3. Here are pictures of sink holes, craters, collapsed roads and etc. Sinkholes appeared in Guatemala City because of poor sewer system (some think). Sinkholes also appeared in various parts of China, Jordan, Mexico, London, in [Mr. Whittaker's garden], and so on. Some are because of old mine shaft, collapsed caves, declining water levels, and etc.
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In pictures: sinkholes, craters and collapsed roads around the world
By Telegraph
Some 66 feet (20 metres) across, and between 100 feet (30 metres) and 200 feet (60 metres) deep, the almost perfectly circular sinkhole that opened up suddenly May 30 in Guatemala City, developed after Tropical Storm Agatha...
3. Fishermen are so cruel when they take the fin of shark. They just cut it, and throw the rest of body into the sea. Due to this, sharks become endangered species. Under the situation, the decision of Maldives (and Palau) has an importance meaning to provoke world politics. In addition to, I think the reason the problem is difficult to be solved is that the matter is linked with tradition of Chinese culture. Thus, it is hard for Chinese to change their familiar habits. The cooperation of China is essential to solve the problem, I think. In order to do, world society has to reveal the truth of sharks.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4 PARIS — The Maldives will make its territorial waters into a shark sanctuary, a government official said Tuesday, lending momentum to efforts to protect the fish at a United Nations endangered species conference that begins this week. “We’ve decided to go ahead with a shark fishing ban,” Ibrahim Didi, the fisheries and agriculture minister of the Maldives, said by telephone from Male, the capital. “Beginning July 1 there will be a total ban on exports.” Maldives becomes the second nation to announce blanket protection for its sharks. Palau, a tiny Micronesian state, in September announced a ban on shark fishing. Like the Maldives, Palau is regarded as one of the world’s top scuba-diving destinations. … In one sense, the bans represent pure economic logic. Researchers from James Cook University … estimated that a single gray reef shark was worth $3,300 a year to the Maldivian tourism industry, compared with the one-time value of $32 that a fisherman would get from the same shark. They found a similar dynamic with regard to sharks on the Great Barrier Reef. But the bigger issue is a rapid decline in global shark stocks that has alarmed scientists. Up to 30 percent of shark species is threatened with extinction… On Saturday, member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora begin meeting in Doha, Qatar, where they will consider giving protected status to eight species of sharks, including the scalloped hammerhead and oceanic whitetip, which inhabit Maldivian waters. The measures call for restrictions, but not a ban, on international trade. In the United States, the Shark Conservation Act, which would sharply curtail the practice of “finning” — cutting off sharks’ fins and throwing the rest of the animal back into the sea — has passed the House of Representatives and is awaiting approval in the Senate. Mr. Rand said more than 70 million of the fish were killed each year just to support the sharkfin trade. The vast majority of those are sold in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where they are used in sharkfin soup. … “Sharks don’t have the ability to rebound,” he said. “They grow slowly and they’re late to mature.” Some sharks do not reach maturity until they are more than 10 years old and even then have only a few pups, so the stock cannot reproduce rapidly enough to make up for overfishing. The value of sharks to the Maldives “is clearly in tourism and diving,” Mr. Rand said. … Mr. Didi, the Maldivian fisheries minister, said his government began planning for a ban last year, but objections from fishermen delayed the decision. Now, he said, “they understand that it isn’t a sustainable fishery.” The government will provide the fishermen with financial support and retraining, Mr. Didi said. … The Maldives’ shark-fishing ban could also give impetus to a thorny discussion in London over an initiative to create the world’s largest marine reserve in British territorial waters around the Chagos islands, the Indian Ocean archipelago where the Diego Garcia military base is located. … - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/asia/10iht-shark.html?ref=maldives
I’m sorry to post it late. I didn’t know that. Sorry.
A very down to earth* kind of guy. I'm an environmental sociologist interested in establishing material and organizational sustainability worldwide. I'm always looking for interesting materials/technologies, inspiring ideas, or institutional examples of sustainability to inspire others to recognize their choices now. To be fatalistic about an unsustainable world is a sign of a captive mind, given all our options.
*(If "earth" is defined in a planetary sense, concerning comparative historical knowledge and interest in the past 10,000 years or so anywhere...) See both blogs.
1.Wonmi Nam
ReplyDelete2. '2012' coming true?
3. Here are pictures of sink holes, craters, collapsed roads and etc. Sinkholes appeared in Guatemala City because of poor sewer system (some think). Sinkholes also appeared in various parts of China, Jordan, Mexico, London, in [Mr. Whittaker's garden], and so on. Some are because of old mine shaft, collapsed caves, declining water levels, and etc.
---
In pictures: sinkholes, craters and collapsed roads around the world
By Telegraph
Some 66 feet (20 metres) across, and between 100 feet (30 metres) and 200 feet (60 metres) deep, the almost perfectly circular sinkhole that opened up suddenly May 30 in Guatemala City, developed after Tropical Storm Agatha...
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[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/7818648/In-pictures-sinkholes-craters-and-collapsed-roads-around-the-world.html?image=1]
1. Hye Jung, Choi
ReplyDelete2. Maldives Ban Fishing of Sharks
3.
Fishermen are so cruel when they take the fin of shark. They just cut it, and throw the rest of body into the sea. Due to this, sharks become endangered species. Under the situation, the decision of Maldives (and Palau) has an importance meaning to provoke world politics. In addition to, I think the reason the problem is difficult to be solved is that the matter is linked with tradition of Chinese culture. Thus, it is hard for Chinese to change their familiar habits. The cooperation of China is essential to solve the problem, I think. In order to do, world society has to reveal the truth of sharks.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4
PARIS — The Maldives will make its territorial waters into a shark sanctuary, a government official said Tuesday, lending momentum to efforts to protect the fish at a United Nations endangered species conference that begins this week.
“We’ve decided to go ahead with a shark fishing ban,” Ibrahim Didi, the fisheries and agriculture minister of the Maldives, said by telephone from Male, the capital. “Beginning July 1 there will be a total ban on exports.”
Maldives becomes the second nation to announce blanket protection for its sharks. Palau, a tiny Micronesian state, in September announced a ban on shark fishing. Like the Maldives, Palau is regarded as one of the world’s top scuba-diving destinations.
…
In one sense, the bans represent pure economic logic. Researchers from James Cook University … estimated that a single gray reef shark was worth $3,300 a year to the Maldivian tourism industry, compared with the one-time value of $32 that a fisherman would get from the same shark. They found a similar dynamic with regard to sharks on the Great Barrier Reef.
But the bigger issue is a rapid decline in global shark stocks that has alarmed scientists. Up to 30 percent of shark species is threatened with extinction…
On Saturday, member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora begin meeting in Doha, Qatar, where they will consider giving protected status to eight species of sharks, including the scalloped hammerhead and oceanic whitetip, which inhabit Maldivian waters. The measures call for restrictions, but not a ban, on international trade.
In the United States, the Shark Conservation Act, which would sharply curtail the practice of “finning” — cutting off sharks’ fins and throwing the rest of the animal back into the sea — has passed the House of Representatives and is awaiting approval in the Senate.
Mr. Rand said more than 70 million of the fish were killed each year just to support the sharkfin trade. The vast majority of those are sold in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, where they are used in sharkfin soup. …
“Sharks don’t have the ability to rebound,” he said. “They grow slowly and they’re late to mature.”
Some sharks do not reach maturity until they are more than 10 years old and even then have only a few pups, so the stock cannot reproduce rapidly enough to make up for overfishing.
The value of sharks to the Maldives “is clearly in tourism and diving,” Mr. Rand said. …
Mr. Didi, the Maldivian fisheries minister, said his government began planning for a ban last year, but objections from fishermen delayed the decision. Now, he said, “they understand that it isn’t a sustainable fishery.”
The government will provide the fishermen with financial support and retraining, Mr. Didi said.
…
The Maldives’ shark-fishing ban could also give impetus to a thorny discussion in London over an initiative to create the world’s largest marine reserve in British territorial waters around the Chagos islands, the Indian Ocean archipelago where the Diego Garcia military base is located.
…
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/world/asia/10iht-shark.html?ref=maldives
I’m sorry to post it late. I didn’t know that. Sorry.