This website focuses mainly on the lesser studied vertebrates of Southeast
Asia, such as elusive forest lizards, small mammals and hard-to-find frogs.
Recently a corner has been set aside for Southeast Asia's birds : though I
am by no means an expert on birds, or indeed an expert in anything, over the
years I have amassed a fair collection of bird images which now have a home.
Regular visitors may notice some recent cosmetic improvements to this
website : page size has been widened, many images are now larger and the
home page you are now reading has been redesigned. I hope you like the
changes.
As a geologist working in the oil industry what can I say about the recent terrible
disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico ? The oil spill is a shocking
tale of human error, regulatory failing, and mechanical failure. It's easy
for Americans and others to finger-point the CEO of BP, but this is really
missing the point. The reality is that 99% of the people on this planet use
petroleum products on a daily basis : we are all responsible for depleting
the world's oil reserves, and for pushing explorers into remote regions and
deep offshore waters to explore for oil at the limits of technology. The
ecology and environment of the coastal states will recover one day as oil is
a naturally biodegradable product, but let's not forget the greater,
insidious damages being done to the natural world by day-to-day climate
change, deforestation and irreversible habitat destruction.
Let's hope that major economies, the US included, make greater efforts to
switch to sustainable, non-polluting energy sources. In the end some good
may come out of this tragedy.
Thanks to : Sophia Sak Baker, Chan Kwok Wai,
Vilma D'Rozario, Horst Flotow, Con Foley, James Gan, Graeme Guy, Tim Jackson, Leong Tzi Ming, Joseph Lim, Kelvin Lim, Norman Lim, Celine Low, Shawn Mathai,
Ng Bee Choo, Tony O'Dempsey,
Mark O'Shea, Bruce Paterson, Timothy Pwee,
Subaraj Rajathurai, Stephen Richards, Morten Strange, Ria Tan, Andrew Tay, Robert
Teo, Sivasothi, Yeo Suay Hwee ... I
get by with a little help from my friends.