Climate Change Significance 400ppm CO2

If you were talking levels of mercury contamination of water you drank daily then chances are you would be already be dead or at least you would probably be a vegetable. The FDA approved limit in drinking water is 1ppm. In fact, a level of 400ppm of mercury in your drinking water would cause panic in your neighborhood and a demand for immediate action to locate the source and put a stop to it.

In air, if you were talking carbon dioxide, it would mean little to your daily lives in terms of direct affects on your health. The difference is that, unlike mercury, elevated levels of carbon dioxide do not affect us in a way that causes panic . . . unless you happen to be faced with: rising sea levels, warming oceans, melting artic ice, floods, landslides, crop failure, out-migration of traditional food sources, absence of fish due to acidifying of oceans, failed water sources or fewer ski slopes to ski each winter.

Many, otherwise evidentially intelligent, people of my acquaintance think that 400ppm of carbon dioxide is nothing to panic about and, in some ways, they are correct because there is no immediate affect on their health or their livelihood, today. I hold a slightly different view.

I have been listening to scientists – the real ones, who actually know what they are talking about instead of the (self promoting, paid for controversial-opinion) Fox and CNN news pundits – for more than three decades now. Although their phrases have been modified to suit a perception of political acceptability (instead of “global warming” we now hear of “climate change”), they have been saying the same thing and their words have been borne out by subsequently measured results. If you have not been listening, or if you have blocked you brain to the undeniable, then you are in serious need of an epiphany.

The hardest argument thrown against my analysis of scientifically derived research is that the Earth is going through a “natural cycle” of warming, so there is nothing we can do about it. I have no answer to this counter statement because it may be true. However, ten years ago the counter statement to my analysis was that actually the Earth was heading for a “new ice age” and therefore the current warming trend would be reversed and would thus save mankind. Obviously, both counters to my analysis cannot be true as they are mutually exclusive.

My observation of the current counter to my analysis is that it now acknowledges that warming is taking place – we measure it in the oceans that occupy approximately 70% of the surface of the Earth, so it is undeniable. So here I am in my car at the top of the hill and sure enough if I do nothing (if I do not apply a brake) then the car will roll down the hill. However, I have two choices (to apply the accelerator or the brake) if I now put my foot the accelerator, the car will more rapidly go down the hill.

What we are seeing, through direct observation of the warming oceans, the melting icecaps and the frequency of more violent weather events (storms, droughts etc.) is that not only is there a warming trend but that the trend is accelerating, just as if I was putting my foot on the accelerator.

There is complete agreement amongst the real scientists that the accelerator (of the warming) is increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air and that the burning of fossil fuels is the primary cause. If you do not agree with this then you do not understand basic chemistry and physics.

So, the question may be expanded to ask, is the burning of fossil fuels the only mechanism that is accelerating the relative increase in carbon dioxide?

The answer is that there other accelerators. Mother Earth has evolved to turn carbon dioxide into something more solid (fossil Fuels) and less influential in the atmosphere. It has developed plants and trees that take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. So, in the balance that existed before the discovery of oil and coal as sources of inexpensive, albeit wasteful, energy production, the trees and the plants balanced the atmospheric gases that allowed humans et al to evolve or, if you are still living in the dark ages, allowed the “created” life we see around us to exist on this planet.

So, if we remove the plants and the trees from the planet then we are removing that which could, potentially, maintain the balance of gases in the atmosphere. Is this what we are doing? Yes. We are removing plants and trees in volumes that also accelerate the increase of carbon dioxide because there are now fewer trees and plants to convert the carbon dioxide into oxygen.

Here you have it in a nutshell: Man, through the burning of fossil fuels (oil, coal and gas primarily), is increasing acceleration of carbon dioxide production and at the same time is reducing the balancing element (trees and plants) that have evolved to create the perfect conditions to support life on Earth as we know it. If you want to call it a double-whammy then you would be about right.

Fewer trees and plants to absorb and convert carbon dioxide to oxygen and more fossil fuels burned to increase the volume of carbon dioxide. If you did basic math at school then you can add up the two negatives and you will get a bigger negative.

The bottom line is that from two different angles we are screwing up the Earth that gives us life.

The result will be either, a new life where we are forced to pay for cooling services or, we will be forced to migrate farther North or South to cooler climates . . . and that is a bit of a problem the way countries with borders are somewhat protectionist about migration. Mother Nature has already shown us the latter in that many species of migratory birds and animals have, in the past few decades, altered their migratory paths to take account of the changing temperature.

The trick is that our food resources cannot simply migrate because they will run out of territory in which to thrive.

But wait! Even today we hear of an engineered wheat plant that can produce 30% greater yields, but we do not yet know whether it is more or less dependent on fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides. The problem is that even wheat needs somewhere to grow and if we run out of places for it to grow then the majority of humanity will find little value in a better performing wheat.

Are there real solutions to this problem available today to not only reduce the pressure on the accelerator but also to apply a brake?

Fortunately, there are solutions.

Our greatest use of fossil fuels is to produce energy for use by individuals and by industry, the lesser use (although the more visible) is to produce exotic plastics for packaging and components.

All can be replaced with sustainable and renewable alternatives. Today, if we so choose. And increasingly in the future. With the advent of new battery technology – the main stumbling block, we have been told – we will be able to not only harness more of Mother Nature’s energy, more efficiently and more cost effectively, but we will also have more, easier ways to store and transport that energy.

If we stop cutting forests and woodland to plant bio-energy crops (because we do not need them if we switch from combustion engine power to electric motor power) then we will have (a) more land to grow the more efficient feed-crops and (b) more plants and trees to absorb more carbon dioxide. Basic math again tells us that this is the intelligent thing to do.

If you are still a denier that either, (a) climate change is happening or, (b) burning fossil fuels is a significant part of the problem or, (c) stripping forests is counter productive or, (d) nothing can be done, then you lack the simplest intelligence.

If you still think that nothing can be done because big-oil holds all the cards and Republicans control Congress then listen to on US state governor who has an idea that will change you perspective: meet Jennifer Granholm.

Stone Skimming Championship Winners 2012

This year will mark the second running of the International Stone Skimming Championships in Romblon town, Romblon, Philippines. Scotland has long been the ancestral home of International Stone Skimming Championships but now it has a challenger that aims to offer competition at least as good and possibly surpassing the founders, by virtue of its more exotic location.

What is stone skimming (ducks and drakes or stone skipping)? If you hold a roundish, flattish stone in your hand, with your index finger curled around the circumference, and flick your wrist just the right amount then the stone will spin upon release. If you simultaneously catapult your arm in a horizontal arc at just the right height above the surface of calmish water, the spinning stone will bounce across the surface of the water. Too little spin, not horizontal enough or the wrong height, and water not calm enough, then the stone will simply plop.

The number of bounces and the distance traveled by your stone are directly related to the roundishness, flattishness of the stone, the arc, horizontalness and sweep-speed of your arm, combined with the calmness of the water.

There are other factors to winning an international stone skimming championship. Some claim that and early bounce will give greater impetus to the stone along its way, while others with assert that a longer flight before the first bounce will achieve a superior result. Few really know the scientific equations needed to calculate the perfect distance for the first bounce, and by the time too many beers have been consumed even fewer care. Like most sports, the really important thing is to have a bloody good time with like minded people doing something that everyone can get involved with, near a body of water.

It is one of those curiosities of youth: how to defy gravity and a simple law of physics that says a body denser than water, on a body of water, will sink. The skill of stone skimming is almost instinctive – give a child a roundish, flattish stone and a body of calmish water and there is a high probability that s/he will try to make the stone bounce across the surface of the water. Since before it was first recorded in literature (1565: as “Duck and Drakes”), stone skimming has idled away hours of childrens’ time, and that of countless adults.

Organized in three divisions (children, women and men), the 1st International Stone Skimming Championships, held in Romblon in 2012, attracted an international cast of expatriate stone skimmers of all sexes and ages. Some might conclude that these expatriates may have been out in the Philippine sun too long but, having just met the organizers and many of this year’s competitors, enjoying a cold beer outside the Romblon Deli & Coffee Shop, I can assert that this year’s championship will also include a determined contingent of local, Filipino stone skimmers . . . probably attracted by watching the jovial nature of the competition last year and realizing that the skills involved are not inherently foreign.

In the 1st International Stone Skimming Championships in Romblon, in 2012, the stones used in the competition were all provided by the organizers. As the day wore on and the various heats were decided, the pile of stone diminished and some complained that the stones left for the final rounds were not ideally suitable for the purpose. In 2013, the organizers of the 2nd International Stone Skimming Championships in Romblon have solved this problem – bring your own stones.

Where the Romblon stone skimming championships differ from the Scottish stone skimming championships is that, in Scotland the winner is determined by the farthest distance traveled by the skimming stones whereas, in Romblon the stone that skims the most times, irrespective of distance traveled, is deemed the winner.

Both methods of winning calculation are open to dispute. In Romblon, three independent and impartial judges are convened to count the number of times a given stone has skimmed the surface. The average of the three counts will be the recorded number for that stone to determine who has won and who has not.

If you would like to try your wrist at winning the 2nd International Stone Skimming Championships in Romblon, then come on down to Romblon town, Philippines, on 10th March and drop by the Romblon Deli & Coffee Shop for breakfast, to find out where the competition will be held. If you are really determined to win, arrive in Romblon a few days early and go beach-combing to select your own cache of perfectly roundish, flattish skimming stones.

For More information contact David Kershaw email : dpkershaw@gmail.com

Red Sky At Night – Shepherd’s Delight?

Getting wet seems to be the easiest thing to do in the World at the moment, with floods (or snow fall that will turn to flood) in: United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Mozambique, the United States et al

Why does there appear to be so much precipitation?

Is it, as a friend of mine said recently, "a factor of the ability to deliver immediate news and especially when there is no real news flooding is a good headline"?

Take Davao City, Mindanao, for example. Here, the weather forecast this week was for more than 50mm of rain every three hours, almost every day. Awesome some would say; the US based FNMOC meteorological website indicated that they could not indicate so much rain and so the weather system appeared as an open space on their forecast charts – because it exceeded their three-hour maximum of 30mm . . . schools and businesses were closed in preparation. Fortunately, the actual precipitation was less than 30mm per three-hour period and the flooding moderate only.

Davao’s weather is "unseasonal" insomuch as at this time of year they would normally expect clear skies in the morning with afternoon thunderstorms, instead they are receiving non-stop rain. Anecdotal evidence states that this has been the case for the past couple of years. A temporary change in the weather only?

The erstwhile promoter of Mindanao goodness – Mr. Jess Dureza – was prompted to issue an editorial in the Mindanao Times titled "I know why the floods", in which he waffled in hs explanation of why and actually failed to disclose anything at all that was worthy of note. He did site Al Gore’s inconvenient truth and other prophets of impending doom but he failed to explain how his support for construction of yet another Aboitiz funded coal-fired power station, for Mindanao, could in any way be part of the problem. Either he is completely ignorant or he chooses to ignore the inconvenient truth – that burning fossil fuels is determined to be a major cause of the increased precipitation that he so voluminously writes about.

Here is the simple equation: heat up water and it evaporates into the air as water vapor; cool the water vapor (e.g. as it rises over land), and it precipitates (turns to water again and falls to Earth). Explaining this to a six year old is easy but to a sixty+ year old appears to be a challenge.

So what is heating the World’s oceans? The sun, obviously. For many millions of years the sun’s heat that has been absorbed by the oceans has been dissipated into the air and eventually dissipated into cold "space", at a steady rate that is balanced and has been understood to create relatively predictable weather systems, for centuries.

What has changed? During this last century, since Man devised ingenious ways of extracting fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal) from beneath the ground and then burning them in even more ingenious "combustion engines" and furnaces, We (yes: you, me and virtually everyone) have been adding Carbon Dioxide (CO2) to the air at increasing rates.

Why is this important? The "air" is a mixture of gases. A balanced mixture that allows the heat to dissipate into space at relatively predictable rates, creating predictable weather systems and (most important) predictable precipitation. Some of the gases that make up our air accelerate heat dissipation others restrict heat dissipation – CO2 is one of the gases that restricts heat dissipation. By increasing the proportion of CO2 in the air the air is changing its heat dissipation properties and is, in fact, not allowing so much heat to dissipate into space. The result: the oceans are warming.

Warming oceans result in two related, observable phenomena: when heated, water expands (causing rising sea levels); and, when heated, water evaporates more rapidly causing more severe weather systems to develop and to deposit their load (rain/snow) over land.

Mr. Dureza, in his editorial, is keen to point out the former result: he states that sea water levels have increased by as much as “twelve inches” over a twenty year period at his point of reference, on the sea shores of Mindanao, near Davao City. Unfortunately, Mr. Dureza fails to note that the corollary to rising sea levels is the increased evaporation. He also conveniently fails to note that adding CO2 to the air is a major part of the cause that has created the effect he has observed, despite his siting of Al Gore’s dissertation on the subject.

The bottom line is this: if We continue to upset the balance of gases in the air by adding more CO2 then We are decreasing dissipation of heat into space; as the oceans warm then evaporation will increase and the water in the oceans will expand; and, as the level of evaporation increases so too will precipitation as the water vapor rises over land and cools.

If we are to curtail what we currently refer to as "extreme" weather events (which will actually, soon become the norm) then we need to stop producing CO2 in the current quantities. That means less coal fired/diesel/gas powered electricity generation and more alternative-energy wave/tidal/solar/wind/geothermal powered electricity generation. It is being accomplished in other countries and it can be accomplished here in the Philippines. All it needs is the political will, the removal of the blinkers and the eradication of greed . . . if we have two out of three then everything is possible.

So, please remove your support for Aboitiz coal-fired power stations in the Philippines and instead support wave/tidal/solar/wind/geothermal power generation alternatives . . . Aboitiz executives I have spoken to, when they divorce themselves from the need for corporate greed, know that this is the true path forward for the Philippines, and the World.

Hobie Sailing On Taal Lake

Is sailing a Hobie 16 your thing? If you want to get into sailing Hobie 16s then February 2013 is the best time to do it in the Philippines. Starting with the Philippine Hobie National Championships at the beginning of the month in Iloilo (open to anyone on the planet who knows how to sail a Hobie 16) and ending with the Philippine Hobie Challenge along the Zambales coast, starting from Candelaria, Zambales.

In case you did not now . . . a Hobie 16 is a fast sailing catamaran just 16 feet long. It is designed to be sailed by two people at extreme speeds (assuming the wind is favorable), although it is possible to sail it slowly as well. The spiritual home of Hobie 16 sailing in the Philippines is the Taal Lake Yacht Club, an hour South of Metro Manila on the shores of Taal Lake.

Philippine Hobie National Championships

The Philippine Hobie National Championships (1st-3rd February) is an annual regatta event, comprising a weekend packed full of Hobie 16 racing. This year, for the first time, the event will be held in Iloilo on the island of Panay and will be sponsored by the Anhawan Resort.

The event is organized by the Philippine Inter-island Sailing Foundation, Inc. (“PHINSAF”), an organismic that was formed to especially promote small boat sailing around the 7107 islands of the Philippine archipelago. The racing will be governed by the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing and the Rules of the International Hobie Class Association (IHCA) except as they may be amended by the Sailing Instructions.

Although this is the first time that the Philippine Hobie National Championships will be held in Iloilo it is by no means the first time that Iloilo will be the venue for sailing events. In fact, the longest running sailing event in the Philippines – the Iloilo Paraw Regatta – takes place in Iloilo every February. Iloilo is also home the the Iloilo Sailing Club, which own and operate a fleet of sailing dinghies and small yachts.

The Philippine Hobie National Championships is open to any sailor who is interested to sail a Hobie 16 in up to nine races over two days.

In past years this event has attracted competitors from as far away as Australia and the United Kingdom. Although the award of National Champion will be bestowed upon the best performing Philippine national or Philippine permanent resident, the competition is open to all nationalities and residents of any country.

If you do not happen to have a Hobie 16 in your hand-carry then boats are available for rent for this event but you should contact the organizers in advance to make sure there is a boat available for you on the day. All teams are required to comply with their Class Weight Rules. Helms and crews shall register and weigh in with the Organizing Authority at the Welcome/Registration Party on Friday, 1st February, 2013, between 1900-2100 hrs at Anhawan Resort, Iloilo City.

Philippine Hobie Challenge

The annual Philippine Hobie Challenge (23rd February to 1st March) is a week long adventure sail through the Philippine Islands, frequently set along courses that provide extreme sailing action. Like the Philippine Hobie National Championships, the Philippine Hobie Challenge is organized by PHINSAF and is governed by the ISAF RRS and the Rules of the IHCA.

This year the Philippine Hobie Challenge will launch from the Dawal Resort (Candelaria, Zambales), and travel in daily racing hops: northwest to the beautiful Hermana Mayor Island (Zambales), for the In-Shore series; South to Capones Island Resort (Zambales); South again, past Subic Bay, to Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar (Bagac, Bataan); and then returning North to the exclusive, would-be eco-resort of Anvaya Cove, just South of Subic Bay, in Morong Bataan.

If you are an experienced Hobie 16 sailor and you want to find out why it is more fun in the Philippines then this is the event to join.

Philippine Hobie Challenge Rally

If you want to join in the fun but do not want to hang-out on the trapeze all day then you could alternatively join the Philippine Hobie Challenge Rally. The Rally is for cruising yachts; it allows cruising sailors to participate in the fun and camaraderie of the event, at the same time as providing safety services and support to Hobie 16 sailors who may get into trouble during the sometimes extreme racing conditions.

Whether you want to sail a Hobie 16 or simply pixelate their progress from the comfort of a cruising yacht, you cannot do so much with so little except here in the Philippines in February 2013.

Choose the Philippines and find out why real sailors want to get wet in PI.

Use this email to contact the Philippine Hobie National Championships Secretariat, Germaine Ngu : admin@phinsailing.org

Click this link to contact the Philippine Hobie Challenge today!

Competitive Sailing In Puerto Galera

For the first time in the club’s history, the Puerto Galera Yacht Club will host a Chinese New Year sailing regatta with courses set across the Verde Island Passage. This new sailing event is designed to provide an alternative for both local and international yachtswo/men who would like to enjoy their vacation while sailing in the warm spring breezes along the Verde Island Passage, instead of in February’s frigid waters around Hong Kong.

One of the challenges with gaining support from yacht and crews from outside the Philippines is the three to four day sail required to get here from Borneo, Taiwan or Hong Kong (longer from Singapore and Malaysia). In order to allow more sailors to join in the fun, local yacht owners are being encouraged to offer their boats for use during the Chinese New Year Regatta. This will be a first in the Philippines and, if it proves successful, will be repeated for other events in Puerto Galera.

The fun factor for most crews attending any regatta in Puerto Galera is the unique pursuit race format. Unlike most sailing events, where yachts have a common start time, the Puerto Galera Yacht Club has pioneered the pursuit race, staggered start time format. In a pursuit racing, yachts start based upon a start time, computed based upon the theoretical time to cover the designated course depending on the forecast wind on the day. Some say that this is not a true test of yachts and crew but, in recent years, with twenty years of racing records available to the handicapper, the race results usually mean that competitors finish within a few minutes of each other.

For the serious racing yachts, the Puerto Galera Yacht Club applies the IRC rating system to the results and, with few exceptions, the race results prove the validity of the pursuit handicap system. For example, during the Royal Cargo All Souls Regatta 2012, yachts in the IRC class that made the fewest errors finished within seconds of each other on both the pursuit handicap and the IRC rating system.

Other competitive sailing events in Puerto Galera each year include the: New Year Regatta (28-30 December); Easter Regatta (Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Easter Weekend); and, All Souls Regatta (holiday weekend around All Souls/All Saints day at the end of October) – the largest yachting event in the Philippines since 2004.

Book now for the Chinese New Year Regatta in Puerto Galera 9-11 February, 2013

To find out more about the Chinese New Year Regatta or to find out about renting a yacht in Puerto Galera, visit the Puerto Galera Yacht Club website.

Competitive Rowing On The Pasig River

The Philippines is slowly becoming the recognized venue for international sporting events and in particular, water sports events. For example: in December 2012 the holiday resort paradise of Boracay Island hosted the windsurfing RS:One World Championship; in 2013 the waters off Boracay’s famous white-sand beach will be the venue for the Asian Moth sailing championships.

A lesser known water sport in Asia (particularly in the Philippines) is the sport of rowing. For the first time in its 70+ year history, the Philippines has been chosen as the 2013 venue for the ARAE-FEARA Regatta ("Amateur Rowing Association of the East" – "Far East Amateur Rowing Association"), running from 13th to 20th of January 2013 at Paoay Lake, Laoag, Ilocos Norte. The host organization for the event is the Manila Boat Club.

Ironically, despite it relative obscurity within the current sporting landscape of the Philippines, the country’s oldest sports club is a rowing club – the Manila Boat Club. Founded in 1895, the Manila Boat Club became a distinct entity when it parted ways with the Manila Club (the de facto British club in the Philippines), at the time when the Manila Club migrated from a waterfront location in Manila City to a landlocked location. The Manila Boat Club has occupied its current facility, on the banks of the Pasig River (precisely on the Manila side of the boundary between Manila and Makati cities), since 1932.

Distinct from various other paddling sports (kayaking, dragon boat racing, canoeing), rowing is all about applying a force to a lever (the oar) around a fulcrum and using the resistance of water to propel a boat forward. As early as 1340BC (Egyptian, Amenhotep II), proficiency in rowing was recognized as a skill to be mastered for acclaim. The term "regatta" originates from 13th century Venice, where "contests" (rigatta) were held between teams and individuals rowing boats.

The modern rowing regatta, and the competitive rules that govern such events, has its history in the United Kingdom, on London’s River Thames. Boatmen, who would more ordinarily ferry passengers across the river, would engage in races for wagers offered by wealthy landowners and trading houses along the riverbank. The oldest surviving regatta of this kind is reported to be the "Doggett’s Coat and Badge", first contested in 1715.

In the Philippines, rowing was once the predominant competitive water sport of the major colleges – De La Salle, Ateneo, UP et al – but fell into decline with the introduction of martial law when students were more inclined to engage in sports no farther than on campus. Only recently has the sport of rowing come into vogue in colleges again, with local competitions organized between the Manila Boat Club and Ateneo University.

Paoay Lake is the chosen venue for the 71st ARAE-FEARA Regatta because it will mark the establishment of the first international rowing school in Asia, at the lake. With the support of the Ilocos Norte provincial government, the rowing school will aim to offer the opportunity for rowing enthusiasts from around the World to experience intensive training in the sport throughout the year. Apart from the fact that the lake offers near perfect waters for rowing, it is only a few kilometers from Laoag international airport – making it easy to reach from most countries.

Paoay Lake is a huge body of water, measuring some 470 hectares in area, and is designated a National Park because of its outstanding natural beauty and significance in the cultural heritage of the area.

To find out how to get involved in the sport of rowing in the Philippines or in the 71st ARAE-FEARA Regatta, visit the Manila Boat Club website now.

To keep up to date on other water sports around the Philippines, read the Active Boating & Watersports magazine – the Philippines’ only magazine dedicated to water sports.

Super Typhoon Bopha (Pablo)

Super Typhoon Bopha (locally “Pablo”) made landfall around 6am (4th December, 2012) just South of Baganga town in the province of Davao Oriental. The expected track will take super typhoon Bopha across central and northern Mindanao to near Dipolog, Zamboanga del Norte, and then to Northern Palawan. What is unusual about super typhoon Bopha is that it has tracked so far South, for so long.

The weather system started as a tropical depression, some 1300 nautical miles East of Davao City, near 2.5N 159.0E, on the 25th November, as reported by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center and subsequently via the Puerto Galera Yacht Club email Typhoon Warning service. At that time, the storm system was expected to track west-northwest, with only a small chance of touching land in the Philippines.

By 27th November it was apparent that there was a high probability of it passing over southern Samar and, by 1st December, as a full typhoon, it was obvious that Mindanao would be the landfall . . . probably around Surigao City.

[Surigao City is no stranger to tropical storms although fully fledged typhoons are considered rare – the last one that caused significant damage in Surigao City was Typhoon Ike in 1984]

However, by 3rd December, super typhoon Bopha had set its sights farther South, and Surigao del Sur was considered the most likely target. Even then, keen typhoon watchers were expecting the storm to track farther South.

There is only one prior documented account of a typhoon passing over the northern extremes of Davao Cit,y and that occurred in almost the same week of the year (26-Nov through 1-Dec) in 1909. The 1909 typhoon formed south-southwest of Palau, entered Mindanao to the South of Caraga, passed north of Davao City proper, crossed the province of Cotabato and exited the island into the Sulu Sea South of Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte.

Today, 4th December, at around 6am, super typhoon Bopha crossed the Mindanao coast, headed for Dapitan also. By 9am in Davao del Norte, the mountain town of Talaingod was reporting high winds and rain, with damage caused to plantations and flimsy wooden houses; New Corella was reporting similar destructive winds and rain, with landslides on denuded hillsides that have been recently converted from virgin rainforest to agricultural lands. In Davao City, the rain, which had been falling lightly since the previous evening, became heavy and the winds moderate to strong. Already, corrugated-iron roofs on houses in Davao City were being lifted, causing distress to occupants.

The forecast suggests that after exiting Mindanao near Dipolog, super typhoon Bopha is expected to cross the Sulu Sea, South of Tambobo Bay, Negros, and then on to northern Palawan, near Malampaya Sound, before passing into the West Philippine Sea and finally into the South China Sea.

I am frequently asked whether such extreme weather events are caused by Man-induced climate change. The fact that a similar typhoon passed over Mindanao, at a similar time of year in 1909, would suggest that the cause may not necessarily be related to climate change. However, the increased frequency of such extreme weather events – the last one, just one year ago, Severe Tropical Storm Washi (locally named “Sendong”), 15-18 December, 2011 – are, in my opinion, a clear result of warmer oceans, which in turn lead to more frequent severe weather events. Whatever the cause of the increased frequency of more severe storms, the increased devastation on land is definitely Man-induced – removing virgin rainforest, for timber and for conversion to agricultural land, is a most irresponsible act, as the now unchecked rainwater overwhelms & chokes waterways, and the topsoil-runoff in turn chokes vital coral reefs near river mouths.

Stay up to date on typhoon weather using the Puerto Galera Yacht Club Philippine Weather webpage

Miss Scuba: Saving Oceans Through Beauty

Subic Bay 6th October – The Miss Scuba Philippines pageant aims to put everyone’s focus back into the ocean. Miss Scuba Philippines is part of the Miss Scuba International series of pageants, which were first held in 2011. First event: scuba diving lessons at the Lighthouse Marina Resort, Subic Bay.

Unlike most beauty pageants that simply celebrate the inner beauty and courage of today’s modern women, Miss Scuba Philippines will follow the Miss Scuba International philosophy of focusing the participants and the associated media coverage on local and global ocean conservation campaigns.

Miss Scuba is all about advocating worldwide marine conservation through sustainable activities, starting with scuba diving; the top national champions will go on to compete for Miss Scuba International. The winning delegate of the Miss Scuba International competition will undertake a year of ocean conservation campaigns to educate and inspire the desire in all of us to do our best to safeguard our oceans. The pageant will also offer her a unique and comprehensive platform to launch her career and personal development.

Miss Scuba Philippines will hold its first scuba diving event in Subic Bay at the Lighthouse Marina Resort on 8th October. The participants will be offered advanced scuba training in the resort’s swimming pool under the direction of the Boardwalk Dive Center.

More activities will follow up until 27th October, when participants will return to the Lighthouse Marina Resort for the coronation of Miss Scuba Philippines. The Miss Scuba Philippines coronation will also aline with the launching of the "Save Capones Island Campaign" on the beachfront at the Lighthouse Marina Resort. The winner of Miss Scuba Philippines will travel to Bali, Indonesia, for the Miss Scuba International finals on 30th November.

The criteria for winning the Miss Scuba 2012 crown are: individual talent, diving skills, scuba tourism knowledge, marine conservation knowledge, communications, work ethics, participation and catwalk adeptness.

Miss Scuba promotes safe diving practices through worldwide professional training organizations, elevating its important international tourism and cultural appreciation. As people travel to far off destinations to dive, they also learn to appreciate the cultural diversity that makes our world such an interesting tapestry.

It is hoped that the Promotion of Miss Scuba International will garner support from those who are determined to see our Ocean and thus our Earth survive and prosper for many more generations to come.

Find out more from the Miss Scuba Philippines website