News - September 05



	ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS January 2005 February 2005 Mac 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 26 September 2005: China Forest Defences Help Shelter Coast from Disaster Typhoons that hit China's coastal areas this summer and the aftermath of the Asian tsunami last December have prompted forestry experts to consider building strong defenses to lessen the effects of disasters. ¤ Read News China Mangroves Protect Coast A mangrove belt will be built along 9,600 hectares of beaches on Hainan Island, China's southernmost province, over the next five to 10 years, according to the provincial forestry administration. ¤ Read News China China tiger trade could doom species: WWF A reopening of Chinese business in tiger parts could doom the species to extinction and undermine efforts to curb other illegal wildlife trade, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has warned. ¤ Read News China China to Set up Resource Saving Standard System With the fast development of its economy, China's demand for resources is continually increasing. But its efficiency of resource-use is quite low compared with developed countries. As a consequence, China is speeding up the construction of its resource-conservation standard system. ¤ Read News China 'Green' Buildings Save Energy The builders of construction projects in downtown Shanghai will be encouraged to raise the use of energy-saving materials and reduce energy consumption up to 70 percent, industry officials said. ¤ Read News Japan Putting people back into ecology Peter Berg is singularly passionate about his vision for a better world. He is convinced that towns and cities can move beyond the limitations of environmentalism and create vibrant communities that are economically and ecologically sustainable, and he believes bioregions are the key. ¤ Read News Philippines Pinoys bag silver with corals-saving plan BEIJING—A starfish-like structure aimed at restoring damaged coral reefs and a design for an agricultural campus in Batanes won for four Filipinos $55,000 worth of prizes at the First Holcim Awards for sustainable construction (Asia-Pacific region) held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse here Thursday. ¤ Read News Philippines Bangus bone good for making polvoron More livelihood groups are venturing into the making of snack foods out of milkfish bones. ¤ Read News Philippines RP-French expedition yields rare fauna from Bohol Sea A deep underwater expedition in central Philippines has yielded rare fauna of great scientific significance. ¤ Read News Philippines Sea turtle calls RP home Did you know that the Philippines is a haven for the sea turtle, or "pawikan?" Out of the seven species of sea turtle, the Philippines is home to five of these heroes in a half-shell. ¤ Read News Viet Nam Coast guards, locals save whale on Lang Co Beach THUA THIEN -HUE —An injured whale was brought to safety by coast guards in Thua Thien-Hue Province last Thursday and later released after being taken care of by local residents. ¤ Read News Viet Nam Important bird areas get conservationists’ attention BirdLife International Viet Nam Programme, in collaboration with the Forest Protection Department (FPD) of Quang Tri Province and Dac Krong Nature Reserve, recently held a workshop to review the progress of a MacArthur Foundation-funded project to conserve Important Bird Areas (IBAs). ¤ Read News General/World Palm oil is killing off the orang-utan THE orang-utan is facing extinction and our weekly shop is partly to blame. The culprit is palm oil, a versatile vegetable oil, which is found in around one in ten products on our supermarket shelves. ¤ Read News General/World Genetically Altered Plant Attracts Bug "Bodyguards" The enhanced weed—a type of small mustard plant (Arabidopsis thaliana)—was able to summon bug "bodyguards" after researchers inserted a gene from a strawberry plant. ¤ Read News General/World Ants Murder Competing Trees Sept. 23, 2005 — American researchers have solved the mystery of the "devil's gardens," enigmatic tracts of vegetation in the Peruvian Amazonian rainforest that consist of a singles species of tree. ¤ Read News General/World Solar cars' batteries may pose risk to environment: Greenfleet Greenfleet Australia says the cars in the World Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide may run on green energy but making and disposing of the cars is not so friendly to the environment. ¤ Read News General/World Microgrids as peer-to-peer energy Small networks of power generators in "microgrids" could transform the electricity network in the way that the net changed distributed communication. ¤ Read News Marine Secrets of largest fish revealed High-tech electronic tags on whale sharks, the world's largest fish, have revealed how and where they find food. ¤ Read News Marine Summit boosts sea life protection The 13th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) has closed in Bangkok. ¤ Read News Marine Nets 'kill 800 cetaceans a day' About 800 whales, dolphins and porpoises, known collectively as cetaceans, are dying in fishing nets every day, researchers say. ¤ Read News Marine 'Whale riders' reveal evolution Scientists have examined the genes of "whale lice" to track whale evolution. ¤ Read News 14 September 2005: China Better Protection for Tibetan Antelopes The man who opened up the world of gorillas, tigers, lions, snow leopards and pandas to people worldwide, is also the first scientist to arouse the world's attention to the illegal trade in shahtoosh, among the world's most expensive wools. ¤ Read News China China's Desertification Defense Line Takes Shape Farmer Chen Yonggui has began to see greenery return after a ten-year fight against the desertification by growing a clump of desert bush on his barren land located on the rim of the Mu Us Desert with non-interest loans from the World Bank. ¤ Read News Hong Kong World Bank says Asian reform lags HONG KONG, China (Reuters) -- Asia is home to some of the world's fastest-growing economies but lags behind other regions in adopting reforms that make it easier to start businesses and generate jobs, according to a World Bank report on Tuesday. ¤ Read News Malaysia Haze Fears Return as Two Malaysian Districts Record Unhealthy Air Quality KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Authorities have declared air quality to be unhealthy in two Malaysian districts after smoke from forest fires in Indonesia blew to several parts of this country, triggering fresh fears of a haze crisis. ¤ Read News Malaysia Up close and personal with sharks in Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - The Malaysian softshell turtle, which weighs 130kg and is a bit more that a metre wide, rests on an artificial seabed, oblivious to the excited screams of thousands of children on the other side of a giant fibreglass tank that is south-east Asia's longest underwater marine attraction. ¤ Read News Malaysia Nature on film An award-winning documentary detailing the destruction of the Temenggor forest in Perak is one of the highlights of South-East Asia’s first environmental film festival to be held in Kuching, Sarawak, in December. ¤ Read News Philippines Pinoys are ‘rich’ yet hardly aware of it First, the good news. The Philippines is one of the world’s richest in terms of biodiversity. When it comes to species diversity, our country has around 15,000 kinds of plants, 254 species of reptiles, 578 species of birds, and one of them, the Philippine Eagle, is the largest in the world. ¤ Read News Philippines DENR issues rules on clean development mechanism Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Michael T. Defensor issued on Aug. 31 the rules and regulations for the screening and evaluaton of clean development mechanism (CDM) project activities. ¤ Read News Philippines Israeli technology seen to hike RP farm output Israel’s agro-technology can significantly improve farming methods in the Philippines, increase agricultural productivity, and contribute immensely to national economic growth ¤ Read News Philippines One man’s crusade becomes shared vision EVERY now and then, we come across groups taking off to some coastal area or mountain for anti-pollution cleanups. These usually take place during Environment Month or Earth Day or some similar occasion. ¤ Read News Singapore Singapore To Open First Desalination Plant in Bid for Water Self-Sufficiency For decades, Singapore has relied on Malaysia to supply a huge portion of a vital resource: water. But the two neighbors sometimes disagree, and resource-scarce Singapore wants to be less reliant. Aiming for self-sufficiency in water, Singapore says its first desalination plant -- billed as one of the biggest in the world -- will meet at least 10 percent of the nation's water needs. ¤ Read News Viet Nam Birds wing their way to wetlands HA NOI — As the Arctic summer draws to a close, thousands of shorebirds migrate from the north to the wetlands of Viet Nam, said Nguyen Duc Tu of BirdLife International’s Viet Nam Programme. ¤ Read News Endangered Species Wave of Marine Species Extinctions Feared BIMINI, Bahamas -- The bulldozers moved slowly at first. Picking up speed, they pressed forward into a patch of dense mangrove trees that buckled and splintered like twigs. As the machines moved on, the pieces drifted out to sea. ¤ Read News General/World Flying reptiles just got bigger Scientists are only now starting to recognise the astonishing size reached by pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs. ¤ Read News General/World Warmer soils add to climate worry Higher UK temperatures are causing soils to "exhale" large quantities of carbon dioxide, probably accelerating global warming, scientists report. ¤ Read News General/World Satellites Enlisted in Search for New Species Conservation biologists have recruited sophisticated satellites to help discover and protect unknown species before they disappear. ¤ Read News General/World Photo in the News: Fluorescent Shark Caught on Film September 7, 2005—Science never sleeps, even when facing down a hurricane. Luckily for a handful of deep sea explorers, they've found a rather unusual nightlight. ¤ Read News General/World Tongue-eating bug found in fish A gross creature which gobbles up a fish's tongue and then replaces it with its own body has been found in Britain for the first time. ¤ Read News Global Warming Global warming called insurance peril Consumers are increasingly paying a steep price for wildfires, hurricanes and other catastrophic weather as insurers grapple with a 17-fold increase in financial losses over the past three decades, according to a study. In the wake of the growing losses being racked up from Hurricane Katrina, researchers warned that global climate change could threaten the financial health of the insurance industry and pocketbooks of consumers. At the same time, state regulators and institutional investors are urging the insurance industry to examine the financial risks posed by global warming. ¤ Read News Sustainable Development Sustainable cities report pleases conservationists Conservation groups have praised a bipartisan federal parliamentary committee report that recommends a stronger commitment to developing environmentally sustainable cities. ¤ Read News Weather Meteor Dust May Affect the Weather, Study Says Some meteorologists will tell you that a butterfly flapping its wings in Beijing could trigger a chain reaction that starts a thunderstorm in Manhattan. ¤ Read News