EcocentricUncategorized
From the Department of Gripes:
You might not think of Hong Kong as a trove of natural serenity, but actually, the seven million people living here are squished into a remarkably small area. We all live piled on top of each other and jockey for space on impossibly narrow sidewalks while about 75% of the land of the Special …
EcocentricRegulation
From the department of (mostly) good news, a major study released today by London-based NGO Chatham House offers one of those rare beasts in the jungle of environmental reports: improvement.
The report finds that the collective efforts of government, civil society and the private sector in 12 countries have yielded big …
EcocentricUncategorized
Pity the pangolin. The nearly blind anteater, with only its keen sense of smell and razor-sharp plates of armor to rely on, doesn’t look like it has much of chance at making it in our modern world, and illegal wildlife smugglers seem to be doing their best to seal that fate.
Last week, customs officials in Guangzhou, southern …
EcocentricWeather
Okay, I know it’s weird to keep writing about Greenland from Hong Kong, but what can I say. Greenland’s constantly shifting landscape is a busy place.
The latest spasm of geography on the world’s largest island was recorded last week, when between July 6 and 7, scientists monitoring satellite images of Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier in …
EcocentricEndangered Species
In its ongoing campaign to draw attention to Indonesia’s deforestation woes, Greenpeace has released a new report singling out Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), one of the world’s largest paper companies owned by Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas, for sourcing trees from rainforest and peatland that are home to endangered species like the …
EcocentricInvasive Species
Cane-toad fighting Australians had better brace themselves for more bad amphibious news this week. Researchers at the University of Sydney have found that the invasive, poisonous cane toad that has been goading the southern continent for the better part of the last century will have a distinct advantage as global temperatures …
EcocentricUncategorized
Environmental NGOs in China and the U.S. are trying to redirect the world’s fixation on the new iPhone 4 to the environmental records of the factories where it and other mobile phones and computers are built in China. In particular, the groups have been revving up pressure on Apple to answer questions about pollution regulation …
EcocentricEndangered Species
When Iceland resumed commercial whaling in 2006, an old whaling station in a deep, beautiful green fjord called Hvalfjordur — or ‘whale fjord’ — was dusted off about an hour’s drive outside the capital of Reykjavik. The company that had lobbied the government to resume commercial whaling was, in fact, the only company that …
EcocentricEnergy
China’s coal mining industry saw another disaster today when an mine explosion in the central province of Henan killed 46 miners on the spot. The mine, located in one of China’s biggest coal producing regions, was allegedly operating illegally, according to the government-run Xinhua news agency. Though the cause of the blast is still …
EcocentricEndangered Species
Whaling hasn’t had an overwhelming surge of global support since the days of oil lamps and corsets, but the eastern hemisphere’s tolerance for Japan’s ongoing hunt is wearing particularly thin these days.
The latest to jump ship is Palau, a Pacific island a few thousand miles south of Tokyo which has backed Japan in its exploitation …
