Monthly Archives: August 2010
Rothschild giraffe on endangered list
Driven from its wild ranging West African habitats, the Rothschild giraffe is clearly in peril. Now, its plight has been officially recognized. The world’s largest environment network, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has added it to its red list of endangered species.
Named after the banker and zoologist Walter Rothschild who first described it, the species joins the West African giraffe on the list, making it the second most threatened of the nine giraffe sub species. Fewer than 670 Rothschild giraffes now live in the wild, in isolated populations. Some 40 per cent live in National Parks and private land in Kenya and the remaining 60 percent in Uganda. 
While giraffes overall are ranked of “least concern” by the IUCN, partly due to a lack of data, there are far fewer Rothschild giraffes remaining than there are endangered African elephants. Conservationists say farming developments are largely to blame for the animal’s decline.
Dr. Julian Fennessy, co-founder of the giraffe Conservation Foundation and one of the researchers whose analysis led to the species being added to the list, said “I am delighted and of course saddened at the same time that the Rothschild giraffes has finally made the IUCN red list status. We have been striving for this for a while now and hope this will highlight to the world the critical state its tallest creature is in.”
Isolation of the species’ remaining populations and a lack of understanding about how it lives and feeds are hampering efforts to restore its numbers.
The Rothschild giraffe’s project, launched in the spring and supported by the Giraffes Conservation Foundation hopes to gather more information about the giraffe’s habitats and habits in order to put conservation plans in place.
Three Gorges dam threaten by debris
Thousands of tonnes of rubbish washed down by recent torrential rain are threatening to jam the locks of China’s massive Three Gorges dam and is in places so thick that people can stand on it. Chen Lei, a senior official at the China Three Gorges Corporation said that 3,000 tonnes of rubbish was being collected at the dam everyday, but there were still not enough resources to clean it all up. “The large amount of waste in the dam area could jam the mitre gate of the dam,” said referring to the gates of the locks which allows shipping to pass through the Yangtze river. The river is a crucial commercial artery for Chingqing and other areas in China’s less-developed western interior provinces. 
Some 50,000 square meters of the water’s surface had been covered by debris washed down since the start of the rainy season in July. The rubbish is around 60cm deep and in some part so compact that people can walk on it. The three Gorges dam is the world’s largest hydro power project and was built partly to tame the flooding along the Yangtze which filled over 4,000 people in 1998. The dam has cost over £24 billion and forced relocation of 1.3 million people to make way for the reservoir. Towns, fields and historical and archaeological sites has been submerged. Environmentalist have warned for years that the reservoir could turn into a cesspool of raw sewage and industrial chemicals backing on to Chongquing city, fearing that silt trapped behind the dam could cause erosion downstream.
-The Guardian
How to reuse old shoe laces
We have all got pairs of old shoes. While recycling your old running shoes is always a good idea, you can put your laces to good use too. Just make sure that you give your old laces a good washing. Here are four ways to put your old laces back into use.
- Turn shoelaces into pet toys. String a lace or two through a mini jingle bell and you’ll get your kitty riled up in no time.
- Add a stylish touch to long braids. Add an interesting shoelace to your ponytail or braid it through your hair. If you have shorter hair, try it as a headband.
- Use laces as ribbon when you’re wrapping presents. Use a simple knot and you’re good to go. Add beads to the laces for added creativity and your wrapping job will be as special as a gift within.
- Make your tablecloth fit your table. If your tablecloth doesn’t fit your table, use your old laces to tie each corner of the tablecloth into what resembles a ponytail. You can leave the shoelaces showing of if you would rather hide it with the tablecloth; pooch the fabric on top of the shoelace knot by pulling it upward, back through the shoelace knot.
Pollution renders quarter of Chinas water unusable
Almost a quarter of China’s surface water remains so polluted that it is unfit even for industrial use, while less than half of total supplies are drinkable, data from the environment watchdog showed on July 26. Inspectors from China’s Ministry of environmental Protection tested water samples from the country’s major rivers and lakes in the first half of the year and declared just 49.3 per cent to be safe for drinking, up from 48 per cent last year, the ministry said in a notice posted on its website. 
China classifies its water supplies using six grades, with the first three grades considered safe for drinking and bathing. Another 26.4 per cent was said to be categories IV and V – fit only for use in industry and agriculture – leaving 24.3 per cent in category VI and unfit for any purpose. Despite tougher regulations over the last decade, the ministry has struggled to rein in the thousands of small paper mills, cement factories and chemical plants discharging industrial waste directly into the country’s waterways, and the overuse of fertilizers has also left large sections of China’s lakes and rivers chocking with algae.