FIVE LEFT ON EARTH - Beautiful South Asian Dolphins

Dolphin's Death Leaves Only Five of Her Kind

The recent death of one of the remaining six Irrawaddy river dolphins in the Mekong River in Laos highlights the desperate situation for the already critically endangered animal.

Not the Only One, Too

Villagers in Cambodia discovered the female dolphin carcass on April 1, according to news reports in Phnom Penh. She was thought to have been one of the oldest and largest dolphins in the region — a trans-boundary river pool, called the Wang Paa Khaa, which straddles Laos and Cambodia; there are an estimated 85 dolphins remaining in all of the Mekong River, says WWF, of which Cambodia is home to the vast majority. Read More.

At Times There Are NO Words For Loss

#BBC #Mongolia Sludges Into Ecological Nightmare

The Dystopian Lake Filled By The World's Tech Lust

From where I'm standing, the city-sized Baogang Steel and Rare Earth complex dominates the horizon, its endless cooling towers and chimneys reaching up into grey, washed-out sky. Between it and me, stretching into the distance, lies an artificial lake filled with a black, barely-liquid, toxic sludge.

Dozens of pipes line the shore, churning out a torrent of thick, black, chemical waste from the refineries that surround the lake. The smell of sulphur and the roar of the pipes invades my senses. It feels like hell on Earth. Read More

"Rare Earth" 

Such An Ironic Twist of Words

#Oregon Stars Are Dying - No More Twinkle, Twinkle...

Sea star disease epidemic surges in Oregon, local extinctions expected

 Contact: David Stauth, 541-737-0787; Kristen Milligan, 541-737-8862



CORVALLIS, Oregon (OSU) – Just in the past two weeks, the incidence of sea star wasting syndrome has exploded along the Oregon Coast and created an epidemic of historic magnitude, one that threatens to decimate the entire population of purple ochre sea stars.

Prior to this, Oregon had been the only part of the West Coast that had been largely spared this devastating disease.

The ochre sea star, which is the species most heavily affected by the disease in the intertidal zone, may be headed toward localized extinction in Oregon, according to researchers at Oregon State University who have been monitoring the outbreak. As a “keystone” predator, its loss could disrupt the entire marine intertidal ecosystem.

Researchers say this is the first time that die-offs of sea stars, more commonly known as starfish, have ever been identified at one time along such a wide expanse of the West Coast, and the sudden increase in Oregon has been extraordinary.
The best information is from the intertidal zone, which is easier to access for monitoring. In this area, less than 1 percent of the ochre sea stars in Oregon were affected in April, and only slightly more than that by mid-May.

Baffling Scientists?

Watch!

Today, an estimated 30-50 percent of the Oregon populations of this sea star species in the intertidal zone have the disease. The highest losses are at Fogarty Creek, where about 60 percent are affected. Researchers project that the epidemic will intensify and, at some sites, nearly 100 percent of the ochre sea stars could die.


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"Say Dad, did you hear the news about Oregon?"

"Very sad, son"

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New Chinese Laws Attack Pollution

China Takes On Pollution With Biggest Changes in 25 Years

BEIJING (Bloomberg News) – China’s legislature passed the biggest changes to its environmental protection laws in 25 years, punishing polluters more severely as the government works to limit smog and contaminated water and soil linked to three decades of economic growth.

Amendments to the law “sets environmental protection as the country’s basic policy,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. The rules hadn’t been changed since first enacted in 1989 as China began consuming more energy as the most-populous country grew into a global manufacturing hub.

Now the world’s biggest carbon emitter, China has moved to address the environmental damage that has been a byproduct of its breakneck economic growth and become a leading cause of social unrest. Government reports and recent comments from top officials about pollution have revealed the extent of the damage and health issues related to China’s soil, water, and air. 

The amendments give the public and government “powerful new tools” to cut pollution, Barbara Finamore, senior attorney and Asia director at the Natural Resources and Defense Council in New York, said in an interview. “The pollution is now impossible to ignore,” she said. “This is very big news.” 

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Pollution Doomsday

China's Fresh Air Supply At Risk

China's latest fad is breath of fresh air: Oxygen stations set up across the country

By Susannah Hills

(Daily Mail) – It is one of the most polluted countries on earth.

So it may come as little surprise that the latest fad in China is literally offering its city dwellers a breath of fresh air.


Numerous fresh air stations have been set up in some of China's most polluted cities.

The stations are stocked with individual air bags which provide users with pollution-free fresh air.



And they have proved to be a big hit with one air station in Zhengzhou city in central China's Henan province which was inundated with visitors.

China's Newest Fashion Statement

Uniformed air hostesses hook up visitors to oxygen masks so they can breathe air sourced from the Laojun Mountain scenic spot in Luanchuan county, which is 80% green land, in Henan province.



There was no shortage of takers as locals flooded to enjoy the free fresh air.

User Feng Lin, 75, said: 'The air is really good, but the time is too short. I had to stop too soon but it was really great until then.'

It comes after just three of China's 74 cities met the official air quality standards, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection in China.

Snow Storm in Buffalo N.Y?  Wrong again!

The air bags are China's latest attempt to address its dangerous smog levels - described as an environmental crisis by the World Health Organisation - after canned and bottled air already hit the streets.

The air stations follow on from last week when costumed characters called Oxygen Babies were giving away air bottles filled with air collected at the Tianmu mountain scenic spot in the county of Linan in Zhejiang province

See For Yourself

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China Digs LA Size Coal Base; Carbon Grave Dooms Climate

China Is Building a "Coal Base" the Size of LA

Brian Merchant

(Motherboard) – China, faced with ever-worsening pollution in its major cities—a recent report deemed Beijing "barely suitable for living"—is doing what so many industrializing nations have done before it: banishing its titanic smog spewers to poor or rural areas so everyone else can breathe easier.

But China isn't just relegating its dirty coal-fired power plants to the outskirts of society; for years, it's been building 16 unprecedentedly massive, brand new "coal bases" in rural parts of the country. There, they won't stifle China's megacities; they'll churn out enough pollution to help smother the entire world.

The biggest of those bases, the Ningdong Energy and Chemical Industry Base, spans nearly 400 square miles, about the size of LA. 

Just Adding to This Unbelievable Devastation 

It's already operational, and seemingly always expanding. It's operated by Shenhua, one of the biggest coal companies in the world. China hopes to uses these coal bases not just to host some of the world's largest coal-fired power plants, but to use super-energy intensive technology to convert the coal into a fuel called syngas and use it to make plastics and other materials. 

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