cases reported last week, of which 60% involve those under five
Judith Tan, Straits Times 2 Apr 08;

PRIMARY schools have joined kindergartens and childcare centres in stepping up health checks on pupils as the number of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) cases here continues to rise.

The checks are part of stepped-up efforts by the Ministry of Health (MOH) to stem the spread of the disease after another 702 cases were reported last week. That brings the total number of cases to 4,423 so far this year. Last year, Singapore had 20,005 cases - the highest annual figure so far.

About 60 per cent of patients this time round are children under five years old. A total of 57 children have been warded since the start of this year for not eating well, according to MOH, but none is in a serious condition.

The rise in cases is worrying to the health authorities, which said a potentially deadly strain of HFMD called Enterovirus 71 (EV71) was found in a 'higher' number of patients. Officials did not specify how many people have been infected with the virus.

EV71 has been known to cause infections in the brain, heart and lungs. During an outbreak in 2000 and 2001, the same strain killed more than 70 children in Asia, including seven in Singapore.

One school that has heightened its checks is Greenridge Primary.

Mr Suresh Balakrishnan, head of pupil development and management, told The Straits Times the screenings at the school have 'become more stringent'.

'Teachers do visual checks on every pupil at the start of the school day and should any child feel unwell, he will be sent to the general office, isolated in the sick bay and parents informed,' he said.

HFMD is a common childhood ailment that causes ulcers, rashes and blisters, and can infect adults.

It is spread via blister fluid, saliva, faeces and, occasionally, droplets from one's breath.

A check with National University Hospital found two children had been treated for the disease but were not hospitalised.

A spokesman for KK Women's and Children's Hospital said 54 children had been admitted since the start of the year. Most were warded because they were not eating, but they did not have more serious problems like difficulty in breathing or swelling in the brain, she said.

In an earlier interview with The Straits Times, Dr Chan Kwai Peng, head virologist at Singapore General Hospital, said there is no vaccine against the viruses. Preventing the spread is done by interrupting transmission.

In view of this, MOH is working with the ministries of Education and Community Development, Youth & Sports to step up efforts to limit the spread of the disease.

Doctors have been asked to look out for children with signs of the disease and to send patients with symptoms of lung, heart and brain infections to hospital immediately.

Mrs Ginny Loong, 34, a mother of a three-year-old boy and an 18-month-old girl, said she is not worried about her kids catching the disease at childcare centres.

'They have checks in place. Rather, I worry about parents who let their sick children into public playgrounds. The viruses could also spread that way,' she said.

An MOH spokesman said parents should keep children with HFMD at home until all blisters have dried up.

They should also consult a doctor as soon as possible if their child has fever, mouth ulcers and rashes on the palms, soles or buttocks.

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