spotlight's on nature

The (huge) undertaking of civility

miscellaneousbluetinges — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:25:41 +0000

I’ve noticed an undertaking recently, back towards civility.

ci·vil·i·ty/səˈvilitē/ Noun

1. Formal politeness and courtesy in behavior or speech.
2. Polite remarks used in formal conversation

China launched campaigns to discourage spitting and and littering in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Olympics – this has now been upscaled to nationwide classes to instill table manners and courtesy in the young, emphasizing a return to the traditional ‘Chinese roots’. I thought it was interesting and good – and then I noticed that Baghdad also ran similar classes, except through a private school, the Academy for Peace through Art. Not only is it a respite from the war and violence around people living there, good manners goes a long way, especially when they involve conversational respect.

But they are not the only ones; The City Academy, Hackney, in East London, is slowly making waves through raising standards for people interaction through the way they run their school. Children are encouraged to interact by serving each other food at the dinner table, and taught to practise social etiquette and more. See, classes on civility need not be run – just inculcate it into the system of the school, enforce it, and it will automate itself.

Which brings me back to the main point I am writing about this. Subscribing to Twitter has made me more connected to what’s going on in the world out there, through following certain subscribers. TED’s Chris Anderson posted a link to Civility Please, a new website set up to remind people about the unnecessary rudeness we go through every day in every area of life – and that we can choose, to go back to encouraging civility. With letters from the public exclaiming that “Civilization can only exist when its members are civil to each other.”, I thought, wow, this is really starting to add to the trend – because I’m sure there’s more groups about civility out there for every group I discover. Watch their clever video:

Civility Please Launch from Civility Please on Vimeo.

Elizabeth Lesser in TED goes one step further in her bid to get us to speak civily with “The Other”. Who exactly is the other? For all you environmentalists, biologists or conservationists out there, The Other is that person we all label negatively to be ignorant about climate change, the person who denies evolution, that fellow across the street who only believes in economic power. Get the picture?

She’s disturbed by how in every culture we live in, there is a tendency to demonize The Other. She draws examples from popular book titles today that demonstrate this, and then illustrates clearly that in human history, this tendency has morphed, and resulted in The Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, and more. And it can happen again.

So she’s launching an initiative.

For every Other we label negatively, Lesser encourages, and even challenges us to have real sharing sessions with these people. “Start local”, she says – with your neighbour, classmate, hawker. Why do this? The goal can be: To get to know one person from a group you have negatively stereotyped. Recognising the business that infiltrates our lives, she says, bring The Other to lunch.

She shares her own bring-The-Other-to-lunch story.

Before you get together, agree on some groundrules. For her and her tea party-mate, it was “Don’t persuade, defend, or interrupt. Be curious, be conversational, be real – and listen.”

Then, use 3 guidelines to ensure a discussion of learning:

* Share some of your life experiences
* What are the issues that deeply concern you?
* What have you always wanted to ask someone from “the other side”?

If we put aside our ideas of us being know-it-alls, and brought forth our childlike curiosity, with no intention to harm, imagine what we would learn! Mother Theresa once said: “The problem of the world is that we draw the circle of our family too small”. Imagine if we widened this circle, if more people were real to each other, if people cared about each other, and the environment around them?

With a brilliant quote to end off, I echo Lesser’s words:

Here’s how the great Persian poet Rumi put it: “Out beyond the ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

So, who’s The Other you’ll bring to lunch?

PS: What’s this doing on a nature blog, you ask? Well, think of the big picture. Our blatant repetitive behaviour in harming the environment stems from attitude and thought – if we can systemically change this by starting in this area, and sharing our ideas, the world would be a better place – at home, at work, and overseas.

Green Drinking in January

miscellaneousbluetinges — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 17:59:21 +0000

First GreenDrinks session attended just a few hours ago (see Jan 4 post here), and I was frankly overwhelmed with the number of people! Clearly over-capacity, the show went on with a blast. Interactive session was not burdened by poor acoustics, and instead people were shooting out comments, questions and random ideas. Here’s a summary:

Sivasothi aka Otterman went on to give his usual biodiversity speech, aimed at informing the layman that Singapore does have wildlife, more so than one thinks! First on forest cover – that our proudly acclaimed 48% of forest cover is really, broken down into many ‘green spaces’, of which only 0.2% is primary forest. We have leopard cats, banded leaf monkeys (shy and arboreal, unlike the long tailed macaques clearly visible and waiting to pounce on your plastic bag), pangolins (see pangolin conservation issues), wild boars, mousedeer, dugongs (rare), moniter lizards, otters, and then some. Roadkill pictures added to double shock effect on audience who 1. never knew we shared land with these animals, 2. didn’t expect gore. Am leaving them out here.

Mammal sightings? Help us keep a record at mammal.sivasothi.com. No man can work alone in recording all these sightings, and crowd sourcing not only gives a sense of ownership but pride as well! Similarly, the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore – another crowd effort - is still going strong as ever, with 2009′s haul of more than 13 tonnes of waste from our coasts. Most of which, surprisingly or not, turned out to be cigarettes. This event, FYI, happens worldwide annually, and 2010 was the 25th anniversary since the start of the event – and the 20th year for Singapore. Wanna know more? Check here for a site near you, globally.

But what about things going on with the government? Concerned about our precious land use? Well, the URA Concept Plan 2011 is still open and sourcing for feedback, so all you concerned residents in Singapore, do go take a look and give some feedback!

For the biology community out there, it’s heartening to know that after the initiation of Blue Plan 2009 comes the Mega Marine Survey of Singapore. Exciting line-up! Launched by NParks, this mega-project targets mudflats, coral reefs, sea beds and all coastal areas of Singapore! No need for rocket scientists, anyone interested can volunteer to play a part in recognising our biodiversity! Simply click here to register your interest, receive information and take part!

Then came an interesting switch to the Green Corridors proposal, a combined effort between Nature Society Singapore, Singapore Heritage Society, and groups of architects and cycling enthusiasts. Addressing use of land left by the railway track once the railway service relocates to Woodlands, they propose a Green Corridor to enable connection of communities of people and wildlife alike.

Promoting recreation and exercise through appropriate garden and plant cultivation, cycling and pedestrian paths, they also make a case for keeping existing railway tracks for certain parts to preserve heritage, history and at the same time, enable use of clean energy trams as a form of leisure locomotion. Not only a scenic tourist destination, but possible marathon and commuter routes, as they emphasize its potential to serve the 1.2 million people living adjacent to these tracks. Some people have sentimental attachment to these tracks, and others haven’t yet discovered this beautiful treasure of Singapore.

Take a ride from the Tanjong Pagar Railway station to nearby Johor Bahru (remember your passport!) today to enjoy the scenery – and perhaps see for yourself the rail real beauty of these tracks, before the service retires to Woodlands in July 2011. Support the green corridor on facebook! More into twitter? Join here! Not sure what’s really going on with the rails? Read this and this for background.
Lastly, a huge bunch of thanks and appreciation going out to Olivia Choong, who started this whole thing going in Singapore. :D

Travel trips made dreams come true

miscellaneousbluetinges — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 03:48:48 +0000

It’s mid-January and Annie Ang is back from her impromptu trip to the Tasikoki Wildlife Centre! With the aim of stopping the illegal wildlife trade, the centre was strategically set up in North Sulawesi, the centre and crucial trading point for animals such as the orangutans, tasiers, sunbears, pangolins and even gibbons through the region.

Tasikoki has become part of the Masarang Foundation since 2010 – and you may have heard of MF if you have followed Willie Smits’ websites before. Say who?

Why, Willie Smits is the guy who showed us his efforts in restoring a rainforest! Video here (somehow video couldn’t be embedded).

In October last year I brought Annie and a few other friends to a talk Willie Smits was giving at the National Geographic store in Vivocity – a “Think and Drink” organised by the Singapore International Foundation and Syinc. And what I heard from him astounded me.

His efforts for the past 30 years have been extraordinary – and this man just keeps going, and going. An avid protector of organutans and the forests they live in, he brings to life all kinds of action plans dedicated to resolving the root causes of deforestation, supports local governors and initiatives, and resynthesizes the way people deal with these problems.

Annie met with the man himself – and she’ll have a guest post or two to share her experience on this trip, at the centre and actually seeing all these ‘problems’ we learn in class face to face.

Keep close!

Green Drinking with Sivasothi

miscellaneousbluetinges — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 00:04:15 +0000

WOW. Nearly a year since my last post – probably an indicator on how busy things have gotten! However, I’ve also gotten messages via this blog from people, and more than a hundred people read this blog every month – I’m pleasantly surprised and very grateful! Thank you very much, readers – and have a brilliant rest of 2011!

So quickly, some updates: I got back in May last year, and have been doing my final year project ever since. Am also working on another publication with some colleages, hopefully that works out. Grad school awaits when the articles have been published! (:

Pulled together like-minded people yesterday for a ‘green’ meeting yesterday – would have to say it was not only fruitful but also an eye-opener! Will be going for Green Drinks meeting this month for it’s biodiversity double-bill, where one of the speakers is the ever-charming Sivasothi aka otterman!

Green Drinks in a nutshell:
+ non-profit, environmental group
+ connecting and informing
+ targetting community, business, activitists, academia, government
+ informal talks every last Thursday of the month

Started in London, Green Drinks has now spread to more than 710 cities. Great stuff eh! Check out some past green drinks sessions and their speakers here.

They’re treating January as the month of Biodiversity - know anyone who is curious about the green scene in Singapore? How about those who have environmental-business inclinations but don’t have the connections? Need to network but don’t have the platform? Come to Green Drinks and start from there.

Support the local Green Drinks!

More soon.

How we read each other’s minds

miscellaneousbluetinges — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:28:55 +0000

So I’m bouncing back from a hectic schedule involving various deadlines and due dates with travel trips in between. Will try to keep you updated with stuff I’ve picked up from class that I think is interesting (: For now though, here’s an interesting and entertaining video!

Sign the global petition!

miscellaneousbluetinges — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:18:53 +0000

If you know me, I’m not usually one to ask for people to sign petitions. So I hope this will have you stop and take a look – and then take action.

If I could sign only one petition, this would be it. It is much more than just a signature.

SIGN HERE.

Click the link, and it will explain the situation much more clearly and concisely than I can.

Beautiful visualisations of information

miscellaneousbluetinges — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:20:09 +0000

Courtesy of YJ. Informationisbeautiful does audiences worldwide a huge favour by visualising information in clear, concise ways. Here is one of the visualisations, that is applicable to science. Click here for more.

What’s best about this ‘map’, is that this is what the author managed to get ONLINE, using websites publicly available, without actually talking to climate scientists. It’s what would happen to me, or you, or anyone else who isn’t a climate scientist and is trying to find out what is happening. And it was “a mammoth task” – so please, climate change scientists, this what I’m talking about when I say scientists should learn to communicate, otherwise their research loses meaning.

This blog, realclimate.org, linked from informationisbeautiful, is done up by climate scientists, and even so is claimed to be too technical for the author. Still, I think it’s a good source at least.

It’s pretty sad nowadays to watch climate scientists get shot down by people who don’t know their facts – most of these people who hear about stuff from others, are influenced by politicians, and are not actually suffering the wrath of climate change themselves.

That said, I am in no way endorsing what the author of informationisbeautiful has placed on the map. It is simply a tool to look at things. I myself am not educated enough about climate change to claim any of these details as truths in research.

President Nasheed’s Powerful Speech

miscellaneousbluetinges — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:32:48 +0000

A month ago, President Nasheed of the Maldives gave a powerful speech to urge everyone about consequences of the talks in Copenhagen. This is his speech. If you are still unconvinced that the world’s climate is changing, let it be clear that it is. The world is intricately connected – actions of people in one country can affect another severely. The world is not just ours, as it is not just the developed nation’s. The world is also limited, and our resources finite.

Let it be clear that your lifestyles are key to this change. Let it be clear that people are suffering all over this world.

President Nasheed’s Powerful Speech

Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

We gather in this hall today,
as some of the most climate-vulnerable nations on Earth.
We are vulnerable because
climate change threatens to hit us first; and hit us hardest.
And we are vulnerable because we have modest means
with which to protect ourselves from the coming disaster.

We are a diverse group of countries.
But we share one common enemy.
For us, climate change is no distant or
abstract threat; but a clear and present danger to our survival.

Climate change is melting the glaciers in Nepal.
It is causing flooding in Bangladesh.
It threatens to submerge the Maldives and Kiribati.
And in recent weeks, it has furthered drought in Tanzania,
and typhoons in the Philippines.

We are the frontline states in the climate change battle.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Developing nations did not cause the climate crisis.
We are not responsible for the hundreds of years
of carbon emissions, which are cooking the planet.

But the dangers climate change poses to our countries,
means that this crisis can no longer be considered somebody else’s problem.

Carbon knows no boundaries.
Whether we like it or not, we are all in this fight together.
For all of us gathered here today, inaction is not an option.

So, what can we do about it?

To my mind, whatever course of action we take must be based on the latest advice of climate scientists. Not on the advice of politicians like us.

As Copenhagen looms, and negotiators frantically search for a solution, it is easy to think that climate change is like any other international issue.

It is easy to assume that it can be solved
by a messy political compromise between powerful states.
But the fact of the matter is, we cannot negotiate
with the laws of physics.
We cannot cut a deal with Mother Nature.
We have to learn to live within the fixed planetary boundaries
that nature has set.

And it is increasingly clear that we are living way beyond those planetary means.

Scientists say that global carbon dioxide levels
must be brought back down below 350 parts per million.
And we can see why.
We have already overshot the safe landing space.

In consequence the ice caps are melting.
The rainforests are threatened.
And the world’s coral reefs are in imminent danger.

Members of the G8 rich countries have pledged to halt temperature rises to two degrees Celsius.

Yet they have refused to commit to the carbon targets, which would deliver even this modest goal.

At two degrees we would lose the coral reefs.
At two degrees we would melt Greenland.
At two degrees my country would not survive.
As a president I cannot accept this.

As a person I cannot accept this.

I refuse to believe that it is too late, and that we cannot do any about it.
Copenhagen is our date with destiny.
Let us go there with a better plan.

Ladies and gentlemen,
When we look around the world today,
there are few countries showing moral leadership on climate change.
There are plenty of politicians willing
to point the finger of blame.
But there are few prepared to help solve a crisis that,
left unchecked, will consume us all.

Few countries are willing to discuss
the scale of emissions reductions required to save the planet.
And the offers of adaptation support
for the most vulnerable nations are lamentable.
The sums of money on offer are so low,
it is like arriving at a earthquake zone with a dustpan and brush.

We don’t want to appear ungrateful
but the sums hardly address the scale of the challenge.
We are gathered here because
we are the most vulnerable group of nations to climate change.
The problem is already on us,
yet we have precious little with which to fight.

Some might prefer us to suffer in silence but today we have decided to speak.
And so I make this pledge today: we will not die quietly.

Ladies and gentlemen,
I believe in humanity.
I believe in human ingenuity.
I believe that with the right frame of mind, we can solve this crisis.

In the Maldives, we want to focus less on our plight;
and more on our potential.
We want to do what is best for the planet.
And what is best for our economic self-interest.

This is why, earlier this year, we announced plans
to become carbon neutral in ten years.
We will switch from oil to 100% renewable energy.
And we will offset aviation pollution,
until a way can be found to decarbonise air transport too.

To my mind, countries that have the foresight to green their economies today, will be the winners of tomorrow.
They will be the winners of this century.

These pioneering countries will free themselves
from the unpredictable price of foreign oil.
They will capitalize on the new, green economy of the future.

And they will enhance their moral standing,
giving them greater political influence on the world stage.
Here in the Maldives we have relinquished our claim to high-carbon growth.

After all, it is not carbon we want, but development.
It is not coal we want, but electricity.
It is not oil we want, but transport.

Low-carbon technologies now exist, to deliver all the goods and services we need.

Let us make the goal of using them.

Ladies and gentlemen,
A group of vulnerable, developing countries committed to carbon neutral development would send a loud message to the outside world.
If vulnerable, developing countries make a commitment to carbon neutrality, those opposed to change have nowhere left to hide.
If those with the least start doing the most, what excuse can the rich have for continuing inaction?

We know this is not an easy step to take,
and that there might be dangers along the way.
We want to shine a light, not loudly demand
that others go first into the dark.

So today, we want to share with you our carbon neutral strategy.
And we want to ask you to consider carbon neutrality yourselves.
I think a bloc of carbon-neutral, developing nations could change the outcome of Copenhagen.

At the moment every country arrives at the negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible.
They never make commitments, unless someone else does first.

This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide.

We don’t want a global suicide pact.
And we will not sign a global suicide pact, in Copenhagen or anywhere.

So today, I invite some of the most vulnerable nations in the world, to join a global survival pact instead.
We are all in this as one.
We stand or fall together.
I hope you will join me in deciding to stand.

——————–

Head here to sign a petition that will deliver your name to President Nasheed, who will speak at the Copenhagen conference.

Robot decoys in sting operations

miscellaneousbluetinges — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:27:40 +0000

Anyone involved in conservation will know that poaching is a severe issue that has yet to be addressed in many countries. Animals made into commodities, perpetuated through their use as medicine, artefacts for display, or hunting enjoyment, is something that goes on still.

The first innovative approach to catch poachers I have heard of is taken by the company, Custom Robotic Wildlife.

Photo source: Wired.com

Creating remote-controlled animal decoys, they use a tag team of four-person sting operations to catch poachers in the act. One controls the robot animal, one videotapes the poaching, and the last two tackle the hunters, who then find themselves with fines, or jail time.

Are these decoys actually convincing?

Taxidermy is used to good effect here – corpses of the desired animal robot are taken and stuffed, with the wired devices hidden in parts of the animal least likely to be shot at by poachers.

Not that I could find any statistics on how successful these operations have been, but noting that they make coyotes, deer, elk, antelope and bears, it sure seems like more people are giving them a try. Of course, they also make these robots for people who just simply want to chase off annoying geese on their lawn, or to law-abiding hunters as decoys.

Interesting approach. I’m skeptical, but well, we could use all the creative approaches we can think of.

Bayer Young Environmental Envoy Program

miscellaneousbluetinges — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:16:20 +0000

I just received news of this – do spread news of the program to people you know fit the bill!

Bayer Young Environmental Envoy program – welcoming youths between 17 – 24 years of age to apply with proposals of environmental projects they would like to see put into action – if they are selected for this program, together with 11 other Singaporeans they will join an environmental leadership camp in Singapore, and possibly an all expenses paid trip to Germany awaits them! 4 students from Singapore will be selected for the trip to Germany, which is there for the youths to gain exposure to wide number of environmental measures currently used by all levels of government and industry in Germany.

Find out more HERE.

Should you know any persons interested please do pass it on! The brochure can be attained through the website, and so is the application form available there. (: This seems like a really good opportunity for people passionately involved in environmental issues to channel their energies proactively.