Just add lime (to the sea) – the latest plan to cut CO2 emissions

• Project 'could turn back clock' on carbon dioxide
• Guardian conference will select top 10 climate ideas
Duncan Clark, The Guardian 6 Jul 09;

Putting lime into the oceans could stop or even reverse the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere, according to proposals unveiled at a conference on climate change solutions in Manchester today.

According to its advocates, the same technique could help fix one of the most dangerous side effects of man-made CO2 emissions: rising ocean acidity.

The project, known as Cquestrate, is the brainchild of Tim Kruger, a former management consultant. "This is an idea that can not only stop the clock on carbon dioxide, it can turn it back," he said, although he conceded that tipping large quantities of lime into the sea would currently be illegal.

The oceans are a key part of the natural carbon cycle, in which carbon dioxide is circulated between the land, seas and atmosphere. About half of the CO2 released into the air by humans each year is soaked up by the oceans. This helps slow the rate of global warming but increases ocean acidity, posing a potentially disastrous threat to marine ecosystems.

Kruger's scheme aims to boost the ability of the oceans to absorb CO2 but to do so in a way that helps reduce rather than increase ocean acidity. This is achieved by converting limestone into lime, in a process similar to those used in the cement industry, and adding the lime to seawater.

The lime reacts with CO2 dissolved in the water, converting it into bicarbonate ions, thereby decreasing the acidity of the water and enabling the oceans to absorb more CO2 from the air, so reducing global warming.

Kruger said: "It's essential that we reduce our emissions, but that may not be enough. We need a plan B to actually reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. We need to research such concepts now – not just the science but also the legal, ethical and governance considerations."

Kruger's plan was one of 20 innovative schemes proposed at the Manchester Report, a two-day search for the best ideas to tackle climate change staged by the Guardian as part of the Manchester International Festival.

A panel of experts chaired by Lord Bingham, formerly Britain's most senior judge, will select the 10 most promising ideas. These will be featured in a report that will be published in the Guardian next week and circulated to policymakers around the world.

Climate change secretary Ed Miliband told the conference the biggest danger faced by campaigners was creating a sense of defeatism. "We need to show people how they can aggregate their individual actions and be part of a bigger whole," he said.

Cquestrate is one of a number of so-called "geo-engineering schemes" that have been proposed to intervene in the Earth's systems in order to tackle climate change.

Kruger admits there are challenges to overcome: the world would need to mine and process about 10 cubic kilometres of limestone each year to soak up all the emissions the world produces, and the plan would only make sense if the CO2 resulting from lime production could be captured and buried at source.

Chris Goodall, one of the experts assessing the schemes, said of Cquestrate: "The basic concept looks good, though further research is needed into the feasibility."

Another marine geo-engineering scheme was presented by Professor Stephen Salter, of Edinburgh University.

His proposal is to build a fleet of remote-controlled, energy-self-sufficient ships that would spray minuscule droplets of seawater into the air. The droplets would whiten and expand clouds, reflecting sunlight away from the Earth and into space.

Salter said 300 ships would increase cloud reflectivity enough to cancel out the temperature rise caused by man-made climate change so far, but 1,800 would be needed to offset a doubling of CO2, something expected within a few decades.

Read more!

Who's to Blame? Making Poor Nations Share the Cost of Fighting Climate Change

A proposal to set international carbon-reduction targets based on the distribution of one billion "high emitters" in both developed and developing countries

Douglas Fischer, Scientific American 6 Jul 09;

A new framework for reducing carbon emissions takes a crack at the knottiest dilemma confronting a global climate solution: how to divvy cuts between rich and poor nations.

A new study published Monday attempts to sidestep the rancor, finding that virtually every country has a class of individuals - the so-called "high emitters" - enjoying a rich, carbon-intensive lifestyle. If those individuals, no matter their locale, are forced to take responsibility for their emissions, a great swath of countries become participants in the climate effort, the study claims.

"Rich people in poor countries shouldn't be able to hide behind the poor people in those countries," said Robert Socolow, co-director of Princeton's Carbon Mitigation Initiative and a co-author of the study, published in the journal Proceeds of the National Academy of Sciences.

The problem has dominated talks leading to December's Copenhagen negotiations on a post-Kyoto accord. Developing nations expect the industrialized world to do the heavy lifting on emissions cuts; industrialized countries, noting that the developing world will account for upwards of 97 percent of future emissions growth, want assurances that such growth will be curbed.

The analysis, "Sharing global CO2 emissions reductions among one billion high emitters," by a group of Princeton University researchers, proposes spreading responsibility for reductions among individuals rather than countries.

Under this framework, the international community would draw a single, global line for carbon emissions. Countries would then be responsible for reducing the carbon footprint of individuals living above that line. Emissions from individuals living below the line do not factor into the accounting.

Overall, the researchers found that the United States and China would have the largest carbon dioxide reduction targets, while Russia, India, the Middle East, South Africa and north Africa would all have sizable targets, due to their energy industries.

The proposal also sets a floor for the 3 billion people predicted by 2030 to be emitting less than one ton of carbon dioxide a year. Those people - the poorest of the poor - should focus solely on bettering their lifestyles, and they should do so via any economical means, the authors say.

They can safely come up to one-ton-a-year emissions target without breaking the global carbon bank.

It is folly, in other words, to light 10 villages via solar power when the same money could equip 100 villages with diesel-powered generators, Socolow said.

"There's no reason people at that level have to meet carbon goals," he said. "It starts with the high emitters."

****

The plan is being hailed by many climate experts for this inherent fairness: Industrialized countries bear the brunt of the labor, as those nations have the most residents living above any carbon line. But many nations in the developing world would also have to take some action as their citizenry prospers and begins to enjoy a more carbon-intensive lifestyle.

"Developing countries want attention to fairness," Socolow added. "We can talk about fairness in a way that is defensible in the minds of the high per-capita (emitting) countries.

"It's mischievous, but it's meant to be a log-jam-breaking concept."

Indeed, perhaps the most striking aspect of the study, said several climate experts familiar with it, is that by 2030 the world's one billion highest emitters will be spread evenly across four major economic regions of the globe: the United States; the industrialized world minus the U.S.; China; and the developing world minus China.

Plan floated to target individual carbon emitters
Yahoo News 7 Jul 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US researchers have proposed a new strategy to tackle the global climate dilemma: target the biggest polluters in a country, who also tend to be the wealthiest individuals.

Under the framework, a universal cap -- rather than different caps for different countries -- would be placed on carbon emissions and countries would then be tasked with getting individuals living beyond that cap to reduce their carbon footprint.

"Most of the world's emissions come disproportionately from the wealthy citizens of the world, irrespective of their nationality," said lead author Shoibal Chakravarty, a research scholar at the Princeton Environmental Institute.

"We estimate that in 2008, half of the world's emissions came from just 700 million people," he added, noting that many emissions owe to lifestyles that involve airplane flights, car use and the heating and cooling of large homes.

The plan, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, proposes to use national income distribution data for each individual country in order to estimate how carbon emissions are shared out among individuals.

After estimating global carbon emissions, the researchers proposed a rule to derive a universal cap on global individual emissions and determine corresponding limits.

The study did not say how the countries would implement the plan, although it noted that "a well-designed national policy would contain costs and not exacerbate inequalities."

About half of global greenhouse gas emissions come from less than a billion of the world's inhabitants, the researchers noted in explaining the logic behind their approach.

"Our proposal moves beyond per capita considerations to identify the world's high-emitting individuals, who are present in all countries," the University of Princeton research team wrote in its study.

The Kyoto Protocol, the current carbon-capping pact, charges rich countries with cutting most of the emissions while developing countries, including rapidly-developing China and India, are not required to reduce the emissions blamed for global warming.

The researchers said they hope their approach will garner the support of rich and poor countries less than six months before key UN climate change talks in Copenhagen.

As an example, they said that if global leaders set a target to maintain carbon emissions in 2030 at today's levels, no individual could emit more than 11 tons (10 tonnes) of carbon per year.

According to the projections, 1.13 billion people would be above the cap out of an estimated 8.1 billion-strong world population in 2030.

Each individual now emits a global average of five tons (4.5 tonnes) of carbon dioxide each year. Each European emits about 10 tons (nine tonnes) annually, while each American produces twice that amount, according to the study.

The researchers noted that some existing strategies based on energy use are considered unfair because they conceal the emissions of wealthy major polluters.

Allocating responsibility for carbon emissions has been the thorniest issue confronting negotiations between developed and developing countries ahead of the UN conference in December, which aims to strike a new global warming pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012.

New climate strategy: track the world's wealthiest
Deborah Zabarenko, Reuters 6 Jul 09;

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - To fairly divide the climate change fight between rich and poor, a new study suggests basing targets for emission cuts on the number of wealthy people, who are also the biggest greenhouse gas emitters, in a country.

Since about half the planet's climate-warming emissions come from less than a billion of its people, it makes sense to follow these rich folks when setting national targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions, the authors wrote on Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As it stands now, under the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol, rich countries shoulder most of the burden for cutting the emissions that spur global warming, while developing countries -- including fast-growing economies China and India -- are not required to curb greenhouse pollution.

Rich countries, notably the United States, have said this gives developing countries an unfair economic advantage; China, India and other developing countries argue that developed countries have historically spewed more climate-warming gases, and developing countries need time to catch up.

The study suggests setting a uniform international cap on how much carbon dioxide each person could emit in order to limit global emissions; since rich people emit more, they are the ones likely to reach or exceed this cap, whether they live in a rich country or a poor one.

For example, if world leaders agree to keep carbon emissions in 2030 at the same level they are now, no one person's emissions could exceed 11 tons of carbon each year. That means there would be about a billion "high emitters" in 2030 out of a projected world population of 8.1 billion.

EACH PERSON'S EMISSIONS

By counting the emissions of all the individuals likely to exceed this level, world leaders could provide target emissions cuts for each country. Currently, the world average for individual annual carbon emissions is about 5 tons; each European produces 10 tons and each American produces 20 tons.

With international climate talks set to start this week in Italy among the countries that pollute the most, the authors hope policymakers will look at the strong link between how rich people are and how much carbon dioxide they emit.

"You're distributing the task of doing something about emissions reduction based on the proportion of the population in the country that's actually doing the most damage," said Shoibal Chakravarty of the Princeton Environment Institute, one of the study's authors.

Rich people's lives tend to give off more greenhouse gases because they drive more fossil-fueled vehicles, travel frequently by air and live in big houses that take more fuel to heat and cool.

By focusing on rich people everywhere, rather than rich countries and poor ones, the system of setting carbon-cutting targets based on the number of wealthy individuals in various countries would ease developing countries into any new climate change framework, Chakravarty said by telephone.

"As countries develop -- India, China, Brazil and others -- over time, they'll have more and more of these (wealthy) individuals and they'll have a higher share of carbon reductions to do in the future," he said.

These obligations, based on the increasing number of rich people in various countries, would kick in as each developing country hit a certain overall level of carbon emissions. This level would be set fairly high, so that economic development would not be hampered in the poorest countries, no matter how many rich people live there.

Is this a limousine-and-yacht tax on the rich? Not necessarily, Chakravarty said, but he did not rule it out: "We are not by any means proposing that. If some country finds a way of doing that, it's great."

This week's climate talks in Italy are a prelude to an international forum in December in Copenhagen aimed at crafting an agreement to follow the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. At the same time, the U.S. Congress is working on legislation to curb U.S. carbon emissions.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Read more!

Climate change: G8 summit boosts pressure for pact

Anne Chaon Yahoo News 6 Jul 09;

PARIS (AFP) – Leaders of the world's established and emerging economic powerhouses will be under pressure at this week's G8 summit to give a badly-needed jolt to the quest for a new global climate pact.

Negotiators struggling to seal an agreement in Denmark by year's end say the three-day summit, opening on Wednesday in L'Aquila, Italy, is a golden opportunity to haul the process out of a rut.

"It's time to make a difference," Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where the post-2012 treaty is being brokered, told AFP.

"It's one of those moments in history where leadership will be remembered, but failure will also be remembered."

The L'Aquila meetings firstly gather the heads of the most industrialised nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- who will then huddle with leaders of the emerging giants.

Together, their economies account for a whopping 80 percent of the heat-trapping "greenhouse gas" emissions driving dangerous climate change.

Climate change has been an automatic part of the G8 since the Gleneagles summit in Scotland in 2005.

But the results of three successive summits and lengthy communiques have been meagre, mainly due to a rearguard action by former US president George W. Bush, fighting demands for tough emissions curbs.

With little more than five months left to the talks in Copenhagen many hopes are riding on Barack Obama, who has ripped up Bush's climate strategies.

The G8 has prepared a draft communique calling on global emissions to peak by 2020 and then be "substantially reduced" to peg the rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a US non-governmental organisation, said the 2 C (3.6 F) objective was big news.

"That is new and that is significant -- because you haven't had the US under President Bush willing to say anything about the two degree limit," said Meyer.

But Meyer also noted there were no specifics among the industrialised powers on how to share out emissions curbs for 2020.

Nor were there any details on how to help poor countries tackle climate change and their own fossil-fuel emissions.

According to a German source, a push by Berlin for the G8 to agree a common goal for 2020 has so far met with a lukewarm reception, even from fellow Europeans. The European Union (EU) is targeting an eventual 20 percent fall on emissions, compared to 1990.

For its part, the US has set itself a target of a 17 percent reduction by 2020 over 2005 levels, which represents only a four percent fall on 1990, a goal which the EU regards as insufficient.

The 16-nation Major Economies Forum (MEF) -- which brings together the G8 members and emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil -- have scheduled a meeting on Thursday where leaders will also endorse the 2 C (3.6 F) goal.

They will also support an "aspirational" global goal of halving emissions by 2050, according to a draft communique.

Such pledges are fine but limited, said Brice Lalonde, France's ambassador on climate change.

"It's easy enough to set out a target for 2050, but much more difficult for 2020. And what's more, any long-term objective will have much more credibility if you can explain how you intend to achieve it," he said.

Meyer said the L'Aquila meetings faced a core dilemma.

The G8 countries are reluctant to commit themselves to specific goals until they see strong promises on how emerging powers will avoid becoming the carbon culprits of tomorrow, he said.

But poorer countries are loth to sign up to much until they see what rich countries are prepared to do.

Green groups say the onus lies on rich countries that are historically most to blame for today's warming and best placed to shoulder the cost of dealing with the problem.

"We expect and we need a clear signal from the G8 leaders on emissions reduction targets for 2020... If not the G8, who else?" asked Tobias Muenchmeyer, deputy director at Greenpeace's political unit.

Major nations should set clear 2050 CO2 cuts: UN
Alister Doyle, Reuters 6 Jul 09;

OSLO (Reuters) - Major nations should set clear and ambitious goals for 2050 cuts in greenhouse gas emissions this week as a step toward a new U.N. climate pact, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Monday.

"These are the countries that can make the difference...it's certainly the time to make the difference," Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters of a meeting of 17 major emitters during a July 8-10 Group of Eight summit.

He said the "Major Economies Forum" (MEF), which includes China, India and Brazil alongside G8 nations, had a "moral responsibility" to show leadership in working out a U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.

MEF nations, which account for 80 percent of world greenhouse gas emissions largely caused by burning fossil fuels, will consider a goal of cutting world greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2050, according to a draft text.

"The yardstick (for success) for me is a clear -- not a fuzzy -- long-term goal," de Boer said.

Last year the G8 outlined a "vision" of halving emissions by 2050, without setting a base year. Major developing countries did not sign up for a 2050 goal, arguing the rich first had to set deep cuts in their own national emissions by 2020.

A recent MEF draft added the word "aspirational" for 2050 goals after U.S. insistence, according to Tobias Muencheyer of environmental group Greenpeace. It also omits a base year.

2020 GOALS

Among other yardsticks, de Boer said it was "important that the industrialized country members of the MEF set ambitious national goals for 2020."

He also urged developed nations to work out plans to provide developing nations with short-term finance to help them cope with ever more floods, heatwaves, storms and rising sea levels.

De Boer said 2050 goals could help investors choose, for instance, between building a cheaper coal-fired power plant that could risk penalties in future for high greenhouse gas emissions or a more costly but cleaner solar power plant.

"The man or woman in the street may wonder why you are asking for something for 2050," he said. "I think it's important, if gives a clear investment signal to business -- provided it's ambitious."

And he said there were several ways to formulate a long-term goal for combating climate change.

The European Union, for instance, wants to limit a rise in global temperatures to a maximum of 2 Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. Temperatures rose about 0.7 Celsius in the last century.

Other goals are targets for deep cuts in emissions, favored by U.S. President Barack Obama, or setting a maximum for greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.

(Editing by Tim Pearce)

G8 leaders to set emissions goals
Roger Harrabin, BBC News 6 Jul 09;

The G8 leaders are set this week to deliver their strongest statement so far on global warming.

They are likely to agree that the world ought to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050 - with rich nations reducing them by 80%.

The group will probably also say that any human-induced temperature rise should be held to 2C - a level considered to be a danger threshold.

The US has previously objected to such a clause.

But it looks as though the G8 will fall short of agreeing the short-term targets scientists say are essential to ensure that the 2C threshold is not breached.

Environmental campaigners accuse the G8 of willing the ends on climate change but not willing the means.

American officials have privately told BBC News they cannot cut emissions as fast as the science requires, because the issue is still too politically contentious in the US Congress.

I understand that the US is also delaying the G8 climate communique in the hope of obtaining more commitment from emerging nations on the issue.

Technology potential

On Thursday, US President Barack Obama chairs a meeting of the G8 members with the leaders of the emerging economies, including India and China, under a process known as the Major Economies Forum (MEF).

That meeting will produce a declaration separate from the G8. Opinions among the emerging economies vary widely. India opposes commitments on cutting emissions. It has millions living in poverty and considers that the problem should be solved by rich nations. India is suspicious of signing up to the 2C warming threshold because it implicitly puts a cap on Indian growth.

China is committed to achieving a low-carbon economy, but slowly so as to cause minimum social and economic upheaval.

"We have to persuade China that it is in China's interests to move quickly to a low-carbon economy - that will be be key," a western diplomatic source said.

Brazil is the most significant of the emerging nations to sign up to the 2C threshold. "This is extremely significant," said the source. "It is an acknowledgement from political leaders to their peoples that there are scientific limits to how far we can push the planet."

The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Professor RK Pachauri, told BBC News: "I don't think we can hold out great hopes for the MEF - it is G8 that had to make the key decisions here on emissions cuts and on funding to help poorer countries to adapt to climate change and obtain clean energy supplies."

Recently, the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed that rich nations should put $100bn into a fund to help poor countries deal with climate change; but I understand the figures on the table so far at the G8 are very much lower than this.

The former UK premier Tony Blair has urged the group's leaders to seize the moment, to tackle climate change with major emissions cuts by 2020.

He has been working on a private initiative with a business-oriented NGO called The Climate Group.

It has produced a new report which champions green technologies, arguing that they offer the chance of "substantial job creation and growth".

The report also says the technologies needed to meet emissions reduction goals set for 2020 are "already proven, available now and the policies needed to implement them known".

This means ramping up existing policies on energy efficiency, new appliance standards and renewable energy.

Mr Blair told BBC News that significant emissions cuts could be achieved by halting deforestation and the degradation of forests; something that could be done if rich nations paid poor nations to protect their forests (though this seemingly simple policy is fraught with practical difficulties).

Copenhagen challenge

"I think it's very understandable at a time of major economic crisis that people are very daunted by the additional challenge of climate change," Mr Blair said.

"I think the single most important thing we found is that almost three-quarters of what you want to do can come from existing and known technologies and actions. It has to be done. There is no option."

HAVE YOUR SAY Anything is achievable, the REAL question is do Governments have the will? Chris, Bucks

Mr Blair said there had been a huge change in the attitude of world leaders to climate change: "In 2005, there was a lot of resistance when I put it on the G8 agenda. We were able to come out with some broad, general principles - it was a big step forwards.

"But in the intervening period, this has moved a long way. I think leaders are now focused on practical policy implications.

"This is now at the stage where it's been taken out of the hands of campaigners (although they are still important) and into the hands of the people who are going to have to get the job done.

"We have an American administration committed to tackling climate change. We have a Chinese administration that's no longer saying, 'you guys have created the problem - you solve it', but has immersed itself in this challenge.

"And you have a general acceptance on the part of most sensible people that we have to deal with it. I think you will see a significant move forward before Copenhagen." (The UN conference to seal a new global climate deal in December)

Campaigners will welcome Mr Blair's intervention but may be sceptical about his confidence in the outcomes.

In his term of office the UK Treasury adopted a laissez-faire energy policy which has left the UK with one of the lowest shares of renewable energy in Europe, despite having one of the best potentials for renewable power.

I asked Mr Blair if he would have pursued a different energy policy with hindsight. He declined to comment.

A group of 22 leading climate scientists has written to G8 and MEF leaders calling for policies that would see global emissions peak by 2020, and shrink by at least 50% by 2050.

"Unless the burden of poverty in developing nations is alleviated by significant financial support for mitigation, adaptation, and the reduction of deforestation, the ability of developing countries to pursue sustainable development is likely to diminish, to the economic and environmental detriment of all," the scientists said.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 6 Jul 09

Touchdown Mania
from Manta Blog

Anemone overdose at Kranji
from wild shores of singapore

Rambling at Mandai
from Urban Forest

Beyond the murky waters of Changi
from wonderful creation

A wet junket
from The annotated budak

Marina grey
from The annotated budak

Black-collared Starling picks up earthworms
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Anglers break rules and go fishing at Lake View Promenade
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Monday Morgue: 6th July 2009
from The Lazy Lizard's Tales

Read more!

Animals' best friend: Deirdre Moss

Deirdre Moss looks back on the challenges she has had in the last 25 years defending animals
john lui, Straits Times 6 Jul 09;

Ms Deirdre Moss does not have any pets at home. As executive officer of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), she walks the talk.

She lives alone in a Bukit Timah condominium and, keeping true to one of the organisation's tenets, does not think it would be fair to have a pet when she is hardly at home.

'It's a huge responsibility and you have to be there for them a certain amount of time,' she says.

As the operational head of Singapore's largest and oldest animal charity for a quarter of a century, her name has become synonymous with all things fourfooted, feathered and furry, especially when they become public issues.

�That is when her letters, with their characteristically cool, dispassionate tone, appear in The Straits Times Forum pages. Over the years, she has written dozens of missives. She has spoken out against the killing of a mouse to advertise the dangers of nicotine, the abuse of dogs slaughtered for meat and a restaurant's use of a lobster-grabbing machine for sport, among other topics.

�And the Australian-born Singapore permanent resident has given her views in dozens of interviews. Recently, she has welcomed the scrapping of plans for a whale shark exhibit at Resorts World at Sentosa and spoken out on the cat poisonings in Bayshore Park.

�The tone of her letters is deliberate, she says. 'How are you going to sway people if you sound extreme to them?' she asks.

The interview takes place at her office in a building in Mount Vernon Road that has seen better days. Though clean and well-maintained, the furniture in the lobby and her office look to be of 1980s vintage.

Various SPCA posters are tacked on the walls of her small, neat office on the ground floor of the two-storey administration building. She has large, expressive eyes and some grey in her honey-streaked hair.

�In contrast to the official tone she adopts in print, an edge creeps into her Australian-accented voice when she talks about the callousness of animal abusers or about the cavalier attitude of those in the pet trade.

And when the questions stray to her personal life, she is visibly and audibly uncomfortable, but in an instant, she turns charmingly and effusively apologetic. She would rather talk about the work in the organisation, she says.

�Large swathes of her life are off-limits: Much of her childhood in Australia, her marriage in Singapore and subsequent divorce and whether she is seeing someone.

Those who know her speak of her as a private person who can appear reserved until she feels they have earned her trust.�

The field of animal activism has changed in the last decade. Partly in reaction to the SPCA and Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore's (AVA) policy of putting down their unwanted charges, small non-profit groups have formed to find other solutions to the problem of strays and unwanted pets. Advocacy, sterilisation and permanent rehousing are their preferred methods.

On the Internet, the SPCA and AVA in general, and sometimes Ms Moss in particular, have come under fire for using euthanasia. A former SPCA volunteer, who declined to be named, joined a 'no-kill' group, saying she left the SPCA because she felt the organisation was not doing enough to house and feed animals during their natural lifespan.

She has in the past welcomed the rise of these welfare groups, but she sounds upset and also weary when the accusations are put to her, such as the one that the SPCA conducts a stray animal elimination service.

'I want to make it clear that it is not the SPCA's job to round up strays,' she says. It will go out to rescue animals in distress, but not hunt down healthy strays, she adds. The group also counsels those surrendering animals to make sure they know the consequences of turning them in and asks if they have exhausted all alternatives.

She also points out that the shelter takes in between 600 and 1,000 animals a month, with only between 10 and 20 per cent being adopted by new owners.

If it were to permanently house the rest of the animals, it would have to start turning others away.

'If we were to say, 'We're full up, we don't have space', a lot of animals will probably get dumped in the streets,' she says.

Today, the SPCA's shelter houses up to 170 animals at a time, comprising mainly dogs, cats and small animals such as guinea pigs, hamsters and rabbits.

She adds that putting resources into life-time animal housing sends the wrong message that the SPCA is the first resort for those who want to be rid of their pets, rather than the last.

But the issue which draws much of her ire is that of Singaporeans who buy, then dump pets. There is a clear exasperation in her voice when she talks about those who breed and sell pets indiscriminately, and those who buy them, only to give them up afterwards.

�'More pet shops have sprouted up and there is more commercial breeding. For a small island, we have tons of pet shops and breeders. Pets are too easy to buy. That's why they are consumer items, like furniture.'

Out of over 100 dogs surrendered or taken in by SPCA last month, only 31 were adopted. Those not adopted had to be put down to make way for fresh intake.

It is a dispiriting task - taking in unwanted animals and putting them down. It would be easy for Ms Moss to feel sorry for herself. 'But I have to cope because if I don't do it, who else will?'

A friend, Ms Deborah Barker, a lawyer in her 50s, says that her job is 'stressful'.

'The SPCA makes the practical decision to put down some animals. Then they are exposed to extreme animal rights groups who condemn them on the Internet,' she says.

Ms Barker's sister, Carla, is vice-chairman of the SPCA's management committee.

As the public face of the organisation in Singapore, Ms Moss is easily the target of criticism, but she rolls with the punches, adds Ms Barker.

'She has strong feeling about it, but I don't think she lets it overwhelm her. She could not carry on if she did.'

Ms Mary Soo, 62, chairman of the SPCA, has known Ms Moss for 25 years and is aware of how resourceful she can be when championing the cause of animals. Recently, Ms Soo was told that a small cat was trapped in a locked, abandoned house in a zone slated for redevelopment. The cat lovers who found it had turned to the authorities, but nothing could be done as the home was private property and no one knew who the owners were.

When Ms Moss was told of the situation, she tracked down the contractor even though it was a weekend and got him to free the cat.

�'The cat's feeders were so happy that it was freed,' says Ms Soo.

There are now 14 members of staff at the shelter arm. Ms Moss imagines that if government policy and responsible pet owning behaviour were to suddenly be in place to reduce the burden on the shelter, the SPCA could re-allocate staff and resources to its core mission of promoting kindness through education and reducing suffering through sterilisation, investigation and rescues.

'What a dream that would be,' she says, smiling.

When she is not working, she unwinds with friends over dinner and also swims and watches videos. The Catholic goes to mass on Sundays and sometimes on weekdays.

There was little in her early life to indicate that she would turn out to be an articulate defender of animals and an organisation's leader.

She was born to Johannah O'Neill, who had migrated to Australia from Ireland, and Eurasian-Singaporean Denis D'Cotta. Mr Justice D'Cotta, one of the more prominent members of Singapore's Eurasian community, rose to the post of High Court judge in 1970 and retired in 1981. He died in 1983 in Melbourne, where he had been living since retirement. Her mother, a psychiatric nurse, died in 1999.

Ms Moss has one brother, Denis Jr, who is a year older, living in Brisbane where he is a ship chartering manager for a major grain trading house in Australia.

She attended several schools around Australia before doing her A levels in English, French, music and Bible studies at a boarding school for girls, Presentation Convent, in Melbourne. She got married, came to Singapore and worked at various jobs before volunteering at the SPCA in 1983, driven by her love of animals.

'I liked it. I had a real purpose in life,' she says.

�She found her niche and was soon volunteering almost every day as a receptionist at the veterinary clinic.

Her dedication was noticed and she was offered a spot on the management committee. After the former head left for England, she was offered the top job in 1984.

In her first year, there were 10 full-time employees. Today there are 34. Its 11-person management committee used to be dominated by expatriates but now the team is overwhelmingly Singaporean. The society is a registered charity and raised $2.36 million last year, mainly from public donations.

The lease on its roughly 0.37ha plot in Mount Vernon Road, allocated by the government at a nominal rent when the organisation moved out of its Orchard Road premises in 1984, will expire in 2012. The group is looking for a new site and would have to pay for the construction cost and lease.

The costs, which will run into the millions, will use up much of the reserves which the group has been setting aside for the purpose.

After being with the SPCA for more than 20 years, Ms Moss admits she has not given much thought to what she will do after retirement. She still holds Australian citizenship. She may move back to Australia or remain here if she finds a new job.

'I love Asia. I think my heart is more here than anywhere else.'

The time is drawing near for a new executive officer, she acknowledges. While she is happy that the organisation is satisfied enough with her performance to have kept her on as an employee for such a long period, she would be pleased if her successor was found before the move to the new building.

'The days are flying by,' she says. No successor has yet been named, but the group is actively looking.

'It would be time, it would definitely be time,' she says of the leadership change.

'Some might say 25 years is too long already and she should be out of there. And I would not argue with that. I would not argue with that at all,' she says with a laugh.

Read more!

Undergraduates will volunteer if more friends join in

Lin Yan Qin, TODAY Channelnews Asia 6 Jul 09;

SINGAPORE: More of Singapore's youths would volunteer, if their friends did so as well.

A survey by the National University of Singapore's NUS Volunteer Network and the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy found that more than seven in 10 of the 3,143 undergraduates surveyed would take part in volunteering opportunities in NUS if more friends took part too.

Most volunteers also usually volunteer with friends, or with fellow volunteers they meet through the activity.

According to the survey, the "findings reveal the social dimension of volunteering and the important role that it plays in volunteerism. Many undergraduates want to volunteer but there is an initial inertia due to unfamiliarity, which can be overcome if they had the support of friends and family".

The findings also showed that three in 10 NUS undergraduates currently volunteer – a rate that is almost double the national average of 16.9 per cent.

As for the top three factors that made volunteering unsatisfying, they include a lack of organisation in the activities, inadequate training, and feeling of boredom and loss of interest in their volunteer work.

And while four in 10 supported the Community Involvement Programme in schools, a similar number (40.1 per cent) also felt the activities students engage in lacked the essence of community service.

The inaugural survey was conducted in May, and included Singapore citizens, Permanent Residents and foreign students - except those who were here on exchange programmes.

NUS Undergraduate Volunteerism and Social Giving Survey
Lin Yan Qin Today Online 6 Jul 09;

- 3 in 10 undergraduates volunteered at least once in the past 12 months
- 4 in 10 have volunteered before (excluding compulsory Community Involvement Programme)
- 6 in 10 were aware of the various volunteering opportunities in NUS
- Nearly half felt community service was best left to personal interest, rather than made a compulsory part of university curriculum
- Slightly over half (51.0 per cent) would consider working in the non-profit sector
- More than 9 in 10 are open to volunteering after graduation

Read more!

Shipping routes: Arctic meltdown could hurt Singapore

Joshua Ho, Straits Times 6 Jul 09;

GLOBAL warming due to greenhouse gas accumulations, if expected to be severe worldwide, will be even more keenly felt in the Arctic regions.

The warming predicted by the climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in the Arctic over the next 50 years is more than twice the global average and the Arctic will be where the most rapid and dramatic changes will occur during the 21st century.

Already observations confirm that the air temperature has increased at double the rate of the global average over the last 100 years, with the total ice extent decreasing at a rate of 3 per cent to 5 percent per decade.

The Northern Sea Route has never been ice-free, even during the summer months, to allow for significant maritime transportation.

However, the maritime activities along the Northern Sea Route have increased over the last two years. Previously, no non-Russian ships traversed the Northern Sea Route along the Siberian coast.

Now merchant, research and expedition vessels have journeyed through the Northern Sea Route during the summer seasons since 2004 and this volume is set to increase.

The activities seem to indicate that the trans-Arctic passage may open up much quicker than expected. For example, last year, the Arctic Ocean experienced for the first time ever an ice-free and navigable Northern Sea Route along the Siberian coast and suggests that future ice-free passages during the summer months along the Siberian coast is highly likely. Satellite photos seem to also highlight this possibility.

Despite this evidence, current estimates are conservative and tend to vary as to when the Arctic is likely to be ice free during the summer.

For example, the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment assesses that transit traffic in the Northern Sea Route may be more regular from around 2025 and that regular trans-polar summer transport (four months) may not occur until towards the middle of this century, that is, from 2040 onward.

The National Snow and Ice Data Centre in the United States is even more conservative in suggesting a seasonally ice-free Arctic by 2060.

Despite this prognosis, some Norwegian shipping companies have already embarked on studies which are expected to be completed soon this year on the business cases for trans-Artic shipping.

The size of ships being examined include 100,000 tonne LNG carriers and up to 5,000 TEU container ships for deployment by 2015. The Japanese have also examined ports that can serve as possible hub ports in northern Japan.

Both seem to indicate an earlier ice-free passage via the Northern Sea Route. The US National Intelligence Council, in its study on Global Trends 2025, has suggested that the date for a seasonally ice-free Arctic could even be as soon as 2013.

If this is so, tremendous shipping benefits would accrue as transiting the Northern Sea Route above Russia between the North Atlantic and the North Pacific would trim about 5,000 nautical miles and a week's sailing time compared with the use of the Suez Canal and through the Malacca Strait.

This may have an adverse impact on existing regional hub ports like Singapore which sits astride the main east-west transportation thoroughfare and is a major regional transshipment port.

If container ships use the Northern Sea Route, it would make more sense to stop at new or existing ports in Northeast Asia and use these ports as transshipment centres to the South-east Asian region, instead of the port of Singapore.

Some possible ports that could be used in such a manner in North-east Asia may include Hong Kong, Shanghai, or a Japanese port. If this were to occur, the container volumes handled by the port of Singapore may decrease for four months of the year.

Despite the fact that a 'blue' Arctic Ocean is predicted in summertime (four months) to occur from the middle of this century, current rates of warming indicate that this may occur much earlier.

However, even before trans-polar navigation is realised, routes along the coast of Siberia will be navigable much earlier. Already there are plans to build trans-Arctic ships and plans for hub port development in North-east Asia that will take advantage of this ice-free passage.

Such plans indicate that the Northern Sea Route may be opened up for ice-free passage as early as 2013, given current accelerated rates of global warming.

The opening up of the Northern Sea Route will have an adverse impact on the operations of current regional hub ports.

It will also have an impact on the profitability of the current liners operating between Europe and Asia. Both liner and terminal operators, including those in South-east Asia, will have to factor the early opening of the Northern Sea Route into their plans if they are not to be caught off guard.

The writer is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, and coordinator of the Maritime Security Programme. He has 22 years of service in the Republic of Singapore Navy.

Read more!

Water supply: Technology is an insurance policy

Straits Times Forum 6 Jul 09;

I REFER to Mr David Boey's letter last Thursday, 'Technology still costlier'. Mr Boey noted, quite correctly, that obtaining potable water from waste water or sea water is more costly than importing rainwater from across the Causeway.

He suggested that 'it probably makes more economic and environmental sense for both countries if we buy such surplus water from Malaysia'. He added that 'the price can be much lower if the quantity offered to us is not fixed over an extended period, but is allowed to vary from time to time, so it is really water that is surplus to Johor's needs'.

His proposal assumes many things: that Malaysia will always have a surplus of water; that the definition of surplus will never be open to interpretation; that Singapore can easily find alternative overseas supplies at the drop of a hat (or the fall of a droplet).

Furthermore, by Mr Boey's own logic of cold economic rationality, a seller would charge as much as the buyer can bear. The price of surplus water would be far higher than he claims.

Economics aside, some politicians in Malaysia have opposed selling water to us, even when rainfall in Johor is plentiful. Others have used water to apply political pressure on us. Protracted bilateral negotiations from 1998 to 2002 failed to achieve a package deal on water and other issues.

Consequently, the membrane technology breakthrough that led to cost-effective Newater and desalination was of profound importance. It gave us self-sufficiency. We need not fear dying of thirst, regardless of the political climate in Malaysia.

Water technology will also be a strategic industry and beneficial to Singapore's economy in the coming decades: Water scarcity is likely to feature in the 21st century world, just as oil scarcity shaped the later part of the 20th century.

While recent progress in bilateral relations has been welcome, there may come a day when water is in profound shortage and a Malaysian leader has no surplus water to export. Singapore's self-sufficiency ensures that scarcity will not strain the bonds of bilateral friendship. It is also a bulwark against those who would use water to threaten or intimidate us in the future.

This insurance policy is worth buy-ing.

Dr Tan Wu Meng


Technology still costlier
Straits Times Forum 2 Jul 09;

I REFER to the report on Tuesday, 'Singapore firms score big with water tech deals'.

We may be pleased with the progress we have made - and continue to make - with waste-water reclamation and desalination, which enable us to reduce if not eliminate our dependence on rainfall and imported water. However, we should not lose sight of the fact that obtaining potable water from waste water or sea water is more costly than by conventional means, because of the extensive use of membranes and the energy intensity of the purification processes.

However, we need not incur this higher cost, at least for part of our water consumption. As long as the reservoirs in Johor collect more than enough water to satisfy Johor's own needs, and with our entitlement under existing water agreements, it probably makes more economic and environmental sense for both countries if we buy such surplus water from Malaysia. This will be particularly so when the 1961 water agreement expires in 2011, freeing 86 million gallons per day that Malaysia is obliged to supply to us until then.

Of course, both parties must be willing and the price must be right. The price needs to be lower than the lowest variable cost of producing our own water to a comparable level of purity by reclamation or desalination.

The price can be much lower if the quantity offered to us is not fixed over an extended period, but is allowed to vary from time to time, so it is really water that is surplus to Johor's needs.

We benefit from a lower cost of water and Malaysia benefits from realising some monetary value for a commodity it cannot harvest at the moment. It will not affect our overall trade balance, but it will improve Malaysia's. It will also reduce the impact on the environment.

This does not mean we should revert to being dependent, even partially, on imported water. We should, and must, continue to develop the infrastructure to reclaim and/or desalinate water, but we may want to use these facilities only to the extent that we cannot get imported water at a meaningfully lower cost than the variable cost of doing so ourselves.

David Boey

Make Singapore the water tech capital of the world
Straits Times Forum 7 Jul 09;

I REFER to Dr Tan Wu Meng's letter yesterday ('Technology is an insurance policy') and agree that investing in water technology is worthwhile over the long term, for both strategic and security reasons. One should also bear in mind that, observing global trends, investing in water technology has tremendous economic potential.

In the last century, globally, the rate of increase in water usage was about six times the rate of population growth. Currently, only 0.5 per cent of the earth's water is available for use by more than 6.7 billion people, and growing. (About 97 per cent is sea water, and 2.5 per cent is fresh water frozen in Antarctica, the Arctic and glaciers.)

Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation in countries like China, India, Russia and Brazil, and droughts or low rainfall in Africa and Australia, have increased the value of water so much and so quickly, some experts call it the 'new oil' of the 21st century.

Like building oil rigs and producing pharmaceuticals, water technology can become one of Singapore's niche areas of expertise.

If it develops the know-how to convert massive volumes of sea water to fresh water rapidly and cheaply, so unlocking access to the 97 per cent sea water, such technology can be exported worldwide to benefit mankind and enrich Singapore.

Transforming Singapore into the 'water capital' of the world could be quintessential in demonstrating how innovation can bring about prosperity.

Tay Xiong Sheng

Read more!

Riau likely to send haze to Singapore, Malaysia

The Jakarta Post 5 Jul 09;

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKB) predicted Sunday that the haze currently blanketing Riau province would likely move to nearby Singapore and Malaysia.

Rahmad Tauladani, an analyst at the agency's Riau office, noted that the wind was now changing direction and blowing the haze to the direction of Singapore and Malaysia.

"In near future, the haze from Riau will go to neighboring countries because the wind blows it to the east," Rahmad was quoted by Antara as saying.

He said the haze currently blanketing Pekanbaru, the provincial capital of Riau, came from Riau province itself, and some likely coming from other areas such as Jambi and South Sumatra.

Based on satellite images, the number of hotspots on Sumatra island -- an indication of forest fires -- dropped from 277 hotspots on Saturday to only 60 hotspots on Sunday.

The BMKG spotted eight hotspots in Riau province on Sunday, spreading in three regencies, i.e. Indragiri Hilir, Pelalawan and Indragiri Hulu.

Rahmad predicted that forest fires would continue to beset Riau because of low intensity of rains.

Smog Putting Airport in Riau at Risk
Jakarta Globe 5 Jul 09;

Authorities at the Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru, Riau, expressed concern that a smog caused by forest fires near the area would hamper day-to-day operations.

Ibnu Hasan, duty manager of the airport, said the haze began to affect visibility along the runway on Sunday morning. Visibility was reduced from 2,500 meters when the airport opened at 6 a.m. to merely 1,000 meters two hours later.

“If the haze continues to become thicker and the visibility drops below 1,000 meters, then based on aviation regulations, we have to shut down airport operations,” he said on Sunday.

That appeared to be the case in the afternoon when the airport closed the runway for two hours beginning at 1 p.m., forcing flights from Jakarta to divert to either Padang, West Sumatra or Medan in North Sumatra.

But despite the prevailing conditions, airport officials reopened operations after 3 p.m, allowing four flights to depart the airport and come in from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, according to Hasan.

Pekanbaru’s Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency, said that the smoky haze could be attributed to incidents of forest fire in Riau.

According to agency representative Ardhitama, the latest information provided via satellite showed 161 hot spots have spread throughout Riau.

“Those 161 hot spots were coming from nine areas in Riau,” Ardhitama said.

Most of the hotspots were located in Bengkalis district with 39, followed by Rokan Hulu district at 33, Pelalawan at 22, Siak at 20, Kampar at 13, Indragiri Hilir with 13, Rokan Hilir at 12, Indragiri Hulu at five and Dumai with four.

The agency estimated that the haze would remain because of the relative absence of wind.

Antara

Read more!

Environmental Impact Analysis Should Be Made Into Law: Expert

Rasidah HAB Brunei Direct 6 Jul 09;

Bandar Seri Begawan - It is important that an environmental impact assessment be made into law to deal with projects that are likely to have a substantial effect on the environment, said an ecologist.

"This would ensure that development projects can be designed to realise their full benefits, whilst at the same time avoiding costly mistakes," said Dr Jonathan Davies, lead project executant of the Rehabilitation of Peat Swamp Forest project under the Heart of Borneo (HoB) initiative.

The HoB is an inter-government project supported by WWF (Worldwide Fund) which was officially launched in April 2006. With the sum port from the three Bornean governments - Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia - the initiative aims to preserve one of the most important centres of biological diversity in the world. It includes some 220,000 sq hats of equatorial forests and numerous wildlife species.

Dr Davies told The Brand Times that an important action for the conservation of high value ecosystems in Brunei would be to establish a more extensive network of protected areas.

"Although there have been many sensible recommendations for protected areas, only a few areas have been gazetted at present," he said in an email inter view," Likewise, the HoB supports the gazettement of the Belait Peat Swamp Forest Reserve, which would help ensure that the largest area of peatlands in Brunei would be conserved for the valuable services it provides and that sustainable forestry practices on the intact peatlands could benefit the nation he added.

He said the Rehabilitation Peat Swamp Forest project is concerned with rehabilitating degraded peat lands and conserving intact peatlands.

"The main reason for this it to reduce the risk of fire and haze during dry periods, reduce carbon emissions from degraded peatlands and to maintain the carbon-sequestering ability of the in tact peat lands," he added.

He said that this was seen as a first phase of a long-term project, which amen to create awareness on the importance and economic value of Brunei's peatlands and recognise the need for rehabilitation and conservation.

He further added that the first phase of the project is aimed to increase the capacity for peatlands management among relevant, agencies and to garner support for the rehabilitation of peatlands.

"We hope to get support and implement hydrological restoration and re-vegetation before the end of this project in September 2010," he said, adding that the important agency in this next phase of implementation will be Wetlands International-Indonesia, which rhas extensive practical experience in peatland rehabilitation in Central Kalimantan.
h
They will also be working with agencies of other HoB countries file Malaysia and Indonesia. "We will be cooperating with agencies in Sarawak on the management of peatlands shared between Brunei and Miri and Limbang divisions of Sarawak, Malaysia," he added. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

Read more!

Community encouraged to help promote islands tourism off Jakarta

The Jakarta Post 6 Jul 09;

The development of the Thousand Islands’ tourist sector should focus on promoting its marine potential and personalized tourism experiences, a discussion recently concluded.

The discussion said the community should be put at the forefront of the development, which should include protecting the islands’ marine ecosystem.

Joko Prihatno, head of the Thousand Islands Marine Park, said the community-based ecosystem preservation would help residents reap consistent benefits from the islands.

“The commercial strength of this regency relies on its ecosystem. So, it is very important to continue urging people to stop exploiting the islands’ resources and involve them in the tourism services.”

Joko cited the park’s successful efforts in facilitating the establishment of dozens of reef plantations in Pulau Panggang subdistrict as an example. The effort, first initiated in 2002, has significantly reduced the exploitation of coral reefs in the area and successfully attracted hundreds of visitors who wanted to learn about reef planting every week.

“The plantations have also helped local fishermen increase their monthly earning almost threefold.”

The director of tourism products at the cultural and tourism ministry, Akhyaruddin, agreed with Joko’s views on the importance of intensifying interactions between the local people and the tourists, saying it would give the latter a memorable visiting experience.

“It will make tourists consider returning.”

The Thousand Islands, located 45 kilometers off the Jakarta coast, boasts a unique sea ecosystem, offering visitors various marine tourist activities, like diving, snorkeling, or staying in beach resorts.

Of the 110 islets in the area, 78 are currently under the conservation of the Thousand Islands Marine Park, which is responsible for protecting the coral reef ecosystems and endangered species, like hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) and bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), in the area.

Among the most famous islets are Pramuka for its raptors and Bidadari for family vacations or corporate meetings and getaways. These places can be reached by boat from Marina Ancol or Muara Angke Ports.

In the 1980s, the islands ranked third on a list of the world’s best islands.

However, since 1998, when the economic crisis hit the country, the number of tourists has dropped by more than 50 percent.

Of nine resorts on 45 islands, only five are still in business, while the remainder are dying, following declining occupancy rates.

In 2008, the regency contributed Rp 200 billion, or 13 percent, to Jakarta’s annual revenue from tourism sector, which was Rp 1.5 trillion.

Sahat Sitorus, head of the culture and tourism office in the regency, said the lack of infrastructure and transportation access as barriers for developing the area.

“The transportation to the regency is rare and expensive. With such conditions, most tourists, even those who live in Greater Jakarta, won’t prioritize visiting the islands.”

He also said a government policy that tourism industry in the regency had to consume non-subsidized fuel was another obstacle in attracting new investors. (hwa)

Thousand Island Park to launch research tourism
Jakarta Post 6 Jul 09;

JAKARTA: As a way to attract more tourists to the Thousand Islands Marine Park, the park operator plans to open a conserved islet to the public by next year.

The park head Djoko Prihatno said the opening of the islet, Penjaliran Timur, would give tourists, especially those who wanted to research ecosystems, more site options when visiting the islands.

"Some main islands, like Pramuka and Pulau Panggang, have been overpopulated and are difficult to develop further. So we have to offer a new place to visit for our tourists."

Djoko said the park will first build a research center facility and a port to facilitate the tourists who came to the islet.

The islet, located in the northern part of the 108,000-hectare park, is used to breed hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), one of the islands' endangered species.

To enter the islet, Djoko said the tourists had to obtain permission first from the park management.

"It will be one-day service, so they won't wait too long." - JP

Read more!

Activist turns Jakarta suburb into green oasis

Lenita Sulthani, Reuters 6 Jul 09;

JAKARTA (Reuters Life!) - In many areas of Jakarta, the air pollution is choking, what little green spaces there are wilting and garbage festers on street corners. And then there's Banjarsari, a green oasis on the outskirts of city.

The neighborhood was once yet another dirty, polluted suburb of Indonesia's congested capital.

But thanks to decades of work by environmental activist Harini Bambang Wahono, who promised herself to make Banjarsari clean and green when she moved there in 1983, recycling and tree-planting are now second-nature to most residents.

"What encouraged me to do this is my poor farming family background," Wahono, who hails from Central Java, told Reuters.

"I have been taught since I was young about the environment, recycling and loving the plants by my farmer father. So when I first moved here, I started an effort to make the area green. I just wanted to have an environment as green as my hometown."

The 3.3 sq km (1.27 sq mile) neighborhood, with more than 1,000 residents, boasts green swathes which provide shade in the summer heat.

All the households, even the smallest, have made room to grow flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs, which is fertilized using organic waste from the kitchen.

Other, non-organic garbage is recycled with paper turned back into paper while plastic is used to weave mats and bags.

Wahono's efforts made the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) select Banjarsari as a pilot project for community waste management in 1996.

And years later, Banjarsari remains committed to the environment, holding regular training classes for the community on recycling and reusing organic waste.

"I think this training is useful, now I know that separating plastic from organic garbage is a must, because plastic does not decompose," said Audia, a student who took part a recent one-day course, which is free of charge.

"Greening the area does not necessarily require expensive plants or trees," added homemaker Ella.

Wahono, 78, recalls how many families in the middle-income neighbourhood rebuffed her efforts in the beginning.

Now, she travels throughout Indonesia and to several Asian countries to conduct waste management training courses based on her experiences in Banjarsari.

Community leader Wardi, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, says the neighborhood doesn't suffer from floods like most other areas in Jakarta, where drains and rivers around are choked with garbage.

"Here we have a clean environment, litter-free," he said.

Government statistics shows that Jakarta and its neighboring towns generate more than 27,000 cubic meters (953,500 cu ft) of garbage a day, of which 17 percent is dumped into rivers.

(Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Read more!