Indonesia Population Explosion Bad For Environment

Bernama 28 Mar 11;

BATAM, Indonesia, March 28 (Bernama) -- Uncontrollable population explosion will have a negative impact on the environment, Head of National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Sugiri Syarief said here on Monday.

"Demographers and environmentalists often use the term ecological suicide to link population explosion to the environmental problems," Sugiri Syarief was quoted by Antara news agency as saying after opening a consultation forum on 2011 All Indonesia Population and Family Planning Programmes.

He explained that a total population of 237.6 million people in Indonesia at present has caused a lot of problems related to garbage, flood, and even traffic jam.

"Not to mention the difficulty of access to clean water, air, and other climate change issues. Then we can imagine what happens if the population continues to grow to reach 500 million people," Sugiri said.

He said it was possible for the population to grow if the government failed to suppress the rate of population increase.

"In the past ten years the the population has increased by 1.49 percent to 32.7 million to be equal to the number of population in Canada and more than that of Malaysia," he said.

Sugiri added that if the population growth remained at 1.49 percent then it was predicted that in 2045 the population would reach 450 million people.

-- BERNAMA

Population explosion bad for environment
Antara 28 Mar 11;

Batam, Riau Islands Province (ANTARA News) - Uncontrollable population explosion will have a negative impact on the environment, Head of National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Sugiri Syarief said here on Monday.

"Demographers and environmentalists often use the term ecological suicide to link population explosion to the environmental problems," Sugiri Syarief said after opening a consultation forum on 2011 All Indonesia Population and Family Planning Programs.

He explained that a total population of 237.6 million people in Indonesia at present has caused a lot of problems related to garbage, flood, and even traffic jam.

"Not to mention the difficulty of access to clean water, air, and other climate change issues. Then we can imagine what happens if the population continues to grow to reach 500 million people," Sugiri said.

He said it was possible for the population to grow if the government failed to suppress the rate of population increase.

"In the past ten years the the population has increased by 1.49 percent to 32.7 million to be equal to the number of population in Canada and more than that of Malaysia," he said.

Sugiri added that if the population growth remained at 1.49 percent then it was predicted that in 2045 the population would reach 450 million people.
(Uu.O001/F001)

Editor: Priyambodo RH

Serious population boom threatens Indonesia
Antara 28 Mar 11;

Batam, Riau Islands (ANTARA News) - The National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) stated that the uncontrolled population boom could pose a serious threat to Indonesia due to its negative impacts on various sectors.

"The uncontrollable population growth can pose a serious threat and the outcome of an Indonesian population census in 2010 has clearly shown the signs of a population explosion," Head of the Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) Sugiri Syarief said here on Monday.

Sugiri Syarief made the statement after opening the 2011 Indonesian Population and Family Planning Consultation Programs here.

Sugiri said that the population boom might occur in Indonesia unless immediate efforts were made to suppress the population growth rate.

The recent Indonesian population growth reached 237.6 million with a growth rate of 1.49 percent.

"The number had also caused many problems in residential areas such as trash, flooding and traffic congestion not to mention the difficulty of access to clean water, air and climate change issues," he said.

According to Sugiri, the problem could become more complicated with the population boom.

"You can imagine what will happen if the population continues to grow and approach 500 million," he said.

He said that such situation might become a reality if the government did not suppress the population growth rate.

"Over the last ten years the population has increased to 32.7 million and an average growth of 1.49 percent, like in Canada and more than the population of Malaysia," he said.

If the population growth rate remains at 1.49 percent it can be predicted that by 2045 the population reached 450 million.

"At that time the world population is projected to be nine billion people whereas one in every 20 people in the world is Indonesian," he said.

It was necessary to suppress the population growth rate so as not to adversely affect the environment and revenue increase, he said.

"The high number of children will reduce the ability of human capital investment in the family, which will affect education and public health," he said.

On the other hand, a large population with low human resources would destroy the the quality of natural resources, he said. (*)

A050/H-NG/R013

Editor: Jafar M Sidik

Family Planning Board Meets With Indonesian Population Set to Soar
Jakarta Globe 28 Mar 11;

Batam, Riau Islands. With Indonesia’s population projected to double to 450 million by 2045, the National Family Planning Coordinating Board held a national meeting here on Monday to discuss its programs for 2011.

Sugiri Syarief, chairman of the board, also known as the (BKKBN), said it was hoped it would be able to complete a master plan to revitalize the family planning program to keep the population in check.

Quoting the results of the 2010 census, Sugiri recently said that if no effort was made to “curb population growth we will face a population boom in the next few years.”

He said by 2045, the population could hit 450 million, meaning that one of every 20 people in the world would be Indonesian.

Family planning efforts are widely regarded as having deteriorated since the downfall of former dictator Suharto.

Read more!

'Plenty of water, if we're smart about it'

Cheong Suk-Wai Straits Times 29 Mar 11;

HARVARD don Peter Rogers has carved a career out of studying how to manage water efficiently, but even he had something to learn from a 77-year-old cowboy - Stetson and all - on a bus ride in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Professor Rogers, 73, recalls: 'He and his wife run a seven acre farm there. We chatted and I suddenly discovered that he knew more about water and agriculture than I would ever know.'

Among other things, the cowboy told Prof Rogers how he used a strategic yet cheap irrigation system of 'centre pivots' to double his crop yield while halving his water use. This irrigation system consists of a series of overhead sprinklers which are spaced out such that the water is used optimally.

Prof Rogers believes that centre pivots are the ticket to minimising water wastage in farming today - which is saying a lot because, for more than 40 years, he has studied how to reduce water wastage in more than 30 countries, including China, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. An alumnus of the University of Liverpool, Northwestern University and Harvard, he is now the latter's Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering, and also teaches city planning.

The married father of four is here till May to put together a water security programme for Asia at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Global Asia Institute.

I caught up with him earlier this month to ask him why he says the world is running out of water:

What is foremost in your mind about water security today?

Singapore has done a terrific job of ensuring its water supply for the next 50 years at least. Some may say it's excessive concern because it's a political, not economic, decision. Everything has been carefully thought out, from the collection of drain water to the closing of estuaries. Contrast that with places like Orange County, California, which also had to recycle wastewater (but resisted doing so for 15 years because they were very conservative about such things).

Also, environmental groups have been pressuring the county not to dump its treated waste water into the ocean because most of the effluents (remain in such treated water)... So somebody said, 'Why don't we treat this waste water a third time and then (subject it) to reverse osmosis so that we can recycle the water?' That was a stroke of genius; you now don't have to dump effluents into the ocean and desalinating wastewater is a lot cheaper than desalinating ocean water because the concentration of salts in wastewater is lower.

So why has it taken this long for reverse osmosis to catch on?

That's a great question. The answer is that reverse osmosis used to be very expensive (partly) because there were no economies of scale in using it. But its cost has now plummeted from US$5 a cubic metre to 49 US cents (62 Singapore cents) a cubic metre, because chemical engineers have found a cheaper way to fabricate the membranes for treating water by reverse osmosis.

So there's no excuse not to recycle wastewater today?

Right now, you'd have to spend 40 per cent of your desalination costs on energy to desalinate wastewater. And you've seen that in Japan, they need huge amounts of water to try and cool down the nuclear reactors. Generating electricity requires lots of water (so) when economies expand, the demand for water will soar markedly. But if we can solve the energy problem, we can solve the water problem.

There seems a lot of hope in that.

What's missing is that big leap, when one can say, 'Well, we may not have to do all that if we could do something else!' For instance, in California's Imperial Valley, there are 500 farms that actually waste more water than all that is used by the entire city of New York each year. (Yet) since the early 1960s, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming have been using centre pivots to put water where you need it. These pivots are now run by laptop computers so that instead of growing the same crops each year, you can grow many different crops - and the computer tells you how much water you need for this crop, how much fertiliser to mix in with the water. It's amazing and it's cheap. Can Asia feed itself? The answer is clearly yes.

Is it then just a case of educating and enabling farmers?

No. It's an organisational problem. Farmers are very smart people and they're doing the best they can. What they need is some way of organising themselves socially so that, say, 200 farmers get one of these (irrigation systems). You're going to need government intervention, but also private sector (help).

How might the private sector help city dwellers too?

For the past 15 years, the biggest issue about municipal water supply has been the privatisation of water. In fact, NUS' Water Policy Institute has just done a research project on that, and there are a lot of arguments about how people should not make money out of people's drinking water. The other argument is that you get much more efficient use of water if people paid for it, and private industries are better organised and so could do a better job of (managing water supply). But it's interesting that the best-run municipality in the world is Singapore, which is government-run. Another city that is doing very well is Phnom Penh in Cambodia, which has (Mr) Ek Sonn Chan, who won the Swedish Water Prize last year for the most improved waterworks... But you need leadership.

Surely you need more than that for real change?

Yes. You've also got to convince people that it's in their interests to do these things and politicians have to want to do it.

The bigger issue is agriculture. I was in Chennai recently and saw women with plastic buckets chasing after the water trucks when, 10km away, farmers were flooding their padi fields with (more water than they needed). There were no mechanisms to transfer water from (countryside to city). Instead, they proposed to build a 400km-long pipeline from the Krishna River to Chennai.

Why do you say we're running out of water when we can recycle water more cheaply today?

We're running out of water that we can use. The issue of quality of water has gone away because you can always take out (what impurities) you put in water - at a price.

The question now is: Do we have enough water in total? We're not sure where the water in this world came from. Some people think that it came from asteroids, although that's iffy. How many asteroids would you have to have to create enough water for all? There is very little new water on the globe. There is very little transferred water in outer space. So we have a fixed quantum of water and an increasing (population)... But there's still plenty of water for nine billion people if we're smart about it.

Prof Rogers will speak on the prospects of securing water for cities at NUS' Nexus, Level 6, University Hall (Lee Kong Chian Wing) at 12.15pm today. The talk is free and open to the public.

On water and problem solving

SOFT-SPOKEN and perceptive, environmental engineering don Peter Rogers is a civil engineer by training who believes in getting to the root of any problem, to find a satisfying solution to it. Here he is on:

Singapore

'It's a unique place in a unique situation in a unique time. It has the tremendous opportunity to get things moving in Asia by bringing together opinion leaders to think things through and move ahead on problems.'

What he tells others about Singapore

'If you want to be successful, look at what Singapore is doing and recommending.'

The Marina Barrage

'It's a terrific solution if you're worried about water supply. Singapore's body politic has decided that it's a worthwhile risk to take but it would be very hard to do this elsewhere.'

China's leaders

'Of course, they are all engineers who see engineering solutions to everything. But as an engineer, I don't see engineering solutions to everything.'

India

'It got democracy before development and so it has lots of good ideas and lots of smart people in government but the way it practises democracy means that it's very hard to get things done.'

Californians

'The complaint about them is that they waste water by putting it all into swimming pools. But as far as I'm concerned, if someone in California wants to have a big swimming pool, that's fine - provided I'm not paying for it.'

His new book, titled Running Out Of Water

'There are no equations, charts or anything complicated in this book. Just lots and lots of stories because my co-author, a politician, said, 'Doom and gloom stuff just washes over politicians.''

CHEONG SUK-WAI

Read more!

Billion-plus people to lack water in 2050: study

Shaun Tandon Yahoo News 28 Mar 11;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – More than one billion urban residents will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanization, with Indian cities among the worst hit, a study said Monday.

The shortage threatens sanitation in some of the world's fastest-growing cities but also poses risks for wildlife if cities pump in water from outside, said the article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study found that under current urbanization trends, by mid-century some 993 million city dwellers will live with less than 100 liters (26 gallons) each day of water each -- roughly the amount that fills a personal bathtub -- which authors considered the daily minimum.

Adding on the impact of climate change, an additional 100 million people will lack what they need for drinking, cooking, cleaning, bathing and toilet use.

"Don't take the numbers as destiny. They're a sign of a challenge," said lead author Rob McDonald of The Nature Conservancy, a private environmental group based near Washington.

"There are solutions to getting those billion people water. It's just a sign that a lot more investment is going to be needed, either in infrastructure or in water use efficiency," he said.

Currently, around 150 million people fall below the 100-liter threshold for daily water use. The average American has 376 liters delivered a day, although actual use varies widely depending on region, McDonald said.

But the world is undergoing an unprecedented urban shift as rural people in India, China and other growing nations flock to cities.

India's six biggest cities -- Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad -- are among those most affected by water shortages. The study forecast that 119 million people would face water shortages in 2050 in the Ganges River delta and plain alone.

With an annual monsoon, India does not lack water. But it struggles to preserve the water from the wet season to the dry season, McDonald said.

West Africa, which sees some of the world's heaviest rainfall, will also face water shortages in cities such as Lagos, Nigeria, and Cotonou in Benin, the study found.

The study warned of threats to ecosystems if developing nations take water from elsewhere. India's Western Ghats region, a potential source for thirsty cities, is home to nearly 300 fish species, 29 percent of which are found nowhere else, it said.

"If cities are essentially drinking rivers dry, that has really bad effects on the fish and the reptiles and everything else in the river," McDonald said.

Instead, the study recommended reforms to agriculture -- usually the top consumer of water -- and improved efficiency, as nearly half of the water in some poor countries is wasted due to leaks.

"There is a lot of potential for increase in water-use efficiency in the agriculture sector, or indeed in the residential sector, to solve most of this challenge," McDonald said.

The study said there would be a need for international funding to help poorer nations "to ensure that urban residents can enjoy their fundamental right to adequate drinking water."

UN-led talks last year on climate change agreed on practicalities to set up a global fund to assist poor nations most hit by climate change, with a target of 100 billion dollars a year starting in 2020.

Other cities forecast by the study to face a water crunch include Manila, Beijing, Lahore and Tehran.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 28 Mar 11

Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [21 - 27 Mar 2011]
from Green Business Times

Coral Reefs of Singapore - Terumbu Raya
from Biodiversity Singapore

Looking for dugong at Chek Jawa
from wild shores of singapore

Rose-ringed Parakeet eating seeds of peacock flower
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Elaeocarpus mass flowering and fruiting
from Urban Forest

A Surprisingly Wild Day at Chinese Garden
from Crystal and Bryan in Singapore

铁路风景线 Green Corridor
from PurpleMangrove

squids @ terumbu semakau 23Mar2011
from sgbeachbum

Go Wild @ Pasir Ris Park & Mangroves
from Nikita Hengbok

Monday Morgue: Pink-eared Emperor
from the new Monday Morgue blog

Read more!

Use sniffer dogs to nab animal smugglers

Straits Times Forum 28 Mar 11;

IT IS disappointing to read that animal smuggling is on the increase in Singapore ("Animal smuggling on the rise"; March 21).

The illegal wildlife trade is exceedingly cruel and wasteful, and is now second only to the illegal trade in drugs and firearms. Reports have indicated that Singapore is ranked among the top 10 illegal wildlife smuggling hubs in the world.

While measures are in place to curb this trade in Singapore, there is, without a doubt, a need to do more and do so urgently.

In response to Animal Concerns Research and Education Society's (Acres) suggestion of using sniffer dogs to curb the trade, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) stated that "they were less cost-effective than other measures".

Can AVA clarify what the other measures are and whether they are already in place?

Sniffer dogs have been used successfully in several countries. Thailand, for example, which is also a hub for the illegal wildlife trade, now has a sniffer-dog unit. The unit is largely designed to serve as a deterrent to would-be smugglers and wildlife traffickers. The training and maintenance of the entire sniffer-dog unit functions on a meagre annual budget of 1.4 million baht (S$58,000).

In South Korea, Animals Asia Foundation's (AAF) detective dog, Simba, worked with the Incheon Customs Department to spearhead the fight against the trade in endangered species. According to AAF, Simba worked in Incheon airport with his handler to literally "sniff out" smuggled bear gall bladders, bear bile products, tiger bone, ivory and deer musk.

In his two years of employment, Simba repeatedly detected major finds almost every month - totalling an astonishing 142 separate animal parts. These included over 80 finds of bear bile and deer musk, as well as whole bear gall bladders, snakes and seal penis.

Simba even found four live baby monkeys and 22kg of marijuana for which he was not even trained.

The use of sniffer dogs is not only cost-effective but is time-effective as well. Acres hopes that AVA will reconsider our proposal and we will be keen to collaborate with them on this project.

Louis Ng
Executive Director
Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres)

Read more!

Slight haze expected in Singapore over next few days

Tan Qiuyi Channel NewsAsia 27 Mar 11;

SINGAPORE: Singapore may experience slight haze over the next few days.

The National Environment Agency said satellite pictures over Sumatra detected isolated hot spots, but no smoke plumes were observed.

The 24-hour PSI reading at 4pm on Saturday was 35, which is within the "good" range.

Wet weather conditions are expected over the region in the next few days, although slight haze may still be seen.

Callers to the MediaCorp hotline said the skies appear hazy, while others complained of a burning smell.

-CNA/ac

Haze PSI reading rises slightly
Channel NewsAsia 27 Mar 11;

SINGAPORE: The air quality in Singapore dipped slightly on Sunday with a 24-hour PSI reading of 42, as of 4pm.

This is an increase from Saturday's PSI reading of 35.

The National Environment Agency said the reading is still in the 'good' range, with rain helping to lighten the haze in the late afternoon.

However, NEA said Singapore may still experience slight haze from time to time when the winds are light.

-CNA/wk

Read more!

Indonesia airport foils smugglers with 40 pythons

(AFP) Google News 27 Mar 11;

JAKARTA — Indonesian airport officials said they had foiled an attempt by two Kuwaitis to smuggle 40 pythons in their luggage.

Suspects Yaqub Ebrahim and Ali Hasan were caught Friday at Jakarta's international airport as they tried to carry the sedated serpents onto an Emirates Airlines flight to Dubai.

"From many foiled cases, people often use the flights to Dubai to smuggle illegal animals," Salahudin Rafi, operational and technical director at airport operator Angkasa Pura II, said in an emailed statement to AFP.

He said the suspects usually sedated the animals so officers could not detect them.

"For the sake of flight safety and security, no animals are allowed to be brought onto aircraft without permission and special handling. Especially pythons, which are considered as wild animals," Rafi said.

The two suspects were questioned by airport authorities and the pythons were taken to the animal quarantine centre at the airport.

Read more!

Rare elephant found dead in Indonesia: official

Yahoo News 27 Mar 11;

JAKARTA (AFP) – A rare Sumatran elephant has died in Indonesia after blocking a village street for a week, an official said Sunday.

The female elephant was in a "weak condition" after becoming separated from its herd about a week ago in Bengkalis district, Riau province, conservation agency official Adit Gunawan told AFP.

"It was hungry. We gave it food, water and medical attention. We tried our best to nurse it back to health but it wasn't getting better and died on Saturday evening," he said.

An autopsy to determine the cause of death is being carried out, he said.

Antara state news agency reported that the elephant, along with her two calves, had been blocking a tarred road near a housing complex since last Monday. The elephant could have been poisoned, the report added.

However Gunawan said there was only one calf, which would be taken to the agency's elephant training centre and "may be released to the wild again if conditions allow".

"I don't want to speculate the cause of death until we get the formal autopsy report. It might have died from stress, lack of food or poisoning," he said.

There are at most 3,350 Sumatran elephants remaining in the wild, according to the environmental group WWF.

Conflicts between humans and animals are increasing as people encroach on wildlife habitats in Indonesia, an archipelago with some of the world's largest remaining tropical forests.

Wild Sumatran elephant dies in Riau
Antara 27 Mar 11;

Pekanbaru, Riau (ANTARA News) - An adult wild elephant that blocked a street in Balai Raja vilage, Mandau subdistrict, Bengkalis district, Riau province, on March 21 finally died on Saturday night.

The Sumatran elephant was found dead in the Duri area of PT Chevron Pacific Indonesia in Bengkalis district, said Heri who had evacuated the ill-fated animal`s body.

The authorities from Riau province`s natural resources conservation agency (BKSDA) had attempted to help the ailing elephant by giving it bottles of infusion and taking its blood sample, he said.

"Bottles of infusion have been given and a blood sample has even been taken to find out the causes of that elephant`s sickness," Heri said.

The BKSDA authorities had also brought a tame elephant from Minas elephant training center to help it, he said adding that the BKSDA and WWF authorities had conducted an autopsy on the dead elephant.

Near the dead elephant, there were two baby elephants.

Samsuardi of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-Riau province said the wild elephant could have been poisoned and it was the sixth elephant which died this year.

Along with its two babies, that ill-fated elephant was found blocking an asphalted street to Cendana housing complex in Balai Raja vilage on March 21.

The housing complex for teachers was located next to an oil-producing company, Chevron, Berton Panjaitan, a local resident, said.

Conflicts between elephants and humans remain a serious problem to the people of Bengkalis.

In November 2010, for instance, tens of wild Sumatran elephants repeatedly invaded Petani village, Mandau subdistrict, Bengkalis district over a period of several days.

The wild elephants` presence had forced many of the villagers to stay home as working on their farms as usual had become risky.

The Petani village`s head, Rianto, said that situation had made his people stay at home rather than going to their farmings.

In June 2010, a herd of wild elephants also attacked Petani village, damaging four houses.

The wild animals also killed a resident recently. The villagers, whose houses were damaged, took refuge at their in relatives` houses and neighbors.(*)
(R013/HAJM/f001)

Editor: Ruslan Burhani

Elephant’s Death Sparks Call for Govt to Set Up Human-Animal Conflict Team
Jakarta Globe 28 Mar 11;

Pekanbaru, Riau. Despite valiant efforts to save it, a Sumatran elephant died in Riau on the weekend, prompting the World Wildlife Fund to call on the government to set up a team to manage human-elephant conflict in the region.

The weak adult female elephant, which was accompanied by two calves, was found on March 21 blocking access to a housing complex in Balai Raja village in Bengkalis district, Riau.

Concerned residents called the Riau Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), but the elephant collapsed on Wednesday morning. A BKSDA medical team took blood samples and gave the animal intravenous fluids, but were unable to save it.

Veterinarian Rini Deswita, from the BKSDA, said the elephant was suffering from gastrointestinal problems and was not able to keep any food down.

“It was also severely dehydrated,” Rini said. “We will know the precise cause of death after we perform an autopsy.”

Samsuardi, who works on Human-Elephant Conflict Mitigation at WWF Riau, said he suspected the elephant had been poisoned.

His organization on Sunday called on the government to immediately establish a so-called Flying Squad to address human-elephant conflict in Balai Raja.

“Balai Raja contains the largest population of elephants in Riau,” said Syamsidar, a spokesman for WWF Riau, on Sunday. “But because their habitat has been destroyed to make way for residences and plantations, the animals are suffering.”

In 1990, 16,000 hectares of land in Balai Raja was set aside for the Marwa Wildlife Sanctuary. Today, however, only 120 hectares remains, most of which is secondary forest.

Didi, a Balai Raja local, said residents had tried to feed and bathe the female elephant after seeing it mistreated. Some residents had thrown objects at the elephant after it ate their crops, he said.

“Just look at the wounds on the elephant’s ears,” Didi said. “There is a large chance they were caused by people from around here.”

Read more!

Malaysia: Leopard cat found dead by the road

P. Chandra Sagaran New Straits Times 27 Mar 11;http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

SUNGAI SIPUT: A Tamil Daily journalist on his way to an assignment in Ipoh, found the carcass of a Leopard Cat or Kucing Batu on the roadside yesterday.

S. Lingeswaran, 26, from Makkal Osai, and his brother Uthayakanthan, 15, were on their way to attend a convocation ceremony at Politeknik Ungku Omar in Ipoh at 8.30am, when they spotted the dead animal near a cement factory off Jalan Kanthan-Ipoh.

"I saw it lying by the roadside but it was already dead. I called the Civil Defence Department who later sent a team to remove the carcass."

Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis), also known as Bengal Cat, is a small wild cat of South and East Asia.

The name is derived from the leopard-like spots prevalent in all sub-species, but its relation to the leopard is distant.

Sungai Siput Civil Defence Department coordinator, A. Balasundram, said the carcass was taken to the Kanthan police station where it was later buried.

Read more!

Tsunami harpoons Japanese whaling town

Shingo Ito Yahoo News 27 Mar 11;

AYUKAWA, Japan (AFP) – The Japanese whaling town of Ayukawa has survived the wrath of environmental groups for decades, but had no defence against a giant tsunami that wiped out the industry here, possibly for ever.

One of only four communities in Japan that have continued to hunt and eat whales in defiance of international opposition, the town was already down to a single operating company, Ayukawa Whaling.

The March 11 tsunami that slammed into Japan's northeast coast took most of Ayukawa with it, destroying 80 percent of houses and leaving 400 of its 1,400 residents unaccounted for.

The wave shattered Ayukawa Whaling's storage facility and carried its fleet of three whaling ships hundreds of metres inland where they now lie grounded and impotent.

"This is the biggest ever crisis for us," said company chairman Minoru Ito.

Ito, 74, survived the disaster, along with all of his 28 employees, after they fled to higher ground in the wake of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake that triggered the tsunami.

The survival of their livelihoods is another matter and Ito said he had already decided to lay everybody off and suspend all whaling operations until further notice.

It was a tough decision. Ito has been hunting whales for half a century and his father was an Ayukawa whaler in the town's boom days.

"For me, whaling is not just culture or tradition. It's part of my life," he said.

The history of commercial whaling in Ayukawa dates back to the early 1900s when three major whaling firms set up in the town, which lies on the eastern tip of Ojika peninsula, bordering the Pacific.

The industry lost ground during World War II, but bounced back with the growing demand for whale meat as a cheap and plentiful source of protein in the lean post-war years.

Temples dedicated to the souls of whales attested to the town's heritage, and tourists were drawn by a whaling museum -- now gutted by the tsunami -- that boasted skeletons, hunting tools, educational displays and a 3-D cinema.

But the industry had long been in decline, especially since commercial whaling was banned in 1986.

Japan has continued to hunt whales under a loophole that allows killing of the sea mammals for what it calls "scientific research", although the meat is later sold openly in shops and restaurants.

Japan's argument that whaling is an integral part of the island nation's culture finds some of its strongest voices among the residents of Ayukawa, for whom the prospect of stopping hunting is inconceivable.

"We should resume whaling at any cost," said 70-year-old Ryoetsu Okumi. "Whaling is my job and my life. If someone takes whaling from me, nothing will be left.

"Anti-whaling groups may be pleased with this disaster, but we will never surrender."

The tsunami came shortly after Japan recalled its Antarctic whaling fleet a month early, citing the threat posed by the militant environmentalist outfit Sea Shepherd.

The group, which says its tactics are non-violent but aggressive, has hurled paint and stink bombs at whaling ships, snared their propellers with rope and moved its own boats between the harpoon ships and their prey.

Okumi's defiance was not shared by all Ayukawa's residents, some of whom said the tsunami had probably dealt a death blow to the town's already ailing whaling operations.

"I'm afraid that not so many people will stay under this kind of condition. It's hard to resume," said retired whaler Taichi Endo, 82.

And despite hopes that the central government will step in and help Ayukawa Whaling get its ships back in the ocean and back to work, local officials were also pessimistic about the future.

"Whaling represents Ayukawa. That's for sure," said Shin Okada, a local government official.

"But facing reality, I have to say the current situation is quite hard."

Greenpeace Japan said its opposition to commercial whaling, including Japan's "scientific research", remained unchanged, but insisted its primary concern was for the victims of the tsunami in Ayukawa.

"We hope all survivors, including whalers, will recover," said spokesman Junichi Sato.

Read more!

Coastal buildings and shipping may change with rising of oceanic wind speeds and wave heights

The rise of winds and waves
The Australian National University Science Alert 28 Mar 11;

Oceanic wind speeds and wave heights have increased significantly over the last quarter of a century according to a major new study undertaken by ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young.

Published in Science, the study is the most comprehensive of its kind ever undertaken.

Other authors include Swinburne University oceanographers Professor Alex Babanin and Dr Stefan Zieger.

“Careful analysis of satellite data shows that extreme oceanic wind speeds and ocean wave heights have increased dramatically over the last 23 years,” Professor Young said.

“Off the southern coast of Australia, the highest one per cent of waves have increased in height from approximately five metres to almost six metres over the last 20 years.

“Extreme conditions are where we are seeing the largest increases, but mean conditions are also going up.

“Extreme wind speeds have increased over most of the globe by approximately 10 per cent over the last 20 years, or 0.5 per cent every year.

“Extreme wave heights have increased by an average of seven per cent over the last 20 years, or 0.25 per cent a year in equatorial regions and 0.5 per cent a year in higher latitudes.

“The results have potential impact on the design of coastal buildings and other structures as well as shipping. They could also have a profound effect on the transfer of energy (heat) between the sea and the atmosphere – one of the great unknowns of climate change.

“Using recently developed satellite data allowed us to investigate trends on a global scale for the first time. This has really given us a much clearer picture of what is happening in the world’s oceans.”

The study looked at satellite data over 23 years from 1985 to 2008, and was funded under an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, with sponsorship from MetOcean Engineers.

Scientists find waves are getting bigger
Bridie Smith Sydney Morning Herald 25 Mar 11;

Ocean wind speeds and wave heights around the world have increased significantly over the past quarter of a century, according to Australian research that has given scientists their first global glimpse of the world's rising winds and waves.

Published in the journal Science today, the research – the most comprehensive of its kind ever undertaken – used satellite data collected from 1985 to 2008.

It shows the extreme wave height off the coast of south-west Australia today is six metres on average, more than a metre higher than in 1985.
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"That has all sorts of implications for coastal engineering, navigation and erosion processes," said Alex Babanin, an oceanographer at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, and co-author of the paper.

However, there are greater uses for the data compiled by Professor Babanin, his Swinburne colleague Stefan Zieger and the Australian National University vice-chancellor, Ian Young.

To date scientists have largely focused on temperature as an indicator of climate change. But climate is about much more than temperature, as winds and waves control the flux of energy from the atmosphere to the ocean.

"Scientifically, this is another set of environmental properties which can be used as indicators of what is happening to the climate," Professor Babanin said. "Temperature changes the global patterns of the pressure, pressure defines the winds, winds define the waves. It's all connected."

The trio established that between 1985 and 2008, global increases in wave height were most significant for extreme waves – large spontaneous waves. They increased in height by an average of 7 per cent in the past 20 years. In equatorial regions the rise was 0.25 per cent a year, while in higher latitudes the rise was up to 1 per cent a year. The mean wave height also increased, but to a lesser degree.

When analysing extreme wind speed data over the world's oceans, the researchers found they increased by 10 per cent in the past two decades, or by 0.5 per cent a year.

Professor Babanin said waves were generated by wind. However, the data show the lift in wind speed was greater than wave height increase.

He said he doubted the 23 years of data could be immediately used to forecast future wind and wave conditions.

"These are the environmental properties which can be used as indicators for the climate behaviour along with the other properties, such as temperature and precipitation, and extrapolations have to be made with caution," he said.

World's wind and waves have been rising for decades
Wendy Zukerman New Scientist 24 Mar 11;

Wind speeds and wave heights over the world's oceans have been rising for the past quarter-century. It's unclear if this is a short-term trend, or a symptom of longer-term climatic change. Either way, more frequent hurricanes and cyclones could be on the horizon.

Ian Young at the Australian National University in Canberra and colleagues analysed satellite data from 1985 to 2008 to calculate wave heights and wind speeds over the world's oceans. They found that winds had strengthened – speeding up over most of the world's oceans by 0.25 to 0.5 per cent, on average, each year. Overall, wind speeds were 5 to 10 per cent faster than they had been 20 years earlier.

The trend was most pronounced for the strongest winds. For instance, the very fastest 1 per cent of winds were getting stronger by 0.75 per cent per year, says Young.

Average wave height was also on the rise, but less so; and the highest waves showed the strongest trend.

The results were compared against conventional measurements taken from deep-water buoys and numerical modelling. "There is variability, but the same general features are observed," Young says.
From space to sea

Previous attempts to investigate these phenomena used observations from ships and buoys, but these could generally provide only a regional picture. Using altimeter data from satellites allowed the team to detect decadal trends on a global scale for the first time.

Satellite altimeters use radar to measure the height of points on the Earth's surface, and can measure wave height very precisely. Measuring the amount of backscattering from the radar signals, meanwhile, can help calculate wind speed.

The global view afforded by the satellites reveals stronger trends in some areas than in others. For example, both wave height and wind speed have been increasing more rapidly in the oceans of the southern hemisphere than in the north.
Wave driver

Young can only speculate on what is causing the increases. "If we have oceans that are warming, that energy could feed storms, which increase wind speeds and wave heights," he says. But with a data series that covers just two decades, it's too early to tell whether there's a long-term trend at work. "We don't know the driving force."

Considering there are so many regional forces influencing waves and wind, "it's surprising that there is such a uniform trend", says Mark Hemer, a wave researcher at the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research in Hobart, Tasmania. Variability in winds and waves associated with weather systems such as El Niño and La Niña, the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Southern Annular Mode could all help to explain it, he says.

In either case, if winds continue to strengthen and waves to rise – even if only for a few years – it suggests more intense storms, hurricanes and cyclones are on the horizon, says Young.

However, Tom Baldock, a coastal engineer at the University of Queensland in St Lucia, Australia, says that although there is no reason to doubt the analysis, it doesn't mean more coastal natural disasters will necessarily ensue. "Tornados, hurricanes and cyclones occur through complicated regional weather conditions, and are not just related to wind speed and wave height," he says. For example, there are higher wind speeds at high latitudes, but most cyclones hit around the equator.

The new study may be more relevant to the burgeoning offshore gas, wind, wave and tidal power industries, Baldock thinks. "Larger waves are a hazard for any offshore construction."

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1197219

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Best of our wild blogs: 27 Mar 11

Coral reefs of Singapore
a video clip of Terumbu Raya by Brandon

Students understanding cats – territorial behaviour and home range of community cats from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS

Black-naped Oriole’s coarse call
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Butterfly of the Month - March 2011
from Butterflies of Singapore

shark egg capsules @ cyrene 25Mar2011
from sgbeachbum and anemone shrimp

All-girl net removal at Pulau Semakau
from wild shores of singapore

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