I think no one checks their JcSaints.org webmail so:
Dear Saint,

As we prepare the exciting move from Malan Road to Potor Pasir at the end of
the year, we hope to contiune to maintain the ties with you. In this regard, I
am inviting you to visit the SAJC-alumni website at
http://vle.sajc.moe.edu.sg:8080/alumni/ ,
where you can help us by updating your contact information as well as to
participate in the discussion forum. Your contact information is important to
us as we can keep you posted about the latest events in SAJC.

Mr Sia Lai Chai
Head/IT


PHOTOS ARE TAKEN WITH A DIGICAM AT ORCHARD. FOR BETTER PICTURES, GO TO THE GUY'S WEBSITE.
http://www.yannarthusbertrand.com/index_new.htm
http://www.yannarthusbertrand.com/yann2/index.php
Earth From Above
An Outdoor Photographic Exhibition
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
26 Oct 2005-17 Jan 2006
Orchard Road
Singapore

Towards a sustainable development-Since 1950, economic growth has been considerable, and world production of goods and services has multiplied by a factor of 7. During this same period, while the world’s population has only doubled, the volume of fish caught and meat produced has multiplied by 7, and carbon dioxide emissions, the main cause of the greenhouse effect and global warming, by 4. Since 1900, fresh water consumption has multiplied by 6, chiefly to provide for agriculture.

And yet, 20% of the world’s population has no access to drinking water, 25% is without electricity, 40% has no sanitary installation, 842 million people are underfed, and half of humanity lives on less than $2 a day.

In other words, a fifth of the world’s population lives in industrialized countries, consuming and producing in excess and generating massive pollution. The remaining of the four-fifths live in developing countries and, for the most part, in poverty. To provide for their needs, they make heavy demands upon the Earth’s natural resources, causing a constant degradation of our planet’s ecosystem and limited supplies of fresh water, ocean water, forests, air, arable land, and open spaces.

This is not all. By 2050, the Earth will have close to 3 billion additional inhabitants. These people will live, for the most part, in developing countries. As these countries develop, their economic growth will jockey for position with that of industrialized nations – within the limits of ecosystem Earth.

The Earth’s situation is not situation is not irreversible, but changes need to be made as soon as possible. We have the chance to turn toward a sustainable development, one that allows us to improve the living conditions of the world’s citizens and to satisfy the needs of generations to come. This development would be based on an economic growth respectful both of man and the natural resources of our unique planet.

Such development requires improving production methods and changing our consumption habits. With the active participation of all the world’s citizens, each and every person can contribute to the future of the Earth and mankind, starting now.

With over 100,000 shots in the collection, Yann Arthus-Bertrand has chosen the 120 exhibits to communicate his own vision.

About Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Yan Arthus-Bertrand was born in March 1946. At the age of 30 he moved to Kenya with his wife Anne to study lions in the Maasai Mara Reserve and discovered a unique way of capturing the beauty of the natural world, flying over the landscape in a balloon.

Earth from the Air was a massive project for Yann,. He spent ten years carefully researching the landscapes he has selected, flying over 76 countries and clocking up 3,000 flying hours by helicopter. Earth from the Air has taken him to Antarctica, Alaska, southern Argentina, Australia, Siberia and Africa.

For more information, please visit www.yannarthusbertrand.org

This outdoor Photographic Exhibition is co-presented by French Embassy of Singapore and Singapore Environment Council.



MOUNT EVEREST, HIMALAYAS, NEPAL (27°59' N, 86°56' E).
In the massif of the Himalayas stands Mount Everest, the highest point on the planet at 29,028 feet (8,848 m). In Nepali the mountain is called Sagarmatha, “He whose head touches the sky,” and in Tibetan it is called Chomolongma, “Mother Goddess of the world.” The name Everest comes from the British colonel George Everest, who in 1852 was commissioned to map the landscapes of India. It was not until May 29, 1953, that the “roof of the world” was climbed by the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and the Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Although they may seem invincible and unchanging, the Himalayas are actually in the midst of profound ecological change. The rise in temperatures in the region (+1.8°F, or +1°C since 1970) is causing the glaciers to melt and the mountain lakes are filling so quickly that some forty of them are in danger of overflowing within five years, threatening the lives of millions of people in the valleys below. At the current rate, the glaciers of the Himalayas, like all mountain glaciers worldwide, could disappear within 40 years. The consequences would be enormous; mountain areas provide water for half of the world’s population.


ABANDONED CITY OF PRIPIAT, NEAR THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT AT CHERNOBYL, UKRAINE (51°21' N, 30°09' E).
The April 1986 explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine caused the worst civilian nuclear catastrophe of all time. A radioactive cloud escaped from the destroyed reactor and contaminated wide expanses in a spotted pattern, not only in Ukraine but also in Belarus and nearby Russia. The 120 closest neighboring localities, including Pripiat (2 miles from the epicenter, population 50,000), were evacuated, although not until some time after the accident. The cloud, pushed by winds, spread over Europe. Today the exact number of victims is not certain, but it is estimated that several million people suffer from illnesses linked to the radiation, such as deformities, cancers, and immune deficiencies. In December 2000 the last reactor of the power station, kept in operation to produce 9 percent of the country’s electricity, was finally shut down, in exchange for Western aid of $2.3 billion for the construction of two other nuclear stations. The nuclear industry has yet to solve the problem of disposing of highly radioactive, long-lasting waste products, generated by 442 reactors in 35 countries, which are accumulating in stockpiling centers.


“TREE OF LIFE,” TSAVO NATIONAL PARK, KENYA (2°11' S, 38°25' E).
This acacia is a symbol of life in vast expanses of thorny savanna, where wild animals come to take advantage of its leaves or its shade. Tsavo National Park in southeastern Kenya, crossed by the Nairobi–Mombasa road and railway axis, is the country’s largest protected area (8,200 square miles, or 21,000 km2) and was declared a national park in 1948. Tsavo was already famous for its many elephants when, in the 1970s, more animals fleeing drought entered the park. Consuming more than 440 pounds (200 kg) of vegetation daily, they seriously damaged the natural environment. Controversy surrounded the question of whether selective slaughter was necessary, but poachers put an end to the debate by exterminating more than 80 percent of the 36,000 elephants in the park. Tsavo’s rhinoceroses, sought after for their horns (considered aphrodisiacs in Asia), suffered the same fate. The prohibition of international trading in ivory and rhino horns has enabled certain wild animal populations to increase in number. However, poaching and disappearing natural habitats remain disturbing threats. World trade in wild flora and fauna provides between $12 billion and $19 billion in revenues each year.


FIELDS OF TULIPS NEAR LISSE, NEAR AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS (52°15' N, 4°37’ E).
In April and May of every year, the Dutch countryside briefly dons a multicolored garb. Since the first flowering in 1594 of bulbs brought back from the Ottoman Empire by the Austrian ambassador, four centuries of selection have led to the development of more than 800 varieties of tulip. On more than 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares), half devoted to tulips and one-quarter to lilies, the Netherlands produce 65 percent of the world production of flowering bulbs (or some 10 billion bulbs). But this success has been obtained at a high environmental price: in the 1990s, Dutch pesticide usage was the highest in Europe. Both the public and private sectors have therefore signed agreements regulating the use of chemical products, waste, and energy, and farmers have begun to make use of natural predators to protect their crops. Organic agriculture is expanding in the Netherlands and is now becoming big business. Similar environmentally conscious initiatives are happening worldwide; in several Canadian cities, as well as the town of Rennes in France, local councils have prohibited the use of chemical pesticides in public parks.


THE CORCOVADO OVERLOOKING THE CITY OF RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (S 22°54' W 43°14').
Perched on a rocky 2,326-foot-high (704 m) peak called Corcovado, or hunchback,” the statue of Christ the Redeemer overlooks the Guanabara Bay and its famous Sugarloaf,” as well as the city of Rio de Janeiro. The city owes its name—which means River of January”—to a misunderstanding by the first Portuguese explorers who dropped anchor in the bay, in January 1502, and thought they had arrived at the mouth of a river. The capital of Brazil from 1763 to 1960, Rio de Janeiro has developed into a megalopolis with a population of more than 10 million and spreading out over 30 miles (50 km). Christ the Redeemer of Corcovado is a reminder that Brazil has the largest Catholic population in the world, approximately 141 million (86 percent of the population). The more than 1 billion Catholics worldwide make up the largest denomination in Christianity, the world’s most widely practiced religion, which has nearly 2 billion followers (Catholic, Protestant and Othodox).


HEART IN VOH, NEW CALEDONIA (FRENCH OVERSEAS TERRITORY) (20°57' S, 164°41' E).
A mangrove swamp is a semi-aquatic forest common to muddy tropical coastlines with fluctuating tides. Made up of halophytes (plants that can grow in a saline environment), with a predominance of mangroves, these swamps cover almost one-quarter of tropical coasts and a total of some 56,000 square miles (15 million hectares) worldwide. This represents only half of their original extent, because these fragile swamps are continually shrinking due to the overexploitation of resources, agricultural and urban expansion, the creation of shrimp farms, and pollution. The mangrove nonetheless remains as indispensable to sea fauna and to the equilibrium of the shoreline as it is to the local economy. New Caledonia, a group of Pacific islands covering 7,000 square miles (18,575 km2), has 80 square miles (200 k2) of a fairly low (25 to 33 feet, or 8 to 10 m) but very dense mangrove swamp, primarily on the west coast of the largest island, Grande Terre. At certain spots in the interior that are not reached by seawater except at high tides, vegetation gives way to bare, oversalted stretches called “tannes,” such as this one near the town of Voh, where nature has carved this clearing in the form of a heart.