Beacon of hope

Amidst the thousands of Buddhist temples in South-East Asia, one in Singapore stands out from the rest — conservation-wise, that is.

Located on a small hilltop at Chwee Chian Road, off Pasir Panjang Road, Poh Ern Shih (Temple of Thanksgiving) is probably the first religious building in Singapore to display great zeal and determination in becoming green. Facing Singapore’s southern coast on one side, and the famed Bukit Chandu on another end, the temple was built as a memorial to those who lost their lives during the Battle of Pasir Panjang in 1942, which was fought just a week before the British surrended their “Gibraltar of the East” to the Japanese.

Established in 1954 as a modest single-storey temple by philanthropist Lee Choon Seng (who passed on in 1966 at 78 years old), Poh Ern Shih is one of the few Chinese Mahayana temples in Singapore dedicated to the Ksitigarbha, one of the four principal bodhisattvas in East Asian Mahayana Buddhism (the others being Samantabhadra, Manjusri, and Avalokitesvara).

The original temple structure was demolished in 2003 in order to expand the temple complex, and the first phase of renovations was finished in 2007. To the honorary president of the temple, Lee Boon Siong (the founder’s grandson), this presented a marvellous opportunity to incorporate eco-friendly features into the new wing.

Lee, a retired lawyer who spent many years in Canada after leaving Singapore in 1988, said that he learnt many aspects of being green during his sojourn there. Upon his return to Singapore in 1995, he was asked to be a director of the temple board, which is funded entirely from donations and gifts.

Together with a partner organisation, the Buddhist Fellowship, the temple conducts programmes such as Dharma talks, Sutta discussions and meditation courses in Chinese and English for the Buddhist community. What is obvious is the building’s sensitivity to the needs of its devotees and visitors, who are mainly in their 60s. For the benefit of wheelchair users, a gentle driveway stretches from the gates to the upper levels of the temple, and every storey of the building has level flooring. The lavatory cubicles are fitted with easily reachable emergency assistance buttons, and the doors are designed so that they can be unlocked from the outside in case of emergencies.

Tapping solar energy

With Lee Coo Consultant Associates appointed as both project manager and architect, phase one saw the incorporation of 160sqm of solar panels. All panels gave a combined peak rated output of 18.82kW, with engineers estimating its annual output in the region of 21.6MWh (megawatt hours). With the new office wing completed in April 2007, Poh Ern Shih then embarked on the second phase, which involved building a pagoda consisting entirely of steel, glass and photovoltaic (PV) panels. The translucent shell of the pagoda acts as a skylight that lets in sunlight into the prayer hall below.

In accordance with its spirit of sharing and generosity, Poh Ern Shih shares the performance data of the various PV panels with academicians, students and those with no commercial intent. Building researchers from Singapore regularly upload the PV performance data from Poh Ern Shih so that more work can be done to refine the performance of PV in the tropics. Students from universities also make regular visits there to see how things are done. Poh Ern Shih’s solar PV system is grid-connected, so any surplus electricity is sold back to the utility provider, though the temple is far from being a zero-energy building. The only form of on-site energy storage is quite limited at the moment (a few small batteries), and it is used to power some garden and landscaping lights in the evening.

Energy savings is also achieved by minimising the use of lights by using light tubes, which are cylindrical devices fitted with lenses and coated with reflective material so that sunlight from the rooftop or surface is bounced along the tube to light up dark basements or interiors. The temple also saves electricity by mounting four solar thermal water heaters so that it could have hot water for its kitchen. Other passive cooling and energy saving measures include using LED (light-emitting diode) lights and relying as much as possible on natural ventilation.

Finally, rainwater is harvested, and used for all washing and in toilets and gardens, saving an estimated 8,000cu.m of water each year. Engineers estimate Poh Ern Shih’s energy savings to be around 558,168kWh/year. The only “failures” are the two small wind turbines mounted on the rooftop; Singapore just does not have high enough wind speeds to move even a tiny wind turbine.

Green rewards

In 2010, Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) presented Poh Ern Shih with the Green Mark Gold award for its eco-friendly construction. The BCA Green Mark scheme (bca.gov.sg/GreenMark/green_mark_projects.html) was launched in 2005 to promote sustainable and environmentally friendly buildings.

The benefits of Green Mark-certified buildings include cost savings through the efficient use energy and water, and lower maintenance costs. Other benefits include enhanced occupant productivity and health due to good indoor environmental quality. The Malaysian equivalent would be the Green Building Index (greenbuildingindex.org)

As far as the sums go, the temple is far from breaking even on the millions of dollars spent on the additional green features. However, as electricity prices in Singapore are pegged to fuel costs (with the July-Sept 2011 rates starting from 29.19 (Singapore) cents per kWh, including the goods and services tax of 7%), the “break even” period should be way less than 20 years.

No matter which way one looks at it, it is indeed a pleasant surprise to see Poh Ern Shih spreading the message of conservation. And in the spirit of continuous improvement, a defining Singapore trait, Lee is not about to sit still and bask in the glory. He is actively seeking to improve things, so that one day, the temple can be truly self-sufficient in water and electricity.

World's oceans in 'shocking' decline

The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists.

In a new report, they warn that ocean life is "at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history".

They conclude that issues such as over-fishing, pollution and climate change are acting together in ways that have not previously been recognised.

The impacts, they say, are already affecting humanity.

The panel was convened by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), and brought together experts from different disciplines, including coral reef ecologists, toxicologists, and fisheries scientists.

Its report will be formally released later this week.

"The findings are shocking," said Alex Rogers, IPSO's scientific director and professor of conservation biology at Oxford University.

"As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the oceans, the implications became far worse than we had individually realised.

"We've sat in one forum and spoken to each other about what we're seeing, and we've ended up with a picture showing that almost right across the board we're seeing changes that are happening faster than we'd thought, or in ways that we didn't expect to see for hundreds of years."

These "accelerated" changes include melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, sea level rise, and release of methane trapped in the sea bed.

Fast changes

"The rate of change is vastly exceeding what we were expecting even a couple of years ago," said Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a coral specialist from the University of Queensland in Australia.

Some species are already fished way beyond their limits - and may also be affected by other threats "So if you look at almost everything, whether it's fisheries in temperate zones or coral reefs or Arctic sea ice, all of this is undergoing changes, but at a much faster rate than we had thought."

But more worrying than this, the team noted, are the ways in which different issues act synergistically to increase threats to marine life.

Some pollutants, for example, stick to the surfaces of tiny plastic particles that are now found in the ocean bed.

This increases the amounts of these pollutants that are consumed by bottom-feeding fish.

Plastic particles also assist the transport of algae from place to place, increasing the occurrence of toxic algal blooms - which are also caused by the influx of nutrient-rich pollution from agricultural land.

In a wider sense, ocean acidification, warming, local pollution and overfishing are acting together to increase the threat to coral reefs - so much so that three-quarters of the world's reefs are at risk of severe decline.

Life on Earth has gone through five "mass extinction events" caused by events such as asteroid impacts; and it is often said that humanity's combined impact is causing a sixth such event.

The IPSO report concludes that it is too early to say definitively.

But the trends are such that it is likely to happen, they say - and far faster than any of the previous five.

"What we're seeing at the moment is unprecedented in the fossil record - the environmental changes are much more rapid," Professor Rogers told BBC News.

"We've still got most of the world's biodiversity, but the actual rate of extinction is much higher [than in past events] - and what we face is certainly a globally significant extinction event."

The report also notes that previous mass extinction events have been associated with trends being observed now - disturbances of the carbon cycle, and acidification and hypoxia (depletion of oxygen) of seawater.

Levels of CO2 being absorbed by the oceans are already far greater than during the great extinction of marine species 55 million years ago (during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum), it concludes.

Blue planet

The report's conclusions will be presented at UN headquarters in New York this week, when government delegates begin discussions on reforming governance of the oceans.

In the long run, greenhouse gas emissions must be cut to conserve ocean life, the report concludes IPSO's immediate recommendations include:

- stopping exploitative fishing now, with special emphasis on the high seas where currently there is little effective regulation
- mapping and then reducing the input of pollutants including plastics, agricultural fertilisers and human waste
- making sharp reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
- Carbon dioxide levels are now so high, it says, that ways of pulling the gas out of the atmosphere need to be researched urgently - but not using techniques, such as iron fertilisation, that lead to more CO2 entering the oceans.

"We have to bring down CO2 emissions to zero within about 20 years," Professor Hoegh-Guldberg told BBC News.

"If we don't do that, we're going to see steady acidification of the seas, heat events that are wiping out things like kelp forests and coral reefs, and we'll see a very different ocean."

Another of the report's authors, Dan Laffoley, marine chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas and an adviser to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), admitted the challenges were vast.

"But unlike previous generations, we know what now needs to happen," he said.

"The time to protect the blue heart of our planet is now."

NEC To Focus On New Ideas For 'Green Brunei'

Asia Inc Forum has officially announced the date for the next National Environment Conference, and also given details on what is to be expected.

Now in its fourth year, the National Environment Conference (NEC) will take place at the Rizqun International Hotel on June 8, with the theme "Green Brunei: New Ideas for a Sustainable Country".

The conference will focus on the state of the environment and the priorities for Brunei including water, marine conservation, disaster preparedness, green business sustainability and youth advocacy.

It will also feature overseas speakers from Singapore and Australia who will assess how we can best adapt to our changing climate.

The conference will coincide with the "Youth Go Green Initiative Awards", an event held to recognise the contribution of the young citizens of Brunei in promoting environmental awareness on the effects of climate change and global warming as well as stimulating their creative minds in taking action to save the environment for their future through innovative green solutions.

The 2011 Youth Go Green Initiative Awards will be founded under the theme "Saving the World, Saving Our Future", and is organised in collaboration with the Science, Technology and Environment Partnership (STEP) Centre, Ministry of Education.

Another feature at the upcoming NEC will be the "Green Showcase", an exhibition of initiatives or programmes by Asia Inc Forum's corporate partners and local businesses in promoting products and services, which will be open to the public.

Also to be showcased are the outstanding and shortlisted entries of the 2011 Youth Go Green Initiative Awards and projects by the next generation, including the "ISB Short Eco Video Competition" which aims to educate the public about the importance and relevance of taking action and adopting a green lifestyle.

For more information and to register for the conference, the awards or the exhibition, you can visit Asia Inc Forum's website, www.asiaincforum.com.

Keep sharks in the ocean and out of the soup!!

Sharks are in serious trouble. Many of the world's shark populations are in collapse. Some shark species have declined by more than 90 percent in the last two decades. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) scientists warn that one-third of open ocean sharks are threatened with extinction. Yet sharks continue to be fished faster than they can reproduce.

Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark's fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea. The sharks either starve to death, are eaten alive by other fish, or drown (if they are not in constant movement their gills cannot extract oxygen from the water). Shark fins are being "harvested" in ever greater numbers to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup, an Asian "delicacy".

Not only is this practice very cruel, but losing these top predators has devastating impacts on underwater ecosystems and local economies. Conservation hinges on effective shark finning bans, strict international fisheries management, reduction of consumer demand, increased shark research and protection of vital habitat.

So what can we as concerned global citizens do to prevent this slaughtering of sharks??

A cause has been started on facebook with the aim of stopping the sale of shark fin soup in Singapore. The aim is to persuade hotels and restaurants to stop selling shark fin soup by campaigning, boycotting and educating people about the dangers that finning poses, not only for sharks, but for the oceans and our own health.

The most efficient way to stop the restaurants selling shark fin soup is to just SAY NO!!!