wonderful world

At 8:30 p.m. today, people around the world will celebrate Earth Hour by turning off their lights for one hour in a symbolic show of support for the planet. Earth Hour brings awareness to climate change and symbolizes a commitment and concern for managing climate change. Started nine years ago, the movement now spans thousands of cities in countries around the globe.

Earth Hour raises awareness and provides a unique opportunity for collective action aimed at doing something positive for the environment. It is not just about saving energy for that one hour, but it symbolizes a concern for managing climate change and commitment to adopting environment-friendly practices and habits in everyday life.

So let us participate in the Earth Hour, not only to conserve energy but to raise awareness on the need to protect the environment.

Sharing some of the shots taken in year 2012. May all beings bEE happy.

lazy sunday lazy felix

monday blue

sharing love

hi there

balance

four out of ten

sweet saturday

utopia

coffee for rainy monday

cloudy tuesday

from the other side

little creature says morning

durian stall

network

welcome to melaka

sun bathing

状元认母

the beca-man

urbanization

red piano

lady cat

monday’s dream

chinese wooden clog

“grandpa, what’s that?”

klebang beach

friday raya holiday

selamat hari raya

dawn

jetty walk

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Earth Hour in Malaysia (image from http://smksripermata.wordpress.com)

Hundreds of millions of people, businesses and governments around the world unite each year to support the largest environmental event in history – Earth Hour.

More than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011 alone, sending a powerful message for action on climate change. It also ushered in a new era with members going Beyond the Hour to commit to lasting action for the planet. Without a doubt, it’s shown how great things can be achieved when people come together for a common cause.

On Earth Hour hundreds of millions of people, organizations, corporations and governments will come together to make a bold statement about their concern for climate change by doing something quite simple—turning off their lights for one hour. Earth Hour symbolizes that by working together, each of us can have a positive impact in the fight against climate change, protecting our future and that of future generations.

Set Your Clock 

On March 31st at 8:30 p.m. local time, Earth Hour will cascade around the globe—from time zone to time zone—uniting the planet under a single, simple, call to action.

How does climate change occur?

A continuous flow of energy from the sun heats the Earth. Naturally occurring gases in the atmosphere, known as greenhouse gases, trap this heat like a blanket, keeping the Earth at an average of 15 degrees Celsius – warm enough to sustain life. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most significant of these gases. The amount of naturally produced CO2 is almost perfectly balanced by the amount naturally removed through photosynthesis and its dissolution in oceans. However, the overuse of fossil fuels is leading to increased CO2 in the atmosphere, trapping more and more heat and warming the Earth.

As a result, we’re seeing more dramatic weather patterns across the globe. 
The effects of Earth’s changing weather not only causes devastating natural disasters but shrinking of the world’s ice shelves and glaciers due to warming sea water. Because ice acts as a solar reflector, the less ice there is, the less heat the Earth reflects.

Did you know? A bicycle is a marvel of engineering efficiency, one where an investment in 22 pounds of metal and rubber boosts the efficiency of an individual mobility by a factor of three (Lester Brown, EPI)

Did you know? It takes 200 litres of water to produce one latte.

Did you know? 78% of agricultural land is used for livestock production.

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Watch the birdie: A hungry polar bear inching down a 300ft cliff face in a desperate search for food on in Novaya Zemlya, Russia

• Previously undocumented scene stunned tourists as they watched bear scramble and slip down Russian precipice
  
• It is believed hungry bears are being attracted to more dangerous terrain because usual icy hunting spots are melting
  

For birds nesting on a precarious cliff, the last visitor they might expect to see would be a hulking polar bear clambering down to join them.

Yet this bulky beast somehow managed to descend a craggy precipice in Russia’s remote Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya.

The young male risked life and limb scavenging for eggs along the 300ft-high rock face thronged with hundreds of squawking Brunnich’s Guillemots.

Stunned tourists onboard a chartered ice-breaker boat were left in awe as the watched the previously undocumented spectacle.

American photographer Dylan Coker, who captured the incredible scene, said: ‘The height that the bear was at and the sheerness of the cliff face were absolutely amazing,’ said the 40-year-old.

‘Everyone was terrified it was going to fall.

‘Every so often there would be a gasp from someone on the boat when the bear slipped.

‘It was slipping quite a bit and one point it was stretched right out to reach for eggs in a nest.’

What are you doing here?! The bear approches nesting Brunnich's Guillemots, whose eggs he hoped to scavange

Gone again: The birds raced down the cliff every time the polar bear ventured further down. A quizzical seagull watches from above the bulky beast

Remote: The polar bear before making his daring descent on one of the rocky Ostrova Oranskie islands

Describing the moment the passengers relealised they were seeing a bear on the cliff on one of the Ostrova Oranskie islands, Californian Mr Coker, who now lives in Australia, said: ‘It was a really beautiful place; very foggy, cool, and serene with a sky full of squawking birds.

‘We rounded a corner and suddenly we could see this white blob at the top of some cliffs.

‘The cliffs were at least as high as a five-storey building. At first we thought it might be a large bird or a snow patch but as we got nearer we realised it was a polar bear.

‘Everyone on the boat was quiet, we just sat there in awe.’

Despite its bravado, the bear returned to the top of the cliff without enjoying a full meal after losing its footing several times.

Previously the group of group had encountered polar bears hunting on ice floes in Bukhta Maka, after journeying for two days without seeing land.

In awe: Tourists on a small boat capture the previously undocumented scene with their cameras

Precarious: The bear eventually returned to the top after losing its footing a few too many times

But it is believed that a scarcity of ice has led to bears seeking out food in more dangerous locations.

Mr Coker said: ‘There’s a real problem with the ice disappearing due to climate change.

Polar bear habitat: Russia's Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya

‘Traditionally the bears sit by an air hole in the ice waiting for a seal to poke its head out so they can grab it.

‘But because there’s less and less ice, the bears are looking for alternative sources of food and have discovered the birds’ eggs.’

During the expedition the tourists also witnessed bears swimming hundreds of miles out to sea.

Mr Coker added: ‘They’re used to resting on and hunting from ice floes but now the bears swim around until they are exhausted, then they drown.’

This was the first time a civilian boat has been granted permission to sail in these waters, which also forms part of a large military zone.

Mountainous and shrouded in mystery, the Novaya Zemlya archipelago stretches 1000 km in an elongated crescent between the Barents and Kara seas.

Today it remains one of Russia’s most restricted and isolated regions.

Aurora Expeditions secured the first permit on condition that two government representatives act as chaperones.

Mr Coker, who recently won an Archbishops Award for his photography, added: ‘We were really lucky to have witnessed it.

‘We could have easily been there on a different day and who knows how often this kind of thing occurs.

‘I will never forget the day I watched a polar bear hunt for eggs on a cliff-edge.

‘I couldn’t have imagined a better or more unique adventure.’

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Earth hour 2011

Kuala Lumpur, 21st February 2011 – Earth Hour 2011 on 26th March prepares to showcase a growing global community committed to taking environmental actions that go beyond the hour. From now until Earth Hour 2012, WWF-Malaysia is urging everyone across the nation to take Earth Hour beyond the hour by signing up at wwf.org.my and pledging to “Live Green: One switch at a time.”

Each month, a simple action towards a more sustainable lifestyle will be highlighted at wwf.org.my. For example, individuals can pledge to switch off their TV and computer, instead of leaving these in standby mode.

“WWF-Malaysia hopes that Malaysians will join the global community this Earth Hour to take action that goes beyond the hour. It is easy to “Live Green: One switch at a time”, and the more people who make this pledge, the more powerful our efforts to protect our living planet become,” said WWF-Malaysia Executive Director/CEO Dato’ Dr Dionysius Sharma.

Two photos show Malaysia's landmark Petronas Twin Towers before, left, and after being turned off its lights to mark Earth Hour in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (image from www.syracuse.com)

From its inception as a single-city initiative in 2007, Earth Hour has grown into a global movement where hundreds of millions of people from every continent join together to acknowledge the importance of protecting our planet.

Earth Hour 2011 will ask Malaysians to:

•  Switch off your lights for Earth Hour at 8.30pm, Saturday 26 March 2011 and celebrate your commitment to the planet with the people of the world

•  Sign up at wwf.org.my and pledge to “Live Green: One switch at a time.”

•  Sustain your actions beyond the hour

Earth Hour 2010 was the largest voluntary action for the environment in history with lights going out across 128 countries and over 4,500 cities worldwide. Earth Hour 2011 will again see hundreds of millions of people across all continents come together to celebrate an unambiguous commitment to the planet by switching off their lights for one designated hour.

The countdown to Earth Hour 2011 has begun, the iconic “lights out” event that has seen some of the world’s most recognized landmarks, including the KLCC Twin Towers, KL Tower, Forbidden City, Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace, Golden Gate Bridge, Table Mountain, Christ the Redeemer statue and Sydney Opera House switch off in a global celebration of the one thing that unites us all – the planet.

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Coral bleaching in Santelmo, Philippines

Mass coral bleaching caused by global warming is threatening the health of the Coral Triangle, a vast marine region that is home to 76% of all known corals in the world.

The Malaysian government recently closed portions of world-renowned dive sites on the tropical islands of Tioman and Redang, saying they would be off limits until October to give the fragile coral reef ecosystems time to heal.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, bleaching has been reported in Anilao and Nasugbu, as well as off the cost of the western municipality of Taytay, Palawan. The latter saw corals, which usually exhibit a green and brown hue, temporarily turn unusual shades of pink, orange and yellow—a precursor to complete bleaching.

Numerous other Philippine reefs are likely to have been affected as well, exacerbated by localized outbreaks of Crown-of-Thorns Seastars.

Widespread bleaching has also been recorded in Indonesia, with areas near Sabang, Aceh, Padang, Thousand Island Jakarta, Bali, and other locations showing telltale signs.

“This widespread bleaching is alarming because it directly affects the health of our oceans and their ability to nurture fish stocks and other marine resources on which millions of people depend for food and income” says Richard Leck, Climate Change Strategy Leader of the WWF Coral Triangle Programme.

Coral bleaching is a phenomenon caused by global warming. Increased seawater temperatures, which in some regions have grown as much as 2°C above the long-term average maximum, can push the algae living inside corals beyond the brink, causing reefs to eventually turn white and die.

Aside from increased sea temperatures, other causes of stress include disease, pollution, sedimentation, cyanide fishing, changes in salinity, and storms.

The Coral Triangle region covers the seas of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste. This nursery of the seas contains more than 600 species of reef-building coral.

Since March this year, about 50 different organizations and individuals have reported signs of coral bleaching in the Coral Triangle region. Up to 100% bleaching on susceptible coral species have been reported, and in some areas, severe bleaching has also affected the more resistant species.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch stated that the current incident is the worst of it kind since 1997-1998, which decimated 16% of the world’s coral reefs.

With many areas showing signs of mass bleaching, it has become apparent that more weight needs to be put behind long-term conservation strategies, such as marine protected area management, preventing coastal and marine pollution, as well as promoting sustainable fisheries.

“Well-designed and appropriately-managed networks of marine protected areas and locally managed marine areas are essential to enhance resilience against climate change, and prevent further loss of biodiversity, including fisheries collapse” Leck also added.

Through new sustainable finance mechanisms and investments in climate adaptation, WWF plans to support networks of marine sanctuaries and locally managed conservation areas across the Coral Triangle.

Improving fisheries management also an important step

Better fisheries management is also key to alleviating the impacts of coral bleaching, ensuring that only viable sites are given access to fishing and that the more sensitive ones are given time to recuperate via strong regulations, enforcement and awareness.

In Malaysia, for instance, WWF is promoting the conservation of herbivorous reef fish, which plays a critical role of keeping algae populations lower, allowing room for coral recruits to settle on the potentially newly-dead coral skeletons..

Only a year ago, WWF launched The Coral Triangle and Climate Change: Ecosystems, People and Societies at Risk, a report based on a thorough consideration of the climate biology, economics and social characteristics of the region, showing how unchecked climate change will ultimately undermine and destroy ecosystems and livelihoods in the Coral Triangle.

Posted on 29 July 2010
[source: http://wwf.panda.org/?194338/Mass-coral-bleaching-closes-dive-sites-threatens-future-of-worlds-most-diverse-marine-region]

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Phytoplankton in its myriad varieties is essential for life in the oceans

“Phytoplankton… produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and ultimately support all of our fisheries”
Professor Boris Worm
Dalhousie University

The amount of phytoplankton – tiny marine plants – in the top layers of the oceans has declined markedly over the last century, research suggests.

Writing in the journal Nature, scientists say the decline appears to be linked to rising water temperatures.

They made their finding by looking at records of the transparency of sea water, which is affected by the plants.

The decline – about 1% per year – could be ecologically significant as plankton sit at the base of marine food chains.

Algal blooms can be imaged from space

This is the first study to attempt a comprehensive global look at plankton changes over such a long time scale.

“What we think is happening is that the oceans are becoming more stratified as the water warms,” said research leader Daniel Boyce from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

“The plants need sunlight from above and nutrients from below; and as it becomes more stratified, that limits the availability of nutrients,” he told BBC News.

Phytoplankton are typically eaten by zooplankton – tiny marine animals – which themselves are prey for small fish and other animals.

Disk record

The first reliable system for measuring the transparency of sea water was developed by astronomer and Jesuit priest Pietro Angelo Secchi.

Asked by the Pope in 1865 to measure the clarity of water in the Mediterranean Sea for the Papal navy, he conceived and developed the “Secchi disk”, which must be one of the simplest instruments ever deployed; it is simply lowered into the sea until its white colour disappears from view.

Various substances in the water can affect its transparency; but one of the main ones is the concentration of chlorophyll, the green pigment that is key to photosynthesis in plants at sea and on land.

The long-term but patchy record provided by Secchi disk measurements around the world has been augmented by shipboard analysis of water samples, and more recently by satellite measurements of ocean colour.

The final tally included 445,237 data points from Secchi disks spanning the period 1899-2008.

“This study took three years, and we spent lots of time going through the data checking that there wasn’t any ‘garbage’ in there,” said Mr Boyce.

“The data is good in the northern hemisphere and it gets better in recent times, but it’s more patchy in the southern hemisphere – the Southern Ocean, the southern Indian Ocean, and so on.”

The higher quality data available since 1950 has allowed the team to calculate that since that time, the world has seen a phytoplankton decline of about 40%.
Ocean cycling

The decline is seen in most parts of the world, one marked exception being the Indian Ocean. There are also phytoplankton increases in coastal zones where fertiliser run-off from agricultural land is increasing nutrient supplies.

However, the pattern is far from steady. As well as the long-term downward trend, there are strong variations spanning a few years or a few decades.

Father Secchi's simple disk has been used for more than 100 years

Many of these variations are correlated with natural cycles of temperature seen in the oceans, including the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Arctic Oscillation.

The warmer ends of these cycles co-incide with a reduction in plankton growth, while abundance is higher in the colder phase.

Carl-Gustaf Lundin, head of the marine programme at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), suggested there could be other factors involved – notably the huge expansion in open-ocean fishing that has taken place over the century.

“Logically you would expect that as fishing has gone up, the amount of zooplankton would have risen – and that should have led to a decline in phytoplankton,” he told BBC News.

“So there’s something about fishing that hasn’t been factored into this analysis.”

The method of dividing oceans into grids that the Dalhousie researchers used, he said, did not permit scrutiny of areas where this might be particularly important, such as the upwelling in the Eastern Pacific that supports the Peruvian anchovy fishery – the biggest fishery on the planet.

Absorbing facts

If the trend is real, it could also act to accelerate warming, the team noted.

Photosynthesis by phytoplankton removes carbon dioxide from the air and produces oxygen.

In several parts of the world, notably the Southern Ocean, scientists have already noted that the waters appear to be absorbing less CO2 – although this is principally thought to be because of changes to wind patterns – and leaving more CO2 in the air should logically lead to greater warming.

“Phytoplankton… produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2, and ultimately support all of our fisheries,” said Boris Worm, another member of the Dalhousie team.

“An ocean with less phytoplankton will function differently.”

The question is: how differently?

If the planet continues to warm in line with projections of computer models of climate, the overall decline in phytoplankton might be expected to continue.

But, said, Daniel Boyce, that was not certain.

“It’s tempting to say there will be further declines, but on the other hand there could be other drivers of change, so I don’t think that saying ‘temperature rise brings a phytoplankton decline’ is the end of the picture,” he said.

The implications, noted Dr Lundin, could be significant.

“If in fact productivity is going down so much, the implication would be that less carbon capture and storage is happening in the open ocean,” he said.

“So that’s a service that humanity is getting for free that it will lose; and there would also be an impact on fish, with less fish in the oceans over time.”

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
[source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-10781621]

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Boiling frog - by CJ

A frog will try to jump out if it is dropped into hot water, however it will stay eventually cooked to death if it is put in a pot of cool water and gradually bring it to a boil. This story is a widespread anecdote, yet will we react like boiling frogs when come to confronting global warming?

Highly regarded scientific organizations worldwide have speculated that there is no longer any credible doubt about the environmental destruction of global warming. We are stoking global warming that may cause colossal damage to nature if, like the doomed frog, we ignore rising temperatures.

Based on the data from Natural Resources and Environment Ministry of Malaysia, our nation’s average temperature has risen by 1.1 degree Celsius in the past 50 years, consistent with the warming of global temperature. The ministry also showed that the sea level in our country is on the increase, at the rate of 1.25mm a year. These factors resulted in changes in the rainfall patterns thus causing more floods in our country.

Based on the climate modeling for the next 100 years, the temperature is expected to rise between 0.7 degree and 2.6 degrees Celsius. The changes are very crucial as the increase of 1-2 degrees Celsius would lead to 30% of flora and fauna to go extinct and threaten our survival.

Furthermore, the ministry stressed that warmer temperatures and greater moisture will favor extensions of the geographical range and season for vector organisms such as insects, rodents, and snails. This in turn might also increase the occurrence of vector-borne diseases such as cholera, malaria and dengue.

In another recent research, Malaysia scientists have discovered that climate change and air pollution are killing off the scent of flowers around the world. Some bees don’t seem to be pollinating flower seeds because of the missing scent trail of flowers. Flowers in colder climates are able to hold onto their essential oils longer, thus insects and bird are also reported as heading to the jungles where the weather is cooler, for their fair share of nectar.

Already we can see the changes of our environment and nature: storms are becoming fiercer and extreme weather conditions like cold becoming colder and hot becoming hotter. Will we stand by and watch while droughts, floods, and famine take over our country? Or will we deteriorate into territorial species struggling for power, land, and survival? It is matter of survival and it is solely up to the people of this generation to decide.

Now we’re like the frog in water slowly heated up to boiling that doesn’t know to escape. However, unlike the frogs, we have the ability, the knowledge, the technology, and the power to save ourselves and respond to global warming. We simply need to find the cohesive willingness to take action and not to contribute to global warming.

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This satellite image shows several icebergs breaking off the Antarctic ice shelf in 2000. The iceberg B17B on the left has been spotted 1,700 kilometres from Australia. (Australian Antarctic Division/Associated Press)

An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan (or twice as Hong Kong) discovered 1,700 kilometres off the coast of Australia has prompted a shipping alert.

This satellite image shows several icebergs breaking off the Antarctic ice shelf in 2000. The iceberg B17B on the left has been spotted 1,700 kilometres from Australia. (Australian Antarctic Division/Associated Press)
The country’s Bureau of Meteorology issued the alert Friday after the iceberg was seen off the country’s southwestern coast.

Glaciologist Neal Young of the Australian Antarctic Division found the iceberg using satellite images. Young described it as 19 kilometres long and eight kilometres wide.

The iceberg is one of several that broke off from ice shelves in Antarctica in 2000.

It is expected to break apart as it moves into warmer waters farther north, but the resulting flotilla of smaller icebergs could pose a hazard to ships.

The Australian Antarctic Division has called the presence of such a large iceberg this far north a once-in-a-lifetime event, but cautioned against attributing it directly to global climate change.

Scientists say that ice shelf calvings such as the one in 2000 happen about once every 30 years.

Last month, New Zealand issued a shipping alert when several icebergs were seen moving toward the country’s South Island. They have since moved east out into the Pacific Ocean.

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There are increasing reports coming from the north of hungry male polar bears eating bear cubs. The rise in polar bear cannibalism is being attributed to changing climate and difficulty accessing traditional food sources.

Polar bears primarily feed on seals that they hunt from the sea ice. However, the late ice formation and early ice melting is making hunting much more difficult, forcing the starving bears to remain on land and find alternative food sources. 

More than eight incidents of male polar bears eating cubs have already been reported this year in Churchill, Manitoba, according to scientists. Although polar bear cannibalism is not unheard of, the increasing frequency has scientists worried. Incidents of polar bears drowning while searching for food is also becoming more commonplace.

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