Hi all,
If you are a regular to this blog, you might have noticed this SocialVibe widget on the right. Basically, Sprint is offering all who do a very short rating on their video in exchange for donating funding to the Whaleman Foundation, which works to educate people on the threats that whales face, presumably on climate change, illegal whaling and the like.
Do the whales a favour and spend 2 minutes helping me click that button.
Thank You,
Green Guy
Photo Credit: Ria Tan
A really saddening photo. I’m sure many Singaporeans don’t even know of this offshore reef off Sentosa. It is surely much more diverse and much more dense than the more publicly known Chek Jawa on Ubin.
photo: Tim via flickr
A review of peer-reviewed scientific literature done by researchers at Australia’s James Cook University reveals that in the past 25 years there’s been an expansion of the world’s tropical zones and that human activity has contributed to it:
The literature review shows that the areas which climatologists and meteorologists consider to be the tropics (which is defined differently than in geography, where it is defined as within 0 – 23.5 degrees N and S of the Equator) have expanded at minimum 300 kilometers (186 miles).
Future expansion of these zones is harder to predict, but based on what’s now known the planet could see a further spread of the tropical conditions over the next 25 years of between 222-553 kilometers (138-338 miles).
The implication of this is that sub-tropical arid zones which border the tropics are being pushed into areas which previously had a more temperate climate, with more pronounced differences in seasonal temperatures and precipitation.
As these areas expand they will begin pushing into more heavily populated areas, with potentially severe impacts on society.
Such areas include heavily populated regions of southern Australia, southern Africa, the southern Europe-Mediterranean-Middle East region, the south-western United States, northern Mexico, and southern South America – all of which are predicted to experience severe drying.If the dry subtropics expand into these regions, the consequences could be devastating for water resources, natural ecosystems and agriculture, with potentially cascading environmental, social and health implications.
Furthermore, the expansion of tropical diseases such as dengue fever could hit areas where the diseases was previously not endemic or where epidemic levels of dengue were previously not present. Researchers said the literature showed that these areas include the southern United States, China, northern Africa in the northern hemisphere, and parts of South America, southern Africa, and most of Australia in the southern hemisphere.
As to the cause of all this, the literature is less certain, though the most recent research points to anthropogenic causes. Research published earlier this year in the journalGeophysical Research Letters shows,
…that the observed widening of the tropics can only be accurately replicated by an atmospheric general circulation model that includes direct radiative effects related to human greenhouse gas emissions and stratospheric ozone depletion. Simulation models which did not include anthropogenic radiative effects showed no significant change in the width of the tropics.
Read the full report: Expansion of the Tropics: Evidence and implications (PDF)
Amur Tiger at the Zurich zoo, photo: Tambako the Jaguar via flickr
Though there are about 500 Amur Tigers left in the wild (with nearly as many in captivity around the world), the genetic diversity of the remaining animals is such that in terms of the species’ long-term viability there really are far fewer: Hence, the effective population being merely 27-35.
That’s the word coming from a team of researchers, led by scientists from the University of British Columbia, published in the Journal of Molecular Biology.
Lowest Genetic Diversity of Any Tiger Population
By sampling DNA from the cat’s droppings, the team determined that the genetic diversity among Amur Tigers is the lowest ever recorded for a wild population of tigers.
Not only that, but the tigers are segregated geographically into two groups which rarely intermingle.
The only bright spot in the research seems to be that 1) there is the possibility of reintroducing captive tigers back into the wild, and 2) the researchers found that in the captive population there are unique genetic features no longer found in the wild.
Conservation Has Already Once Brought Amur Tigers Back From the Brink
Even though the genetic diversity of wild Amur Tigers is astonishingly, and perhaps critically, low, even the population levels we now see is conservation success story. Due to habitat loss and poaching, by the 1940s somewhere between 20 and 30 individuals were left in the wild. Since then, conservation efforts and a ban on hunting them has increased the population.
Since the start of the 20th century, when world tiger populations were thought to be above 100,000, three tiger sub-species have gone extinct: The Caspian Tiger (which was so closely related to the Amur Tiger than some scientists believe them to be one and the same), the Bali Tiger, and the Javan Tiger.
photo: Martin Price
The Dolomites in Italy and the Wadden Sea in Germany are now the world’s newest natural wonders of the world listed by World Heritage Foundation. It takes years for the World Heritage Foundation to come to such conclusions but it’s not surprising why these two sites have been chosen.
The Dolomites
The Dolomites in Italy were added to the World Heritage List due to their outstanding natural beauty and the geological significance of their limestone formations. The Dolomites are a portion of the Alps located in Italy which extend from the Adige River to the Piave Valley. Known for their spectacular limestone walls and the immortalized fossil record that tells the tales of what once was. The fossil record illustrates the 200 million year history of the mountains.
photo: Pedro Rosabal
The Wadden Sea
The Wadden Sea is located at the southeastern part of the north sea and it’s known to be the largest unbroken system of inter-tidal sand and mud flats in the world. It is home to 6.1 million birds present at any one time more than 400,000 breeding pairs and an average of 10 to 12 million birds which pass through every year according to World Heritage. The diversity in wildlife is a result of the considerable mud flats that run throughout the area.
JoyJoined MP Astro for their stargazing camp on Ubin on Saturday (20th June 09). Upon hearing from Kenneth that bringing friends shouldn’t be a problem, I decided to call Ryan and CY along. CY brought Lg along.
So we met at Changi Village at 5pm, took the bumboat across to Ubin and had dinner there, which was rather affordable I suppose. 31 dollars for fried rice, black-pepper stir-fried beef and sambal kangkong, enough for five.
After that, seeing that bicycle rental or van transport would be costly and not worth the short trip, we decided to walk the 4km to the camp site.
I must say that MP Astro picked a really good spot for the observation. Basically, it’s the OBS campsite beside Kekek Quarry. The campsite used to be really wild and overgrown, but it seems that if one walked in deeper, there would be a small clearing with short trees that’s almost perfect for observation!
That night, I caught the planets Venus and saw that it was in a half-phase, Jupiter and 2 of its moons, Saturn and it’s ring systems. Nebulae I saw included M8 (Lagoon), M57 (Ring). M57 really surprised me, because the ring of interstellar gas was pretty obvious through a scope, appearing as a smoky/cloudy ring surrounding a small open cluster of stars.
Star clusters seem that night included the whole bunch in between Scorpio and Sagittarius. M7 (Butterfly cluster), M6. Also managed to catch the Great Hercules Cluster, M13 in Hercules, which simply appeared like a gray smudge in the middle of the field of view. Omega Centauri was unfortunately behind clouds throughout the night and we had to give it a skip. Jewelbox and all its beauty in Crux was no problem to find.
Also managed to catch the double star Mizar and its companion in Ursa Major, the crescent Moon and earthshine, Corona Borealis, Corvus and Crater, the full Lyra and Libra. Awesome skies.
The next morning, we simply made the long walk back to the town, had Malay food for breakfast at the Malay Headman’s shop and then made our way back to the mainland. With the exception for CY, all of didn’t sleep at all. I for one was close to complete zombification.
Although I must say, we might have outstayed our welcome, considering the fact that we took one whole groundsheet to ourselves and we didn’t help with the carrying of equipment. The taka’s computerized mount should be quite a hefty weight. 
After all that, made my way down to Bedok to meet up with He Yuan and Fabian to get groceries for lunch. CY went home to shower before meeting us. And then some stuff happened, which involved pork cutlets and sweet potato paste and Audrey driving. Can’t remember much of that sadly.
by Jesse Fox for treehugger.com
Image via The New York Times
“I think we’re doing great things right now,” says Ray LaHood, the Obama Administration’s Secretary of Transportation. A former Republican Congressman from Illinois, many advocates of sustainable transport were initially unsure what to make of his appointment. Several months later, LaHood is shaping up to become one of the administration’s more activist figure
Secretary LaHood, who oversees a $70 billion budget, along with some $50 billion in stimulus funds, admits that the United States’ transportation systems are a long way from sustainability. “We’ve spent three decades building an interstate system,” he told US News & World Report recently. “We’ve put almost all of our resources into the interstate system.”
The new administration, however, appears to be breaking with America’s highway-loving tradition, bringing in a new set of priorities including high-speed rail, building more efficient cars and creating “livable communities.” Back to the One-Car Garage.
In a June 12 interview published in US News & World Report, LaHood said that the USDOT is in a “transformational” moment right now:
This is a transformational president, and the department is following the president’s lead. People haven’t really been thinking about these things. They have been thinking about how to build roads, how to build interstates, how to build bridges. People now are thinking differently about where they want to live, how they want to live, and how they want to be able to get around their communities.
In another interview, published in The New York Times, LaHood said he envisions a shift from the three-car garages of today back to the one-car garage, as Americans begin to live in communities where they are less dependent on their cars:
What we’ve talked about is getting to a concept that we call livable communities, where people don’t have to get in a car every day. You can use light rail, you can use buses, you can use walking paths, you can use your bike.
Integrated Urban Planning
In order to make that happen, LaHood’s Department of Transportation wants every metropolitan area in the country to conduct “integrated housing, transportation, and land use planning.” As the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Kaid Benfield notes on the NRDC’s blog Switchboard, this by itself is an almost revolutionary shif
Although it sounds like a no-brainer, in reality transportation, housing policy (including affordable housing) and land use issues are rarely addressed in an integrated fashion. The results of this disjointed approach to planning can be seen in every American cit
In another groudbreaking move, a three-way partnership has been created between LaHood’s DOT, the Environmental Protection Agency and HUD, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The goal of the partnership is to use the three agencies’ collective influence and budgets to build more equitable and sustainable communities, with cheaper, more efficient transportation and more affordable and walkable neighborhoods. All of this adds up to a real sea change in the way the US government deals with transportation issue
New Budgets for Transportation
Meanwhile, the details of a new transportation bill, which would transform the way the government budgets transportation projects, have just been released. Congressman James Oberstar’s Surface Transportation Authorization Act would begin to shift funds from highways to mass transit, allocate a massive $50 billion for high-speed rail, sketch out a detailed vision for a new national transportation system and establish a National Infrastructure Ban
However, for the moment anyway, it appears that such a serious legislative overhaul will have to wait. Apparently preferring to save its political leverage for the coming battles over health care and climate legislation, the Obama Administration is likely to support extending existing transportation legislation for another year and a half – effectively pushing off the new bill until the
For more updates, check out Secretary of Transporation LaHood’s official blog, appropriately named The Fast Lane, as well as Yonah Freemark’s comprehensive blog The Transport Politic.
JoyI’m planning of stopping my weekly biology tuition lessons before I go on my Iceland trip.
I think it is prudent that I do so for a number of reasons.
My client’s daughter isn’t particularly interested in biology due to her academic weakness in answering essay and structured questions. Unfortunately, her slight ineptitude has caused her to be terribly unreceptive during lessons. I must say I have failed rather miserably in getting her more interested. Seriously, I get bored even following their syllabus. It’s just a boring mess. And whenever I go beyond what is essential, it either confuses her or is impractical. I also wouldn’t want her “vomiting out” too much detail in their answers. Just a tat worried about their discretion.
Her friend joins in for lessons, who’s slightly more interested, but whenever I ask for her opinion, her usual response would be “dunno” or “anything”. Maybe it’s just a kid’s way of avoiding saying bad things about you.
As such, tutoring them has been getting rather unpleasant of late. Preparing notes for them is also tedious, unrealistic and impractical. I could justify the effort from the pay, but it’s still a waste of time and Im pretty sure they’ll not find much help in my notes as well. They are essentially better crafted summaries and organizations of the contents of their textbook. However, I have been advocating making personal notes for every chapter since I starting tutoring her. She tells me they’re lazy or don’t have the time to do so. Ah well. Making notes sure helped me a lot.
They also told me rather casually that before an exam they would just read through the textbook, like a storybook. I suppose that works, but that would mean I’m not of much use also. I might as well save their parents some money.
Secondly, I doubt I would have the time to do a weekly biology tuition, especially after my Iceland trip. Chances are NYAA might be embarking on a project that would have me and the other participants put to use the skills we picked up from our trip. I expect weekend projects. I want to concentrate on those, and make friends and contacts.
Thirdly, I figured that I have no more use for earning money. 240 bucks per month isn’t nearly substantial in contrast with my 250k overseas education costs. It’s only 4 months left to go.
JoyGot a lot done, or more rather I got a lot not done.
Monday, had a game of tennis with Mubin and Sid.
Tuesday, made my way down to NJC for a little bit of stargazing and meeting some of the NJ astro juniors.
Wednesday, math tuition (i think she’s improving, her test scores have leapt forward 20%).
Thursday, I met some of my army mates for the PC Show 2009, which we always do. Didn’t buy anything though. Those 2 TBs HDDs were practically screaming in my ear to buy them but I’m saving up; maybe next year when they’re cheaper. After, the PC Show, met up with Mub and Sid again for another tennis match
Friday, I went down to NTU LT1 to support my juniors during the NUS/NTU Astrochallenge that’s held every year. I swear the data response papers are getting harder every year. I left before the observation round though.
Saturday. Woke up at 5am, just to walk to the busstop outside Serangoon Garden. It was a 30 minute walk, but it was necessary to catch the first 109. Went down to Pulau Ubin to give a tour of Chek Jawa with Grant. Didn’t quite expect to see Hong Yi there, who came down to take a group of her own.
Sunday. Spent the day relaxing, I say I deserve it.
Photo via iWebQuest
Though it’s in the early stages of development, Obama announced he’s creating an Ocean Protection Plan that will provide a comprehensive national policy for protecting seas, coastal areas, and the Great Lakes. Here’s how he’s going to do it.
It’s been called one of Obama’s biggest environmental challenges, but evidently he feels up for the task. With a water crisis looming, making efficient use of our oceans is more important than ever.
Obama has issued a presidential memorandum calling for the formation of a strategy to protect the ocean, and the creation of an interagency task force that has 90 days to recommend the following: (from NRDC)
1) A national ocean, coastal and Great Lakes policy that, among other things, protects and maintains these important ecosystems.
2) A structural framework for coordinated implementation of the policy.
So yeah–at the moment the plan is about as broad as it gets. But some of the specifics he’s called into focus are encouraging. For instance, the matter of sorting out how best to make use of ocean space.
. . . within 180 days the task force is to recommend a mechanism for effective marine spatial planning, which will help prevent “ocean sprawl” — as we face more and more proposals for offshore energy and other developments in the ocean. This will help move toward a clean, renewable energy future that protects ocean ecosystems.
And it’s high time such a policy was made in the ocean’s interest–ocean conservation and regulation has been a bureaucratic mess thus far.
. . . right now, our oceans are governed by over 140 laws and 20 different agencies, each with different goals and often conflicting mandates. A national oceans policy can provide the coordinated vision we need to successfully tackle these challenges. Like a Clean Water Act for our water, or a Clean Air Act for our air – a national policy for our ocean, coasts and Great Lakes will establish a national framework for reviving these areas so vital to our environment and economy.
So far so good–of course, how the actual policy shakes down will be the important part. But the first step has been made towards a unified policy for ocean conservation–and that’s no small feat.
All you need to know about S'pore wildlife and other wild happenings!
Treehugger
Where I get most of my sources!
Bird Ecology Study Group, Nature Society Singapore
Green Issues (Singapore) Blog
Singapore Botanical Gardens
Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
Nature in Singapore
An online journal on the flora and fauna of Singapore by the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research
My Photography Works in a neat Photo Weblog
A Dark Night's Sky
My Blog on all things astronomy, cosmology, physics and space.
