Melting Arctic

Here's something from the Sunday Times, 12/08/2007.

Well I can't copy and paste or Associated Press will charge me,so the gist of it is below.

Basically, as we all know by know, the Arctic Ice Cap is melting. To some of us, it means rising sea levels, changes in oceanic currents, climate changes; to others, it may mean no more polar bears; to people who like to describe themselves as the following, “intellectual”, “important”, “powerful”, “elite”, “entrepreneurial” and whatever else that they see fit to describe themselves with, it means new oil and natural gas fields, gold, diamond and nickel deposits and a chance to show everyone who bothers and are weak enough follow them who's the boss by winning playground scraps over a share of the Arctic pie.

It is estimated that by 2040 to 2050, the Arctic Ocean will be navigable. In effect, that means little or no ice left. And lots of drilling and boring and rigging and no more wildlife. No polar bears, no seals, no ice, no Eskimos and more flooding in South Asia, more scorching heat waves in Europe and North America. Birders will see no more birds because caterpillar peak seasons will not match hatching seasons and the chicks will all die.

But we get lots of diamonds, and gold to decorate the coffins of those among us who die from heat waves, and drown in floods, and Heaven forbid, the “great” people who found those deposits.

Event Update!

Organised by: Acres
Venue: The Atrium @ Orchard, 60B Orchard Road map
Day/Time: Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 10pm daily

This National Day Festival that runs from now till 26th August, extend and enrich your celebratory mood with Acres and our fundraising activities while raising funds for the establishment of Singapore's first wildlife rescue, the Acres Wildlife Rescue Centre (AWRC)!

Acres will be having our public roadshow at the Atrium @ Orchard to engage Singaporeans in protecting animals and to take ownership of the AWRC and assist us in our efforts. This will strengthen our community spirit and increase our identity as a compassionate society.

Globally, the illegal trading in wildlife, timber and other natural resources is now surpassed only by the trafficking in drugs and weapons. This ongoing illegal trade has severe consequences for the survival of every species involved. Removing these animals from their natural habitat damages the fragile ecosystems as well as threatens the survival of the species.

This roadshow will raise awareness on the illegal wildlife trade in Singapore, bear farming and other animal protection issues. There will be exhibits on different animal welfare issues through informative educational panels and physical displays/replica models depicting the issues, for example toy animals crammed into crates showing how animals are smuggled for the illegal pet trade.

Fundraising activities:
Merchandise, including our hot-selling T-shirts ($15 each), mugs ($8 each) and colourful badges ($2 each) be sold. So spread compassion and wear a message!
What better way to celebrate our birthday by wear our national colours on your skin! For only $2, get your face or hands painted with cool designs and motifs!
Celebrate the occasion with our animals too! Purchase pictures of pets at $5, photo frame included, and enjoy $1 off when you present yourself in a red outfit!

So visit us at our booth and make a positive contribution to animal welfare and conservation in Singapore!

If you would like to volunteer with us at this event, please contact charlene@acres.org.sg for more details.

*If you are lazy to volunteer then be a nice person and go down to contribute $$ instead ok..

First Nature Post

I've decided to jump on the increasingly overcrowded bandwagon of NUS Bio Students' Nature Blogs. Now why did I decide to be soooo unoriginal? That's because Nature is so vast, even in tiny Singapore, that all of us cannot cover everything. This is my little contribution to continual biodiversity and conservation education of us. I'm posting this at 4am in the morning, so just let me ramble.

Man evolved intelligence at such a rapid rate that none of the species on this planet even has an inkling of all the cerebral processes that go on in our overstuffed heads that we take for granted. Like blogging, or sms-ing etc. Even so-called "borderline retarded" humans still kick animals' butts in IQ contests. And we get so caught up in our own intelligence, and the illusion of superiority we have over Nature, that members of our species think we own the planet. Until disaster strikes. 26 Dec 2004, is a date many of us remember of a time when Nature decided to bitch-slap us for clearing the mangroves and destroying the coral reefs. For those who haven't realised, the hardest hit areas were places in Indonesia, Thailand, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, where forests and corals were destroyed and pretty beach resorts and ports were built in their place. And yet, Malaysia and low-lying Bangladesh didn't get much damage. Bangladesh is interesting. I'm sure they would like the pretty beach resorts, but they cannot afford to build them. So they leave the mangroves alone. The miles and miles of mangroves probably saved the country. Go google to find out more.

By the way, to the eternal optimists who think that we are too intelligent to kill ourselves and that we will find a way to beat the climate and extinction problem, we are NOT that intelligent. Species are going extinct, by our own doing, without even us knowing that they ever existed. Climate change is affecting the world at such a rapid rate, that even humans die from heat waves and what not. We screwed up the world by trying really hard to screw it up, and it took decades. We'd have to try even harder to unscrew it within the same time period. And so many nations aren't trying. China is talking abt going green for Beijing 2008 and but they are using coal for electricity. The US thinks everyone else should go green but themselves. Our neighbours seem to try desperately hard every year to smoke us out of our own country. Us? Our government signs this green treaty and that and every other, but we are still clearing whatever remaining forests we have and spraying streams with oil to control Aedes (for goodness sakes, they only breed in stagnant water!), and we cut down an 80-year old Angsana Tree because the rich brats we have living here can't keep to the speed limits and think their toys are more important than the tree. (It's like you've been standing outside a PAP kindergarten everyday and watching children run around you until one day, the teacher tells you, "You are in their way. I'll have to kill you.") We have a long long way to go before everyone of us understands the problem.

Oh and one thing about being really intelligent creatures. One thing that has differentiated us from other living creatures is our grasp of Mathematics. Let's look at something basic. Every Primary 2 or 3 kid will tell you that if you divide one by three, you get 1/3; and conversely, 1/3 multiplied by three will give you one. Then the "higher level" kid, perhaps Primary 4, will also tell you that if you divide 1 by 3 and express the answer in decimals, you get 0.3333333333. Of course, the even "higher" level kid, the cocky pure science "O" level kid doing "Additional Mathematics" will add that you can simply write it as 0.3, but with a dot above the 3. And then interestingly enough, the education system says nothing more about this little teaser, and few, in any, students probe further. Let me expand it below.

We have, 1 divide by 3 = 1/3, and 1/3 x 3 =1. We also have 1/3 = 0.333333... If it is true that 1/3 x 3 = 1, then 0.333333... x 3 = 0.999999... = 1.

0.9999999... = 1? Something that's not a whole is a whole. The decimal system. A product of our own intelligence. Go figure.