A unique protest against pollution

You may not like Chinese philanthropist and environmentalist Chen Guangbiao, I like him. He has been selling canned fresh air to fight pollution.
Chen said, “Every day we are inhaling the exhaust fumes of cars, and now we have pollution-free air to sell – a benefit to everyone’s health and longevity.”

Canned fresh air is selling well in China. Chen believes a sale of more than a hundred million in the first year should not be a problem. He actually wanted to make a point that China’s air was turning so bad that the idea of bottled fresh air is no longer a luxury.
Beijing’s air pollution reached danger levels. Shanghai, Guangzhou and some other Chinese cities are also dangerously polluted.

China is the most polluted country in the world. Estimated 2011 CO2 Emissions in metric tonnes in:
1. China 8.7 billion
2. USA 5.42 billion
3. India 1.97 billion
4. Russia 1.83 billion
5. Japan 1.24 billion
6. Germany 810 million
7. South Korea 610 million
8. Canada 560 million
9. Indonesia 490 million
10. United Kingdom 470 million

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Time has come to sell canned fresh air in other polluted countries.

The whale talk

NOC, a nine-year-old whale made human-like-sounds.

Vocal bursts averaged about three per second, with pauses reminiscent of human speech. Analysis of the recordings showed that the frequencies within them were spread out into “harmonics” in a way very unlike whales’ normal vocalizations and more like those of humans.

The mimicry is no easy task for whales. NOC had to modify his vocal mechanics to make human-like- sounds. We did not know whales could do that.
We know so much about animals! And we do not know so much about animals!

The speech!

BBC says:

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s fiery speech on misogyny has prompted Australia’s leading dictionary to update its definition of the word. Footage of Ms Gillard lambasting the opposition’s Tony Abbott as a misogynist in parliament last week drew global attention. The Macquarie Dictionary describes misogyny as ”hatred of women” but editor Sue Butler says it will be expanded to ”entrenched prejudice against women” in the next edition.

[Read more…]

Goodbye dear primates!

Today's news :

Twenty-five species of primate are now close to extinction, according to a report released at the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity.
Pygmy Tarsier

Nine originate from Asia, six from Madagascar, five from Africa and five from the Neotropics. Some are appallingly close to the brink, such as the Pygmy Tarsier (Tarsius pumilus) of southern and central Sulawesi, with just three individuals captured inside the Lore Lindu National Park and one observed in the wild. [Read more…]

100 most endangered species!

Scientists fear 100 most endangered species they listed at the World Conservation Congress in South Korea will be allowed to die out because they have no obvious benefits for human beings. The population of many endangered species is less than 100. Some of the species population is just 10 or less than 10. We humans are one of the reasons behind their disappearance. Our hunting. agriculture expansion, over-fishing, deforestation, urbanization etc. forced many species to say goodbye forever.

We should not let them die out.

1. Plougshare tortoise 2.Rio Pescado stubfoot toad 3.Pygmy three-toed sloth 4.Tarzan’s chameleon 5.Seychelles sheath-tailed bat 5.Jamaican iguana, Jamaican rock iguana 6.Cayman Islands ghost orchid 7.Wild yam 8.Spoon-billed sandpiper 9.Liben lark 10.Singapore freshwater crab 10. Edwards’s pheasant 11.Attenborough’s pitcher plant 12.Luristan newt 13.Vaquita 14. Greater bamboo lemur 15. Saola 16. Red River giant softshell turtle 17. Javan rhino 18. Cebu frill-wing 18. Red-finned Blue-eye 19.Estuarine pipefish 20. Suicide Palm, Dimaka 21. Bullock’s false toad 22. Baishan fir 23.Araripe manakin 24. Amani flatwing 25.Bulmer’s fruit bat 26.Leaf scaled sea-snake 27. Aci Göl toothcarp 28. Actinote zikani 29. Antisolabis seychellensis 30. White bellied heron 31. Giant yellow croaker 32. Galapagos damsel fish 33. Hirola 34. Madagascar pochard 35. Bazzania bhutanica 36. Great Indian bustard 37. Common batagur, Four-toed terrapin 38. Franklin’s bumblebee 39. Willow blister 40. Roloway guenon 41. Amsterdam albatross 42.Santa Catarina’s guinea pig 43.Sumatran rhino 44. Callitriche pulchra 45.Nelson’s small-eared shrew 46. Diospyros katendei 47. Elaeocarpus bojeri 48. Dombeya mauritania 49. Chilenito 50. Hula painted frog 51. Macaya breast-spot frog 52.Dipterocarpus lamellatus 53. La Hotte glanded frog 54. Coral tree 55.Northern bald ibis 56. Hemicycla paeteliana 57.Ficus katendei 58. Table mountain ghost frog 59. Euphorbia tanaensis 60. Gocea ohridana 61. Gigasiphon macrosiphon 62.Hibiscadelphus woodii 63. Dusky gopher frog 64. Archey’s frog 65. Moominia willii 66.Belin vetchling 67. Margaritifera marocana 68.Sakhalin taimen 69. Magnolia wolfii 70.Natalus primus 71.Parides burchellanus 72. Pangasid catfish 73. Gooty tarantula 74. Oreocnemis phoenix 75. Qiaojia pine 76.Hainan gibbon 77.Picea neoveitchii 78. Fatuhiva monarch 79.Psiadia cataractae 80.Geometric tortoise 81. West Australian underground orchid 82.Silky sifaka 83. Tonkin snub-nosed monkey 84. Common sawfish 85. Beydaglari bush-cricket 86.Boni giant sengi 87. Angel shark 88. Red crested tree rat 89. Somphongs’s rasbora 90.Durrell’s vontsira 91. Tokudaia muenninki 92.Rosa arabica 93. Chinese crested tern 94. Valencia letourneuxi 95.Attenborough’s echidna 96. Forest coconut 97. Metallic tarantula 98. Peacock parachute spider 99. Peacock tarantula 100. Salepurgu.

If we want, we can save many endangered species. They need our help to make their species survive. Why shouldn’t we help if it prevents some species from going extinct?

Great Indian Bustard.

Spoon-billed sandpiper


Tonkin snub-nosed monkey

Roloway Guenon

Hainan Gibbon

Tarzan Chameleon

Madagascar Pochard

Coral tree

Table mountain ghost frog


Attenborough’s Pitcher plant

Javan Rhino

Red-finned blue-eye

Angel Shark

Saola


Amsterdam Island Albatross


Santa Catarina’s guinea pig


Northern muriqui

Jamaican Iguana

Sea Otters can save the world from global warming!

A new study says :

Sea Otters can save the world from environmental collapse. All they have to do is what comes naturally — keep eating Sea Urchins. More Otters means less Urchins, and less Urchins means more healthy kelp forests. More healthy kelp forests means less CO2. According to the researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, ‘a thriving Sea Otter population that keeps Sea Urchins in check will in turn allow kelp forests (Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Earth) to prosper. The spreading kelp can absorb as much as 12 times the amount of CO2 from the atmosphere than if it were subject to ravenous Sea Urchins. Sea Otters have a positive indirect effect on kelp biomass by preying on Sea Urchins, a kelp grazer.’

Awwww. I was almost kissing a Sea Otter for it could save the world. I was so happy but a man named Ian Chant said, ‘It’s not a ton of help!’
Me: Why not?
Ian Chant: ‘Climate change is exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions that come from pretty much everything cool that humans do from driving cars to operating power plants to farming cattle!…’
Me: We know it. Don’t we? Tell me what should we do now? Should we give up hope?
Ian Chant: ‘Kelp beds where otters hang out are some of the most efficient CO2 absorbers known to us. But sea urchins love to eat some kelp bed.’
Me: And Sea Otters love to eat sea urchins.
Ian Chant: ‘Yes, but it’s not a ton of help, ultimately, but considering the greenhouse gas emissions mess we’re in — and how much worse it could get — man, we’ll take any help we can get’.
Me: Yes, we should take any help we can get. It makes sense.

But the Sea Otter, a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean is dying. Sea Otters are killed by Sharks. But we should not kill sharks to save Sea Otters. Lots of Sea Otters die because of protozoan parasites, Toxoplasma gondii and Sarcocystis neurona, that are known to breed in cats and opossums. Sea Otters are dying because cat owners flush used litter down the toilet! (Outdoor cat eats rodent or bird infected with Toxoplasma gondii parasite. Parasite develops in cat’s gut and its eggs are released in scat. Eggs travel through runoff or are flushed into sewers. Eggs end up in the ocean and are ingested by mussels, clams and oysters. Otter eats shellfish; eggs infect the otter’s brain and organs and kill it.) Sea Otters are also killed by thorny-headed worms dropped into the ocean by seabirds. And they get killed because of industrial chemicals, algae blooms and other toxins linked to coastal pollution. Toxic algae that blooms triggered by urea, a key ingredient in fertilizer. How does it happen? Again, through shellfish, shellfish eats everything and Sea Otters eat shellfish.

The truth is, we will not able to save Sea Otters from dying because we are unable to stop seabirds from dropping thorny-headed worms into the ocean, to stop shellfish from eating everything whatever they get, to stop sharks from biting Sea Otters and, moreover, we are unable stop ourselves from polluting our oceans.