19 Aug
As Nature Intended
According to Dr. Eeva Karjalainen and colleagues at the Finnish Forest Research Institute, a walk in the woods is one of the most enjoyable activities around because it can reduce stress and depression, ease muscle tension, counter attention deficit disorder, even calm an erratic heart.
I have never understood why 'Man' thinks that it is possible to 'own', let alone 'tame' nature. As the ruins of ancient civilisations, should remind us, generations come and go; Mother Nature has only so much tolerance for our greed. All we can do – should do – is safeguard what we borrow and seek to work with, rather than against, our temporary residence.
The collapse of the empires of the Khymer who built Angkor Wat, and of the Incas who built Manu Picchu is attributed to environmental degradation.
The decline of the Roman Empire is also attributed to this and a number of other reasons, such as decaying infrastructure and that "it fell to Islam", a decline in morals, including a rise in corruption among the rich and powerful. It's all inter-related.
Sound familiar?
Planet Earth vs. Man
One winner, billions of losers.
Surely we hold Planet Earth in trust for future generations. This has belatedly been recognised here in Indonesia with such legislation as Law No. 41/1999 regarding protected forests .
Unfortunately, as is recognised worldwide, law enforcement is weak, particularly among civil authorities. This may explain why 100 hectares of protected, but now severely damaged, forest in South Sumatra has ended up in the greasy and greedy hands of local officials.
But even access to areas of relatively untouched nature is limited, not so much by ever-spreading urban areas and privatisation as by the attitudes of 'government'.
According to Dan Quinn, 'gunung bagger' extraordinaire, this hampers access to Jakarta's nearest national parks.
When dealing with gaining access to a peak within the limits of a national park, the process becomes hopelessly complicated. There is a ludicrous obsession with permits – in the notable case of Gede Pangrango – and an advance reservation is sometimes required.
There is a case to be made for limiting damage, but the park's guardians don't actually do this.
It is necessary to let the terrain recover from the thousands of boot prints and mounds of discarded Pop Mie cartons.
Like me, he is originally from Great Britain, where there is a legal 'right to roam', that is, hikers are allowed unfettered access to most mountain areas except, quite understandably, if it involves walking through somebody’s private property.
But this may soon be lost as the new "laissez-faire government", with massive budget cuts in the pipeline, may be planning to sell off nature reserves.
I have already written extensively about how children have rare opportunities to get in touch with nature, for example, both here in Indonesia and back in Blighty .
"More kids today are interested in the natural world than ever before; but far fewer are experiencing it directly, on their own or with their friends, and that's what counts: this is about more than nature."
Yes, attitudes must change. It's surely time that a course on How To Live On Planet Earth is included in the national curriculum and concurrently taught to elected legislators, appointed lecturers, recruited bureaucrats, and business executives – why should Bakrie be the country's largest landowner?
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BTW. Other animals are cleaner defecators.
Look at the picture of a Solo loo on this site – and shudder!
You can google more on this…
Indonesia's coral reefs dying at alarming rate
(AP) – 19 hours ago
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Coral that survived the 2004 tsunami is now dying at one of the fastest rates ever recorded because of a dramatic rise in water temperatures off northwestern Indonesia, conservationists said, warning Wednesday that the threat extends to other reefs across Asia.
The Wildlife Conservation Society deployed marine biologists to Aceh province, on the tip of Sumatra island, in May when surface waters in the Andaman Sea peaked at 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius) — a 7 degree Fahrenheit (4 degree Celsius) rise over long-term averages.
The teams discovered massive bleaching, which occurs when algae living inside coral tissues are expelled. Subsequent surveys carried out together with Australia's James Cook University and Indonesia's Syiah Kuala University showed 80 percent of those corals have since died.
Though the scientists have yet to submit the data for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, they and others say the speed and extent of mortality appears to exceed that of other bleachings in recent history. The cause appears to be the warming seas, which to some degree can be blamed on global warming.
"This is a tragedy not only for some of the world's most biodiverse coral reefs, but also for people in the region," said Caleb McClennen, the New York-based group's marine program manager for Indonesia, noting that many depend on the rich marine life for their food and money earned through tourism.
Coral formations were severely damaged by El Nino-linked warming in 1997 and 1998.
They were just bouncing back when a Dec.26, 2004, earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in a dozen countries. The disaster damaged more than a third of Aceh's reefs, but scientists said they recovered faster than expected, thanks largely to natural colonization and a drop in illegal fishing.
"It's a disappointing development, particularly in light of the fact that these same corals proved resilient to other disruptions to this ecosystem," Stuart Campbell of the Wildlife Conservation Society wrote on their website.
"It is an unfortunate reminder that international efforts to curb the causes and effects of climate change must be made if these sensitive ecosystems and the vulnerable human communities … that depend on them are to adapt and endure," Campbell wrote.
The high water temperatures — which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Hotspots website indicates have affected the entire Andaman Sea and beyond — also occurred soon after the sun was at its zenith and at time of little cloud cover or wind.
Clive Wilkinson, a coordinator at the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network in Australia, called it a "lethal combination" for coral, especially when it continues for more than a month, as was also the case in 1998.
The hotspot has affected reefs across Indonesia as well as in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, and it is now pushing its way northward.
"We are in a major heating period, it's breaking all records, and there are very furious worries now about the Philippines and eventually Taiwan and probably southern Japan," Wilkinson said. "This is really quite serious."
There is also some new findings on Jakarta's population that is quite interesting as well. Namely that is exceeding predicted trends.
Frankly, I think we're fucked…
Jakarta's population is given as c.9.2 million, but that figure does not include the c.4 million who commute in every day.
Incidentally, it took me 3 hours to get home by taxi on Wednesday afternoon from across town, a journey that usually takes me about 1 hour by public transport.
The gridlock was nowhere near the burst dyke that caused chaos elsewhere.
Still, at least I suffered in a modicum of comfort
Jakarta's population is more like ca. 9.5 million…
Jakarta’s population surpasses 15-year forecast
The Jakarta branch of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) revealed the city’s population had reached 9.5 million, or 4 percent of the country’s total population of 237.6 million.
The total population in the city is 9,588,198 people, with 3 percent more males in the ratio of male to female,” agency head Agus Suherman told The Jakarta Post over the telephone on Wednesday.
The figure exceeds a prediction of 8.9 million people in 2010 published on the Jakarta BPS’s official website. It even surpasses the city’s predicted 2025 population of 9.2 million.
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Sorry for the edit, U.T., but I want to use this article as a post.
J