Preserving Singapore’s ‘Green Spine’ – Southeast Asia Real Time – WSJ

• …away from the crowds and noise is an unexpected sanctuary: a 26-kilometer, century-old defunct railway connecting Singapore to Malaysia, which environmental groups dream of turning into Singapore’s own version of New York’s High Line, the former elevated rail line that was converted into a trendy urban nature walk through Manhattan’s Meatpacking District and Chelsea neighborhoods.

  ________________________________________________________________________________

  Singapore is positioning to be “A city in the Garden”. Julia and I were there briefly, years ago, moving quickly in the blazing heat in search of shadows at midday. The Japanese and Chinese Gardens in the city center are memorable as are the traveller’s palms, sentries in front of the old Raffles Hotel. 

Hot Off the Press: Designer Plant Combinations

• Awarded, accomplished, and colorful author,  Scott Calhoun traveled the country searching for the freshest, most exciting plant groupings. He visited the gardens of top designers from coast to coast and chose more than 100 combinations to include in his photographic celebration. Riots of complementary colors, masses of grasses, foliage spectacles in extraordinary shades of green and purple, and height variations as arresting as city skylines are all featured in these exciting gardens, each one an intimate self-contained glimpse of a larger garden.

• There are ten pages of images and text on the Brine Garden in this far-ranging, stimulating, and inspirational book.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Tropics insects ‘face extinction’

•  

  Many tropical insects face extinction by the end of this century unless they adapt to the rising global temperatures predicted, US scientists have said.

  Researchers led by the University of Washington said insects in the tropics were much more sensitive to temperature changes than those elsewhere.

• Unlike warm-blooded animals, cold-blooded organisms cannot regulate their body temperatures by growing a coat of fur or shedding it when it gets warm. They are instead limited to either seek shade when hot or sun themselves when cool.

Warming threat worse in tropics – Los Angeles Times

•  

  Scientists say many species can’t tolerate small temperature rises.

  From the Associated Press
  11:47 AM PDT, May 5, 2008

  WASHINGTON — While global warming is expected to be strongest at the poles, it may be an even greater threat to species living in the tropics, scientists say. Tropical species are accustomed to living in a small temperature range and thus may be unable to cope with changes of even a few degrees, according to an analysis in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

• The tropical species in our data were mostly thermal specialists, meaning that their current climate is nearly ideal and any temperature increases will spell trouble for them.” PNAS: http://www.pnas.org