China seeds clouds in wheat-growing areas to ease drought

BEIJING (Reuters) – Many Chinese wheat-growing provinces in the north seeded clouds over the weekend to help end a persistent drought and encourage the growth of winter wheat. In Shandong, one of the country’s major wheat-growing areas, jets and rockets were used to bring rain and ease the drought that had hit 800,000 hectares of […]

European eel stocks below 10% of 1970s levels

By PAUL AMES, Wintam, Belgium …They may be slimy, snakelike and a distinct turn-off for many people, but eels have formed an integral part of European cuisine since the time of the ancient Greeks. Yet without urgent action, scientists fear this mysterious beast could disappear from the continent’s waterways and dinner tables for good. European […]

Hong Kong's ghostly seas warn of looming global tragedy

HONG KONG, Oct 29 (AFP) Oct 29, 2009 The live fish facing death in the glass tanks in Hong Kong’s famous seafood restaurants tell a strange and haunting tale of a looming global tragedy. At the heart of their story is the bizarre fact that there are more fine fish swimming in the tiny tanks […]

Infernal landscapes of industrial China, part 2: more photography of Lu Guang

18. There are over 100 chemical plants in Jiangsu province coastal industry district. (江苏滨海头罾沿海化工园区) Some of them discharge wastewater into the ocean; some heavily contaminated sewage is stored in 5 “Sewage Temporary Pools”. During the 2 high tides in every month, the sewage then gets discharged into the ocean with the tides. June 20, 2008. […]

World's tigers poached to extinction within 20 years

By Gopal Sharma KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Tigers could become extinct in the wild in two decades unless the world ramps up conservation efforts to halt the decline in their population, wildlife experts said on Wednesday. Barely 3,500 tigers are estimated to be roaming in the wild in 12 Asian countries and Russia compared with about […]

Chinese paddlefish may be extinct in Yangtze River

By Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com, October 22, 2009 In December of 2006 it was announced that the Yangtze River dolphin, commonly known as the baiji, had succumbed to extinction. The dolphin had survived on earth for 20 million years, but the species couldn’t survive the combined onslaught of pollution, habitat loss, boat traffic, entanglement in fishing […]

Pesticides exposure linked to suicide

ScienceDaily (Oct. 22, 2009) — A new study in China has found that people with higher levels of pesticide exposure are more likely to have suicidal thoughts. The study was carried out by Dr Robert Stewart from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London together with scientists from Tongde Hospital Zhejiang Province. The agricultural […]

15,000 residents near Chinese smelters to be relocated

Authorities in central China plan to move 15 000 residents away from smelting plants in the area after nearly 1000 children tested positive for lead poisoning, state media said on Friday. Zhao Suping, mayor of Jiyuan city in Henan province, said the mass relocation would cost one billion yuan ($146-million), the official Xinhua news agency […]

Infernal landscapes of industrial China: the photography of Lu Guang

By David W. Dunlap and James Estrin Any effort to describe the photography of Lu Guang by reference to the work of other artists would almost certainly invoke the name of W. Eugene Smith. (It is, for instance, just about impossible to look at Slide 4 without thinking of “Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath.”) So […]

Nearly 1,000 Chinese children poisoned by metal plants

By Emma Graham-Harrison and Lucy Hornby BEIJING, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Nearly 1,000 children living in a major Chinese lead smelting base have excessive levels of the heavy metal in their blood, state media said on Tuesday, as environmentalists called on firms to detail their pollution. The country’s biggest smelter has acknowledged some responsibility in […]

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