Best of our wild blogs: 3 Dec 18

Beting Bemban Besar South
Offshore Singapore

8-9 Dec: Kids' art workhop and film screening
Celebrating Singapore Shores!

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Why some see Chile's plastic bag ban as a rubbish proposal

Paige Sutherland BBC 2 Dec 18;

"They are just everywhere and they are polluting our oceans, our fields, our cities," says Guillermo González of the 3.4 billion disposable plastic bags used in Chile every year.

Mr González heads the recycling department at Chile's environment ministry and is only too aware of the problems caused by the huge amount of plastic bags used by his compatriots.

It takes up to 400 years for a single plastic bag to degrade and very few get recycled, he says. "It is a very visible kind of waste and one that people are very concerned about."

In August, Chile became the first country in Latin America to ban stores from handing out free plastic bags to shoppers. Under the new rules, anyone who goes to a store will either have to buy a re-usable bag or bring their own.

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Act now or risk disaster, nations told at UN climate summit

Patrick GALEY,AFP Yahoo News 3 Dec 18;

Katowice (Poland) (AFP) - After the starkest warnings yet of the catastrophic threat posed by climate change, nations gathered in Poland on Sunday to chart a way for mankind to avert runaway global warming.

The COP24 climate summit comes at a crucial juncture in the battle to rein in the effects of our heating planet.

The smaller, poorer nations that will bare the devastating brunt of climate change are pushing for richer states to make good on the promises they made in the 2015 Paris agreement.

Three years ago countries committed to limit global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and to the safer cap of 1.5C if at all possible.

But with only a single degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has already seen a crescendo of deadly wildfires, heatwaves and hurricanes made more destructive by rising seas.

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Best of our wild blogs: 2 Dec 18

16 Dec (Sun) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk
Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

The Park that Never Ceases to Amaze Us: Pasir Ris Park
Adventures with the Naked Hermit Crabs

Night Walk At Pasir Ris Park (30 Nov 2018)
Beetles@SG BLOG

Butterfly Photography at Our Local Parks - Kranji Marshes
Butterflies of Singapore

Giant clam girl explains the how and why fish talk!
Mei Lin NEO

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The banana money trail: Prices rising in Singapore, but farmers not gaining

The cost of bananas from the Philippines has shot up, but farmers are struggling with losses, so where is the money from consumers going to, ultimately? The series For Food’s Sake! investigates.
Derrick A Paulo and Anna Tolentino Channel NewsAsia 1 Dec 18;

DAVAO, Philippines: Of all the types of bananas his family’s fruit business sells, the Philippine Cavendish variety is the most popular, owing to its appearance.

“They look almost perfect. There are fewer blemishes and fewer scratches, compared to the Malaysian ones,” said retailer Ben Phua. “Malaysian bananas have black spots.”

Those spots are actually sugar spots and thus equate to sweeter bananas, but “not many consumers are willing to accept the look of the bananas”.

The price he pays for the Cavendish variety, however, has gone up by 25 per cent in the past three years. That works out at around 50 cents more per kilogramme, which is passed on to customers.

The reason for the hike is a fungal disease – one that all banana growers fear – which struck the Philippines hard in 2015 and has since wiped out plantations.

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Indonesia: ‘We’re only fighting fires of past sinners’: Luhut defends govt's palm oil support

The Jakarta Post 2 Dec 18;

Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has rebuffed claims that he and the government were not paying attention to the deforestation and forest fires caused by oil palm plantations.

He said he was also worried about their environmental impacts on younger generations, but he claimed the government was struggling to make progress since the land concessions for the plantations, some of which were on fire-prone peatlands, had been given out by past governments.

“We’re just fighting fires [created by] past sinners,” he said during a press conference at his office in Central Jakarta on Friday, as quoted by tempo.co.

Luhut reiterated his derision for environmental group Greenpeace Indonesia, which had disrupted the operations of a tanker carrying palm oil belonging to the Wilmar trading company in the Bay of Cadiz near Spain, saying that the government has every right to question the local chapter of an international group.

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Indonesia: Injured Sumatran elephant rescued, fitted with tracker

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani
The Jakarta Post 1 Dec 18;

An injured elephant was found in Panca village, Aceh Besar, Aceh, on Thursday, after she had been roaming around plantations in the area for days.

Residents reported sighting the female, which had injuries to her tail and the left side of her chest, to the Aceh Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA Aceh). The agency sent a team to start searching for the elephant on Wednesday night and she was located on Thursday.

The chairman of BKSDA Aceh, Sapto Adji Prabowo, and his team conducted surgery on the elephant on the same day. The team had to amputate the tail as the injury and resulting infection was too severe to save it.

“The surgery ran smoothly and the elephant has been given antibiotics and vitamins,” Sapto said in a written statement.

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Indonesia: Walhi calls for protection of Sumatran tiger

Antara 1 Dec 18;

Medan, N Sumatra, (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) has called for protection of Sumatran tiger or Panthera Tigris Sumatrae and called on the people to not hunt it.

"Protecting Sumatran tiger is not only the responsibility of the government but also the people," the executive director of Walhi North Sumatra, Dana Prima Tarigan, said here on Saturday.

She said tigers that entered neighborhoods must not be hurt or killed, adding that the animal had done it because their habitat has been damaged by the irresponsible people.

She said the killing of a tiger that recently entered Bangkelang village in the district of Mandailing Natal, North Sumatra, must never happen again.

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Best of our wild blogs: 1 Dec 18

Open for registration – Love MacRitchie Walk with NUS Toddycats! on 8 Dec 2018 (Sat)
Love our MacRitchie Forest

[Short Film] Seagrasses of Singapore
Psychedelic Nature

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Singapore to ban 'wash water' discharge in port from 2020

* Singapore to enforce ban on open-loop scrubbers from Jan 2020
* Ban part of preparations for IMO 2020 rules
* Move seen as setback for so-called open-loop scrubbers

Roslan Khasawneh Reuters 30 Nov 18;

SINGAPORE, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Singapore’s Maritime Port Authority (MPA) will ban the discharge of “wash water” used in ships to scrub engine exhaust from Jan. 1, 2020, the MPA said on Friday.

The ban of so-called open-loop scrubbers is part of an effort to prepare one of the world’s busiest ports for International Maritime Organization (IMO) rules that come into force in 2020 and oblige ships to use cleaner fuels.

“To protect the marine environment and ensure that the port waters are clean, the discharge of wash water from open-loop exhaust gas scrubbers in Singapore port waters will be prohibited,” said Andrew Tan, Chief Executive Officer of the MPA during an event in Singapore.

“Ships fitted with hybrid scrubbers will be required to switch to the closed-loop mode of operation,” Tan said.

Singapore is the world’s biggest hub for ship refuelling, also known as bunkering.

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Deer seen wandering around Lornie Road put down due to injuries, old age

Choo Yun Ting Straits Times 30 Nov 18;

SINGAPORE - The Sambar deer which was spotted wandering around on Lornie Road on Sunday evening (Nov 25) has been put down, the National Parks Board (NParks) and the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) said in a joint statement on Friday.

The deer had looked confused as it wandered in the middle of traffic on Lornie Road, according to a video taken by a Stomp reader.

NParks was alerted to the deer on Lornie Road after 9pm on Sunday, and they conducted a joint operation alongside the WRS veterinary team.

The old male Sambar deer had to be darted for its safety, as well as that of motorists, as it was lost, the two organisations said.

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Sandbags among new measures to help cope with monsoon season: PUB

Channel NewsAsia 30 Nov 18;

SINGAPORE: PUB will offer sandbags to about 600 residents and businesses in flood-prone areas during the upcoming monsoon season, the national water agency said in a media release on Friday (Nov 30).

“With more unpredictable weather due to climate change, PUB has upped its efforts to prepare our community for the coming monsoon," said director of Catchment and Waterways Yeo Keng Soon.

"This year, we are helping residents and shop owners in flood-prone areas to take additional flood protection measures by providing them with sandbags."

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