La Nina record

Further to  Rain, rain go away, did you realise the heavy rains have persisted for coming to three yrs with more expected

For La Niña to span three Northern-hemisphere winters is unusual. It has been recorded just twice before, once in the mid-1970s and again at the turn of the millennium. Its long duration is a problem. The large, persistent mass of cold air and high pressure influences wind patterns known as jetstreams across the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Where jetstreams that blow over land from the ocean are diverted, that land loses moisture and can suffer from drought. The land to which that jetstream is diverted gets more moisture, and can be flooded.

https://www.economist.com/interactive/the-world-ahead/2022/11/18/the-weather-system-that-influences-the-world?utm_content=article-link-4&etear=nl_sunday_today_4&utm_campaign=r.the-economist-sunday-today&utm_medium=email.internal-newsletter.np&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=11/20/2022&utm_id=1395361

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Everybody’s problem is nobody’s problem

“This is not a problem that just the oil and gas industry has” Vicki Hollub, chief executive of US company Occidental Petroleum, told a corporate leadership and net zero panel at COP27 on Friday, according to the Guardian. “Everybody that uses a product that was generated from oil and gas has a part in this and is also responsible. Your iPhone, you are responsible for that. If you flew over here, you are responsible for what you used here. The nice clothes you are wearing right now, you are responsible. If we don’t all step up and take accountability, this doesn’t happen.”

From the latest edition of the FT’s Moral Money

East Coast’s Long Island

A reclaimed “Long Island” along the south-eastern coast of mainland Singapore may one day not only offer protection against floods and rising sea levels, but also a new spot for leisure and recreation, much like the Marina Barrage.

Living on the “island”, which is envisioned to stretch around 15km from Marina East to Changi, may also be a possibility. 

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/long-island-reclaimed-land-east-coast-ura-plan-housing-rising-sea-levels-1915686

I’ve lived in the East Coast since the early 60s. Had a beach, then saw land reclamation which resulted in Marine Parade and in time a new beach. Hopefully I’ll live long enough to see this.

Only miners can save the world from frying

The real reason why the climate is warming

Too much hot air from the Davos crowd’s BS.

For me the three most severe risks, in no particular order are: infectious disease, livelihood crisis and social cohesion erosion.

Believe that talk of slowing climate change is a lot of hot air? (Cont’d)

Further to Believe that talk of slowing climate change is a lot of hot air?, is the world really prepared to cut back on emissions?

I doubt it. Look at the amount of emission reductions needed.

Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by the reporting company. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain.

https://www.carbontrust.com/resources/briefing-what-are-scope-3-emissions

More hot air to warm the planet

The scheduled ending for COP26 came and went on Friday, with no final decision in sight. Countries are still haggling over a possible commitment to phase out coal and fossil-fuel subsidies; financing for those suffering most from climate change; a framework for a global carbon market; and a way to judge whether countries are meeting their targets.

Economist Expresso

Limited progress has been made. New climate pledges, if respected, will put the world on track for temperatures of 2.4°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100—an improvement on previous prognosis of 2.7°C but significantly above the Paris agreement goal of 2°C (and preferably 1.5°C). China and America promised to work together to reduce their emissions over the next decade. More surprising than the declaration would be adherence to it.

Economist Expresso

And then there was talk cock, sing song from Obama: the only things he does well.

No need to fear natural gas storage here

Why we can’t trust the Indon govt

Recently after President Joko Widodo signed up at COP26 to a forest deal to end deforestation by 2030. Then almost immediately

Indonesia has criticised the terms of a global deal to end deforestation by 2030, signalling that the country may not abide by it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59169547

Via Facebook (and in Indonesian), Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar

said the authorities could not “promise what we can’t do”.

She said forcing Indonesia to commit to zero deforestation by 2030 was “clearly inappropriate and unfair”.

Despite President Joko Widodo signing the forest deal, she said development remained Indonesia’s top priority.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59169547

The deal, agreed between more than 100 world leaders, was announced last Monday at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. It was the event’s first major announcement. It promises to end and reverse deforestation by 2030, and includes almostUS$19.2bn of public and private funds.

How is S’pore to trust the Indonesian govt?

And why should we vote for the SDP so long as Mad Dog Chee calls the shots there?

Among his wackier ideas is to trust the Indonesian govt. And to spend less on defence.

Raffles knew how to deal with the Indonesians: Haze: What Raffles would have done

Emissions from food and tpt

Key question for the developing world’s energy transition

Where’s the money coming from?

A key pledge ahead of an upcoming climate change conference has still not been met and the money is not sure to be available before 2023.

The UK government has set out a new financing plan ahead of next week’s climate change conference – COP26.It talks of how developed countries hope to deliver $100bn a year in climate finance to developing countries.

The original aim was for that target to be reached by 2020.But the financing plan said the target looked “unlikely” to be met but that it was “confident” the target would be hit by 2023.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59040538

Save the planet from warming? 1930s depression needed

Don’t believe me? Juz look at this chart?

Well as this investor is 66 and has no children or grandchildren, he’d rather the world heats up after his death.

Btw, if you got grandchildren, read the link below:

What would different levels of global warming look like?

A rise of a few tenths of a degree will have big consequences for the planet

https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2021/03/30/what-would-different-levels-of-global-warming-look-like

S’pore bottom of the carbon pricing class

Not that I’m advocating raising the cost of co2 here. And I’m sure the pricing has something to do with keeping ExxonMobil, Shell and BP happy: they have big petrol chemical refineries here.

Only two sh*thouse countries worse than S’pore

Our CO2 emissions growth rate was the third worst of any, after Burundi and Niger. Natural gas still accounts for almost 96% of our energy mix at the end of 2019.

Things were made worse due to deforestation, which led us going from a net carbon absorber to a net emitter, from 2012 to 2014.

Want to save the planet? Don’t take a mortgage

The environmental kay pohs KPKB that banks are complicit in global warming by financing fossil fuel companies.

Interestingly, Dutch bank ABN Amro says its mortgage book causes more greenhouse gas emissions than its lending to mining or industrial companies.

Part of an on-going series that ESG investing in marketing BS.

Post-Covid-19, why West should give Indians a break on the use of coal

Burning coal is a big contributor to climate warming. India is given a hard time by the West because of its expanding use of coal: even China is promising to use less of it. But Modi is proud to burn ever more coal even if the resulting pollution kills Indians.

India should point out that Hindus (most of the population, too bad about the beef eating Muslims and their cousins, whisky drinking Pakistani generals) are vegetarians.

Modi should tell the West “Do you want us to eat more meat? And help worsen climate change resulting from a warmer earth?” And to the human right activists complaining about the treatment of beef-eating Muslims, “Our policies keep the number of beef eaters from growing. We even hope to cut the numbers down. You want them to grow?”

In short, the deal with the West is “We remain vegetarians, so let us burn coal even if the pollution kills us. Oh and let us beat up the Muslims”.

S’pore drops 92 places

In the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Index (HDI), S’pore is ranked 11. Something the local MSM and millionaire ministers crow about, while TOC, TRE and their ilk on social media pretend the HDI doesn’t exist or call it “fake news”.

But a new report presents an adjustment to the HDI for planetary pressures.

The adjustment corresponds to multiplying the HDI by an adjustment factor, creating the PHDI where P stands for “Planet”.

“If a country puts no pressure on the planet, its PHDI and HDI would be equal, but the PHDI falls below the HDI as pressure rises. The adjustment factor is calculated as the arithmetic mean of indices measuring carbon dioxide emissions per capita, which speaks to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and material footprint per capita, which relates to closing material cycles.”

Go to http://report.hdr.undp.org/part-3.html for charts and an animation to explain this verbal garbage

Whatever, we drop 92 places. Many developed countries also like liddat but we fall the mostest. Go to page 255 of http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr2020.pdf for table.

What a lot of hot air

No wonder the planet is warming rapidly, endangering in particular Changi Int’l ( Another headache for Changi Int’l) and S’pore in general (Ever wondered why PM wants to build polders? and 2025: LKY’s memorial unveiled)

No, not the usual hot air from millionaire ministers like Kee Chui (RCEP: Kee Chiu minister talks cock) trying to justify their salaries (Did LKY ever have to justify his salary when he was in charge?). Or loonies like Lim Tean or M Ravi (who really is a looney).

No, the headline was provoked by UK officials working on climate change abatement. They point out that unnecessary emails have a carbon cost: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2019/nov/26/pointless-emails-theyre-not-just-irritating-they-have-a-massive-carbon-footprint

But as the FT points out “Everything is relative. Just one small hamburger has the same carbon footprint as sending 10 emails every day for a year.”

Another headache for Changi Int’l

Coastal airports, particularly those in low-lying areas, including the big hubs in New York, San Francisco, Florida and Hawaii, faced the greatest risk of sea-level rise, Moody’s said. It could have added our very own Changi Int’l.

Moody’s recommends that airports borrow $ (interest rates so low) to build these walls. It would say wouldn’t it? It makes money rating borrowers.

Related posts:

2025: LKY’s memorial unveiled

What PM will say in National Dally Rally speech

Ever wondered why PM wants to build polders?

Trump supports ESG investments

UBS researchers looked at how ESG investments fared under the Trump presidency: he comes across as a Woke.

Local Marxist terrorists strike again

Xia suay. Our millionaire 4G ministers have done it again. They have not cracked down on the violent Marxist terrorists terrorising rich S’poreans: PAP govt ignoring home-grown violent Marxist terrorist threat.

I’m sure they’ll use the excuse of fighting the pandemic. Going by the millionaire ministers track record of missing by a country mile, the filthy, unhygienic and cramped FT dorms, these violent, Marxist terrorists will continue to terrorise rich S’poreans.

And maybe the rich deserve deserve it. I’m sure you read from that quitter living in Finland on welfare and TOC the PAP govt will be giving $ to the dorm operators to make the dorms fit for purpose?

But then sadly, TOC and the quitter who can’t afford quality education for his kids here (only neighbourhood “good” schools for them) are known to walk on the Dark Side by imitating the IB that fight for the men in white.

Oil is at US$100

No, not fake news

New shipping fuel rules push specialised oil towards $100 a barrel

Regulations are dripping with good intentions but come at a cost

Recent FT headline

 

Changes to shipping fuel rules mean that a few select grades of crude have risen back towards US$100.

Pyrenees, an Australian crude produced by the BHP Group was selling for almost US$95 a barrel, with refiners happy to pay up because its a heavy thick oil that is also low in sulphur. Tackling climate change and pollution are the reasons given for changing fuel roles.

Consumers will ultimately pay because shipping cos will pass on the cost.

 

Which greener? Online shopping or visiting store?

“The problem isn’t buying online — it’s how the delivery is implemented and how packages come to our door,” BBC article.

Latest BS in asset mgt to steal yr money: ESG

ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) scores are becoming ever more important in the marketing of financial products that are sold to the masses. At least US$3trn of institutional assets now track ESG scores, and the share is rising quickly.

Pure BS to charge higher fees

Why did the ESG investor cross the road?

If you’ve spent any time around the sustainable investing world, you might have heard the old joke: “What’s the easiest way to improve your company’s ESG score? Change your rating agency.”

Is it funny? That’s debatable. Is it cynical? Possibly. But is it rooted in truth? Absolutely.

FT

Don’t believe?

esg scores are poorly correlated with each other. esg-rating firms disagree about which companies are good or bad. The Economist has compared the scores of two big esg-rating systems, updating an analysis done by the imf earlier this year (see chart). It shows at best a loose link between the two measurement systems. The same lack of correlation holds even when the e, s and g scores are considered separately, according to the imf. Small wonder, then, that it found no consistent difference between the performance of esg funds and that of conventional ones.

Economist

The result

Tobacco and alcohol companies feature near the top of many esg rankings. And many funds marketed on their green credentials invest in Big Oil.

Economist

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/12/05/climate-change-has-made-esg-a-force-in-investing

 

 

Water: Why Tun should thank S’poreans

He should thank us for being so generous with our money. But he’s a born ingrate. Look at what he’s doing to ensure that Anwar doesn’t become his successor, as he promised. He made that promise when he needed Anwar’s help to become PM.

Seriously, further to What Tun and our alt media don’t tell us about the water supply from Johor, do you know S’poreans with more $ then sense are spending at least S$81.6m annually buying water from M’sia? We roughly import 204 million bottles of water and at an price of say $0.40 cents a bottle, we are giving Tun money for old rope, as the saying goes. According to United Nations trade data, most of Singapore’s bottled water is imported from M’sia.

Singapore imports about 17 million bottles of water per month from Malaysia alone, Mr Masagos Zulkifli said on Monday (Nov 4), citing latest figures compiled by the Singapore Food Agency.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-import-bottled-water-malaysia-12062780

The Minister for Environment and Water Resources was speaking in a written reply to Nominated Member of Parliament Mohamed Irshad.

What this means is that we are importing 204 million bottles a year and this costs us S$81.6m assuming a 600ml bottle retails at S$0.40 (It often costs more). F&N and Coca-Cola the companies manufacturing the most popular varieties here source water from West M’sia and a 600ml bottle from the former is S$0.36 cents and a bottle from the later costs S$0.40.

————————————————

The price of 1 litre of tap water in Singapore? $0.00274.

https://blog.seedly.sg/bottled-water-brand-price-evian-volvic-badoit-why-so-expensive/

——————————————————————

In 2016, CNA reported (reconfirmed earlier this yr) that F&N and Coca-Cola – the companies manufacturing the most popular varieties here – sourced tap water from West M’sia.

[A] significant number – including market leaders like F&N’s Ice Mountain and Coca-Cola’s Dasani – are sourced from public water supplies. These two brands made up more than half of the bottled water sales volume in Singapore last year, according to Euromonitor data.

When contacted, F&N confirmed that Ice Mountain sold in Singapore “is sourced and packed in Malaysia from tap water”, while Coca-Cola said that Dasani produced for the Singapore market comes from “the local water supply at (its) facility in Malaysia”. Both companies also said they have multiple purification processes in place, which distinguishes their “pure drinking water” from tap water.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-s-s-134m-bottled-water-addiction-7633342

The 2016 article, focused on how demand for still bottled water was growing, went on sounding upset that S’poreans

are willing to pay as much as a thousand times more for bottled water when clean, drinkable tap water is readily available at a nominal charge has left some environmental advocates and experts scratching their heads.

A 600ml bottle of drinking water usually retails for about S$0.50 to S$1. According to PUB, the same amount of tap water only costs 0.1 cent, making it 500 to 1,000 times cheaper than bottled water. This price differential, while significant, is not sufficient to motivate consumers to move more to tap water, said Prof Ng, who is the executive director of the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute at NTU.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-s-s-134m-bottled-water-addiction-7633342

————————————————

Reminder

The price of 1 litre of tap water in Singapore? $0.00274.

https://blog.seedly.sg/bottled-water-brand-price-evian-volvic-badoit-why-so-expensive/

——————————————————————

Coming back to the minister and NMP, the NMP asked about the government’s plans to install more water dispensers and water coolers at places such as office buildings, shopping centres and public transport stations.

Minister said

Given that water from the tap in Singapore is perfectly safe to drink, we can and should definitely do more to reduce consumption of bottled water.

Minister

Hear, hear.

Minister should have added: “The price of 1 litre of tap water is $0.00274.”

 

 

 

 

PAP govt ignoring home-grown violent Marxist terrorist threat

Recently I wrote PAP govt keeps us safe from terror killings, they really do, pointing out the good work the PAP is doing keeping Muslims and Kafirs from killing one another here, unlike in London, Paris and Brussels which have comparable numbers of Muslims (and consequently of potential Jihadist Joes and Jills like those in Bapak’s harem).

The PAP govt, never complacent, has turned its attention to those it considers propagators of ang moh tua kee BS, and fake news propagators. In its sights are ang moh tuas like Kirsten Han and BJ Thum (Do PJ, Kirsten and friends still want Tun to bring democracy to S’pore?), and the employer of foreigners,Terry Xu. Bit rich that Terry who castigates the govt for allowing FTs to steal locals’ lunches is very happy to employ foreigners working in M’sia to KPKB about FTs here because they are cheap labour: Terry and his “bunch of Indians”.

The attention is misplaced and a waste of resources. Kirsten Han and PJ are harmless BS artists who shit and piss publicly to attract attention, while Terry’s TOC has become an echo chamber where only cybernuts feel comfortable in. In TOC’s latest attempt to raise $, it showed a picture of amount its bank account: $900. When I was helping out in 2011 and 2012, TOC had $100,000 in the bank from donations. (This was when ads were banners.) The donors have left, leaving only the cybernuts, a mixture of cheapskates, and destitutes on PAP govt welfare, biting the hand that feeds them

The Home Affairs minister should focus on the real enemy, those in the vanguard of revolutionary change here killing for fun treasured and loved playthings of really really rich S’poreans. He should remember the problems the German Red Army Faction and Japanese Red Army caused. They were Marxist terrorists who targeted the rich.

Security for the rich here? What security?

And this attack is not the only one. There have been several attacks on the koi of the rich living in Sentosa.

But not all otters liddat. So before the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) starts culling otters indiscriminately like it did junglefowl

Fowl play: Cull in haste, repent at leisure

Fowl play: Juz tell us what the genetic tests say, 

let me remind the AVA, that most otters are law-abiding S’poreans.

More importantly for civil servants, they are natural PAP voters, if they could vote.

 

Why? The PAP govt looks after them:

TRE Cybernut says PAP has created paradise for otters not citizens

Why otters support the PAP and (some) hate Meng Seng

Bishan otters PAP members?

Parable of the Slumdog Otter 

And unlike the cybernut ingrates like Terry Xu, M Ravi and Teo Soh Lung who live in public housing while biting the hand that feeds them, and ex-SPH journalists (Think Bertha Henson and Balji) who start dissing the PAP govt, the moment they stop getting their monthly 30 pieces of silver, otters got a sense of decency.

They are loyal to those who treat them well. And the PAP govt has treated them well.

As for the Marxist otters, catch them and send them for rehabilitation. They are juz silly, misled otters.

Haze: Clearing land without burning is very expensive

Yesterday, the haze got worse. It was also the day I read an article in the Economist. Sharing what it wrote.

It just makes financial sense to clear land by burning it (Me rather than Economist):

Preparing land for plantations without using fire costs around [US]$300-400 a hectare, says Herry Purnomo of the Centre for International Forestry Research, which is based in Indonesia, whereas burning costs [US]$30.

https://www.economist.com/asia/2019/09/19/burning-forests-are-blackening-the-skies-of-south-east-asia

Btw, got to add to US$30, the cost of bribes:

In theory, using fire to do this is illegal, but the local officials who should stop it are easily bought off.

Clearing land by other means is juz dumb human thinking at work, Mr Spock would say (My tot: not Economist’s).

And that’s not all. Indonesian govt helps make cost of burning lower. The Indonesia govt doesn’t bother to collect fines it imposes on burners:

as of February, some [US]$220m in fines owed by plantation companies involved in past fires remained unpaid.

Because so cheap, so no wonder

In one district, according to Doni Monardo of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, 80% of the fires appear to be intended to convert forest into palm-oil plantations.

Loos like nothing changed from 2015: Indon false pride and BS.

And btw, lol, Haze: PAP govt cares, they really do. So vote wisely especially if you are thinking of voting for Lim Tean’s gang.

He wants us to go to war with Indonesia. He wants us to deal directly with the Riau authorities. Indonesian govt would rightly see this as an infringement of its sovereignty. But then Lim Tean like this:n Whatever happened to Lim Tean’s defamation video? And his jobs rally? To be fair, sometime in early 2019, he delivered his video. It was BS and more than two yrs late.

Haze: PAP govt cares, they really do

Singapore – with a population of less than six million – reportedly has a national stockpile of 16 million disposable masks

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49737216

Vote wisely.

No reason for “P” (where “P” stands for “Politician”) Ravi to stir the pot like he did yrs ago when there was a really bad spell of haze and he kanna whacked real hard: P Ravi’s reposting: What the govt should have done.

Btw, PAP missed a trick. P Ravi shows how PAP govt policies when he was young helped him: The real Ravi Superhero.

Subterranean skyscrapers: Juz the thing for us

Today, ST is full of pixs of how the MRT tunnel beneath the forest reserves will look like: 25 HDB stories deep.

---

Temasek’s eco-slum or eco-paradise

Uniquely Temasek? Kill Mandai wildlife to build wildlife paradise

No leh HDB flats in paradise.

——————————————————————————————–

Remember the plans to build underground storage facilities?

Singapore has two major cavern developments, the Underground Ammunition Facility and the Jurong Rock Caverns which can hold about 1.47 million cubic metres of crude oil and petroleum. There is currently no comprehensive plan to identify potential cavern sites.

underground developments – URA

And

Singapore Is Creating a Subterranean Master Plan

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/underground-city-movement-singapore-helskini

 

Pix is part of Samsung’s vision of earth in 50 years’ time: subterranean skyscrapers. S’pore already ahead of Samsung.

Dr Tay Kheng Soon has been imagining how future S’pore could look like. He

has interesting ideas on how HDB flats can be split into smaller units so that the old can sell off excess space …

Also good ideas of monetising without en-block sales and building retirement homes above HDB open car parks and on top of buildings.

Imagining the future of S’pore

Btw, only the PAP govt could find such an inspirational name for a sewage system. Dubbed the underground superhighway, it is going to cost US$7.2bn.

In April this yr, ST reported

Tunnelling work* has begun on a massive underground sewage superhighway in western Singapore – the most ambitious project of its kind here to date.

On track to be completed in 2025, the underground labyrinth of pipes will comprise 40km of deep tunnels and 60km of link sewers, traversing 100km across the western half of Singapore, including the downtown area and some new developments in the Jurong Lake District, Tengah Town and the Greater Southern Waterfront.

Waste water will be conveyed via gravity to centralised water reclamation plants for treatment and recycling into Newater.

More interesting is that there’ll be more land (150 hectares ) for housing etc

Highlighting the economic benefits of DTSS phase 2, the PUB said it will allow allow 150 hectares of land, about the size of 214 football pitches, to be made available, as older existing water reclamation plants and pumping stations around the island are phased out.

These include the conventional water reclamation plants at Ulu Pandan and Jurong and the intermediate pumping stations.

———————————————————————

*Work officially began on April 4 in Jalan Bahar with the launch of the first tunnel boring machine, which will burrow through the ground to create tunnels 3.5m in diameter below the ground.

Amazon fires an “international crisis”? Crisis? What crisis?

US$20m was pledged by the G7 meeting to fight the Amazon fires. Huh? So little? Remember Mr Macron’s belief that the fires amounted to an international crisis.

Money talks, BS walks. Sounds like the G7 leaders don’t believe that it’s a crisis. We know Trump doesn’t care about the environment, and doesn’t believe in climate change (“Fake”). The other leaders say they care about the environment and believe in climate change, and that it’s dangerous to the world. Obviously they really agree with Trump.

Akan Datang: really bad haze

Could be like the one in 2015: Haze, 9/11 & TOC or the one in 2013: P Ravi’s reposting: What the govt should have done.

Indonesia is experiencing the worst annual fire season since 2015 and it’s comparable to the Amazon fires: “Whether or not the situation can be contained will become clear in the coming weeks,” BBC

As fires rage in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, the south-east Asian nation of Indonesia is witnessing a similarly devastating ecological tragedy unfold.

The dry season has arrived in Indonesia – home to some of the world’s oldest tropical forests – bringing with it its worst annual fire season since 2015.

Close to 700 hotspots have been identified in fire-prone regions in Sumatra, Kalimantan and the Riau islands.

…

Prevailing winds carrying smokes and dust particles have picked up, blowing towards Malaysia and Singapore.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49444325?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science_and_environment&link_location=live-reporting-story

And the usual Indon BS

Military planes, ready with water jets, comb the skies above Kalimantan and Sumatra in search of impending fire.

Btw, the area where the new capital will be is within the areas where there are annual fires

Indonesia is pressing ahead with plans to move its capital from the traffic-choked city of Jakarta to the island of Borneo. The precise location has not yet been revealed – nor has a timeline – but President Joko Widodo formally launched the scheme in parliament on 16 August.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-49406700

 

Why global fish stocks not yet exhausted

Americans don’t care for fish.

What PM will say in National Dally Rally speech

Singapore must treat climate change seriously as the Republic is a low-lying island that is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, PM has said.

In a Facebook post yesterday, he said he will be talking about how the country should respond to climate change in his 16th National Day Rally speech later today at the Institute of Technical Education in Ang Mo Kio.

Don’t bother to tune in. A few months ago, the FT had a series of articles on S’pore. This is what it wrote on how the PAP govt is handling the issue of climate change.

Rising sea levels are an area of concern. By 2100, Singapore’s mean sea levels could rise by up to 1 metre, according to the ministry for the environment and water resources. Storms 2,000km away in the South China Sea can trigger jumps in Singapore’s sea levels of up to 40cm for several hours, says Adam Switzer, associate chair of the Asian School of the Environment at Nanyang Technological University.

“The future of extreme sea level events in the region [remains] very uncertain,” says Mr Switzer. “In Singapore we have the potential to engineer solutions to extreme sea levels, but we need a much better idea of what we are going to be up against over the next 50 years or so.”

The city state has raised minimum levels for reclaimed land to four metres above mean sea level. It will also launch a national sea-level programme before the year-end to “develop robust projections and plans for the long term”, says Masagos Zulkifli, minister for the environment and water resources.

To decrease the impact of flooding, Singapore has implemented a system that reroutes rainfall into a river via a tank that can store 15 Olympic-sized swimming pools of stormwater.

With Singapore authorities forecasting a jump of up to 4.6C in daily mean temperatures in the next century and extreme weather increasing the likelihood of flash floods, a second challenge is looming: food security. “[We need to strengthen] food security in the face of possible supply disruptions,” says the ministry of the environment and water resources.

Related post: 2025: LKY’s memorial unveiled

Greenwashing to distract from bad financials

InterContinental Hotels last week came in for praise for announcing that it’s scrapping plastic toiletries.

On Monday Tuesday, it saw its share price fall 2% after it published its latest half-year results. The shares ended the day down 108 at 5,181 in London..

Still a UK broker, Hargreaves Lansdown, had very nice words for it despite its bad numbers

It’s good to see InterContinental future-proofing the brand, and the planet, by phasing out its plastic miniature toiletries across all of its sites. A number of hotels, including some American Holiday Inn Express hotels are already using bulk dispensers. Travellers who like to pocket the novelty-sized shampoos and soaps might be disappointed, but this is a good move on IHG’s part. With regulation around single use plastic ramping up on both sides of the Atlantic, and rival chains like Marriot making similar changes, it makes perfect sense for InterContinental to get in on the environmentally friendly action.

Was the scrapping plastic toiletries meant to help take the spotlight off the bad financials. True the share price was off, but could have been a lot worse. The goodwill from its scrapping plastic toiletries may have prevented deeper analysis of its problems.

Air conditioners make cities hotter

In cities, that means millions of units – including those on cars and buses and trains – constantly pushing out heat into the atmosphere. Studies have found the extra heat from air-conditioning can raise temperatures by as much as 2C. And when it gets hotter, our thermostats turn lower and the cycle continues.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49049238?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/us_and_canada&link_location=live-reporting-story

Fake news: Use electric cars to reduce carbon usage

The German Institute for Economic Research (Ifo) claims that an electric vehicle produces more carbon emissions than a diesel car. They are right because major carbon emitters like China, USA and Germany use lots of coal to produce electricity.

Nas not only FT who thinks S’pore is a great place

So do the otters.

OK, to be fiar most of our younger otters are born here, but the older otters are FTs like Nas.

If you have been following OtterCity and OtterWatch on FB, you will notice we only publish and write about our otters in the wild.

For those whom have had the opportunity to see and observe our otters here, they will know how free-spirited the animals are; they require lots of social and family support from their own kind and need lots of space to move around – they have been observed to swim up to 10 km from Bishan Park to Marina reservoir in a single morning.

We are glad that in Singapore, we enjoy seeing our otters in the wild, watching how they roam, feeding and socialising as a family. We feel happy when they are in such happiest state of freedom, mind and space.

“There’s something about otters moving together as a family – squeaking, diving and catching fish – that really excites people,” Sivasothi (aka Otterman) said. “Singaporeans are beginning to look at the water again.”

And here’s why they’ll vote for the PAP. It’s all Goh Meng Seng’s fault (With enemy like him, PAP need not worry: think the last presidential election where he persuaded Tan Kin Lian to stand thereby helping PAP get it’s preferred candidate elected. Our very own Wu Sangui see Silence of Goh Meng Sen):

As to why the Bishan and Marina families hate Goh Meng Seng, it’s because because if he had his way there wouldn’t be today’s Bishan Park. After GE 2011, he KPKBed that the PAP town council running Bishan was squandering money which the town council didn’t have to develop Bishan Park.

As usual the talk cock, sing king promised to monitor developments there and highlight the cock-ups. He never did, But to be fair to him, he may have realised that he was wrong about the lack of money. But that would be a first, Meng Seng realising that he got things wrong.

Coming back to the otters: Pa and Ma Bishan otters who migrated from Johor would never have had Bishan Park as a home base if the PAP hadn’t developed the park against Goh Meng Seng’s advice.

For those who don’t follow the otter tales, the Bishan family (FT Pa, Ma and their S’pore born kids) kicked the Marina Bay family (true blue S’poreans though descended from FT otters also) out of Marina Bay and moved there Eventually the Marina Bay otters found their way to the Lower Peirce Reservoir and now regularly visit the now vacated Bishan Park.

Coming back to Meng Seng. The adult Bishan and Marina otters tell misbehaving pups that if they are naughty Meng Seng will eat them.

Why otters support the PAP and (some) hate Meng Seng

No need to worry about climate change

Trump is right about that even if he’s wrong about the reason

There’s a silver bullet that the climate Nazis (his most bitter enemies are legion among this bunch of progressives) don’t talk about because they want us to cut back very drastically energy use. They want the third world to remain third world.

Around the world, a number of companies are racing to develop the technology that can draw down carbon. Swiss company Climeworks is already capturing CO2 and using it to boost vegetable production.

Carbon Engineering says that its direct air capture (DAC) process is now able to capture the gas for under $100 a tonne.

With its new funding, the company plans to build its first commercial facilities. These industrial-scale DAC plants could capture up to one million tonnes of CO2 from the air each year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47638586

“Singapore is a not a clean city. It’s a cleaned city.”

So what we may ask?

More than S$120m a year is spent on cleaning public spaces. And PAPpies not happy that the PAP administration has to this amount to keep S’pore clean. (Perhaps they hope that this money can be diverted to millionaire ministers?).

The PAPpy unhappiness

At first, the policy [LKY’s Clean and Green policy of which the anti-littering campaign was part of ] worked, according to Liak Teng Lit, chairman of the National Environment Agency. A combination of public awareness campaigning and punitive measures made a difference. More people picked up after themselves. The city became cleaner.

————————————–

Green S’pore

LKY & greenery

My S’pore: A greener & more pleasant land

Urban planning: a constrasting tale of UK cities & S’pore

2025: LKY’s memorial unveiled

Uniquely global: Rainforest in a global city

————————————

In 1961, Singapore had a “broom brigade” of 7,000 day labourers who were directly employed by the department of health. By 1989, there were only 2,100.

But things changed. The city became wealthier, and it became easier to use low-cost labour to clean up. Nowadays, says Liak, Singapore isn’t clean because locals fear fines. It’s clean because there’s an army of workers scrubbing it. They do the heavy lifting. More than anyone else, they keep Singapore clean.

“Singapore is a not a clean city. It’s a cleaned city,” Liak declares.

There are 56,000 cleaners registered with the National Environment Agency. There are likely thousands of independent contractors who aren’t registered. Mostly they’re low-paid foreign workers or elderly workers. Taipei, by contrast, has maybe 5,000 cleaners, Liak adds.

http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20181025-the-cost-of-keeping-singapore-squeaky-clean

One reason they give for wanting us to pick up litter: good for our souls i.e. civic consciousness the PAPpy way

Edward D’Silva [chairman of the Public Hygiene Council] is frustrated about the way the rise of this army of cleaners has changed the culture in Singapore. With so many cleaners, Singaporeans came to regard cleaning up as someone else’s job. Today, Singaporeans often leave their tray on the table at hawker centres after eating a meal, because they don’t consider it littering, or they think it’s the cleaners’ job to clean up after them. (In fairness, tray return facilities were only installed in 2013.)

D’Silva says students don’t pick up after themselves either, because they’ve always had a cleaner to do it for them. It’s something the Public Hygiene Council is trying to address at local schools. Simply put, he thinks Singaporeans have had it too easy for too long, and they need to change. Liak agrees.

“The government cleans the apartment [building], right up to your corridor, typically twice a day. When you have a very efficient cleaning service, and your neighbour messes up the place, you don’t blame the neighbour, you blame the cleaner for not picking it up,” he says.

BBC report

The real reason, want to save $:

In Singapore, cleaners are mostly drawn from a pool of roughly a million foreign workers as well as local aged workers. But as Singapore’s population grows and labour becomes more expensive, it simply won’t be affordable to employ so many cleaners.

Edward D’Silva says part of the original push for a cleaner Singapore was economic. Cleaning public spaces is expensive and it takes money away from more valuable pursuits. He says that’s still the case, and Singapore needs to change its behaviour fast. Singapore spends at least SGD$120m (US$87m) a year on cleaning public spaces.

“If you are able to instill and cultivate a habit whereby people don’t throw their litter anywhere and anyhow, then the money you would have otherwise spent to employ those cleaners, well, millions of dollars could have been better spent on health and education,” he said.

BBC report

As usual with the PAP, it’s all about money.

Crazy Rich Asians not falling for Ang Moh BS

EPFR Global the data-tracking firm notes:

“Funds with socially responsible (SRI) or environmental, social and governance (ESG) mandates, with the notable exception of Asia Pacific equity funds, continue to attract fresh money even when the broader geographic groups they are part of struggle.”

 

TRE Cybernut says PAP has created paradise for otters not citizens

When TRE republished Parable of the Slumdog Otter there was this response from a true blue, certified TRE cybernut

Rabble-rouser:

Huh? Otters being treated better by the PAP than vote-wielding 2-legged locals. That’s a good one!

CI’s article highlight his hidden wish to be reincarnated as an otter living in S’pore’s Ottercity in his next life. And why not? No GST, electricity & water rates to worry about. Like that grumpy Tiong Bahru Old Uncle who rebuffed poor Minister Indranee Rajah’s voter embrace in her walkabout because he was worried about his high cost of living. Also, humans have to wait for details on HIP2 but otters already had their living quarters upgraded for free by the PAP! First Bishan Park was upgraded to a tune of a few million dollars. Next Ottercity was created out from Marina Bay for their hospitality stay much like Pinnacles @ Duxton except they don’t have to pay by the PAP unlike their silly 2-legged cousins, the HDB Dwellers who were fooled into a million over dollars for a resale unit there. Like George Orwell’s Animal Farm, “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Now you know where PAP’s priority lies!

Maybe cybernut thinks S’pore should be renamed Udrahpore: Sanskrit for “Otter” (Udrahpore not Singapore)?

Parable of the Slumdog Otter

A tale for S’poreans and the PAP to ponder. It’s a tale that should have come from P(olitican) Ravi; the Wankers’ Party MPs or activists; or Mad Dog, Lim Tean or Meng Seng.

Instead it came from Ottercity,a FB page dedicated to otters who incidentally Meng Seng doesn’t want here: Why otters support the PAP and (some) hate Meng Seng.(OK, OK I exaggerate about Meng Seng.)

Whatever, read and ponder

Who would have guessed?

He was born in a canal next to a storm drain. Whenever there was a heavy downpour, reservoir upstream would release water and flood his natal home. His parents would scramble to hurry them to get out to avoid being drown or wash away.

He grew up in heartland neighbourhood. His only playmates were his 2 siblings, he didn’t have other friends. He played with rubbish washed down by the river.

Every morning he looked forward to his parents bringing him to the neighbourhood park for a swim or a stroll. And in the evening, he would play beside the canal while waiting for his parents to return with dinner.

He led a simple happy life then.

Today, he owns the largest and most prime properties in Singapore. He has wealth of fish but he is constantly worried about others stealing from him. He has to constantly fight hard to protect and maintain what he owns today. He has forgotten how to smile.

And the Moral of the story is ….. ?

https://www.facebook.com/ottercity/?__tn__=kC-R&eid=ARA67Ql0ODntpucYHrIBh9VpKWBqscEk-aAU1bsuWe3G1fzjJCN1PUi0-y9lack1fHI-a49Ejg5iukfQ&hc_ref=ARTU4VuKjN0xZ85q27U3P8HUe3ajqCinmUVw4HDICv2THmEWXFsX_atBk6PVOGzCx2w&fref=nf&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARA27mYZXkgWCEr0lEryh1enmy2Ulh7Yfhmwgbl00VGGLuHipI_8wnss2o4wMT4xThpneKNT63jtv97JFeCdnqXnjVBI3f871ckq8XXdY9YppoohtanynLIcdt1GjL3eJg99tQ6_513SrubIqvoTNpDsk9ggZOxdw6pZIG2_ron-R5nEUt5D4mT1-UkOlNte1PLl_bmlYASHQq4cODPfmrnFwB4SEA4Zu6Q5HMc

 

 

Uniquely Temasek? Kill Mandai wildlife to build wildlife paradise

This headline in our constructive, nation-building media on Monday

Mandai mangrove and mudflats to be Singapore’s newest nature park

reminded of a BBC story a few months back headlined

Singapore’s Mandai eco-resort: Paving paradise to put up an eco-resort

Singaporeans are getting a new wildlife paradise to bring them closer to nature, but as the BBC’s Yvette Tan writes, the development is carving into the jungle and pushing rare animals into the path of danger.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44856567

Animals are getting killed  to create a new wildlife paradise

Five animals – including a leopard cat, a huge sambar deer, a wild boar and a critically endangered sunda pangolin – have become roadkill since development began last January. All the accidents took place in the area around Mandai – with two occurring on a busy expressway.

This reminded me of two US military operations in the Vietnam War :

— “Did we have to destroy the town in order to save it?”” Colonel Myron Harrington was a US Marine officer at the Battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive. The battle resulted in the destruction of the town and the killing of its residents—. Harrington is credited with the quotation “Did we have to destroy the town in order to save it?””

— “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” This has been attributed to an unnamed United States major, referring to the bombing of Ben Tre, South Vietnam; reported by AP correspondent Peter Arnett, “Major Describes Move”, New York Times (February 8, 1968).

Coming back to the Mandai project, Mandai Park Development (MPD) says

the resort, to be run by resort operator Banyan Tree, will be built “sensitively… to reduce impact to the environment”.

But Mr Subaraj, a self-styled conservation expert (I know he has no academic or formal credentials in this field, but I also know he’s passionate about local wildlife)

argues that this may not be enough.

“If you look in other countries, for example [at an eco-resort in] the Danum Valley in Malaysia, they’ve got around 30 rooms,” said Mr Subaraj.

“We’ve got up to 400 rooms. When you develop a resort that big, no matter how much mitigation you put in place, there will be an impact.”

In other words, the development is akin to building a HDB block of flats as opposed to a jungle hut.

Btw

MPD is a branch of Mandai Park Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore’s state investor – Temasek Holdings.

🤑

Btw2, MPD

the body behind the work, says developing the area into an eco-hub is a much more “environmentally sensitive” choice than if an urban development were to take over the area.

😪😢😢😪

Why otters support the PAP and (some) hate Meng Seng

Recently, I read in Ottercity that otters from Johor (my kind of FTs repopulated  via the Sungei Buloh swamps in the 1990s. They had become extinct here.

This reminded me that the otters in S’pore are natural PAP supporters and if they can vote will always vote for the PAP. Why?

Not only because recently Grace Fu posted on FB pictures of a lost pup and telling people to be careful when they drive in the Jurong area. (It rejoined the family safely.)

The real reason is that S’pore is a really safe place for the otters.

IUCN SSC Otter Specialist Group

More than 70% of otters for sale are under one year of age, when they are still dependant on their family.

Our report on the Southeast Asian illegal otter trade took two years of research and investigations to produce and highlights the true face of otter trade.

Read the full report: http://www.otterspecialistgroup.org/osg-newsite/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/SEAsia-Otter-report.pdf

#weloveotters #illegaltrade in collaboration withTraffic Southeast Asia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hence otters have been emigrating here since the 1990s from Johor. Although Bumis, they are not treated as such. Possible reason? Why Malay name for “otter” is apt

As to why the Bishan and Marina families hate Goh Meng Seng, it’s because because if he had his way there wouldn’t be today’s Bishan Park. After GE 2011, he KPKBed that the PAP town council running Bishan was squandering money which the town council didn’t have to develop Bishan Park.

As usual the talk cock, sing king promised to monitor developments there and highlight the cock-ups. He never did, But to be fair to him, he may have realised that he was wrong about the lack of money. But that would be a first, Meng Seng realising that he got things wrong.

Coming back to the otters: Pa and Ma Bishan otters who migrated from Johor would never have had Bishan Park as a home base if the PAP hadn’t developed the park against Goh Meng Seng’s advice.

For those who don’t follow the otter tales, the Bishan family (FT Pa, Ma and their S’pore born kids) kicked the Marina Bay family (true blue S’poreans though descended from FT otters also) out of Marina Bay and moved there Eventually the Marina Bay otters found their way to the Lower Peirce Reservoir and now regularly visit the now vacated Bishan Park.

Coming back to Meng Seng. The adult Bishan and Marina otters tell misbehaving pups that if they are naughty Meng Seng will eat them.

Related posts:

Udrahpore or Otterpore: Udrahpore not Singapore

Year of the Otter

 

Conserve water: Xeros washing machines should be compulsory

In view of the PAP govt’s attempt to reduce water consumption, Xeros washing machines seem to juz the thing for S’pore.

After you put in your laundry, the drum adds about 23,000 small polymer spheres – which the company calls XOrbs – with a total weight around 6kg, plus a cup of water and detergent.

The spheres absorb the stains, then get collected through the drum, and afterwards are stored behind it to be reused next time.

The household machine uses 50% less water than a conventional washing machine, while the commercial version, which uses 70,000 spheres weighing 20kg, uses 80% less.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45711230

Other interesting ”save” water products.

Unilever

has produced a spray called Day2 that works like dry shampoo, designed to refresh those clothes that lie around on the floor on on the back of a chair but aren’t really that dirty at all.

Also

Swiss start-up Dolfi has come up with a device that cleans delicate fabrics using ultrasound to agitate a small amount of water and detergent.

And there’s this

Despite its misleading name, the dry cleaning industry also uses a lot of water – used in the form of steam – not to mention potential carcinogens like the solvent perchloroethylene, or perc for short.

But in the last five years, technological improvements have meant water and biodegradable detergents and conditioners can clean “dry clean only” garments made from wool, silk, or suede, says Nick Harris, managing director of VClean Life.

VClean recently launched a “wet cleaning” factory in Watford, Hertfordshire, that “weighs clothes and works out exactly how much water is necessary”, says Mr Harris.

And the boiler water used to make steam is recycled.

Year of the Otter

“It’s our year. In S’pore’s national language, we are known as “anjing ayer”: “anging” is “dog” and “ayer”* is “water”. So it’s our year.” (More: Why Malay name for “otter” is apt)

Didn’t want to disappoint them by telling them that today is the start of the “earth dog” year. 2042 is “water dog” year.

Whatever they should go tell McDonalds and other hypersensitive KS ang moh consumer brands afraid of being bombed by Jihadists or boycotted by Muslims to replace “dog” with “otter” in their versions of the Chinese zodiac. I’m sure these MNCs will listen to the “water dog” argument. And at least in S’pore, the Chinese would not be too upset.

---

*Or “air” as it is now spelt.

 

 

Bishan otters PAP members?

Or did the otters got co-opted into being constructive, nation-building animals? Did the otters got paid for this?

Seriously, this video shows the PAP, knowing that we love the otters, and are using them to influence us

Whatever fun to watch.

S’poreans cage birds mindlessly

Just like PAP cage S’poreans mindlessly.

A FB friend posted this pix of caged merboks. These birds are caught and caged because they make a lovely cooing sound.

I live in a private housing estate very near (10 minutes slow walk) where this pix was taken. I can hear the wild merboks cooing for free from my veranda. And in my walks in the HDB estate where this pix was taken, I have heard these birds sing from the trees, not the cages.

Once upon a time, these birds were rarely seen or heard in the area and I still remember the excitement 30 years ago when they were first spotted in my estate.

Thanks to the nature-loving PAP govt, these birds are now commonplace in the area. Yet people still want to cage them. They like PAP isit? Human Rights Watch talks cock about S’pore?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Asean neighbours on this list of shame

 

Wonder where we are on this list if calculations were done on a per capita basis?

Why Malay name for “otter” is apt

The name reminds us that otters have fangs and claws and are prepared to use them.

Yes, another tale from Udrahpore or Otterpore: Udrahpore not Singapore

This pix from OtterWatch, reminding S’poreans that otters are protective of their pups, reminded me that the Malays call an otter “anjing air”. This translates literally into “water dog”.

 

And yes, the Chinese term for “water dog” is  “sui kow”, the name of a type of Chinese dumpling.

So the original dumpling was made using otter meat?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our otters: A global first

Really. Our otters are uniquely S’porean. No where else in the world has wild otters like ours.

Yes, another tale from Udrahpore or Otterpore:Udrahpore not Singapore. But this time not a tall tale.

Our otters are the product of sex between two otter species.

A paper 

published on 27 January 2017 in the ‘Scientific Reports’ journal (www.nature.com/srep) has shown that the apparent Smoothcoated
Otters in Singaporeare hybrids of two local species – the Smooth-coated
Otter (Lutrogale perspicillata) and the Asian Small-clawed
Otter (Aonyx cinereus). This is the first worldwide record of hybridization in a
wild otter population. Hybrids of these two species have been recorded in captivity before (between a L perspicillata male with an A cinereus female).

For more see page 9 in

Click to access 902d1c3a-2Nature%20News%20Mar&%20Apri%202017C.pdf

Udrahpore not Singapore

Or “Tale the otters tell their  pups”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We all know the legend that S’pore was called Singapura because FT Sang Nila Utama was told that the animal he saw when he landed here was a lion (“Singa” in Sanskrit). The animal had a red body, black head and a white breast. Strange lions in the olden days.

The otters say that he saw a big white-breast otter that got bloodied in a fight with his siblings. They bit him, causing a deep cut on his back. The wound was bigger than this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Injured pup photographed by Abel Yeo. Attempts are being made to catch and treat this pup.)

Blood streaked down his sides.

He was then seen by Sang Nila Utama.

 

 

 

S’poreans not begrudging S’poreans enjoying free lunches

And not complaining to the govt to take away the freebies because it’s welfarism.

When I saw the following on FB, I tot the above

I am so ENVIOUS of our Otters. They are so fortunate to have regular meals of fresh fish. We must do all we can to protect our heritage. With LOVE to our Otters.

OK, OK the original otters from Bishah, AMK are FTs. But what the heck, they are the kind of New Citizens I welcome. But I can’t help but wonder if their aggressive behaviour towards the Marina (then S’pore River, now Bukit Timah) otters is the result of first settling in PAP areas?

Whatever, I’m sure Kate Spade Tin’s running dogs will feed the Bishan otters better fish than the local otters, if otters move into Tin’s ward. They may even poison the latter so that the former can take control.

Btw, otters are now in Siglap.  Yesterday afternoon, I saw a mum and pup alongside Siglap Canal where it intersects East Coast Rd, beside St Patrick’s School. They were sunning themselves, mum belly up, abd wriggling her bottom.

I had my dog with me, so no photos.

But I’m sure the Katong Convent gal taking photos will be posting them on FB soon. When I spoke to a friend, he said he saw them in the sea off Marine Parade and on the beach. Apparently these otters are the Tanah Merah otters.

I’m waiting for the day when otters are spotted in WP territory. Bedok reservoir is in WP area, But maybe otters (local or FT) are smarter than the majority of voters in Aljunied and Hougang?

Fowl play: Juz tell us what the genetic tests say

Another fowl culling has ruffled feathers. This time it is the killing of free-roaming chickens in the Sungei Api Api area in Pasir Ris.

It comes barely a month after the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) took similar action in Sin Ming estate in Thomson, sparking a heated public debate.

…..

The AVA, however, said it was “highly unlikely” the birds are the red junglefowl, usually found on Pulau Ubin and in the western catchment area near Lim Chu Kang.

ST

 

Why don’t AVA test the fowls killed in Pasir Ris and give us the results. After all, after the first cull

Mr Ng said he had seen photos of the chickens at the Sin Ming area and at least some of them were red junglefowl.

In answer to this, Dr Koh acknowledged that AVA would need to conduct genetic studies to ascertain whether the chickens found in the area were red junglefowl or other breeds.

AVA is continuing to undertake research with academics, wildlife experts, and other public agencies to find the best ways to manage the population of free-ranging chickens and other birds, according to Dr Koh.

Btw, the ang moh director of the film shoot of Sin Ming chooks said of genetic testing:

I would dispute the assertion that they are “chickens, not jungle fowl” – They are exactly the same species (only genetic testing would be able to differentiate wild type fowl from domesticated birds, and even then the difference is debatable).

To end, a FB pal summed up the situation pretty well:

PAP MP, Grassroots leaders, Residents all pissed off by the lack of consultation and transparency in AVA culling operations.

Is AVA trying very hard not hearing the public outcry?

Err where are the Wankering MPs from the Worthless Party? Answer, they are running around like headless chickens over irregular payments. 

Watergate: PUB got consumption figures all wrong?

Maybe it’s not all politics when contrasting the 30% hike with what VivianB said in 2015 about water being priced correctly: there was no need to change the price because PUB has improvements in membrane tech and productivity and that the water tariff and WCT reflected the scarcity of water.

I just remembered that for several years our water bill halved and then dropped to almost zero. We didn’t notice at first because we pay via giro. What we did notice was that the metre man coming more regularly. So we started looking at the bills. And found that we were really conserving water although we couldn’t think where we reduced our usage.

One day in 2015 (I think), the metre man took a photo of our metre and told my mum that technically that we had consumed no water since his last visit several months previously. He asked if we had moved out and then returned. We hadn’t.

Shortly thereafter we got a new metre. And our bills doubled or tripled.

Now if it happened to one metre, it could have happened to tens of thousands. My mum tells me she didn’t think PUB ever replaced the metre since we moved in in the early 60s.

Look at this chart that shows water usage showed a rise in per capita terms in 2015 after declining for many a year.

https://data.gov.sg/dataset/water-demand-domestic-water-consumption-per-capita

Now what if part of the decline prior to 2014 had been caused not by falling consumption per capita but by metres failing to record the “right” amounts of water consumed, and the jump in consumption post 2014 was due to new metres working properly?

Remember that problems the public transport system is facing because the SMRT tracks were not properly maintained? Could bad metre replacement maintenance have caused the PUB to get our water consumption figures wrong?

 

Otters, Watergate: What’s worth of ministers’ parly statements?

I recently wrote that I was afraid for our Bishan otters because

a population of five in mid 2015, has expanded to 14 in about two years. By the end of 2018, there’ll be 10 sexually mature otters. They won’t be stopping at two for sure.

And

what happened at Sing Ming can happen to the Bishan otters because based on what happened to wild pigs and the fowl, the default mode at AVA to any animal problem is “Cull first, ask questions and BS later”.

So it was really nice that on Tuesday, a junior minister made it clear that

The culling of animals is only a “very small part” of the overall work of the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), and it does not track the expenditure it incurs on doing so, said Senior Minister of State for National Development Desmond Lee.

Answering a question in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 28), Mr Lee said AVA takes a multi-pronged approach to manage the animal population and mitigate health and safety concerns. It first undertakes a professional assessment of potential threats that animals might pose to public health and safety, he explained, and AVA will have to act if there “significant health and safety concerns”.

“Where feasible, it will work with stakeholders, including the animal welfare groups and organisations like Wildlife Reserves Singapore, to relocate and rehome these animals,” said Mr Lee. “Culling is used only as a last resort.”

In response to a clarification from Member of Parliament Louis Ng, Mr Lee added that AVA’s total budget for animal management operations for 2016 was S$800,000.

CNA

But then I learnt that VivianB had said in parly in 2015 (juz before GE) that there was no need to change the price of water because of PUB’s improvements in membrane tech and productivity and that the water tariff and WCT reflected the scarcity of water.

But we now know 18 months later than that isn’t true any more (Wah facts change so fast? Can tell us what changed? Or cock-up somewhere? Or 2015 statement was “political”?) and that the price of water will be 30% more because of the cost of producing water and to reflect the scarcity of water.

———————————

“The consumer must feel the price of water, realise how valuable water is in Singapore, every time he or she turns on the tap, right from the first drop,” says Water minister Masagos Zulkifli.

————————————————-

So we can’t trust the word of a PAP minister even when he makes a statement in parly.

Sad.

Watergate: MIW caught with pants down

PAPpies and their running dogs in the constructive, nation-building media and academia and on social media say that the price of water hasn’t been changed for years, so we shouldn’t be getting worked up about the 30% hike (peanuts, really).

But 18 months ago, VivianB said (see below) there was no need to change the price because PUB has improvements in membrane tech and productivity and that the water tariff and WCT reflect the scarcity of water.

So what has changed in 18 months?

Either in 2015 (before GE) the PAP administration didn’t do their homework leading a minster to mislead S’poreans and parly, or in 2017 the cabinet didn’t read what the then minister said in 2015 when making the decision to raise prices.

But then maybe before GE 2015, PAP wanted to get rid of its “Pay and Pay” tag?

Kudos to whoever originally dug this up. I think it is Chen Jiaxi Bernard, a WP man. Well done.

TOC, TMG can rebut this?/ But then PAP is always wrong

 

TOC, TMG (with a once (and future?) wannable Sith Lord)  and other anti-PAPpists have been complaining about the impending water price hikes.

 

Singapore MattersLike Page

Your bowl of mee pok is going to cost 30% more because water price is going up by 30%? Your cup of coffee will cost 30% more?

That’s FEAR MONGERING! Quit it!

Put that 30% increase in perspective. If your cup of coffee costs 30% more because water price has gone up, that’s called exploiting the water price increase to raise prices.

Taz wht we had the assurance of a junior minister that

the cost of goods, such as coffee and tea, “should not and ought not go up” when participants addressed the trickle-down effect that the water price increase.

TOC

Then what happens when prices don’t rise?

TOC, TMG and the cybernuts will then complain that sellers of coffee and tea drinks and food sellers are suffering.

Don’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

The PAP is so very lucky in its enemies.

Bishan Otters: Why they’ll be on AVA’s cull list

S’poreans are great at KPKBing after the event; Jus look at the noise after the culling of the Sing Ming Avenue fowl be they be junglefowl, feral domestic chickens or mixed breed (My take on that).

If S’poreans are their usual lazy, unthinking, reactive selves what happened at Sing Ming can happen to the Bishan otters because based on what happened to wild pigs and the fowl, the default mode at AVA to any animal problem is “Cull first, ask questions and BS later”.

---

This assurance on culling reported by CNA is only for free-ranging chickens: Culling of free-ranging chickens will only be done as “last resort” says MND junior minister Dr Koh.

Otters are not chickens.

—————————————————————

And there’s good reason to be concerned about the environmental impact of the otters. They are not stopping at two: a population of five in mid 2015, has expanded to 14 in about two years. And the first three youngsters will be maturing soon.

In April 2015, two adult otters — believed to have swam over from Malaya to S’pore — were caught on camera with triplet baby pups in tow, having settled down in the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park.

Five new pups, believed to be born in late December 2015, made the family the Bishan Eight.

Then there was a new litter of five pups some time in mid-November 2016. But one is missing it seems.

All in all, a population of five in mid 2015, has expanded to 14 in about two years. By the end of 2018, there’ll be 10 sexually mature otters. They won’t be stopping at two for sure.

—————————————————-

Dr Koh said AVA found that the free-roaming chicken population near Sin Ming Avenue had more than doubled in the last two years from about 20 to more than 50 birds. (CNA)

——————————————————

As bitch otters, I’ve read, reach sexual maturity at approximately two years of age and males at approximately three years, the triplets will soon be sexually mature: the gals by April this year, and the boys by April next year.

The gals in the next batch will mature in December this year and the boys by December next year.

So by the end of 2018, there’ll be 10 sexually mature otters. They’ll breed like their parents.

As pups live with their family for approximately one year, the otters range further.

Add to that the issue of in-breeding and we could have otter conservation issues as a legtimate and reasonable concern.

Let’s hope the AVA is planning ahead and that culling isn’t the usual default option, or even on the agenda. Maybe MP Lous Ng and his ACRES: Animal Concerns Research and Education Society can keep the AVA on its toes.

The Bishan otters deserve better than the exterminated Sing Ming Avenue fowl be they be junglefowl, feral domestic chickens or mixed breed.

 

Fowl play: Cull in haste, repent at leisure

TOC and TMG*, both occupying locales at the more responsible end of the cowboy town that is our cyberspace, created a fuss about the culling of the fowl around Sin Ming Avenue.

I really don’t know if they were Red Junglefowl, as both TOC and TMG, claimed; or as the AVA seemed to imply domesticated chickens gone feral or mixed breed. It would be a shame if Red Junglefowl were culled.

Two interesting observations: the willingness of the anti-PAP 30% to believe an ang moh even if he’s no expert, and how cock the AVA can be.

Ang moh always tua kee

Waz interesting is that these publications and the S’poreans they quoted, and those other S’poreans jumping on the band wagon and criticising the AVA and the PAP administration, seems to have accepted the word of an ang moh that the fowl were Junglefowl, even though he admitted that no tests were conducted. He directed a series** that among other animals featured these chickens:

Andrew Scott, director of Wild City in response to the news of the culling commented, “I directed the episode of the TV programme “Wild City”, and we featured those very birds. I have very fond memories of the week we spent filming on Sin Ming Ave. We filmed all over the island for that show, but that street always stuck in my mind as the most charming and characterful place we visited. I would dispute the assertion that they are “chickens, not jungle fowl” – They are exactly the same species (only genetic testing would be able to differentiate wild type fowl from domesticated birds, and even then the difference is debatable).

http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2017/02/03/wild-city-features-sin-ming-ave-chickens-as-endangered-red-junglefowl/

He expert meh? Ang moh tua kee isit?

AVA: a bunch of headless chickens

But let’s face it, AVA’s response to the “noise” has been pathetic. Its latest attempt at damage control got this response in the Forum section of our constructive, nation-building ST:

No consistency in AVA statements

The letter by Dr Yap Him Hoo, director-general of the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) (“AVA concerned about bird flu risk, not noise of chickens“; Feb 15), contradicts an earlier statement by Ms Jessica Kwok, AVA group director of the animal management group (“Free-ranging chickens may be culled“; Feb 2), that the authority had received requests to manage the free-ranging chicken population due to noise pollution.

The impression that the AVA took action because of noise was, therefore, not due to various media reports. Rather, it was created by the AVA itself.

With such contradictory statements from two high-profile figures in the AVA, what is the public to believe?

It gives the impression that the AVA top management is not working as one.

Dr Yap’s statement that the chickens were at risk of being exposed to bird flu from migratory birds, as the chickens could catch the disease through direct contact with them or through their droppings, is flawed.

Free-ranging chickens are few in number, compared to the many pigeons, mynahs and crows congregating at public eating places, snatching food and leaving their droppings all over the place.

Doesn’t this group of birds pose a greater risk of being carriers of bird flu, should there be an outbreak in Singapore?

It would be more credible for the AVA to come up with long-term measures to solve the pigeon, mynah and crow problem here, instead of culling chickens as a stop-gap measure.

These other birds are not only a health risk, but a noise nuisance as well.

Ronnie Lim Ah Bee

Background for those not in S’pore during CNY

The AVA culled some noisy chickens claiming that they were a bird-flu risk. It said that they were not Red Junglefowl as alleged by the usual suspects.

However someone unearthed a series shown here in 2015 which was made with the support of the MDA**.

In a segment of one a two-part series on wild life in the city-state, Sir David Attenborough said that the chickens  around Sin Ming Avenue were Red Junglefowl, the ancestors of domesticated chickens. Footage showed the chickens had grey legs and that they can fly; domesticated chickens have yellow legs and can’t fly. But please note that chup cheng chicken, the result of crossing breeding, could have these characteristics.

The video got the feathers flying and the anti-PAP cybernuts upset.

At the very least, the AVA should cull fire those responsible for its response for the culling especially as it seems that they were not aware of the series.

---

*Waz interesting is that a TMG tua kee (no not the wannabe be Sith Lord turned Jedi) is trying hard to show that AVA misled the public about the reason for the cull, although the facts show otherwise.

**

The two-part series produced by local company Beach House Pictures and supported by MDA through the Public Service Broadcast funding, is part of a series of seven SG50 documentaries. The first episode titledUrban Wild, which focuses on the wildlife who have made their homes among Singapore’s urban landscape, features civets in roof cavities and wild otters at the Marina Reservoir. The second episode,Hidden Wild, takes audiences to Singapore’s hidden wildlife spots like the coastal wetlands and offshore islands, which have become thriving habitats to a variety of creatures.

https://www.imda.gov.sg/infocomm-and-media-news/sg-spotlight/2015/3/singapores-wild-city

 

 

 

PM2.5 pollution level: Manila better than us

S’pore does very well in global standards but Manila does even better. Having lived in Manila, and knowing that that traffic conditions there have not improved since I lived there, I’m surprised.

Neither Manila nor us meet the World Health Organisation PM2.5 recommended level of 10µg/m³. But very few cities except in Oz and NZ.

Table extracted from the Guardian

Selected global cities: Asia

PM2.5 annual mean, micrograms per cubic metre

Delhi India 122

Dhaka Bangladesh 90

Karachi Pakistan 88

Beijing China 85

Ulaanbaatar Mongolia 75

Islamabad Pakistan 66

Mumbai 63

Kolkata 61

Shanghai China 52

Kathmandu Nepal 49

Guangzhou China 48

Colombo Sri Lanka 36

Hong Kong China 29

Bangkok Thailand 24

Seoul South Korea 24

Singapore Singapore 18

Manila Philippines 17

Tokyo Japan 15

When there were really floods

Jerome Lim (Mr Nostalgia) reposted something from 2011 that he put up on Facebook

And we thought that occasional pool in Orchard Road was bad … a map of the 1978 floods ..

(Remember in 201– 2011 there were several “once in every 50 years” floods within several months)

Well ministers were paid a lot less in the 70s. We got higher expectations of millionaire ministers today. Cannot isit?

Seriously, it was really good to be reminded of how bad things still were 19 years after the PAP came into power.

The next row with Indons

Haze is Indonesia’s retaliation for helping Google avoid Indon taxes

Taz the line that the Indon VP or Indon minister will take soon.

Because Google uses S’pore as tax haven to avoid paying Indon taxes, Indons will keep on burning and killing 2,200 S’poreans a year*, a senior Indon official is sure to say. Never mind a lot more Indons are killed by haze.

---

Btw, expect the cybernuts from The Idiots – S’pore (or TISG) and TRE to start screaming that the PAP govt is allowing S’poreans to die so that Google can make money. And they’ll cheer on Indonesia as they cheered on Pinoy chief gangster for dissing S’pore.

——————————————————————————————————

This is what CNA, part of the constructive, nation-building media reported

Indonesia plans to pursue Alphabet Inc’s Google for five years of back taxes, and the search giant could face a bill of more than US$400 million for 2015 alone if it is found to have avoided payments, a senior tax official said.

…

Most of the revenue generated in the country is booked at Google’s Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. Google Asia Pacific declined to be audited in June, prompting the tax office to escalate the case into a criminal one, Hanif said.

“Google’s argument is that they just did tax planning,” Hanif said. “Tax planning is legal, but aggressive tax planning – to the extent that the country where the revenue is made does not get anything – is not legal.”

The tax office will summon directors from Google Indonesia who also hold positions at Google Asia Pacific, Hanif said, adding that it is working with the Indonesian police.

Already Google  has come under scrutiny from Australian authorities for paying tax in Singapore on advertising revenue generated in Australia, where the corporate tax rate is 30%.

Btw, Indons are saying Nasi Goreng is not a S’porean dish. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-37408343

---

*A study that estimates there were 2,200 premature deaths in Singapore due to the 2015 haze crisis is “not reflective of the actual situation”, the country’s Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Monday (Sep 19). The study by researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the US also said there were more than 100,000 premature deaths caused by transboundary haze from Indonesian forest fires. 

CNA

 

 

 

 

 

Indons speaking with fork tongues again

Indon VP asking for neighbours’ help in fighting the fires. But he seems to have forgotten that Indon officials have said they don’t need help.

Worse, while complaining that S’pore was trying to punish Indon cos for the fires, it has stopped investigating them

Indonesia’s efforts in tackling forest fires came into question when 15 out of 18 companies suspected of being responsible for the forest fires last year got off the hook with the law.

On Thursday, detik.com reported that the district police in Riau will be stopping investigations on the 15 companies due to the lack of evidence.

“It does not fulfil the elements of intent nor negligence, so we decide to stop investigating the cases,” said Senior Commissioner Rivai Sinambela, Director for Special Criminal Investigation, Riau police district.

Commissioner Rival said that the fires happened on land which have conflicting ownership with the community, and not on areas belonging to the companies.

In 2015, police began investigations on 18 companies suspected of causing forest fires, but only three went to the courts. The three companies PT Langgam Inti Hibrindo, PT Palm Lestari Makmur and PT Wahana Subur Sawit were eventually acquitted.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/indonesia-calls-on/2980490.html

El Nino: End in sight?

Uniquely global: Rainforest in a global city

The best reason for changing the CRL route

Jonathan Tan Yong How’s letter to ST Forum

The Central Catchment Nature Reserve, on the other hand, is a biologically rich rainforest that sits in the heart of our country, something that cannot be found in other world-class cities like London, New York or Tokyo.

Enjoyed by generations of Singaporeans from the very birth of our country, it is a national treasure that makes Singapore unique among the metropolises of the world.

If we are willing to spend such money on creating new nature-themed attractions*, what more to protect our primeval, natural heritage inherited from our ancestors and which we can pass down to our descendants?

*He was referring to the $1 billion (not including the substantial cost of land reclamation) to build Gardens by the Bay, which, today, is a well-loved park.

His letter in full

Put $2 billion for realignment in context

Yesterday’s report had the Land Transport Authority saying that if the Cross Island MRT Line were to skirt the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, instead of going under it, an extra $2 billion in costs could be incurred (“$2b extra cost if MRT line skirts reserve“).

While $2 billion sounds like a huge sum of money, the figure should be put in proper context.

The 4km stretch of the Circle Line extension to link HarbourFront to Marina Bay, with just three additional MRT stations, is expected to cost $3.7 billion.

By contrast, realigning the Cross Island Line (CRL) to avoid the nature reserve would add an additional 5km of train line at the cost of $2 billion, which could also be used to serve new stations.

Furthermore, when stacked against the total cost of the Cross Island Line, an additional $2 billion is not likely to be a substantially large increase; the similarly ambitious Downtown Line is already estimated to cost $20.7 billion.

In another case, construction of the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) cost $4.3 billion. This was essentially a rerouting of the original East Coast Parkway-Ayer Rajah Expressway, so as to free up land along Tanjong Pagar for future development.

Singapore has always prided itself on planning for the long term, and the MCE is one such example.

Rerouting the CRL now to protect our nature reserve for future generations would merely be a continuation of this laudable policy.

Finally, we also spent $1 billion (not including the substantial cost of land reclamation) to build Gardens by the Bay, which, today, is a well-loved park.

The Central Catchment Nature Reserve, on the other hand, is a biologically rich rainforest that sits in the heart of our country, something that cannot be found in other world-class cities like London, New York or Tokyo.

Enjoyed by generations of Singaporeans from the very birth of our country, it is a national treasure that makes Singapore unique among the metropolises of the world.

If we are willing to spend such money on creating new nature-themed attractions, what more to protect our primeval, natural heritage inherited from our ancestors and which we can pass down to our descendants?

Jonathan Tan Yong How

Bye-bye haze, welcome rain

This month has been unseasonably wet even by pre El Nino norms. Well it seems this report that El Nino is coming round earlier this yr is wrong.

The latest thinking is that El Niño passes its peak while La Niña is possible this year.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35612558

What is La Nina?

Whatever, VivianB will be not screaming at the Indons this yr. There’ll be lrss hot air coming from the Indons. And Mad Dog Chee can brown-nose the Indons without upsetting S’poreans like me.

When Indians are silent, not triumphant

India loves to blow its trumpet whenever it “beats” China. So it’s strange that it’s so silent when it trashes China.

 

 

La Nina and commodities/ Can you still smell the haze?

I can still smell the haze i.e, the fires are still burning but at a much lower level of intensity, enabling the Indon authorities tp pretend that they’ve stopped the fires.

The haze season will begin in Feb

Indons can’t BS us in 2016

We got a spy in the sky.

Singapore’s TeLEOS-1 satellite, now in orbit some 500km above the Equator, takes pictures with a 1-metre resolution when it passes the neighbourhood once every 100 minutes or so.

http://kementah.blogspot.sg/2015/12/singapores-teleos-1-satellite-can-serve.html

Meanwhile in Indonesia, the haze and mirrors’ game continues: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35203609

“The strongest El Nino weather cycle on record” is happening right now http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35159826

Haze: Season begins in Feb 2016

Not in Aug/ Sept as is traditionally the case.. Or even like a few yrs back in May.

Enjoy the haze-free environment. Not that long more before next season begins.

This is what i posted a few weeks ago

The Indons tell us the fires will cease by the end of Neovember: rains are late this yr leh. What they don’t tell us: Louis Verchot of the Centre for International Forestry Research warns that El Niño may yet induce a second burning season, next February and March. Lax laws are part of the problem. Even more serious are official incompetence and corruption, which have allowed plantations to keep spreading on land that is supposed to be off-limits. A regional treaty designed to combat the haze was drawn up in 2002 that was full of grand promises but lacked teeth.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/11/daily-chart-3

Rail corridor plan/ LKY

This model [of part of the winning plan for the rail corridor] makes me think that there is a secret master plan (planning only leh) for a population of 8m. And fact that ST doesn’t photo highlight this in its article double confirms my suspicion. )))) — This was posted by my Facebook avatar, 

Another member of the Facebook group (pretty conservative: we believe that Amos Yee’s punishment was self-inflicated and hustified) ( added, “It’s ultimately 10m population we are planning for. Global city.”

In general, the presence of high rises buildings in the corridor annoyed commenters.

Must we have high rises everywhere? Add to reserves isit? While low rise structures or the absence of buildings raids our reserves?

Seriously, as one Harry Lee made S’pore a clean and green place, benefitting our pockets, we should forget about the high-rises, keep the area green and rename the corridor “LKY’s Way”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haze: Help? What help?

A new law introduced in Singapore this year that aims to drag Indonesia’s fire-starters through its own courts may make more difference. Retailers in the city-state have already stopped selling products made by some firms under investigation.

(Economist)

But otherwise our fire fighting team has returned and no new team is going out.

The Singapore team helping to fight haze-causing fires in Indonesia returned Saturday afternoon (Oct 24) after more than 10 days in Palembang.

The return marks the completion of the Singapore Armed Forces’ two-week deployment, as requested by Indonesian authorities.

A total of 40 SAF and Singapore Civil Defence Force troops were deployed on Oct 10.  A Chinook helicopter with a 5,000-litre heli-bucket was also deployed. Over the two weeks, it had discharged more than 400,000 litres of water and extinguished more than 50 hotspots in Sumatra.

(CNA)

This blog has been pretty critical about the Indon officials false pride and BS but if S’pore has not offered to send another team and another to help, then our help is really “peanuts” and not worth accepting in the first place.

More than 20,000 firefighters are battling blazes across its jungles and peatland. So our one-time help of 40 fire-fighters and some eqpt is “peanuts” by any standard,

But maybe we did offer to send another team (and then another), but the Indons refused our help?

But then I’m sure that our ministers would have made that fact public.

Next haze season begins in Feb 2016

The Indons tell us the fires will cease by the end of Neovember: rains are late this yr leh. What they don’t tell us: Louis Verchot of the Centre for International Forestry Research warns that El Niño may yet induce a second burning season, next February and March. Lax laws are part of the problem. Even more serious are official incompetence and corruption, which have allowed plantations to keep spreading on land that is supposed to be off-limits. A regional treaty designed to combat the haze was drawn up in 2002 that was full of grand promises but lacked teeth. 

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/11/daily-chart-3

Haze: Why Indons getting serious

A few days ago I wrote Haze: Huge Indon U-turn within a week

The Indon govt was changing its mind on calling a state of National Emergency despite saying it wasn’t on the cards a few days earlier.

The reason?

“Lately, clouds of haze have been drifting into the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, which normally escapes the smelly fumes. Cynics will wonder whether that helped persuade Mr Widodo to come home early,” Economist.

Widodo had cut short a US trip to deal with haze.

Haze is hitting the elite where it hurts, their home town and the place where upset people can make a difference.

 

Haze: Huge Indon U-turn within a week

The British have a saying, “A week is a long time in politics.”

Yesterday CNA reported, Indonesia is considering declaring a national emergency over fires that have been smouldering across the archipelago for weeks, sending haze drifting across much of Southeast Asia, the vice president said on Tuesday.

The government would intensify efforts to contain the fires that have caused pollution levels across the region to spike to unhealthy levels, and forced school closures and flight cancellations, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said.

“The problem is too big,” Kalla said in an interview at his office in Jakarta.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/indonesia-considers/2221238.html

But on 21 October, Companies will benefit if haze problem declared national disaster: Indonesian minister

The annual haze problem in Indonesia is about injustice, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for politics, law and security Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said.

“When a company controls 2.8 million hectares of land, where is the justice? Then there are those that own 600,000 hectares of land but own not a single fire extinguisher,” he said in an interview in the Oct 25 issue of Tempo, an Indonesian weekly news magazine.

He explained authorities’ reluctance to declare the haze problem a national disaster, even though air pollution levels in some Indonesian cities have reached hazardous levels at more than 2,600 API.

“Should the government be dousing fires all the time? If we call it a national disaster, they will benefit from it,” he said, referring to land concession owners. “They have 500 million pounds sterling in London banks, but they demand that we douse the flames.”

(CNA)

The plantation owners could use  any declaration of a national emergency to declare force majeure on palm oil deals, even financing deals entered into with banks.

Haze: Only Indon officials do this

Int’l conference of ministers in haze-ridden Padang.

Only Indon officials can be so cock. I assume that when this conference was scheduled, they tot the haze season would be over.

Correspondents … likely to be discussed at the talks is smoke from illegal forest burning in Indonesia that has blighted the air across much of South East Asia for several weeks.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop will hand on the chair of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to Indonesia at a meeting in West Sumatra.

IORA consists of 20 coastal states bordering the Indian Ocean and has been chaired by Australia since 2013.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-34612083

 

Haze: Indon govt protecting plantation cos

Our govt has officially requested Jakarta to provide S’pore with the names of those companies that are causing the fires. This would allow S’pore to take legal action against those responsible for the haze that has covered us, M;sia and now southern Thailand.

But Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security Luhut Pandjaitan has given us us the finger on the issue (and in so doing tells us that the plantation cos are being protected), despite Indonesian officials regularly blaming S’pore-based (and M’sian based) cos for the fires.

Speaking to the media here after delivering a public lecture on Monday (Oct 19), he said Jakarta might consider releasing the names of the companies after they have gone though the legal process in Indonesia*.

Jakarta has said it is not yet ready to officially disclose names of plantation companies responsible for the forest fires in the country that caused the haze in the region.

Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security Luhut Pandjaitan said releasing the names would create uncertainty within the country.

…

He added that the Indonesian government also do not want to create an uncertain situation within the country because of this. “Moving forward, they know that they are going to get punished by the government. I think this is very important.

“But next year, we have already given them a clear message: We are going to revoke their licence, no question about that. That I can assure you. They understand that fully.” 

(CNA)

So it seems that the companies are to be given yet another chance to avoid being named and shamed, and prosecuted here. Did money cdhange hands ?

Related post: Another Indon goof https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/haze-indons-forgot-about-el-nino/

——————————–

*Legal process, what legal process? He said: “Well, we are not protecting (plantation companies). Like I mentioned earlier, we have not officially submitted the names to the court. So how can we disclose them to the public? It’s unfair. We’ll wait for the court’s final decision.” 

How can courts decide if the names are not officially submitted? So Kafkaesque    of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings; especially :  having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality <Kafkaesque bureaucratic delays>

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kafkaesque

Did money change hands?

 

Swiss standard S’pore should introduce

Cutting the level of noise pollution. What with plans for 6.9 people by 2030. surely in addition to building more flats and improving public tpt services (both works in progress), it’s time to lower noice pollution levels?

Making a din in Geneva will be more costly in future, after the authorities announced a steep increase in fines for noise disturbances.

Until recently, the canton fined people up to 150 francs ($156; £100) after noise complaints, but under the new system that will be the minimum amount, the 20 minutes news website reports. Someone shouting in the street can expect the lowest fine, but if car horns wake up an entire neighbourhood the penalty could reach 1,000 francs, the canton’s Attorney General Olivier Jornot says.

Car owners whose exhaust silencers aren’t working properly can now expect a fine of 500 francs, rather than the 50 to 100 francs of old. And there will be limits on how long celebrations can go on after a sporting event, decided on a case-by-case basis, the website reports.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-34516586

Haze: Indon officials that cock meh? Double confirm

Further to this https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/haze-indon-officials-that-cock-meh/, I’ll let my fellow Facebookers speak for me on the u-turn in Indon policy

“Jakarta accepts foreign help to fight raging forest fires” ST today. Finally. Why didn’t they accept such offers weeks back when it was offered and when the situation was already hazardous? Was it pride or what? And here, neighbours numbering millions have been suffering due to the Indonesian government’s previous stance! Hopefully there will be some relief in the near future.”

“At last! They also accepted Russian help. If Russia did not offer assistance I doubt that their foolish pride would have allowed them to accept Singapore’s offer. But now that a huge country and P5 member is helping them it has become acceptable to accept an insignificant offer from a tiny neighbour. Another factor may be the impending ASEAN Summit which also entails meetings with Dialogue Partners. Their lack of capacity has been all too evident and they would have wanted to avoid criticism from world leaders.
‘In today’s ST page A6 there is a story about how the Indonesian government pressured major palm oil firms to roll back no deforestation pledges they made at the UN. I think this is actually a more important story than Jakarta’s belated acceptance of foreign assistance because it reveals something of the thinking and priorities of this Indonesian government.”

To the second comment, I’d add that there is a newspaper that a senior Indon official claimed that it turned down S’pore’s help initially because it didn’t want S’pore to claim credit for solving the problems.

Using that line of reasoning, one can assume that Indon officials will refuse to divulge the name of S’pore-based cos that it thinks is causing the haze. Doesn’t want S’pore to claim the credit for prosecuting them.

Which brings me to Terry Xu’s constructive suggestion to the S’pore govt.

“Zenata Putera, co-founder of local NGO, P.M Haze, said that while Indonesian authorities have said that there is a lack of information regarding the plots of land which companies own, NGOs have noted that such information is in fact available. He also said that it would be easier to work with the NGOs to resolve the haze-related issues than to go through the bureaucratic process.
What the Singapore government could probably do is to engage with the NGOs in Indonesia and to work out a plan to monitor errant companies. It could also help provide jobs for villagers who would be willing to work as firefighters and watchmen of the plantations to prevent fires or to testify against companies who run foul of the law.
The Singapore government has a duty to address the annual issue and to stop pushing the blame to “uneducated” villagers and companies that are almost never prosecuted in any way. The residents of Singapore deserves a better answer than being urged to bear with it and told that things are beyond our control.”

http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2015/09/is-spore-helpless-about-the-haze-not-really/

What Terry Xu is saying is this, “By-pass the Indonesian govt, work with the Indon NGOs to identify the criminals”

Good suggestion but following it will get the Indon govt further upset with us. Indonesia is so protective of its sovereignty that it refuses to provide the map co-ordinates of the areas where it alleges S’pore cos are breaking its law, when our govt wants the info to prosecute the alleged burners.

In dealing with the haze problem, there no win-win possiblities, only a choice of lesser evils.

Haze: La Nina riding to the rescue?

So the Indon officials say they don’t need our help despite the VP sayinfg S’pore should help and despite firefighters saying they lack eqpt. Allah is sending in La Nina earlier than expected.

Coming in 2016, El Nino’s other half: heavy rains among other things.

2025: LKY’s memorial unveiled

In a recent blog post,”Where will the energy business be in 2025?” the FT’s energy guru, Nick Butler gave scenarios of the world in 2025. One scenario mentioned us and our dear Harry.

Climate change remains a serious and unresolved issue because of the continued use of coal but the focus of attention has shifted to the impact of climate volatility and extreme weather conditions. Insurance premiums for low-lying areas that could be hit by flooding have tripled. In 2025, Singapore announces that it will proceed with the construction of the 40km Lee Kuan Yew sea wall surrounding the island, which can be raised and lowered according to the level of risk.

The Great Wall of S’pore begins construction on the 10th anniversary of him becoming the 9th Immortal. 

Yup cybernuts in TRE and TOC Land, in 2025, the PAP is still ruling S’pore. Grave dancer Oxygen and friends, go bang yr balls and cry. Harry rules OK. 

Make a wasteland, call it rat-free

“They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace,” Tacitus quoting a Caledonian chieftain fighting a Roman invasion of his poor country.

“Did we have to destroy the town in order to save it?” a US Marine Captain on the battle for Huế. His answer was “Yes”.

HDB has promised re-turfing. Let’s see if they live up to the promise.

When dogs roamed the hill, see how green it was. But the rats were lurking underneath. Proves LKY’s point that we must always remain paranoid (OK! OK! “Vigilant”) against unseen threats hiding in our society.

Cause of plankton bloom?/ Three cheers for Tessa Wong

Several fish farmers told the BBC that rapid development in the western part of the strait in Johor, the Malaysian state closest to Singapore, was one of the factors affecting the water quality.

“The plankton bloomed this fast because the nutrient content in the sea is so high. And where are all these nutrients coming from? Land reclamation in Malaysia,” said Frank Tan.

[Err these guys must be shell shocked by the losses, deaths and stench; water from Western Johor I.e. Iskandar can’t flow East because of the Causeway]

But tiny Singapore has also reclaimed parts of its northern coast, and dammed up estuaries in the northeast to create reservoirs. It has pumped millions of dollars into the fish farming industry to boost its domestic food security.

Latest government figures show there are now 117 fish farms in waters surrounding the island, spread out over 102ha – twice the amount of space compared to a decade ago.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31724554

Typical of the PAP administration under Ah Loong: one part messes up the sea in the NE by damming estuaries and reclaiming land, another promotes fishing farming in area. Looks like more work for Grace Fu’s cordinating unit? She will be bitching* for more pay?

Btw the BBC reporter, Tessa Wong, was formerly from ST. Shows that ex-ST journalists can be fearless, objective after they leave ST. Until I read the BBC piece, I didn’t understand how bad the situation had become because our constructive, nation-building media focused on the dead fish and the losses to the farmers, not on the wider ecological and environment situation.

Oh and M’sia can tell us to bugger-off if we complain about M’sian land reclamation etc affecting S’pore. It can, rightly say, “If you can damage yr environment by yr reclaimation and other projects, why can’t we?. Not as though you guys are doing right by the environment.

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*In January 2012, she expressed concerns over the planned 36-37% income cuts for ministers, saying that if ministerial pay was further reduced in the future, it would “make it harder for anyone considering political office”

 

Ang Moh longs for Chinatown slums and polluted river ’cause they got character?

This appeared in the favourite reading material of people with leftish leanings in the UK and elsewhere in response to a very banal, rubbishy piece on the S’pore arts scene http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/nov/17/top-10-galleries-art-studios-design-shops-singapore

Singapore is a considerable economic success, largely thanks to the iron control, long term planning and discipline of the People’s Action Party government over the decades, but this has been achieved at the cost of an almost robotic society, continually told what how to behave by Big Brother campaigns run by a government which feels the need to micro-manage everything. If this obsessive control has marginally improved in the past decade, it remains generally true.

The country’s historic Chinatown survived Japanese bombing but didn’t survive the People’s Action Party, nor did the character of the Singapore River – once bustling with traditional boats but now clinically empty. A vast swathe of tradition and history was scythed down in the name of progress and modernization, producing one of the blandest cities in the world. Malaysians may be envious of Singapore’s economic success but their nickname of Singabore is not without substance.

It is thus understandable that the SIngapore Tourist Board should wish to recreate something culturally distinctive and appealing, but these new galleries appear to share the same ethos and attraction as the profusion of unoriginal corporate-brand shops which choke Orchard Road, and the very spirit of what used to be a fascinating country – half a century ago. Mammon is the God of Singapore, and there’s little room for any Art which does not bow down before it.

I don’t dispute that much character and history has been erased, with sterility and blandness replacing them . I personally miss the boats in S’pore River that serviced passing ships. Some even provided aunties for the sailors.

But I remember the river as a dirty, oily place too. And some of the buildings on its banks, as filthy rat-infested places, even within walking distance of the AG’s Chambers.

And Chinatown while colourful and full of character was a horrible place for many who lived there. If anyone thinks the dorms of FTs are bad, the living quarters of elderly folks were terrible.

It would be nice if we could have retained the colour and character but got rid of the squalor. But we could argue endlessly on whether this is ever possible in practice.

But rather than moaning and fighting past battles, let’s try to remove the blandness from the present scene, rather than long for a past that never was: a past dominated by the memories and views of ang mohs.

The great thing is there are people who are trying. There is a lovely park situated between two urban areas.

It’s empty most of the time despite its position. It could be like London’s Hyde Park, but it isn’t. Someone is trying to change this: Founder and chairman of Waterways Watch Society (WWS) Eugene Heng has dreamt up an ecovillage on a 400m stretch of the park to ignite a green spark in park users.

The environmental group is the first non-governmental organisation to sign an agreement with the National Parks Board (NParks) to organise and run activities in a park.

– See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/eco-village-take-root-kallang-park#sthash.qLKJRtX5.dpuf

I hope the ang moh tua kees who are grumbling about the loss of colour, and the sterlity of modern S’pore follow Mr Heng’s example, and do something about it. But I’m sure they prefer to moan and groan. It’s the ang moh (pleb version) way after all.

 

 

 

Haze: VivianB has the luck of the devil

Despite, me being able to smell the haze almost every evening* for the last few days, the anti-PAP paper warriors and do usual do-gooders have been quiet. The air pollution readings must be OK even if the haze is present. I don’t usually bother to check the readings because high levels are a health hazard only if there is “prolonged exposure”, something which the PAP administration refuses to highlight. Kinda dumb I think to let the usual suspects to get away with propogating rubbish. wake up Yaacob and earn yr salary.

For that I suspect the wet weather (usual around this time of the yr) has a lot to do with the lack of noise.

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*And this morning too. Update at 8.12am.

Urban planning: a constrasting tale of UK cities & S’pore

As I’m still in a celebratory mood about past achievements, let’s remember a UK prophet and his prophecy of urban planning

This appeared in the Economists’s obituary on Sir Peter Hall, a leading UK urban planner:

At first, Mr Hall was an enthusiastic supporter of that top-down, rational approach. One of his early books, “London 2000”, published in 1963, argued that London and the south-east should be comprehensively rebuilt, with vast areas of the inner cities bulldozed and replaced by blocks of flats, winding streets by a rectilinear system of motorways and on-ramps, and pedestrians segregated from traffic by walkways in the sky. Detroit, the spiritual home of the motor car, was his guiding light. The planners, in their patrician wisdom, would determine where the people would live, where they would work, and how they would spend their leisure time.

Sounds familiar? He would have loved the PAP govt’s HDB programme which has won global accolades though not from anti-PAP cyber-warriors who missed out on the rise in HDB apartment prices and are banging their balls and cursing the PAP and the 60% who voted for the PAP in frustration.

But this top-down, rational approach didn’t work in the UK, He soon changed his mind. Wherever that approach was tried—in Birmingham, or Glasgow, or around the elevated Westway in north-west London—it caused exactly the sort of ugliness and alienation he had hoped to banish.

So,

In the 1970s he began arguing that one way to deal with urban decay might be a bonfire of regulations; the idea, he said, was to “recreate the Hong Kong of the 1950s and 1960s inside inner Liverpool or inner Glasgow”. That sort of fertile chaos, he came to believe, was exactly what made cities so important, and such exciting places to live. He was an early advocate of the view—these days the received wisdom—that by allowing people to form connections with like-minded colleagues, cities are the engines of a country’s economic, cultural and artistic life.

The HDB programme worked because we had pretty gd planners, a sheepish population (emigrants from Animal Farm?), and one LKY whose gang was not afraid to bang heads to make sure that the sheep people behaved responsibly in the new environment: rememer the punishments for littering and killer litter.

Funnily, the govt is now trying to diktat Sir Peter Hall’s “fertile chaos”* idea. Maybe taz why the SPF allowed the Little India riot to happen? And allow ang moh FTs to get drunk and to beat up locals? And PRC FTs to litter, dirty MRT stations?

Related posts:

LKY & greenery

Green S’pore

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*Btw, HK city in the 50s and 60s was not a pleasant place if one didn’t live in Repulse bay or on the Peak.

Public housing: a brickbat, two cheers & constructive suggestions

As the population target “worse-case scenario” or “projection” of 6.9m as envisaged by the White Paper will require a lot more public housing, here are some constructive, nation-building ideas from me on how to avoid rabbit hatches, or battery-hen housing, in the sky. We can live like pigs in a modern-day Danish farm: comfortable, hygienic surroundings. Danish farmers believe that happy pigs produce the best bacon: something the PAP govt should take to heart, “Keep the exploited happy, and they will remain happy to be exploited”.

But first I want to analyse two “buah tahan” comments that irritate me.

Who comes out with the most stupid comment on the row on Executive Condos? No it’s not Khaw, surprising; but one Jaimie Chong, an EC penthouse owner. She thinks she  will still get permission to cover the “open” space: EC0001. Her agent says so. How dumb can this rich gal get?

And secondly, our dear leader said, ” If government did not get involved in housing, it would be like Hong Kong: overcrowded and subject to high prices …” Is it not surprising that the usual S’pore self-haters who populate the pages of TRE, TOC and Facebook didn’t challenge him on this?

He is telling us a Hard Truth (perhaps the only one) that is grounded in fact: in housing, the PAP govt does more for S’poreans, than the HK govt.

— “In 2012, HDB offered a record number of 34,237 new flats comprising 27,084 new flats under the Build-To-Order (BTO) system and 7,153 balance flats under the Sales of Balance Flats Exercise … HDB had earlier announced that at least 20,000 BTO flats are planned for 2013. HDB is finalising its building plans for 2013 and will now target to launch at least 23,000 BTO flats. These projects will have a good geographical spread in various towns/estates which compares with 75,000 completed over the past five years.” (HDB)

— Contrast this with what HK’s CEO said last month as reported by the BBC, “He promised action to address a property crunch that has seen some residents forced out of the property market and even into tiny so-called “cubicle homes”.

Land would be both re-zoned and reclaimed so it could be developed for housing, leading to a greater supply, he said. A target of 100,000 new public housing units would also be set for the five years from 2018.

“As long as the housing shortage persists, we have no alternative but to restrict external demand and curb speculative activities,” he said.”

The 20,000 a year HK programme starts in 2018.

But it’s only two cheers for PM, because by comparing our public housing programme to that of HK, he is forgetting that dad was a “social democrat” (dad said that in his books), not an ang moh lord or HK property tycoon: social democrats believe in raising living standards. So, of course, the govt had to get involved in public housing.

Now to the constructive, nation-building part on how make us as happy as Danish pigs, not as unhappy as battery hens.

Try this Dutch approach, Khaw? No not land reclamation. Architects in Holland are creating prototype neighbourhoods of sustainable floating houses. Their aim is to have new cities entirely out at sea as an alternative way of living. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21180779. We got plenty of sea too, and the weather’s a lot nicer.

And best of all, we can retain the central catchment reserve, Ubin, the mangrove swamps (so beloved by mosquito-lovers) and the golf courses (that ministers and senior civil servants, and their private sector pals play on).

And floating towns will allow S’pore the possibility of experimenting with an alternative to 50-storey HDB coops flats. We could have hutong-style community housing (high density, low rise buildings) in the new sea towns. Plenty of room to expand sideways there. I read somewhere that London is experimenting along the lines of high density, low rise buildings . Can’t locate the link to story.

BTW, watch this 2011 BBC video clip on S’pore : Urban plan S’pore style http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13852298. The architect who wants “more space” must be very upset with Khaw’s “worse-case scenario”.

Urban farming here

All this talk of a population of 6.9m (“worse-case scenario”, “projection” or “plan to dilute locals to 55% of the voting public”) reminded me of this BBC article

Today, there are only a handful of farms left, most of which are located in agrotechnology parks that take up less than 2% of Singapore’s total available land.

In recent years, the government has tried to diversify and secure Singapore’s food supplies, though much of its food still comes from nearby Malaysia and large producers such as China.

Singapore has been widening its use of contract farming and overseas food zones, where local buyers can control everything from production to processing.

Closer to home, in 2009 it set up a food fund worth 5m Singapore dollars (£2.6m; $4.1m) to support local farms and invest in research and development.

The government has also been trying to promote more creative methods of growing food, such as the urban farming projects similar to that run by Mr Ng, where residential or commercial areas can be used to grow fruit and vegetables.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20007448

Use the roof tops of high rise blocks https://atans1.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/a-natural-topic-for-national-conversation/

Imagine this local vertical farm on a HDB roof http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1233261/1/.html

My S’pore: A greener & more pleasant land

Swiss Gardens in the Sky

A few weeks ago, a Swiss architect suggested in a newspaper article that S’pore creates gardens in the sky using our high-rise buildings. I tot, “What a lovely idea” and had visions of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon with flowering creepers on the sides of high-rises, and fountains, formal gardens and ponds on the roofs. Yup, very decadent fascist visions of greenery.

Well the reality in Switzerland is more prosaic and just as wonderful : Living roofs recapture what is now essentially negative space within the city and turn it into a chain of rooftop islands that connect with the countryside at large.

 http://www.bbc.com/travel/slideshow/20120608-switzerlands-habitats-in-the-sky

This being S’pore, we could use HDB roof-tops to be self-sufficient in basic veggies, and range-free eggs.

And lest we forget, LKY was all for green and pleasant spaces before they became fashionable among the local chattering classes https://atans1.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/lest-we-forget-mms-responsible-for-our-greenery/

If he were running S’pore, I’m sure he would crack the whip, and spur the serfs  to convert existing roof-tops into oases or, if you prefer, islands, of greenery especially as it would make S’pore cooler. He loves cooler temperatures. I’m with him on greenery and cooler temperatures.

Why keep the ex-railway corridor green

It can together with the Swiss-style gardens in the sky be our”unofficial countryside”.

Richard Mabey has memorably called the “unofficial countryside” – Britain’s roadside verges and railway cuttings, canal towpaths and brownfield sites. This also includes the million or so acres of private gardens … and bigger than all the nature reserves in Britain put together.

These places – many of them in the heart of our towns and cities – provide a vital oasis for Britain’s wild creatures, a haven as important as anywhere in the British Isles for supporting a diverse range of plants and animals. Perhaps because of the wide range of wildlife found in our urban areas, and the frequency with which we encounter these city creatures, urban Britons are just as connected to nature as – arguably sometimes more so than – their rural neighbours. The countryside and those who live there no longer have a monopoly on nature. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/19/wildlife-british-cities-stephen-moss

While we won’t have tigers, tapir and deer; and don’t want wild boars; we could have civet cats, mouse deer and “padi” mice in the corridor.

Warren Buffett: Planet wrecker investor

His investments are wrecking the world

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/r-paul-herman/warren-buffetts-billions-_b_1251884.html

Lest we forget: MM’s responsible for our greenery

What has having a green environment do for us?

Well A Dutch study suggests every 10% increase in green space can postpone health complaints in communities by five years. And a US study is regularly cited to suggest patients that have a view of nature through hospital windows recover better after surgery.

And as this is S’pore, where moneytheism  is the be-all and end all of life.

It is almost an accepted wisdom that a property positioned on a pretty tree-lined street surrounded by shrubbery is more appealing than its counterpart on a concrete-clad bare and barren road.

Some British and US surveys suggest a lush lawn or well-landscaped yard can improve property prices by as much as 15%.

BBC Online article

Younger S’poreans might not realise that in the 70s, one LKY started the green campaign, which included planting more tress. As an NS man, I was not impressed, weekends were burnt planting trees.