Monsoon floods hit the Indonesian capital in 2015, sparking 100,000 Twitter conversations. Here’s how those tweets were used in the rescue operation

Tomas Holderness and Etienne Turpin The Guardian 25 Jan 16;

Five major floods hit Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, in 2015, sparking more than 100,000 flood-related Twitter conversations in the city.

Jakarta, the world’s second largest city, is regularly devastated by flooding during the annual monsoon. The global proliferation of smartphones has meant citizens increasingly take to social media networks to share information during emergency events like these.

That’s why PetaJakarta.org (Map Jakarta) was born: it’s an online platform that transforms Twitter into an emergency data gathering and critical alert service during flooding in Jakarta. Last February, by asking residents to confirm the flood situation where they were, PetaJakarta.org was able to map 1,000 flooding sites across the city in real-time. The resulting flood map was used by the general public and emergency services alike and was viewed more than 160,000 times.

As far as we know, it is the first site of its kind to produce a real-time map of flooding in a city, driven by social media reporting. It allows citizens to contribute information without requiring them to learn a new technology, and provides answers to critical questions such as: “should I leave work early today?”, “is the evacuation shelter open yet?”, “which routes to my child’s school are flooded?” and “has the flood in my neighbourhood receded?”

Perhaps the most significant success of the system was its use by the Jakarta emergency management agency (BPBD DKI Jakarta). In 2015 the agency used PetaJakarta.org as an early warning system, allowing it to identify and cross-verify locations of flooding, speed up its response, and communicate with residents in flood-affected areas in real-time.

Reports from PetaJakarta.org were also fed directly to the Jakarta Smart City dashboard and to the office of the governor to provide a city-wide overview. At the launch of the platform in December 2014, the governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, called on government employees and residents to report flooding as part of their civic duty.

Jakarta’s citizens are keen users of smartphones and social media - a 2012 study found Jakarta the most active city in the world on Twitter.

This month PetaJakarta.org has begun to train 1,001 government employees how to use the platform during flood events and a second version of the platform has been launched, which integrates reports from the government-sponsored citizen-reporting app Qlue and Pasangmata, a citizen journalism app created by the Detik news agency.

The new version of the map will integrate flood reports with official government data, including river gauge readings and flood heights. This will provide a single point of reference for the emergency management agency to identify and alert residents to locations of flooding in real-time.

While previous funding initiatives have focused on networks of digital sensors to measure changes in the environment as part of the drive for smart cities, on their own these sensors do not create resilience. Digital sensors cannot provide context, convey urgency, or describe where aid is required.

Resilience is built by communities and agencies before, during and after a disaster. Resilience includes the work of volunteers, such as those in northern England who, following recent flooding, organised to clean streets, clear debris, and distribute aid to those in need.

In the information vacuum that follows disasters, residents the world over are organising themselves using social media. With extreme weather emergencies becoming more common because of climate change, cities and governments will need to harness that power.

Tomas Holderness and Etienne Turpin are co-directors of PetaJakarta.org, a project led by the SMART Infrastructure Facility

Melissa Chong Channel NewsAsia 17 Oct 13;

SINGAPORE: Environmental issues, from haze to typhoons, have dominated the news lately.

The journalists behind those stories were recognised at this year's Asian Environmental Journalism Awards on Thursday.

A total of 84 nominations poured in from the region -- a threefold increase from 2012.

The final 13 winners were top journalists, bloggers, news organisations and photographers from 14 countries, including China, India and Malaysia.

They reported on pressing environmental issues in Asia -- from elephant conservation to droughts.

The judges included Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah, Satwant Kaur from the United Nations Environment Programme and Nominated Member of Parliament Nicholas Fang.

The award hopes to raise the standard of environmental reporting in Asia, recognising journalists who report on truthful, well-researched and pressing environmental issues.

The Singapore Environment Council, which organised the awards, said it hopes to make it the most prestigious environmental journalism award in Asia.

Bagging a merit award in the City Developments Limited (CDL) Environmental Journalist of the Year was MediaCorp's Today senior reporter Neo Chai Chin, who impressed judges with her fresh angle on transboundary haze.

She said: "I went to several communities, villages in Jambi and Riau, basically to get a different perspective of the haze and how it's affecting people on the ground, who are that much closer to the burning than us in Singapore.

"I hope readers get to see a bigger picture of the haze -- it's not just the air that we breathe… we're part of the bigger world out there."

South China Morning Post journalist Jing Li, who was the winner of the CDL Environmental Journalist of the Year, said: "There are some under-reported stories that are happening. Not in the city, but in the village.

"The cancer village I visited recently in April was shrouded in pollution from the nearby chemical industrial compound.

"Lots of people there are getting cancer. Most of the patients just pass away after one or two years. They don't even know how to protect themselves and fight for their rights."

The Environmental Story of the Year, sponsored by Coca-Cola, went to Stella Paul from the Inter Press Services for her account on how drought pushes rural Indian women into the city sex trade.

Two new award categories were introduced this year -- the Environmental Blogger of the Year and CITIC Telecom International Environmental Photograph of the Year. These went to Kavitha Rao and Sridhara KS respectively, both from India.

- CNA/ec


TODAY among winners of awards given for best Asian environmental journalism
Kenneth Cheng Today Online 18 OCt 13;

SINGAPORE — During the haze crisis in June, she ventured, not once, but twice to the hazardous fire zone in Indonesia to get to the bottom of the story. Her perseverance paid off at the 2nd Asian Environmental Journalism Awards (AEJA) yesterday, where TODAY senior reporter Neo Chai Chin clinched the Merit Award under the CDL Environmental Journalist of the Year category.

Pioneered by the Singapore Environment Council last year, the AEJA recognises exceptional works in environmental journalism in Asia.

The South China Morning Post’s Jing Li received the CDL Environmental Journalist of the Year award.

Her story on the emergence of “cancer villages” highlighted a public concern over the link between pollution and the rising incidence of cancer. In these villages, cancer is widespread and its people suspect it has to do with the pollution from nearby petrochemical plants.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Minister for Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim said the recent haze was an example of how environmental journalists were pivotal in helping Singaporeans make sense of the crisis.

“Environmental journalists play an essential role, by providing timely information and well-researched perspectives on environmental issues and creating a ‘green’ consciousness throughout society,” he said.

Other merit winners from Singapore included photojournalist Douglas Ho from Singapore Press Holdings, sustainable-business website Eco-Business.com, and environment blogger and consultant Eugene Tay.

At the height of the haze crisis, Ms Neo, 31, flew out to Riau in Indonesia — where the highest numbers of hot spots were detected — to cover the issue.

She returned a week later and travelled to Jambi, also a smog-hit province, to look at sustainable farming methods used by farmers there in reducing the number of hot spots.

The experience, Ms Neo said, counts as some of the most memorable she has had as a journalist.

“Smoky air notwithstanding, it felt right to be close to ‘ground zero’, where the burning was taking place. It was definitely different from reporting from Singapore,” she said.

Her reporting stood out and resonated with the panel of judges.

“Her coverage of the haze went over and beyond what many were doing,” said Mr Jose Raymond, Executive Director of the Singapore Environment Council and an AEJA judge.

In other categories, Ms Stella Paul from India, who works for Inter Press Services, bagged the Coca-Cola Environmental Story of the Year.

The Guardian’s Kavitha Rao from India was named Environmental Blogger of the Year, while Sridhara KS netted the CITIC Telecom International Environmental Photograph of the Year.

The Lee Foundation Excellence in Environmental Reporting by a Media Organisation award went to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Desy Nurhayati, Bali Daily, 8 Oct 13;

Serangan village has been chosen as the hub for the newly launched Southeast Asia Sustainable Development Solution Network (SDSN), a global initiative by the United Nations.

The network found a natural home in Bali — where the Hindu philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, or three ways to happiness, encourages people to live their lives in a way that finds balance and harmony for people with each other, with nature and with creation.

This philosophy was adopted by the SDSN as a basic consideration for a sustainable development framework and a guide for developing the ideal blueprint to rethink economic growth, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection.

The SDSN Indonesia and Southeast Asia Regional Hub were launched on Sunday by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during the inaugural Tri Hita Karana International Conference on Sustainable Development in Nusa Dua as a side event to the APEC Summit.

The implementation of this program is the establishment of the world’s first, fully integrated United in Diversity Creative Campus in Serangan.

This bold enterprise, an initiative envisioned with Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu and realized through the United in Diversity (UID) Foundation, will use Kura-Kura Bali (a project by PT Bali Turtle Island Development in Serangan) as a living laboratory to create solutions for sustainable development and support creative community.

“The Creative Campus will offer a platform for its partners and others to re-imagine how to learn in the 21st century, combining in-person teaching with digital learning, practical work experience and experimental studios. Programs will be available for students at any stage of their career, offering an opportunity to engage in lifelong learning and develop new skills,” said I Gede Ardika from the UID board of trustees, who is also a former culture and tourism minister.

The founding partners for the Creative Campus initiative include Microsoft, WPP – a world leader in media and advertising, and Mitra Adiperkasa- Indonesia’s leading retail marketing company. The campus is also working with MIT Sloan School of Management, Tsinghua University, University of Indonesia and Surya University.

As the home for the SDSN Southeast Asia regional hub, the Creative Campus will collaborate with the University of Indonesia Research Center on Climate Change, and Conservation International.

The first footprint of the campus is the ecologically sustainable area called Three Mountains, or Tiga Gunung. The area will host various activities over the coming months.

This initiative will be developed more completely over the next year, including design of the campus and the curriculum.

Located in the Southeast of Bali, between Nusa Dua and Sanur, Serangan village is home to more than 3,800 villagers. This small community is attempting to bring back the charm of the traditional Balinese village culture that is now lost in parts of Bali.

With a community of Hindu, Muslim and Chinese families, people have been living in harmony in six banjar (customary hamlets) for generations. There are eight Hindu temples, one mosque and one Chinese temple together on the one island, where harmony in diversity works.

Conducted by the Serangan villagers together with the UID, ongoing community development programs include bank sampah (garbage bank), bang uang (referring to the bangkuang, a local turnip) and bank sapi (cow bank).

“Together with UID, we identify the problems shared by the local community and lay out long-term plans to provide sustainable solutions for the island and its inhabitants,” said I Wayan Patut, a Serangan resident who was awarded the prestigious Kalpataru for his efforts in conserving the environment.

The bank sampah, or waste management program, is an initiative aimed at creating a new sustainable source of income for local people through their efforts in keeping the village clean. Under this project, they sort the garbage, with organic waste turned into fertilizer and inorganic waste recycled to create handicraft products.

The bang uang is a program dedicated to reviving a specific variant of bangkuang, a local turnip, that once thrived in Serangan’s soil. It is a crunchy, refreshing, edible tuberous root, also known to have skin-whitening effects.

The bank sapi is a program rooted in the local agricultural practices. The high cow population in Serangan provides a source of organic fertilizer for the bangkuang plantation, thereby creating a closed-loop sustainable approach.

Young and old, they were feted for making an impact at the 6th S'pore Blog Awards
Poon Chian Hui Straits Times 7 Jul 13;


Mr Ivan Kwan’s post on what seemed to be an eviction notice to Pulau Ubin residents set the public abuzz. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND LUI

When Mr Ivan Kwan conceived his now award-winning blog in 2008, it was out of a personal interest in nature and wildlife conservation.

The former research assistant never thought that his post in April on what seemed to be an eviction notice to Pulau Ubin residents would set the public abuzz.

It even got the Government to publicly apologise for the poorly- worded letter, which was really meant to inform 22 households that they had to pay rent to continue living on the island.

This helped Mr Kwan become one of 19 winners at the Singapore Blog Awards held yesterday at a River Valley Road venue.

"The post went viral, which was totally unexpected," said Mr Kwan, 31, who first learnt about the notice from a birdwatcher.

The Housing Board document had stated that the residents' homes were slated for "clearance", suggesting that they were to make way for an adventure park.

It also said that officers will determine the residents' "eligibility of resettlement benefits".

Puzzled, Mr Kwan posted pictures of the notice on his blog, The Lazy Lizard's Tales, along with a call to the authorities to clarify the issue. The possibility that the kampung houses were about to be lost drew strong public reactions.

"I was heartened to know that so many people treasure Pulau Ubin," said Mr Kwan, whose blog was judged the best among those dealing with environmental issues.

"Blogs have the ability to impact current affairs, because they have the power to reach hundreds, or even thousands of people."

The Singapore Blog Awards, which is in its sixth year, recognises people who devote their time and energy to setting up and running innovative and informative blogs.

Organised by Singapore Press Holdings' bilingual news and entertainment portal, omy.sg, it drew more than 1,500 blog registrations.

The winners included Ms Christina Gao's Travelgraphy for best photography blog and Ms Jasmine Koh for best lifestyle blog, Scissors Paper Stone. Ms Grace Tan's Working With Grace won best individual blog. The winners were chosen from a shortlist of 190 by a panel of judges and online votes.

One of the judges, blogger Walter Lim, said this year's contenders were of a higher quality, and were more diverse. Topics ranged from parenthood to poetry, said the corporate communications manager.

"There were also many nice personal stories," added Mr Lim, who hopes to see blogs on finance and health matters in the future.

"It is also fantastic to see older bloggers - it shows that the trend is quite mainstream, no longer confined to the younger generation."

The winner of the best food blog was Mr Tony Boey, 53, a full-time blogger who writes about where and what to eat in Johor Bahru.

"I wanted to have a bit of an adventure, to go to unfamiliar places," said the ex-civil servant, who set up Johor Kaki Food Guide in 2011. He drives to Malaysia almost every day, sampling food from street stalls to high-end restaurants.

So far, he has written about nearly 500 places. Among his top priorities now is to document as many retiring hawkers as he can.

Mr Boey said that being older than most local bloggers did not pose any barriers: "When I'm online, I actually forget my age."

Imelda Saad Channel NewsAsia 4 Jul 13;

SINGAPORE: The power of social media was evident when Singapore grappled with the recent haze problem.

It has proven to be both a resource and bane for the authorities as they disseminated information and battled rumours at the same time.

As thick smog blanketed Singapore, rumours were also circulated about how the authorities may have manipulated data.

The allegation was swiftly rebutted by the authorities, who then created the “Emergency 101” website to dispel such rumours.

New media expert Andrew Bleeker said a crisis like the haze is one example where social media is critical for rapid response.

He said: "It's just such a way for a leader to immediately respond either in the defensive way, or an aggressive way, to get a message out in real time, because that's where the conversation is going on."

Giving an update on its efforts to engage people via social media, a spokesperson from the Communications and Information Ministry said: "The government is aware that the public wants to contribute its views as well as play a part in shaping government policies.

"Government agencies have been engaging the public and netizens on various issues including government policies through various online platforms. As of December 2012, our ministries and agencies had established 229 Facebook pages, 92 YouTube channels, 86 Twitter accounts, 20 blogs and 59 mobile apps. There has been active two-way engagement with the public on many of these online channels."

Trust is often an issue when it comes to online engagement.

Mr Bleeker said governments need to be able to leverage their online followers and networks to help spread their message.

He said: "Who people really listen to are their friends. And that's one of the real universal truths of social media. If you think about your followers, in almost all cases, your followers are already with you. So your real goal for social media isn't to educate them, but how is it you can make it easy for them to share.

"So everything should be about sharing, and that's when you see engagement succeed or not -- when you see people really sharing. Simply liking something doesn't get you very much. It's the sharing that's really valuable."

This strategy of propagating news via word of mouth through the social media would also apply to engaging prominent bloggers with a huge following. Mr Bleeker said since US President Obama took office, it has been a practice of the White House to invite the blogging community to its briefings.

Mr Bleeker said: "For the US, it's probably just a couple of years ahead of where the blogging industry is here. What has really happened is that the media has become one integrated media, not so much that there's a different standard for accrediting bloggers. It's just that it just becomes journalism at this point, once the bloggers become mainstream.

"And frankly, most of the bloggers that are left, because it's such a tough economy, now end up working for one of the major publications. I don't think bloggers want to be treated differently, I think they want to be treated like real journalists.”

When contacted by Channel NewsAsia, the Communications and Information Ministry said media accreditation is currently provided only to journalists working with news organisations who cover government events regularly.

They include journalists who work for online newspapers belonging to a parent company that publishes in print, said the spokesperson.

Baey Yam Keng, deputy chair of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Communications and Information, said: "In online space, a lot of people take on different personalities, and they can become very critical about everything.

"So one instinct is to back off. I think the fear of interaction is about being cornered into a debate, into a situation where there's no way out. So I think that's the greatest concern of the government."

Mr Baey, who is active on social media, said there are merits in engaging this group.

But he added that the government may need to consider the blogger's reach and track record, which includes writings that are fair and factual.

He said: "Perhaps Singapore will come to that stage in time to come. Ultimately, we must look at what our objective is. If the government is looking at channels which can reach a lot of people, then even bloggers who potentially have a lot of followers will also be a channel that we should be interested in.

"But of course, it is the level of confidence or trust that this blogger or this person is able to respect the rules of engagement. But I think this is something we need to develop over time -- to build that kind of trust.”

- CNA/xq

Kimberly Spykerman Channel NewsAsia 20 Apr 13;

To bring nature closer to Singaporeans who prefer staying indoors, the National Parks Board (NParks) has installed special cameras within the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve.

SINGAPORE: To bring nature closer to Singaporeans who prefer staying indoors, the National Parks Board (NParks) has installed special cameras within the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, as revealed on Saturday as part of Nparks' Earth Day celebrations.

Singaporeans can now see the animals in their natural habitat via four cameras.

Camera footage can be streamed to their computers or mobile phones through the NParks website.

You can choose scenes to observe within the reserve, and if you are in luck, you might catch a glimpse otters frolicking in a pond, or migratory birds feeding on the wetlands.

Pre-recorded footage of animal action is also available at the website for the public to enjoy.

NParks said this is part of an effort to encourage people to have more encounters with nature.

- CNA/ck

Catch live footage of animals at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve with new 'AnimalCams'
Feng Zengkun Straits Times 20 Apr 13;

People can now watch live footage of animals such as otters and birds in the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve by visiting www.nparks.gov.sg/animalcam

Ahead of the international Earth Day on Monday, the National Parks Board (NParks) has installed four cameras in the reserve to bring nature closer to Singaporeans who prefer to stay indoors.

The agency also celebrated the occasion on Saturday by holding talks at the reserve on mangrove ecology. It will have a bird-watching session on Monday morning at the Singapore Quarry Wetland.

"As Singapore continues to evolve into a City in a Garden, we hope that people's lives can be enriched by having frequent encounters with nature," said NParks conservation director Wong Tuan Wah.

Bird lovers setting up online archive so as to encourage biodiversity
David Ee Straits Times 6 Oct 12;

BOUGAINVILLEAS, commonly seen along expressways, may be colourful but some critics have said they do not attract birds.

However, bird-watchers have observed that two species of sunbirds regularly forage in the woody vine.

This information and other facts will soon be compiled online to provide a useful tool for the authorities to expand biodiversity in Singapore.

Compiled by the Bird Ecology Study Group, the archive will list more than 200 species of flora and detail the birds frequenting them - whether to forage, nest, feed on fruit and nectar or bathe in rainwater on the leaves.

With this information, planners can plant a more diverse range of trees and know the bird species that would flock to them.

The archive is the result of seven years of observations made by about 400 contributors to the group, formed in 2005.

It is expected to be launched in a few months' time on the group's website and will be continually updated. Dr Wee Yeow Chin, 75, a former president of the Nature Society and a retired botanist-turned-bird champion, heads the group.

Citing a notable finding from the archive, he said the common mahang, a tree found in forests here, has been observed to draw more than 20 bird species to its fruit, yet "we in Singapore have never used it in our gardens and parks".

He said: "These are the finer points of the uses of plants - what aspect attracts the birds."

Dr Wee wrote on the group's website last week that Singapore's successful transformation into a Garden City happened stage by stage, dictated by the needs of the time.

While the priority at first was to line roads with shady trees such as the angsana, planners later began choosing trees for their colourful flowers and the wildlife and birds they would attract.

But for many years, said wildlife consultant Subaraj Rajathurai, 49, the group's co-founder, everybody from planners to landscapers was going for the "same plants, attracting the same fauna... creating a monoculture".

But he added that the tide has begun to turn over the past three years and that planners are opting for a wider variety of trees that will create more biodiversity.

The group's archive is an important resource, he said, and he hopes planners will tap on it.

Mr Subaraj said birds are a major indicator of the health of an ecosystem, hence the relevance of the archive. "When trees attract birds, they may also attract other species like lizards and butterflies," he said.

National Parks Board director for streetscape Oh Cheow Sheng said the online archive will be a welcome resource. He added that the board has planted specific trees and plants in parks and gardens to attract more fauna.

Mr Subaraj, who has worked with the board on the City in a Garden efforts, agreed that Singapore is "well on the road" towards creating an island with flourishing biodiversity.

"City in a Garden should never be just a catchphrase. When you say a garden, it should really be a garden - full of life, full of biodiversity," he said.

Dessy Sagita Jakarta Globe 22 May 12;

The Indonesian version of the prominent environmental news portal Mongabay.com made its domestic debut during the weekend in Jakarta.

Rhett Butler, the founder of Mongabay, said on Saturday that the decision to launch an Indonesian site, Mongabay.co.id, was because the country was experiencing a critical period of rapid deforestation that was among the highest rates in the world.

“I believe that people wouldn’t destroy their environment if they only knew how much they were losing,” he said at the launch event at @america, the US cultural center.

Butler said that although Indonesia was losing its forests at a high rate, it still had a chance to turn things around by adopting a greener economy.

Ridzki R. Sigit, the coordinator of Mongabay Indonesia, said the portal would post daily environmental stories focusing on issues such as deforestation and logging.

“We’re choosing to do this online because 33 percent of city-dwellers [in Indonesia] get their news from the Internet,” he said.

He added that the Indonesian site had only four staff but would build up a system of contributors across the country.

Butler said he set up the original Mongabay after his own experience with forest degradation in Malaysia.

“In the 1990s, I was visiting a forest in Malaysian Borneo and I saw many kinds of wild animals and natural beauty,” he said. “When I got home to the States, I heard that the forest had been destroyed.”

He added that because his parents were travel agents, he was able to travel widely throughout his youth but had found that on his return to many of those places that the former nature spots he once knew had disappeared.

Butler said that he had taken about 20,000 photographs of forest ecosystems and wildlife.

Mongabay.com, which was set up 12 years ago, shows the rate of global deforestation during the past three months, including in Indonesia, thanks to satellite imaging from NASA.

“Our plan is to update this map every month so that we can see which areas are experiencing deforestation,” Butler said.

He added that the cost of deforestation in Indonesia would be much greater because of the sheer value of biodiversity that the country’s forests hold.

Winner highlights growing pressure for greater public awareness and information transparency as a way of dealing with environmental woes
Jonathan Watts guardian.co.uk 11 Apr 12;

When Liu Futang left the confines of Chinese government service and opened his first microblog last April, the retired forestry official could not have imagined that a year later, he would be celebrated as a shining light of citizen journalism.

Yet that is what happened on Tuesday when the 65-year-old's exposé of illegal forest clearance joined mainstream media stories on oil spills, hazardous smog and toxic water pollution as a winner at the Chinese environmental press awards.

At first sight, it is hard to imagine anyone less like the typical Chinese blogger than Liu. But the quiet, former bureaucrat is an example of the growing pressure from journalists, bloggers and activists for greater public awareness and information transparency as a way of dealing with the country's environmental woes.

Liu stirred up an online fury last year when he revealed that developers had destroyed one of the world's last groves of water coconut trees to make space for a yacht marina.

"The degradation is terrible," said Liu. "The local media hasn't written a single word, but I've posted 40 articles that have been followed up by newspapers and TV from across the country."

The citizen journalist prize is a new category in the awards, which are jointly organised by the Guardian, chinadialogue and Sina, the leading Chinese web portal, with funding from the Guardian Foundation and SEE, a Chinese charitable body.

Now in its third year, the awards highlighted the gains – and continued challenges – faced by Chinese journalists. The past 12 months have showed significant progress in the efforts to improve transparency, but also major obstacles.

Internationally, the highest profile success was a campaign by journalist-turned-environmental activist Ma Jun to make Apple provide more details about pollution and labour standards violations in its supply chain.

Domestically, the biggest breakthrough is probably on air pollution. Most of China's cities have been plagued by smog for more than a decade, but until now the authorities have provided scant information about the pollution that caused the haze and threatens the health of millions. This changed dramatically after Chinese bloggers and journalists picked up on tweets issued from the US embassy monitoring station and other sources, with environmental authorities in Beijing starting to release more detailed pollution data earlier this year.

Feng Jie, who was named environmental journalist of the year, wrote a darkly humorous piece on the efforts of Beijing citizens to set up their own monitoring stations. In another in-depth report, she revealed how a massive oil leak into the Bohai Sea was withheld from the public by the State Oceanic Administration and drilling platform operators, CNOOC and ConocoPhillips. Reporters in the state media were ordered to keep quiet but the problem emerged via microblogs and was then confirmed by local government and corporate sources.

Such cases illustrate why Feng believes China has made little progress in information disclosure since she started her career six years ago.

"When I started out, I was optimistic that things would improve. But now I realise that if you want to tell your readers real information rather than bullshit, then you have to spend a lot of time building up connections with insiders. If you simply call up the press office, you get nothing," she said.

Newspapers and websites also have to race to get stories out before censors issue blocking orders. The best breaking news story of the year was a report on the cancer risks posed by 5,000 tonnes of cadmium tailings that contaminated water systems near the source of the Pearl River. The article was put out by the Yunnan Information Daily, but its partner in the investigation, the Southern Metropolis Daily, was ordered not to run the story when it tried to do so one day later.

While many participants cited censorship as the biggest problem facing Chinese journalists, the spread of microblogs has made it far more difficult for the authorities to control the flow of information, which is now coming from so many different and unexpected directions.

"There is more transparency, but it's not yet at a fundamental level. That is the biggest difficulty in China's environmental journalism," said Gong Jing, who picked up an award for revealing how cadmium pollution through the soil is contaminating rice stocks. "A lot of information should be public, but journalists have to work very hard to get it."

That hard grind is paying dividends. Media analysts and environmental NGOs said journalists, bloggers and civil society groups are opening up new information territory.

"There has been an improvement from the bottom up," said Li Yan of Greenpeace. "But there are still too many environmental issues that have not gained sufficient attention from the government."

Liu Ruisheng of the China Academy of Social Science said public demands for transparency have increased. "This has pushed the government to open more information. Even if it is under pressure, the government cannot do things as it did in the past," he said.

These topics were raised in a debate that followed the award ceremony. Among the 100 or so audience members, fewer than one-fifth believed that China's environmental problems have peaked, but the majority were optimistic of improvement within the next 10 years.

A more cautious note, was struck by the most senior government participant, Sun Zhen, deputy counsel at the National Development and Reform Commission. "I don't think we will see the peak that soon," he said. "The improvements can't keep pace with the speed of destruction."

Winners list for the China environmental press awards

Journalist of the year: Feng Jie, Southern Weekend

Recognised for Bohai oil spill special report, north China cities facing water supply crisis and monitoring air quality for my country.

Citizen journalist of the year: Liu Futang

Recognised for an exposé on the destruction of water coconut forest.

Most influential report: Cadmium rice murder

By Gong Jing of Caixin

Best breaking news story: Here comes 5,000 tons of chromium

By Feng Wei, Liu Wei of Yunnan Information Daily

Best in-depth report: Drought destiny facing rivers and lakes

By Zhao Shilong, He Guangwei, Guo Liping, Zhou Huan, Long Jing of Time Weekly

Best nature report: Everest expedition: wildlife on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau

By Yang Xiaohong, Fang Qianhua of Southern Metropolis Daily

Honourable mentions:

Cui Zheng of New Century for Environmental hormone ambush

Zhang Ke, First Financial Daily for Rodeo at the Bird's Nest in Beijing

Lu Zongshu, Zhang Qing, Zhu Yang, Shen Nianzu of Southern Weekend for Growing vegetables

Yang Chuanmin of Southern Metropolis Daily for Concerns for the South China Sea

Xie Liangbing and Tian Peng of Economic Observer for Yangtze River fish emergency

Yuan Yue of Sanlian Life Weekly for The Death of the Earth – report from the Durban climate conference

Wang Yan of China News Week for The terrifying Yajiang River

Ma Jinhui of Xiaoxiang Morning Daily for Guanyin Mountain

Glenn Chapman (AFP) Yahoo News 22 Mar 12;

SAN FRANCISCO — Google's free online map service on Wednesday began letting people explore portions of the Amazon Basin from the comfort of their homes.

Pictures taken along the Rio Negro in Brazil last year using camera-mounted three wheeled bicycles have been woven into Google Maps, allowing users to virtually venture on waterways and trails and in even villages.

"Take a virtual boat ride down the main section of the Rio Negro, and float up into the smaller tributaries where the forest is flooded," Google Street View Amazon project lead Karin Tuxen-Bettman said in a blog post.

"Enjoy a hike along an Amazon forest trail and see where Brazil nuts are harvested," she continued. "You can even see a forest critter if you look hard enough."

Map images included scenes from Tumbira, the largest community in the Rio Negro Reserve, and other communities along the river.

"We hope this Street View collection provides access to this special corner of the planet that many of us otherwise wouldn't have the chance to experience," Tuxen-Bettman said.

"We're thrilled to help everyone from researchers and scientists to armchair explorers around the world learn more about the Amazon and better understand how local communities there are working to preserve this unique environment for future generations."

"Trikes," the camera-mounted three wheelers typically used to capture street scenes for Google online maps, were launched in August from Tumbira in a first-ever project to let Internet users virtually explore the world's largest river, its wildlife and its communities.

The project was the brainchild of Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS) which went to Google Earth with an ambitious vision of turning "Street View" into a river view in the lush and precious Amazon Basin.

"It is incredible," FAS project leader Gabriel Ribenboim told AFP as trikes went into action, one atop a boat and another pedaled on land.

"It is very important to show the world not only the environment and the way of life of the traditional population, but to sensitize the world to the challenges of climate change, deforestation and combating poverty."

Trikes have cameras that continuously snap images in every direction. The pictures are woven into Google Maps and Earth services so people can virtually peer about as if they were there.

Satellite positioning equipment on trikes pinpoints where images are gathered.

Members of a Google team taught FAS members and local residents how to use the trikes and a special tripod-mounted camera tailored for capturing inside of schools, community centers, and other public spaces.

The camera, with a fish-eye lens to take panoramic sky-to-ground images, was used to recreate walks along rain-forest trails.

"We want the world to see that the Amazon is not a place only with plants and animals," said FAS chief executive Virgilio Viana.

"It is also a place with people, and people who are not completely at odds with the current thinking of global sustainability."

FAS hopes that the Google project will not only entice people to experience the wonder of the Amazon in real life, but show that people can thrive in harmony with the rain forest.

"Deforestation is not the result of stupidity," Viana told AFP at the outset of the Google project. "It is an economic decision; so we have to make people earn money with the forest standing."

The goal of the project was to capture a 50-kilometer (30-mile) stretch of the Rio Negro, and along the way train a local team that will keep the imaging gear to broaden the mission.

"We want to create a digital mirror of the world, and this is an important place on the planet," Tuxen-Bettman told AFP as a trike made its maiden run.

"Eventually, maybe we will have the whole basin mapped," she said hopefully.

Using Google to save Earth
Isabelle Lai The Star 30 Jan 12;

PETALING JAYA: Google Earth, the virtual globe, map and geographical information program, is proving to be a favoured tool by environmental groups and the authorities to check on illegal forest clearing and land occupation.

Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said had said last week that the state government was using it to detect illegal occupation of government-owned land in the state, adding that stern action would be taken from this year against the culprits, which included civil servants.

Commenting on this, Malaysian Nature Society Selangor branch vice-chairman Lim Teck Wyn said Google Earth was effective in getting a general overview of any area.

“There’s a useful function which allows us to do a time lapse observation by comparing older satellite images with recent ones,” he told The Star yesterday.

Lim, a forestry consultant, said this helped to detect recent logging activities as the change in forest mass would be obvious.

However, he stressed that there was no substitute for ground checks as Google Earth images are not al­­ways recent or detailed.

WWF-Malaysia chief executive officer and executive director Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said Google Earth was helpful in calculating an overview of forest loss or land changes.

“It helps us to see whether the Go­­vernment is keeping its pledge to maintain 50% of the country’s land mass under forest cover,” he said.

Dr Sharma added, however, that the organisation mostly derived its information regarding illegal logging or animal smuggling from its on-site staff.

He said WWF-Malaysia employs some 185 people, spread around the country on its projects of interest.

“That is the fastest way we pick up information. The problem with using satellite tools is that by the time we detect changes, it’s probably a foregone conclusion,” he said.

Originally called EarthViewer 3D, Google Earth was created by Keyhole Inc, a company funded by the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency and acquired by Google in 2004.

It maps the Earth from satellite image­­ry, aerial photography and geo­graphic information systems (GIS) 3D globe.

It is available as a free version with limited functions and a paid ver­­­­­sion, with additional features, for commercial use.

As at October last year, Google Earth had been downloaded more than a billion times.

Imelda Saad Channel NewsAsia 21 Sep 11;

SINGAPORE: More companies now have a social media presence, but experts have said technology is a double-edged sword.

Social media opens a new channel of communication but also exposes an organisation to malicious cyber attacks.

The latest to be hit was Singapore's downtown integrated resort, the Marina Bay Sands. Its Facebook page was "bombed" with pornographic pictures late Tuesday night.

The company said the images were removed within 20 minutes after the posts were spotted by its social media administrator.

Embarrassment aside, social media experts said this is one example how companies have little control over third-party websites.

In the case of Facebook, blocking its sharing function would simply mean limiting online engagement with stakeholders.

Asia PR Werkz director Cho Pei Lin said: "It's very much a gamble that they would have to take.

"An organisation would have to measure prior to going on the online field. The first question they have to ask is what the benefits are and then weigh the risks and such benefits."

Organisational strategist Manoj Sharma added: "It's hugely risky for those who do not have a proper appreciation of social media, its genesis, the tools available and what they are designed to do.

"When it comes to social media for organisations initially embarking on it, it will be a case of 'possibly damned when you get started and definitely damned if you don't get started' - because the rule of social media is 'you either create the conversation or the conversation will recreate you'."

As recent incidents have shown, there is some amount of risk being "social" online.

Wildlife Reserves Singapore got itself into a cyber-bind as it is being flamed for the abrupt cancellation of a signature Halloween event.

Meanwhile, Resorts World Sentosa had to temporarily suspend fan postings on its Facebook page after what it deemed as "pre-meditated cyber harassment" from animal welfare activists wanting to put a stop to the confinement of dolphins at the resort.

Experts said the danger of social networking sites is that even when posts get deleted, they can still be re-posted or re-tweeted elsewhere.

The online world is not just about Facebook or Twitter, and experts said there are thousands of blogsites which may make mention of companies.

Organisations are slowly realising this, and are employing online monitoring companies to trawl through the layers of cyberspace.

SIM University communications programme head Brian Lee said: "When the mainstream media start to report, talk about your company or talk about your product or services, it's probably too late already, so I think you need to nip it in the bud.

And while one cannot control cyberspace, potential fallouts can be mitigated.

Experts recommend a dedicated in-house social media specialist team and a technical support team that can look into security issues, as well as active engagement with opinion leaders familiar with your brand.

Asia PR Werkz's Ms Cho added: "Organisations should consider sitting down with the management to work out a flow chart or a standard operating procedure about what they should do if people post comments on these platforms, even if they are just forming a website and that website allows people to post photos or comments.

"And work out if there is a criticism, which department should deal with it? Is it marketing department or the sales department or communications department? And they should designate certain resources (such as) who would look after these spheres?"

Another key element is transparency.

Mr Sharma said: "Be prepared to have every facet of your organisation take on a whole new level of transparency because the very nature of the media is as such.

"As a matter of fact, transparency for better or worse is the overarching defining quality of social media."

Amid the cyber noise, experts said keeping mum is the last thing you would want to do.

In the case of Wildlife Reserves Singapore, a Facebook user had put up a page allegedly from its 2008/2009 yearbook disputing an earlier statement by the company's CEO Isabella Loh that its Halloween Horrors event did not contribute to a rise in visitorship.

A screen grab of the yearbook said "the Halloween Horrors event from 10 October to 1 November 2008 shored up attendance... the promotional period saw a 13 per cent increase (in visitorship) from the year before".

The post elicited responses from other users who pointed to the "contradiction".

When Channel NewsAsia highlighted this post to Wildlife Reserves Singapore, the company did not reply.

SIM University's Dr Lee said: "In most cases, I don't think the company should stop (engaging) because I think that social media is a free channel and at least if they don't want to discuss further, on other platforms, they have their own social media website and they can continue to feed netizens with information and explanation.

"The key is to continue communication instead of just stopping. If you actually keep quiet, people will think that you admit it."

As for Marina Bay Sands, it said "Facebook is an important social media channel for us to connect and engage with people and organisations from all over the world".

The company added: "Keeping with the open nature of the Internet and in the spirit of Facebook, we will continue to welcome sharing on our Facebook wall from our growing community of fans.

"We continue to monitor our page closely and will be working with Facebook and necessary partners to look at the possibility of preventing a recurrence with existing tools without disabling a key sharing function of Facebook."

Mr Sharma said organisations should manage fallouts with "dignity".

"Taking responsibility is the key here. Admit to mistakes early and take immediate corrective action where appropriate," he said.

"Spinning the issue is unlikely to work, as is using newspeak, so it's best to avoid it. Lay out the facts, communicate your thinking and be willing to change your stance if necessary."

He added: "Social media has become such that everyone has a voice. And while it's debatable if all voices are equal, the voices still demand engagement. The challenge is to be both professional and personable while doing it."

-CNA/wk

Ella Davies BBC Nature 24 Jun 11;

Modernity is often the enemy of conservation, as our 21st-Century lifestyles put ever greater pressure on the natural world.

But some modern inventions may also hold the key to saving species in the future.

On Friday, scientists at the Zoological Society for London (ZSL) announced the launch of a new "bat phone" - not a superhero's tool but a smartphone app that ordinary folk can use to track the movements of local bat species.

It is an example of how conservationists are harnessing the power of smartphones, the internet, online crowd sourcing and social networks to keep track of the natural world.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

Smartphones are the butterfly nets of the 21st Century”

Wall Street Journal describing Project Noah, a modern wildlife recording tool

Crucially, that involves encouraging the public to act en masse as field researchers, gathering data.

But can amateur natural historians, and the evidence they collect, really help save wildlife?

Rise of the net

Citizen science in not a modern phenomenon. For more than a hundred years, enthusiastic volunteers have assisted with the widespread recording of flora and fauna.

Traditionally, fieldwork performed by volunteers was overseen by a qualified expert or investigating scientist. Volunteers were friends, family, society members, passionate enthusiasts and those living and working in the survey area.

However, the internet has allowed projects to catch the public's attention as never before.

For example, the new iBat app has been developed for a global bat monitoring programme covering at least 16 countries.

Produced by an international team of experts, including ZSL and the Bat Conservation Trust, the app allows volunteers to detect and record more than 900 species of bat with the help of an ultrasonic microphone.

The rich soundscapes recorded are uploaded to a website that identifies each of the calls to build an accurate picture of bat populations, essential for future conservation efforts.

The BBC has also helped break new ground in using online mass participation surveys to record wildlife.

Springwatch and Autumnwatch, programmes with more than 2.5 million viewers, promote studies of the seasons, in particular the Woodland Trust's online survey Nature's Calendar, which has more than 50,000 participants.

For this survey participants are encouraged to submit the dates and locations of specific seasonal events, including the first bluebell blooms and the first autumn colours.

It is the largest of its kind in the UK. And since the data is used to track the arrival of the seasons, it has the potential to add to our knowledge of the local effects of climate change.

In 2009, Springwatch asked its viewers if they could help document the decline of the cuckoo.

An impassioned response saw 12,000 people inundate the programme's blog with the locations where they had heard the bird.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) helped process the audience's response, which varied from detailed co-ordinates to anecdotal approximations, while comments on the blog were used to create a map of cuckoo distribution that resembled that produced by the BTO's own Bird Atlas survey.

But public surveys of this kind have pros and cons.

Online wildlife surveys can actually sever direct links between scientists and citizens. Anyone can engage with an internet-based project, so scientists that organise them must take a very hands-off approach, instructing volunteers using picture based guides or lists of FAQs.

Though more convenient, this runs the risk of unreliable data being gathered, as individuals interpret their findings differently.

The Springwatch cuckoo map, for example, did not meet the exacting standards of a truly scientific survey, says Graham Appleton, the BTO's director of communications.

"Sadly, we were unable to add the records to our database because we had no way to check the validity of each of the original reports [with] no clear chain back to the person reporting a cuckoo and because the geographical placement of some of the dots was not reliable," Mr Appleton tells BBC Nature.

In their own surveys, the BTO uses a team of local expert volunteers to double check any vague or surprising records, to keep their results at a high standard.

But efforts are being made to overcome these difficulties.

Scientists increasingly pay close attention to how they pose their questions and collect their data. And the BTO and BBC worked hard to improve their data gathering before the autumn of 2009, when Autumnwatch asked viewers to help survey tawny owl numbers.

"We learned from the cuckoo survey," says Mr Appleton. "This time, we collected precise information on location, using click and point mapping software, and information on the people who sent in records of hooting owls."

The data was suitable for inclusion in the Bird Atlas and, by inviting viewers to record owl hoots at night, the BTO was able to extend the coverage of its survey outside of daylight hours.

"We were pleased to fill in a number of the gaps in the grid of 10km squares that cover the whole of the UK," Mr Appleton tells the BBC.
Virtual collections

Getting the public to collect hard evidence about a species' location or movement can vastly improve the information gleaned by scientists.

In Kenya, the Mara Predator Project invites tourists to submit lion sightings, to help monitor populations on selected reserves.

The project's website provides an ID guide to help interpret holiday snaps, so that researchers can track prides and individuals.

Meanwhile Project Noah is a global study that encourages nature lovers to document the wildlife they encounter, using a purpose built phone app and web community.

Launched early last year, the developers behind the project aim to reconnect people with nature, while the Wall Street Journal commented that smartphones were the "butterfly nets of the 21st Century" when it described the project.

"We've helped people learn about organisms they never knew existed and we've brought awareness to important work and research," says the project's founder Yasser Ansari.

"We've had visitors from 192 countries, nearly 94% of the world, and have photo submissions from all seven continents."

In addition to the virtual "collection" of species, Project Noah encourages citizen science by linking up with existing surveys including the International Spider Survey and the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

By submitting time-stamped, geographically tagged photographs to the site, users can contribute data to official monitoring programmes and studies.

However, when it comes to measuring whether the community is genuinely improving research, it is still early days, says Mr Ansari.

"We launched our current platform just a few months ago and have received a phenomenal response, but no research breakthroughs have been made yet," he says.

"I do think that breakthroughs can be made, but only time will tell."
Bridging the gap

However, citizen science has already been responsible for some notable natural history discoveries.

In the UK, iSpot by the Open University is a natural history social network that aims to help amateurs identify anything and everything from the natural world by putting them in touch directly with experts.

Not initially designed to produce scientific results, the project has already identified two species previously unrecorded in the UK: a bee-fly (Systoechus ctenopterus) and euonymus leaf notcher moth (Pryeria sinica).

"It's important to say that iSpot did not set out to be a source of research data, but in fact we have been so successful that we have generated useful scientific data as well as introducing people to natural history," says Jonathan Silvertown, iSpot project leader and professor of ecology at The Open University.

"A dataset for shieldbugs observed on iSpot was recently validated by the expert who runs the national recording scheme for this group and it has now gone into the records of the National Biodiversity Network."

"We are sure that this is just the first of many datasets that will do this," he adds.

Professor Silvertown says organisations' hesitancy to embrace citizen research is understandable, because of the issues of interpretation and accuracy.

But he argues that involving the public in research is hugely valuable, particularly when that research is publicly funded.

Meanwhile Mr Ansari believes projects such as his own could be inspirational for the next generation of scientists.

"Think of our effort as training amateurs to become better nature observers... All scientists start off as amateurs," he says.

Some 4,500 customers to get energy meters that monitor usage in real time
Today Online 30 Sep 10

SINGAPORE - The Next Generation National Broadband Network (NGNBN) looks set to deliver not only a faster and cheaper digital highway for consumers, but, soon, also an opportunity to reduce home energy usage.

Yesterday, as it was announced that Accenture would design and implement the pilot project for a more energy-efficient power grid, the Energy Market Authority (EMA) revealed that the smart meters to be used in the system will leverage on the NGNBN and other communication platforms.

The meters will provide consumers information on how much electricity is being used.

Advanced metering infrastructure and the communication system will be key as the hardware for the IES pilot is set up between now and 2012.

The EMA shared these details and announced the budget for the project - $30 million, funded by the Government and Singapore Power - in a news release. It also gave a clearer timeline for the implementation of the pilot.

After the infrastructure phase is completed, the second phase, from 2012 to 2013, will focus on smart grid applications.

Around 4,500 customers in residential, commercial and industrial locations - chiefly the Nanyang Technological University campus, the CleanTech Park in Jalan Bahar and the Punggol Eco-Precinct - can then not only monitor their energy consumption "live" but also choose a range of pricing plans.

For residential consumers, they can shift usage from peak to off-peak periods when electricity prices are lowest. For industrial and commercial customers, they can install automation systems that include special programmable thermostats and other devices to monitor and control a buidling's air-conditioning and lighting, for instance.

The project is an "important step" to a smarter national power grid, said EMA.

When the network is up, operator SP PowerGrid will be able to detect "almost instantly" the location and extent of any localised power outage and respond promptly to restore supply.

In the future, alternative energy sources, such as solar panels and co-generation plants, will be able to feed into the grid. The benefits will extend to electric vehicles then.

Energy Market Authority to get S$30m to build Intelligent Energy System
Sharon See Channel NewsAsia 29 Sep 10;

SINGAPORE: The Energy Market Authority (EMA) is getting a S$30 million budget to build an Intelligent Energy System pilot project.

The funds will be provided by the government and Singapore Power.

The pilot project will involve around 4,500 customers in various residential, commercial and industrial locations, including the Nanyang Technological University campus, the CleanTech Park at Jalan Bahar and the Punggol Eco-Precinct.

EMA said this was an important step towards a smarter power grid, which would provide consumers with more information, choice and control over their electricity usage.

EMA said the IES project would be conducted in two phases.

Phase 1, which will be conducted from 2010 to 2012, will focus on the implementation of the enabling infrastructure for the IES like establishing the smart metering communication protocols and standards.

This will be done by leveraging on the Next Generation National Broadband Network and other communication platforms.

EMA added that Phase 2, which will be conducted from 2012 to 2013, will focus on the smart grid applications.

Customers with the smart metres installed in their premises will be able to experience the benefits of the IES through various services offered by the electricity retailers.

Residential customers will be able to monitor their energy consumption on a real-time basis with convenient in-home display devices.

They can also choose from a range of electricity pricing plans, thus allowing them to better manage their consumption and budgets, for example, by shifting their usage from peak to off-peak periods when electricity prices are lowest.

As grid owner, Singapore Power can use the system to better enhance delivery of electricity.

The system also enhances its ability to detect and respond promptly to localised power outages.

It will also allow Singapore Power to integrate new energy sources, like solar energy, into the grid.

This system also caters to the possibility of electric vehicles connecting to the grid, both to draw electricity from the grid and also to supply electricity to the grid.

EMA said the pilot project would allow it to test out promising smart grid applications in selected areas before rolling them out on a wider scale.

WWF Malaysia 31 Mar 10;

Tiger BlogFest 2010 - from 19 April to 22 April

Petaling Jaya, Selangor – Bloggers will unite to help wild tigers as the Tiger BlogFest 2010 takes place in conjunction with Earth Day from 19 April to 22 April.

The initiative, which already has 60 confirmed bloggers since it was announced middle of March, was initiated by the nature blog, Planet of the Monyets (planetofthemonyets.blogspot.com).

According to Dr G Balamurugan, founder of the Planet of the Monyets, the Tiger BlogFest 2010 is a forum for bloggers to contribute towards protection of the Malayan tiger.

“The main aim is to increase awareness by reaching out to the large on-line community. It is estimated that the combined traffic to the participating blogs is about 100,000 visitors per day – giving the plight of the tiger the publicity it duly deserves,” he says.

The BlogFest aims to have 100 or more participating blogs, locally and globally, to help spread awareness on the critical problems faced by tigers in the wild. Bloggers can express their concerns in any form, from sharing personal experiences, writing a poem, posting videos, draw cartoons or simply highlighting articles on tiger conservation in any preferred language.

This initiative is enthusiastically supported by WWF-Malaysia’s Tx2 Campaign as it will help enhance the public’s awareness and participation in tiger conservation efforts in Malaysia, one of the campaign’s objectives.

“Monitoring of tigers and increasing patrol teams to reduce poaching threats are some of the work that WWF-Malaysia carries out to protect the tiger. However, the Tx2 campaign will only be successful when there is a critical mass of Malaysians who believe in the cause,” emphasised Dato’ Dr. Dionysius Sharma, CEO / Executive Director of WWF-Malaysia.

The campaign has set up a website at www.tx2.my whereby members of the public can sign up for free and help spread the Tx2 message.

A talk on tigers and their conservation efforts will be held on April 17 at the WWF-Malaysia office to assist participants in familiarising themselves with tiger conservation issues. For more information or if you wish to participate, you can log on to planetofthemonyets.blogspot.com or email to gbm.ere@gmail.com

-End

For further information, please contact:
Dr G Balamurugan, Planet of the Monyets
(T) 03-8024 2287
(E) gbm.ere@gmail.com
URL: planetofthemonyets.blogspot.com

Sara Sukor, Tx2 Campaign Coordinator for WWF-Malaysia,
(T) 03-7803 3772 ext 6421
(E) ssara@wwf.org.my

Peter Henderson, PlanetArk 31 Mar 10;

The 'cloud' of data which is becoming the heart of the Internet is creating an all too real cloud of pollution as Facebook, Apple and others build data centers powered by coal, according to a new Greenpeace report.

A Facebook facility will rely on a utility whose main fuel is coal, while Apple Inc, expecting its Web-browser iPad launch on April 3, is building a data warehouse in a North Carolina region powered by coal, the environmental organization said in the study to be released on Tuesday.

"The last thing we need is for more cloud infrastructure to be built in places where it increases demand for dirty coal-fired power," concluded Greenpeace, which argues that Web companies should be more careful about where they build and should lobby more in Washington, DC for clean energy.

The growing pile of home movies, pictures and business data has ballooned beyond the capabilities of personal computers and even average corporate data centers, spurring the creation of massive server farms with tens of thousands of specialized machines that make up the "cloud".

The report comes in the middle of a new federal debate whether to create caps or other measures to cut use of carbon-heavy fuels like coal and curb climate change.

Apple, Facebook, Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Google Inc all have at least some centers with heavy use of coal power, said Greenpeace. The companies declined to give details of their data centers, but all said they considered the environment in business decisions, and most said they were aggressively pursuing efficiency.

Cheap and plentiful, coal is the top fuel for U.S. power plants, and its low cost versus alternative fuels makes it attractive, even in highly efficient data centers.

Technology companies say they support the environment. Apple releases its carbon footprint, or how much greenhouse gases it produces, and Facebook said it chose the location for its center in order to use natural means to cool its machines.

Microsoft said it aimed to maximize efficiency, and Google said it purchased carbon offsets -- funding for projects which suck up carbon -- for emissions, including at data centers.

Yahoo, which is building a center near Buffalo, New York that Greenpeace saw as a model, will get energy from hydroelectric facilities, but the company said efficiency was the top goal, with a long narrow and tall building that looks like a "chicken coop" and promotes air circulation.

Data center energy use already is huge, Greenpeace said.

If considered as a country, global telecommunications and data centers behind the cloud would have ranked fifth in the world for energy use in 2007, behind the United States, China, Russia and Japan, it concluded.

And the cloud may be the fastest growing portion of technology growth between now and 2020, said Greenpeace.

The group based its findings on a mix of data including a federal review of fuels in U.S. zip codes in 2005 and a 2008 study by the Climate Group and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, which Greenpeace updated in part with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data.

Striking up a group
Louisa Lim, The Star 30 Jan 10;

Welcome to the world of Facebook, where the number of hobbyist groups is astounding, and their creators even more so.

When news of 15-year-old American student Tess Chapin’s being grounded for five weeks broke out in The New York Times several weeks ago, people were flabbergasted.

It wasn’t because Chapin’s sentence far outweighed her mistake for missing her 11.30pm curfew.

It was because she had, with the help of Facebook, started a “teenage rebellion, electronic style — peaceful, organised and, apparently, contagious.”

Her group, “1,000 to get Tess ungrounded”, gathered enough support within just a few days of its start-up. Though it did not help Chapin’s campaign by any measure (her parents are sticking by their plan), it did propel this once-little known teenager to international infamy. Stranger still, people actually felt for her.

Now, a burgeoning number of people (and not to mention businesses) are taking their causes and obsessions to Facebook, where there are no rules (prompting various websites to generate their own list of “Facebook Etiquette’) and no boundaries (nine-year-olds to 90-year-olds are welcome).

This mushrooming of Facebook groups has evidently caught on even in Malaysia, where a simple search yields an astonishing stream of results from the serious (Malaysia Travel Network, Social Singles Society) to the not so serious (Malaysians Against Nasty Cabbies, Ramly Burger Appreciation Society) and the downright hilarious (Petition to Import Men to Malaysia, Why Malaysian Chinese Drama Sucks?).

While the virtues (and pitfalls) of Facebook have been trumpeted to death, many still do not know that it is also the ultimate place to take your passions further.

As enthusiasts begin to snub conventional forums in favour of Facebook, a myriad of hobbyist groups have started appearing on the site. Devotees band together from all over the world, discussing everything from wine to cameras (posting up videos and pictures to emphasise their point) with a sprinkle of light banter and mindless musings in between.

Although it’s somewhat difficult to find a group that remains active (with weekly postings and events) months after their formation, they are out there, like jewels in the rough.

That said, we are on a quest to find some of the more interesting Facebook groups created by locals for locals. Here is a list of the top five, certified as 100% original and credible by us.

Eco Warriors

Some things have the power to leave an impression on you forever: a stranger you met, a country you visited, a book you just read. For 42-year-old Matthias Gelber, it was an obscure German town where he grew up.

“Lippe was this little kampung with 500 inhabitants,” says the eco entrepreneur who has been living in Kuala Lumpur since 2005 under the Malaysia My Second Home programme.

“It was a town surrounded by nature. We’ll get snow for four months every year, and it was beautiful. But thanks to global warming, we hardly ever get snow anymore, and even if we do, it’s only for a couple of days. I could see the damage global warming was doing to it, and I knew I had to do something."Since then, Gelber has tirelessly campaigned for the environment by changing the way he lived. He gets around on public transport and promotes the use of green technology. He also made a pledge to plant 1,000,000 trees to make up for his carbon footprint.

All his efforts were documented on YouTube, earning him the title of “Greenest Person on The Planet’’ from the Canadian environmental organisation 3rd Whale.

But these achievements weren’t quite enough for the go-getting Gelber, who wanted to get others to walk the talk.

In November 2008, he created a Facebook group with a mission to “deliver fast and comprehensive positive environmental change in Malaysia, because Copenhagen has shown that there’s only so much governments can do.” It has amassed over 3,000 members since, although this figure is rising by the day.

“One of our members has managed to organise a simultaneous planting of 85,000 trees in the Raja Musa Peat Swamp near Kuala Selangor,” he says. “We’ve also managed to recruit 10,000 volunteers to plant trees on World Forest Day.”

Aside from tree planting activities, the group also conducts recycling campaigns in condominiums, awareness programmes through educational trips to nearby rainforests and swamps as well as environmental symposiums. Their next big project? Garden makeovers for children’s homes.

“We’ll be visiting Bandar Harapan Children’s Home in Ara Damansara, KL, to turn the garden into a sustainable organic farm so that the children can learn how to grow and cultivate their own vegetables.”

But perhaps Gelber’s biggest claim to fame is that he is interested in the outcome, rather than financial or political gains.

“That’s the problem with most NGOs these days,” he says. “They’re too obsessed with being visible. I just want to get things done.”

Scubaholics Anonymous

“Alcoholic, shopaholic . . . we’re just as hardcore as the other ‘holics’,” jokes founder of the group Mohan Thanabalan, 35.

“That’s why I came up with the name. I have to scuba dive at least once a month. Ever since I was certified in 2004, I’ve been an incurable addict.”

It all started when he was a young kid.

“My uncles were certified divers. Each time I went to visit them, I would put on their tanks and flippers and waddle around their house. I thought it was the coolest thing.”

Today, Mohan, who has a day job as a marketing supervisor, says everyone (colleagues included) knows that his motto is “dive now, work later”.

Even before Facebook was a faint glimmer of an idea in someone’s head, the enterprising lad had begun organising diving trips to the islands of Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia for his friends — all for a fee.

“More and more people started joining us because solo dives are no fun,” he says. “Then I created the Facebook group in early 2008 to expand our network of divers.”

To date, the group has over 350 members, 50 of whom are active and have accompanied him during recent diving trips to Mabul and Sipadan off the coast of Sabah, as well as Komodo Island in Indonesia. They’ve also had a gathering called the “Wild Teh Tarik Party” recently, to share and reminisce about diving trips in 2009. Next on their list: three days in Padang, Indonesia.

Non-divers, however, are always welcome to join the group.

“I’ve planned certification trips through Facebook for people who want to learn how to dive. Some are terrified, but seeing the thrill on their faces makes it worth my while. Of course, the most basic requirement is that you need to be a good swimmer,” he says.

To many, Mohan is already living his dream. But he has more long-term plans up his sleeve.

“I plan to take Scubaholics Anonymous international someday and get foreign scuba divers to explore the islands in Malaysia. After all, I’ve dived in many countries but Sipadan remains my favourite stop because of its sheer beauty,” he says.

“I’d also like to open my own scuba centre and resort one day so I can do it 24/7.”

Volunteer for Volunteers (V4V)

Always wanted to volunteer but don’t know how? The same predicament drove political science student Kim Manta-Khaira, 22 to start a group on Facebook aimed at “making the world a better place.”

Here’s how it works: V4V serves as a medium for volunteers, as well as NGOs and other establishments that are in dire need of volunteers like old folk’s homes, orphanages and even understaffed and under-appreciated charity gigs or theatre troupes. Prior experience is optional.

“My dad told me that no man is an island,” says Kim, whose parents are both lawyers.

“They have always encouraged my siblings and I to get involved since we were little. Today, my sisters regularly help out with NGOs, my brother works for human rights group Suaram, and I’ve been contributing to different causes, like participating in the international coastal clean-up day or becoming a facilitator for a youth conference, in between my studies. I suppose activism runs in our family.”

The idea was so simple that it’s a wonder why no other group like this existed earlier. Not surprisingly, it took off when the group was founded some time in 2008, but membership numbers (230 to date) and wall postings have stagnated since last year. Kim has since then moved on to bigger things.

“I’m currently doing something else for my university. It’s called the Green Team, and we also have a Facebook group. We’re in the midst of collecting shoes for Africa. Somebody else is handling V4V now. Many people have joined V4V but I’m not sure if anything is being done,” she says.

However, no one can deny that a group like V4V is still, by all means, necessary. All it takes is a little nudge for the group to get going once more.

As Kim puts it: “Perhaps I’ll form another group once I’ve gained more experience in social work. What matters most are, after all, concrete outcomes. And if V4V does that, then I can’t be happier.”

PlanetArk 20 Jan 10;

NEW DELHI - India has crafted rules for trading of certificates aimed at rewarding producers of clean energy, a move expected to boost the share of electricity from renewable sources in one of the world's top carbon polluters.

India's power regulator has laid out regulations on renewable energy certificates (RECs), which can be bought by companies to meet statutory obligations to purchase a minimum level of renewable energy, the government said in a statement.

"This concept seeks to address the mismatch between availability of renewable energy sources and the requirement of the obligated entities to meet their renewable purchase obligation," it said.

Renewable energy accounts for barely 8 percent of India's total capacity of about 150,000 megawatts but the government aims to double green power generation to 25,000 megawatts in four years.

The rules stipulate clean energy producers either sell their electricity at a preferential tariff fixed by provincial power regulators or sell the electricity generation and environmental attributes associated with renewable power separately.

A central agency would also administer the certificates trading among renewable power generators. The value of a certificate would be equivalent to one megawatt hour of electricity.

"It is also expected to encourage renewable energy capacity addition ... as the REC framework seeks to create a national level market for such generators to recover their cost," it said.

BOOST TO INVESTMENT

Carbon business analysts agreed.

"What it does is it gives government a tool to enforce its regulation. Those states which don't have enough natural resources to generate power could buy renewable certificates from others and meet their quota," CLSA analyst Rajesh Panjwani said.

"It will also encourage states to invest in companies or renewable capacities in states where there are renewable resources."

Ashutosh Pandey, chief executive of Emergent Ventures' carbon advisory business, said: "I feel RECs will definitely bring market-based innovations in the market to propel renewable energy development in the country."

India is one of the world's top producers of wind energy, and also generates solar energy and power from biomass. It hopes to attract about $21 billion worth of investments in renewable energy by 2012.

The country laid out in September new tariff rules for electricity from renewable energy sources, promising to provide about 19 percent pre-tax return on investment for renewable energy plants for an initial period of 10 years.

Benefits from thermal power plants, which account for about 60 percent of India's total generation, work out to about 18.4 percent, according to Indian power officials.

India offers subsidized loans to companies building alternative energy power plants and provides tax breaks and tariff subsidies to encourage development of the renewables industry.

(Editing by David Fogarty)

Mary Esch, Associated Press Yahoo News 9 Dec 09;

ALBANY, N.Y. – When Jory Langner finds time for a field trip during an upcoming visit to Washington, he won't have to ask local birders where to find candidates to add to his life list of birds sighted.

All he'll have to do to is pull out his iPhone and fire up BirdsEye, a new bird-finding application that gives users instant access to recent reports of birds spotted near their location, tells them where to look for specific birds, and keeps track of their lists of all the birds they've ever seen.

The application makes its debut just ahead of the National Audubon Society's annual Christmas Bird Count, an effort that enlists as many as 55,000 bird watchers around the country — from the kitchen window crowd to slog-through-the-woods diehards — who report back the kinds and numbers of birds they spot.

The count, which runs from Dec. 14 through Jan. 5, collects data used to track the health of bird populations, identify trends and guide conservation.

"If you don't know the area, whether you're new or traveling through, it's a really good way of finding birding hotspots nearby," said Langner, 60, a software designer. "I'm really looking forward to using it during my upcoming trips around the country."

BirdsEye, recently released for iPhone and iPod Touch at a cost of $19.99, was developed through a collaboration of some of the top ornithologists in the country, using content from the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, the Academy of Natural Sciences and field guide author Kenn Kaufman.

"This application has pieced together a network of experts to make possible something no one has done before," said Pete Myers, CEO of Environmental Health Sciences, an environmental journalism organization based in Charlottesville, Va.

Myers got involved in the BirdsEye project when Todd Koym, a programmer who works for him, hatched the idea two years ago. Myers contacted prominent birders he knew when he was senior vice president of the National Audubon Society, and they were eager to help.

It's not an electronic field guide to help identify birds. There are plenty of those around. This is new: a bird finder. It taps into eBird, the massive, constantly updated database of bird sightings maintained by the Cornell lab and the National Audubon Society.

Here's how it works.

Suppose you're a bird watcher on a business trip or visiting relatives across the country and you have some spare time to take in the local fauna. Where's a good place to go?

You start BirdsEye and poke "Find Nearby Birds." Using the iPhone's built-in GPS, it calculates your location and gives you a list of all the birds ever recorded in the area or just the ones reported recently. If you've entered your lifetime bird-sighting list, the application can show you just the birds not on your list.

Users of the iPod Touch can enter their location manually if there's no Wi-Fi access.

If the list includes a bird you've never seen, you can tap on it for a map showing where the bird was reported — say, a nearby park. You head over there and find woods, fields, and a pond. Where to look? The application has a brief narrative by Kaufman telling whether the bird is likely to be in treetops or grassland, alone or in a flock. It also has photos and recordings of the bird.

About 40,000 birders enter up to 2 million sightings a month into eBird, said Brian Sullivan at the Cornell lab.

"We've been contacted by lots of other application developers," Sullivan said. "This is the first that uses eBird data. The database is open source for any developer to use."

The biggest limitation to the eBird database is that it has many observations from heavily populated areas and fewer from more remote locales. An application that makes it easy for birders to log sightings from the field would likely improve the database, Sullivan said. BirdsEye doesn't allow users to upload data to eBird now, but it will in the future, Koym said.

"You might think of bird watchers sitting in the woods eating granola and writing with lead pencils," Kaufman said. "But most of the birders I know are eager to go high tech and use whatever is available to find birds."

Myers, who travels extensively in his work, found the application proved its worth the first time he tried it.

"I have a pretty decent life list, with 571 birds, so it usually takes some work to find something new," Myers said. But during a trip to San Francisco, he turned on BirdsEye and it told him there had been sightings of red-masked parakeets nearby the previous day. "I had never seen one. So I followed the map it gave me and found about 60 of them within a half hour."

Ben Webster, Times Online 20 Nov 09;

Environmentalists across the world are to be enlisted as armchair detectives to monitor satellite images of rainforests and report any illegal logging.

The images will be frequently updated and anyone with internet access will be able to make instant comparisons with historical images and spot destruction of rainforest almost as soon as it happens.

Every four seconds an area of rainforest the size of a football pitch is cut or burnt down for timber and paper or to clear land for cattle and plantations.

Rainforest destruction accounts for 17 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than is produced by all the world’s cars, ships and aircraft. Tropical forests cover 15 per cent of the world’s land surface and have a double cooling effect, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and maintaining high levels of evaporation from the canopy.

The armchair detectives will be able to report their findings to an international agency being created to monitor whether countries are meeting their commitments to reduce deforestation. Any state found to have broken its pledge will lose its share of a new global fund established by rich countries to pay nations for leaving their trees standing.

The fund, called Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (Redd) and worth up to $30 billion (£18 billion) a year, is due to be approved at the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen next month.

Google is helping to create the new online detective tool, which is likely to be launched next year. Philipp Schindler, from Google UK, said: “Our engineers are exploring how we might contribute to this effort by developing a global forest platform that would enable anyone in the world, including tropical nations, to monitor deforestation and draw attention to it.”

Mr Schindler was speaking yesterday at a seminar on deforestation hosted at St James’s Palace by Prince Charles and attended by leaders and ministers from several of the largest rainforest countries.

President Jagdeo of Guyana told the seminar that the cheapest way for industrialised countries to reduce carbon emissions was to pay poor countries, such as Guyana, not to fell their trees.

Contributors to the Redd fund will pay about £4 for each tonne of CO2 saved by reducing the rate of deforestation. Fitting carbon capture and storage systems to coal-fired power stations costs more than £50 for each tonne saved.

Norway announced last week that it would demonstrate how Redd could work by paying Guyana up to £150 million over five years to preserve its trees.

Guyana’s forests have been far less logged than in many tropical nations, and under the terms of the new deal with Norway, Guyana could actually be paid for increasing deforestation. The memorandum states that Norway will compensate Guyana if it does not cut down more than 0.45 per cent of its forests per year, but Guyana is currently felling trees at a far slower rate. The countries contributing to Redd are concerned that their money could disappear into the pockets of corrupt officials in poorly governed countries. There are also fears that payments will result in logging companies switching to unprotected areas, resulting in no net reduction in deforestation.

Per Frederik Pharo, of the Norwegian Government’s forest protection fund, said payments would only be made when countries could prove that they had reduced their annual rate of deforestation by an agreed amount. He said the targets would be raised every five years.

Brazil has halved its rate of deforestation in the past year but Tasso Azevedo, of Brazil’s Forest Service, warned that it could increase again unless the country received substantial sums of Redd “People have to have some income and we need a lot of cash for the community to maintain the forest,”he said.