Fri 15 Apr 2011: 5pm – James Watson on “Impacts of climate change for biodiversity: Planning for adaptation” from The Biodiversity crew @ NUS
Latest wetland craze - Lorong Halus Wetland
from Water Quality in Singapore
Early Easter Eggs
from Bird Ecology Study Group
New programme aims to study effect of the outdoors on myopia in children
Feng Zengkun Straits Times 7 Apr 11;
THE long and short of the programme is this: Does spending time outdoors reduce the likelihood of a child getting myopia or short-sightedness?
To zoom in on the answer, an outdoor activities programme was launched last week.
The one-year project is funded by the National Medical Research Council and costs $200,000.
Some 450 children aged six to 10 will be selected from applicants for the project run by the National University Health System (NUHS) and National Parks Board.
Half of these 450 children and their families will visit a different park each weekend for organised activities such as guided tours and games, starting from May 21.
The families can win prizes such as cash vouchers for regular attendance. They are encouraged to turn up every weekend but it is not compulsory.
The other half of the group will not take part in the park activities to allow researchers to compare the two groups and study the effects of spending time outdoors.
All the children and their siblings will be given free eye checks, referrals to doctors if necessary, as well as subsidies for such medical visits.
Studies in recent years in the United States and Australia have shown that children who spend time outdoors cut their risk of suffering from myopia by up to 20 per cent.
Scientists believe this is because the unobstructed view trains the eye to see better.
Myopia happens when the lens in the eye cannot focus images on the retina. Singapore has one of the highest rates of myopia in the world, with a quarter of children being short-sighted by age seven, and half by age 10.
NUHS professor Saw Seang Mei, who is the programme's principal investigator, said the reason for the high rate of myopia in Singapore is that children stay indoors and spend a considerable amount of time reading and writing.
'Children with myopia are also more likely to become blind later in life, due to diseases like macular degeneration, so we need to intervene early,' she added.
In 2004, the Health Promotion Board introduced the annual National Eye Care Week. Primary schools are encouraged to set aside time during the week to teach pupils about taking care of their eyes.
If the outdoor programme is successful, it will be expanded to a larger trial of 2,000 children early next year.
One eventual goal is to encourage schools to have more activities out in the open.
Prof Saw said: 'For example, seven- year-old Singaporean children spend only about five to six hours outdoors every week, including the physical education classes in school. This is not enough.'
Ideally, she added, children should spend a minimum of 10 hours outdoors weekly.
The Health Promotion Board advises parents to take their children to the playground a few times a week, and to make sure they take breaks from reading or using the computer every half-hour.
Dr Au Eong Kah Guan, an ophthalmologist at Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre, said the study could be important if it is carried out rigorously and with large enough numbers.
He added: 'Currently, nothing has been proven consistently by multiple studies to prevent myopia so no measure can be recommended routinely.
'If the programme is effective and can be done in different countries, it could be recommended more widely.'
Similar programmes are ongoing in Australia and China.
A trial run of the programme - with 40 children over the last three months - saw a good response, with 75 per cent of the families showing up every weekend.
Madam Seetha, one of the participants, said the experience was also a good time to bond with her two children - Chris, nine, and Harshini, seven.
The 42-year-old immigration officer added: 'We work as a team for some of the games and we get to learn about nature together.'
To apply to join the programme, call 6516-4985, 6516-6930 or 9050-3867. Only Singapore citizens and permanent residents without any severe chronic medical conditions are eligible.
Outdoor activities can help prevent myopia in children: study
Alvina Soh Channel NewsAsia 11 Apr 11;
SINGAPORE : The National University Health System (NUHS) is urging children in Singapore to get out and play, in its latest myopia prevention study.
The year-long study aims to find out if spending more time outdoors can help prevent myopia in children who are between six and 10 years old.
Singapore has one of the highest rates of myopia in the world.
NUHS said this is worrying, as half of the children are myopic by the time they turn 10.
About eight in 10 will have myopia when they reach 18.
It added that the average age of the onset of myopia is eight years old.
Professor Saw Seang Mei, vice-dean for research at the National University Health System, said: "We want to target a group which is susceptible to the environmental factors, so if we increase the outdoor time, it may be able to prevent the development and progression of myopia in this age range."
NUHS said there has been a recent rise in myopia trends in recent years.
In the study, children will take part in weekly activities in the parks - organised by the National Parks Board - such as guided walks and scavenger hunts.
Tay Boon Sin, assistant director at the National Parks Board, said: "Kids nowadays do not spend enough time outdoors, so we really hope that by spending more time outdoors, not only do they get in touch with our parks, nature, they can actually have a more healthy lifestyle."
The study is expected to be completed by April 2012.
The findings will be used to develop a programme to reduce myopia, obesity and other chronic illnesses in Singapore children.
- CNA/ms
Maxie Aw Yeong Business Times 7 Apr 11;http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
PUB and Tuaspring, a Hyflux subsidiary, yesterday signed a 25-year water purchase agreement (WPA) for Singapore's second and largest desalination plant.
The plant will start its operations in 2013, adding 318,500 cubic metres of desalinated water to Singapore's daily water supply. This project will cost $890 million.
The desalination plant will be built beside the existing SingSpring plant in Tuas, which has a capacity of 136,000 cubic metres per day. It will be built under a design, build, own and operate model, and is expected to start in the fourth quarter.
The first-year price for the desalinated water is set at $0.45 per cubic metre, which works out to $52.3 million a year. Tuaspring will provide desalinated water to PUB until 2038.
PUB chief executive Khoo Teng Chye and Hyflux group president and chief executive officer Olivia Lum, who was representing Tuaspring, signed the WPA yesterday.
Mr Khoo reiterated PUB's plans to increase desalination and NEWater capacities to meet up to 30 per cent and 50 per cent of water demand respectively by 2060. He also said that desalinated water was 'set to play a bigger role in meeting Singapore's future water needs'.
Ms Lum said that Hyflux was pleased to collaborate with PUB again for the development of the second desalination plant to meet Singapore's rising demand for water.
Recently, Ms Lum told The Straits Times that Hyflux has shelved its plans for expansion in Libya, and may allow a US$100 million contract that it won in the country to lapse. It now plans to focus on growing its business in China and Singapore.
Hyflux shares closed down a cent to $2.15 yesterday.
Deborah Zabarenko PlanetArk 7 Apr 11;
As Earth enters a period of mass extinction, a study released on Wednesday offers a new reason to preserve biodiversity: it's an effective, natural pollution scrubber in streams.
Environmental activists have long warned that waning biodiversity means the loss of such ecological services as stream-cleaning, control of pests and diseases and increased productivity in fisheries.
The latest study, published in the journal Nature, shows how this works, demonstrating that streams that contain more species have better water quality than streams that have fewer.
The species being discussed are microorganisms such as algae that incorporate elements of pollution into their bodies. The more types of algae there are in a stream, each with a minutely different habitat, the better they are collectively at filtering pollution out of the water.
"If we were to maintain streams in their naturally diverse state, these streams that we love for their recreation, for their beauty, for fishing, etc. ... have the tangential benefit of cleaning up our water for us," said Bradley Cardinale, the study's author.
"One implication (of the study) is, if we let nature do its thing, we don't have to run around creating very expensive water treatment plants all over the planet," Cardinale, of the University of Michigan, said by telephone.
MINI-STREAMS AND HUNGRY ALGAE
To reach his conclusions, Cardinale set up 150 miniature model streams that mimic the varied conditions of natural streams in the United States. He added from one to eight varieties of algae and measured how well the mini-streams got cleaned.
The pollutant they targeted was a nitrogen compound called nitrate, a common by-product of chemical fertilizers that Cardinale called "the world's single greatest water quality problem."
Nitrate is responsible for the hypoxic "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico, outbreaks of toxic algae and red tides, he said.
The full eight-species mix of algae removed nitrate from streams 4.5 times faster, on average, than a single species alone, according to the study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation.
One species known as filamentous snotty algae does a good job on its own of taking in nitrate and other excess nutrients from stream water. But it smells bad and most other species don't like to eat it, Cardinale said.
Knowing the benefits of biodiversity is important because scientists see Earth entering a period of mass extinction when as much as 75 percent or more of the life on the planet vanishes forever.
Cardinale said there is little doubt that this trend, largely due to the destruction of places where many different species live, has already begun.
"It's not necessarily how much we've lost already," he said. "It's that the rate of extinction is so outrageously high compared to what we know is normal."
The rates of extinction now are between 100 to 1,000 times faster than normal, and between 30 percent and 50 percent of species could be lost by 2100, Cardinale said.
(Editing by Xavier Briand)
Martin Hickman, The Independent 7 Apr 11;
The company says it is removing the vegetable oil from deep fat friers to gain a "double benefit" by reducing climate change and heart disease.
Used widely as a cooking oil, palm oil employs hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries but has a poor health and environmental record. Forests in Indonesia and Malaysia have been cut down to make way for plantations and the oil is high in artery-clogging saturated fat.
From this month KFC will use high oleic rapeseed oil at its 800 outlets in UK and Ireland, at an estimated cost of £1m a year.
The move will cut levels of saturated fat in its chicken by 25 per cent, according to the company.
Mark Bristow, head of KFC food assurance said: "Switching to high oleic rapeseed oil means not only can we offer our customers the benefit of reduced saturated fats, but the assurance we're doing everything we can to lessen our impact on the environment."
KFC added: "The global expansion of the palm oil industry has been a contributor to the destruction of tropical rainforests and peat lands to make way for palm oil plantations, which has inadvertently caused large amounts of greenhouse gases being pushed into the atmosphere."
KFC will still use palm oil in fries, buns, tortillas and hash browns, but said it had begun talks with suppliers aimed at getting them to switch to alternatives or source only sustainably-certified palm oil.
Since the The Independent disclosed palm oil's role in deforestation two years ago, many retailers and manufacturers have agreed to buy supplies certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.
Campaigners want the European Union to force food firms to list palm oil as an ingredient because it is often listed as ‘vegetable oil' on packs.
Richard Black BBC News 6 Apr 11;
Whitening clouds by spraying them with seawater, proposed as a "technical fix" for climate change, could do more harm than good, according to research.
Whiter clouds reflect more solar energy back into space, cooling the Earth.
But a study presented at the European Geosciences Union meeting found that using water droplets of the wrong size would lead to warming, not cooling.
One of the theory's scientific fathers said it should be possible to make sure droplets were the correct size.
Cloud whitening was originally proposed back in 1990 by John Latham, now of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, US.
It has since been developed by a number of other researchers including University of Edinburgh wave energy pioneer Stephen Salter, joining a number of other "geoengineering" techniques that would attempt either to reduce solar radiation reaching earth or absorb carbon dioxide from the air.
One version envisages specially designed ships, powered by wind, operating in areas of the ocean where reflective stratocumulus clouds are scarce.
The ships would continually spray fine jets of seawater droplets into the sky, where tiny salt crystals would act as nuclei around which water vapour would condense, producing clouds or thickening them where they already exist.
It has not yet been trialled in practice, although proponents say it ought to be.
Drop kick
But Kari Alterskjaer from the University of Oslo in Norway came to the European Geosciences Union (EGU) meeting in Vienna with a cautionary tale.
Her study, using observations of clouds and a computer model of the global climate, confirmed earlier findings that if cloud whitening were to be done, the best areas would be just to the west of North and South America, and to the west of Africa.
But it concluded that about 70 times more salt would have to be carried aloft than proponents have calculated.
And using droplets of the wrong size, she found, could reduce cloud cover rather than enhancing it - leading to a net warming, not the desired cooling.
"If the particles are too small, they will not brighten the clouds - instead they will influence particles that are already there, and there will be competition between them," she told BBC News.
"Obviously the particle size is of crucial importance, not only for whether you get a positive or negative effect, but also whether particles can actually reach the clouds - if they're too large, they just fall to the sea."
The possibility of this technique having a warming impact has been foreseen by cloud-whitening's developers.
In a 2002 scientific paper, Dr Latham wrote: "... the overall result could be a reduction in cloud droplet concentration, with concomitant reductions in albedo and cloud longevity, ie a warming effect".
But, he argued, this possibility could be eliminated by careful design of the spray system.
Contacted after the presentation in Vienna, Professor Salter took the same line.
"I agree that the drop size has to be correct and that the correct value may vary according to local conditions," he said.
"However, I am confident that we can control drop size by adjusting the frequency of an ultrasonic pressure wave which ejects drop from micro-nozzles etched in silicon.
"We can test this at very small scale in the lab."
Professor Salter is working with engineers in Edinburgh to produce extremely fine yet robust nozzles from semiconductor sheets.
Small cuts
In an era when many climate scientists are frustrated by slow progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cloud whitening has sometimes been held up as an example of a technology that could make a real difference, at least to "buy time".
It has been calculated that a fairly modest increase in the reflectivity of these marine clouds could balance the warming from a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - although even proponents admit it would do nothing to combat the other major consequence of carbon emissions, ocean acidification.
One scientist at Ms Alterskjaer's presentation, having heard her outline why it might not work, commented that it was the most depressing thing he had heard in a long time.
And Piers Forster from the UK's University of Leeds, who is leading a major UK project on geoengineering techniques, suggested more research would be needed before cloud whitening could be considered for "prime time" use.
"The trouble is that clouds are very complicated; as soon as you start manipulating them in one way, there are a lot of different interactions," he said.
"We need real-world data and we need modelling that tries to simulate clouds on more appropriate scales, and that means less than 100m or so, because if you look at a deck of stratocumulus it's not one big thing, it has pockets and cells and other features.
"Far more uncertain is the idea that you'd inject a particular drop size, because it won't stay that size for long - it will spread out, and that would be uncertain."
Professor Salter, too, believes more research needs to be done, including building a prototype injector ship and studying how it works in practice.
Interviewed by the BBC late last year, he said that such research was urgently needed because there was little sign of real cuts being made in the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
Leelumnus radium, a new genus and species of pilumnid crab from marine encrusting communities in Singapore
from Raffles Museum News
Nudibranch at Tanah Merah!
from wild shores of singapore
First visit down Kranji Mangrove
from Urban Forest
Vocalisation of Coppersmith Barbet
from Bird Ecology Study Group
Mangroves: the "most carbon rich forests in the tropics"
from Celebrating Singapore's Biodiversity
Lester Kok Straits Times 6 Apr 11;
THE executive director of the Singapore Environment Council (SEC), Mr Howard Shaw, has stepped down to join the private sector.
Recognised by many as the public face of the non-profit, non-governmental organisation, he will be a corporate adviser to the council, helping to guide the new executive director, whose name has not been announced.
A well-known advocate of environmental sustainability, Mr Shaw, 40, has been at the Halcyon Group as its senior vice-president of corporate social responsibility since last Friday.
The group is an investment holding company headquartered in Singapore, with businesses in rubber plantations and the offshore and marine sectors.
When contacted by The Straits Times, Mr Shaw said he had been with the council for a very long time - 15 years - and that everybody needed to move on.
'SEC has built my knowledge in all areas of sustainability,' he said. He added that he would enjoy applying in the private sector what he has learnt, and that this was something he had always wanted to do.
'That is part of my passion, not just telling people what to do and talking about it, but also actually seeing it materialise in projects... looking at real, concrete, environmental performance and improvement.'
In his new role at Halcyon, he will oversee environmental management systems, conduct environmental impact studies and engage company stakeholders in corporate social responsibility activities, among other things.
At the council, Mr Shaw worked his way up from programme coordinator in 1996 to the executive director post, which he held for the last eight years.
The middle child of three, he is the younger son of Mr Shaw Vee King, managing director of cinema giant Shaw Organisation and son of its founder Runme Shaw.
Some of Mr Howard Shaw's work at the council included Bring Your Own Bag Day, which is now a weekly affair in supermarkets. It was launched in 2008 by the council and the National Environment Agency. The Eco-Foodcourt certification, for foodcourts that comply with a set of guidelines, including installing water-saving devices and providing only sustainable packaging, was another project. This was launched in January.
Mr Aloysius Cheong, chief executive of Olive Green, a local firm producing corn-based disposable tableware, had nothing but praise for Mr Shaw.
'He is a great guy, you can really see that he is passionate about what he does,' Mr Cheong said, adding that it was a shame Mr Shaw had stepped down just when the council was making waves in the green industry.
Mr Allan Lim, chief executive of Alpha Biofuels, a company that produces biodiesel from used cooking oil, said Mr Shaw was innovative and would always challenge conventions.
'He applied commercial sense to environmental sustainability and was able to find ways that were economically viable for companies to go green.'
Mr Lim said he looked forward to working with the new director.
'This would challenge the SEC to shift the paradigm set by Howard; to inject new ideas and to have more exciting things that can be done to raise more awareness about the environment.'
Singapore Environment Council not a one-man operation
tanya fong Today Online 7 Apr 11;
The Singapore Environment Council (SEC) said it will be "business as usual" at the council in the wake of Mr Howard Shaw's move to the private sector.
Mr Shaw was executive director - the highest-paid position in the non-profit organisation - of the SEC for eight years.
Yesterday, a press conference was held to pre-empt a possible reduction of confidence from its stakeholders, work partners and donors. The SEC said that the council will push on with its current projects as well as promote environmental awareness and action.
Its chairman, Ms. Isabella Loh, said although Mr Shaw is the face of SEC, the council is not a one-man show.
Said Ms Loh: "More importantly, I just wanted to make it clear publicly that it's business as usual. We serve the public sector, private sector, citizens as well as governments. All of us actually have a board, we have people to answer to."
She added that some of the projects that SEC is running such as the Singapore G1 is still happening, as well as other green audits, are still ongoing. The Singapore G1 is an annual event organised by the SEC to raise awareness of greener mobility options and to encourage the development and use of green technologies in transportation to reduce carbon emissions.
The SEC also announced that it was looking for a new executive director.
Meanwhile, Ms. Loh will be helming the council. Ms. Loh was previously Shell's CEO and VP for Global Marine Fuels and Lubricants, and president and CEO of SembCorp Environmental Management Pte Ltd.
Mr Shaw, who had been with SEC for 15 years, is widely known for driving sustainability efforts among local enterprises and government. He joined the Halcyon Group as senior vice-president of Corporate Social Responsibility last Friday.
He was responsible for developing the Singapore Environmental Achievement Award, Singapore's first award scheme to recognise the efforts of local enterprises that practice proactive environmental management and the Singapore Green Labelling Scheme.
Said Mr Shaw: "I am not only passionate about the environment but I am very passionate about this organisation as well. SEC has grown into an organisation that has become very relevant in this changing world where we need to really focus on sustainable urbanisation and the greening of business."
Mr Shaw said he will continue to have an active role in SEC as a corporate adviser. Being in the private sector would allow him many opportunities to help SEC, he said.
Vietnam Net 5 Apr 11;
VietNamNet Bridge - Australian and Vietnamese scientists have found a new species of toads in Bi Doup - Nui Ba National Park in the Central Highlands Province of Lam Dong. 
The toads, a new species of Leptobrachium leucops, or Eastern Spadefoot Toads, were found in the evergreen forest between 1558-1900 m above sea-level on the Lang Bian Plateau in Lam Dong and Khanh Hoa provinces.
Leptobrachium leucops is nocturnal, has a length of 4.5 cm and have partly white pupils, ridges on their skin and several stripes on their four limbs.
The megophryid frog genus Leptolalax is a relatively recently described genus of about 29 species in Asia that often inhabit the forest floor near rocky streams in hilly topography, covered with evergreen forest.
There has been a rapid increase in the number of known Leptolalax species in recent years, with 21 of the known species described in the past two decades.
Eleven species have been reported from Indochina and all but two of those also have been reported from Vietnam.
Vietnamese Leptolalax are known to exist in the suitable habitat in northern and central Vietnam, and records to date show their southernmost habitats to be in the Kon Tum Plateau.
The same team recently discovered a new species of Rhacophorus vampyrus or Vampire Tree Frogs in the same national park after several field studies from 2008 to 2010.
ScienceDaily 5 Apr 11;
"Coral reefs provide a range of critical goods and services to humanity -- everything from nutrient cycling to food production to coast protection to economic revenues through tourism," says Camilo Mora at Dalhousie University and lead researcher of the study. "Yet the complex nature and large-scale distribution of coral reefs is challenging scientists to understand if this natural ecosystem will continue working to deliver goods and services given the ongoing loss of biodiversity in coral reefs."
"Numerous experiments have showed that biodiversity has positive effects on several ecosystem processes, although the number of species required to ensure the functionality of a given process is fairly low, as many species often have similar ecological roles," says Michel Loreau from McGill University, a co-author of the study. "What remains largely unknown, however, is whether the results of experimental studies reflect what happens in real ecosystems."
To fill this unknown, 55 researchers, in a two-year study, collected the necessary data to determine whether biodiversity influences the efficiency of reef fish systems to produce biomass, and if so, elucidate the role of humans in such a linkage. The team collected demographic data on human populations as well as environmental and biological data on the identity of species, their abundances and body sizes in almost two thousand coral reef locations worldwide. The data on abundance and body size were used to calculate the cumulative weight of all fishes on each reef (also called standing biomass), which is one of the main services reef fishes provide to humanity through food supply but also a very close proxy for how effectively ecosystems produce biomass.
"The results of the study were stunning," says co-author Kevin Gaston at Sheffield University. "While experimental studies have elucidated that the biomass production of ecosystems stabilizes after a certain number of species is reached, this field study demonstrated that the production of biomass in reef fish systems did not saturate with the addition of new species."
"This study shows, quite simply, that the more biodiversity, the better," says co-author Marah Hardt with OceanInk. "The benefits appear limitless, if we allow ecosystems to operate at their full potential."
"The reasons leading to a non-saturating relationship between diversity and biomass production are intriguing," says coauthor Michel Kulbicki at the French Institute for Research and Development. "Nevertheless, this strong relationship clearly indicates that species interact in such a way that their combined effect is larger than the addition of their individual parts and that the loss of species can have far-reaching consequences in the functioning of coral reefs."
The study also demonstrated that standing biomass reduced with increasing human density, although for the same number of people the reduction of biomass was significantly larger in more diverse ecosystems. The authors presume that the stronger deleterious effect of humanity on more diverse reefs is due to the selective extirpation of large fishes, which are often more efficient at turning food into biomass and lack competitors precluding their ecological replacement by other species.
"It's been usual to expect that diverse ecosystems could lose a few species without it mattering very much because the high redundancy of species should allow to replace any species that is lost," said Peter F. Sale, assistant director of the Institute for Water, Environment and Health of the United Nations University, who was not involved in the study. "The results of this study now suggest that we do not have such insurance and that reef ecosystems are at greater risk from human pressures than we previously thought."
The study documented that the deleterious effect of humanity on reef fish systems can be widespread, as some 75% of the world's coral reefs are near human settlements and could worsen, as 82% of countries with coral reefs are expected to double their human populations within the next 50 to 100 years.
"Human overpopulation is a very sensitive topic across endeavors from science to religion and politics," Mora says. "Unfortunately, we find again and again that our global population cannot be sustainably supported without the deterioration of the world's natural resources and the resulting backlash on human welfare. Thus, identifying socially and politically acceptable solutions to curb human population growth is at the core of finding ultimate solutions for the protection of biodiversity and the prevention of unnecessary hardship."
"We found that dense human populations were associated with heavy overfishing, land use, and coastal development," says coauthor David Booth at the University of Technology, Sydney. "This highlights the challenge behind the management required to adequately protect coral reefs and the need to focus on alternative economic and policy tools that address the root drivers of reef degradation."
"This is a critical situation," says coauthor Sebastian Ferse from the Leibniz Center of Tropical Marine Ecology. "It underlines once again that current management approaches are insufficient to protect marine biodiversity on a large scale, and that holistic approaches combining natural and social systems are needed."
"Not everything was doom and gloom," says coauthor Maria Beger at the University of Queensland. The study reported that at least 25% of the world's reefs remain distant from direct human effects. Those reefs are located on small and isolated areas where human habitation is harsh. "These few reefs are in stark contrast with degraded sites, and may still be able to act as sources to replenish others. This is a fortunate situation that can buy us some time while we figure out effective solutions to this coral reef crisis," she adds.
"Coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystem on the planet, hosting thousands of species and generating numerous goods and services to millions of people worldwide," says Enric Sala, a National Geographic fellow and co-author of the study. "The future of coral reefs and the services they provide to a growing human population depend on how soon countries become seriously committed to regulating human threats."
Journal Reference:
Camilo Mora, Ransom A. Myers, Marta Coll, Simone Libralato, Tony J. Pitcher, Rashid U. Sumaila, Dirk Zeller, Reg Watson, Kevin J. Gaston, Boris Worm. Management Effectiveness of the World's Marine Fisheries. PLoS Biology, 2009; 7 (6): e1000131 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000131
Emma Brennand BBC News 31 Mar 11;
A national survey has recorded an encouraging rise in small bird populations in the UK.
In January, over 600,000 people took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
The results, published this week, show a promising increase in garden bird populations since last year.
Over 10.2 million birds were counted. Goldcrest sightings doubled, while long-tailed tits rose by a third.
The annual survey, now in its 32nd year, was held on Saturday 29 January.
The survey asked people to take to their gardens and public open spaces to count the number of birds during a given hour.
The harsh winter conditions of 2009-10 caused significant drops in the number of small birds recorded in last year's Big Garden Birdwatch.
"We were really interested to see how the small birds fared after such a disastrous last year," says Big Garden Birdwatch co-ordinator Sarah Kelly.
"It appears that many may have had a decent breeding season and have been able to bounce back a little."
This year's results suggest an encouraging increase in long-tailed tits, goldcrests and coal tits.
But Sarah Kelly warns that people must not be complacent: "Another hard winter could see numbers back down so it's important everyone continues to feed their garden birds."
Many other previously declining populations, such as the blackbird and robin, also appear to be doing better, with numbers having stabilised when compared to last year.
Starlings and blackbirds have swapped positions on this year's leader board, with starlings now at number two and blackbirds at number three.
Starling sightings have increased by a quarter since last year, but their numbers are still down from when Big Garden Birdwatch began in 1979.
The house sparrow retained its top spot for the eighth year running with an average of four seen per garden, a population increase of 10% since last year. However, the 58% decrease in house sparrow numbers since 1979 is still a cause of concern.
Numbers of great tits were up by 12% while sightings of blue tits increased by 22%.
More than 7,000 sightings of the striking waxwing were recorded. These winter migrants arrive in the UK from Scandinavia in search of food.
"We knew this was going to be a bumper year for waxwings as we'd had so many reports from all over the UK," says RSPB scientist Mark Eaton.
"But the Big Garden Birdwatch is the first indicator of exactly how many were seen in gardens, and we're pleased that so many people got to enjoy sightings of these beautiful birds."
Waxwings are very particular feeders and are attracted only to gardens that contain berries.
The RSPB believes the increase in waxwings shows that people are encouraging the right plants for wildlife and reaping the rewards.
Yahoo News 5 Apr 11;
OSLO (AFP) – British food waste activist Tristram Stuart won Norway's Sophie Prize for environment and sustainable development Tuesday, the foundation behind the award said.
In his 2009 book, "Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal," the British activist, born in 1977, denounces that massive quantities of food are thrown away while one billion of people worldwide suffer from malnutrition.
According to Stuart, a third of all the food that is thrown away in the United States and Europe would suffice to feed all the hungry in the world.
"Tristram Stuart is awarded the Sophie Prize of 2011 for his innovative, energetic, humorous and thoughtful contributions to raising consciousness about one of today's the most palpable environmental and moral scandals: food waste," the foundation said.
It quoted a new study saying each Norwegian throws away a kilo of food each week, which amounts to some 300,000 tonnes of food wasted annually in Norway.
Stuart turned his word into actions in December 2009 by organising "Feeding the 5000" on Trafalgar Square in London, where some 5,000 people were fed a meal made with ingredients that would have gone to waste.
Set up in 1997 by Norwegian writer Jostein Gaarder, the author of the bestselling novel "Sophie's World", and his wife, the award recognises work for the protection of the environment with the winner receiving a 100,000 dollar (70,000 euro) cheque.
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