Animal rights : zoo performance ban sought
Animal rights groups are calling for a ban on all animal performances in China, including liveshows, petting zoos and photo sessions. China Daily reports
However, their campaign - which also calls for a ban on dolphin shows - is said by some to havegone too far.
Animal performances and circus shows, especially in Beijing, have ”seriously impaired thecountry’s and city’s image with brutality and savage behavior”, Liu Huili, an animal rights supporterand researcher with Green Beagle, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization, said at asymposium on Saturday.
Attendees at the symposium, including researchers and volunteers from Green Beagle, China ZooWatch and the Beijing Loving Animals Foundation, proposed the performance ban, especially inthe capital city.
China Zoo Watch conducted a study from January 2011 to the end of March, in which it sampledmore than 40 zoos nationwide. It found that animal performances, which it claims often involve actsof cruelty, are common nationwide.
About 50 percent of urban zoos, 91 percent of animal parks and 89 percent of aquariums offersuch performances, according to the survey.
Performances include animal wire walking, jumping through fire loops, standing upside down andboxing, which ”might seriously impair the animals’ physical and psychological health”, Liu said.
In Beijing, the wildlife park in Daxing district offers shows of dogs jumping through fire loops, andanother wildlife park near the Badaling section of the Great Wall features wolves and tigers jumpingacross fiery circles and bears playing with flaming sticks, the survey found.
Both parks declined to comment on the issue when reached by China Daily on Sunday.
Liu Nonglin, a senior engineer of the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, said a zoo shouldbe a demonstration site for animal protection.
Liu said people could also be hurt by many zoo animals or catch diseases. However, he said, atotal ban on animal performances would take time and require public cooperation and a change inattitudes.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued a circular in 2010 banning animalperformances nationwide, but the rule does not apply to aquariums.
However, as the circular didn’t specify penalties, animal performances and petting zoos featuringwild animals remain a common practice, said Sun Xiaochun, a ministry official.
“It (the circular) is more of a warning than a regulation,” she said, adding that the ministry mightrevise the rules to impose tougher punishments.
But not everyone agrees with the campaign against animal performances.
Zhou Haipeng, 22, a student at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said he found animalperformances, especially by dolphins, very loving and informative, rather than cruel and mercilessas depicted by the activists.
He said he first went to the Beijing Aquarium in 2008, when he arrived in the capital for study, andwas very impressed.
“The dolphin show was cute,” said the student from South China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomousregion. “That was the first time I saw a dolphin in the flesh.”
Zhou said it would be sad if animal performances are banned, especially the dolphin shows.
“People, especially those from inland cities, could see and touch animals and become furtheraware of how to protect them, which is a good thing,” he said. “Jumping a fire loop is toodangerous, but dolphins swimming in the water is not.”
The Beijing Aquarium told China Daily on Sunday that their dolphin training is animal friendly, notbased on punishments.
“It is not against the animals’ will as those NGOs said, and there is definitely no animal abuse,” saida spokeswoman of the aquarium, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“We offer animal performances to let the public know how cute they are and how to better protectour (animal) friends.”
There are 24 dolphins at the Beijing Aquarium, all of which appear in the shows, 15 minutes eachand two or three a day, according to their physical condition.
The Beijing Aquarium stopped allowing people to interact with the dolphins, which included allowingchildren to kiss the animals, in 2010.
“There’re no more performances we can call off. All we have left are some simple performances,like jumping and bouncing balls,” the spokeswoman said.
“We’re keeping records of the dolphins’ physical and psychological condition, while providingsufficient nutritious food.
“All the dolphins have been healthy since the aquarium was established 12 years ago,” she added.
Source : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-04/16/content_15053451.htm
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Pollution Update 3: Chinese executives threatened water supply…. and may pay the consequences
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Seven people have been detained over industrial waste discharges that polluted a south China river and threatened water supplies in a major downstream city, the local government said yesterday.
All seven were chemical plant executives who worked in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, including Jinchengjiang Hongquan Lithopone Material Co Ltd in Hechi City, said Feng Zhennian, a deputy director of Guangxi’s environment protection department. Feng is also spokesman for an emergency response center set up to handle the incident.
He did not identify the seven people or any other suspected polluters.
Cadmium pollutants were first detected in Longjiang River, a tributary upstream of the Liujiang River, on January 15, when cadmium concentration near the Lalang reservoir was 80 times higher than the official limit of 0.005 milligrams per liter, Feng said.
The source of the pollution was reportedly contained on Saturday, as cadmium concentrations at the Lalang reservoir, where the pollution was first detected, had returned to normal.
The pollution belt was now near the downstream Luodong hydropower station and the cadmium concentration levels were still 25 times higher than the official limit, Feng said.
He said the pollutants were still flowing downstream and were close to a major drinking water source for Liujiang, a city with 1.5 million permanent residents in the city proper.
The local environment watchdog has set up 20 surveillance stations along 200 kilometers of the river and more than 210 surveillance workers are at work to monitor water quality.
“The tap water company in Liuzhou has also stepped up surveillance and will strive to provide safe water for the residents,” Feng said. “Judging from the surveillance data, we’re confident the situation is under control and water supplies to Liuzhou will remain safe.”
Efforts are continuing to be made to mitigate the cadmium pollution yesterday.
Environmental protection workers have been adding neutralizers, made from dissolved aluminum chloride, at six locations along the Longjiang River in a bid to dissolve the contaminants.
Dispatched on the pollutants-neutralizing mission on January 21, armed police had dumped a total of 4,650 tons of activated carbon, quicklime and aluminum chloride to the water as of 3pm yesterday, according to Armed Police authorities in Guangxi.
A total of 3,160 members of the Armed Police had helped out in the shipping or pouring in of neutralizers and some 340 others were still busy with the work yesterday.
Cleanup work will be conducted in an area located 6 kilometers downstream from the Luodong hydropower station, where the pollutants were concentrated on Sunday night, as well as another location near the Sancha hydropower station, said Qin Bin, deputy secretary of the Hechi city committee of the Communist Party of China.
“It is a critical time right now, as downstream drinking water safety is in jeopardy,” Hechi Mayor He Xinxing said.
“We will take every measure possible and optimize our strategies to bring down cadmium concentration levels,” the mayor added.
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Pollution Update : Cadmium pollution controlled in South China river
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LIUZHOU, Guangxi - Cadmium pollution in a river in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region has been controlled and no new leaks have been found following a spill from an industrial plant, local environmental authorities said. China Daily reports
Cadmium concentrations in the Longjiang River in the city of Yizhou, where the spill occurred, havebeen brought within acceptable levels, said Gan Jinglin, head of the environmental protectionbureau of the downstream city of Liujiang.
The contamination was first detected on January 15 and has been traced to a plant belonging toGuangxi Jinhe Mining Co, Ltd.
The cadmium pollutants are mainly concentrated near the Luodong hydropower station on theLongjiang River and still pose a threat to water safety in Liujiang, according to experts with a taskforce in charge of handling the incident.
“Since the pollutants were spread over a large section of the Longjiang River and are moving downstream, Liujiang is still threatened, but we have been able to secure safe drinking water forlocal residents,” Gan said.
The cadmium concentration at the Nuomitan hydropower station, located 56 km away from the Hexiwater plant in Liuzhou, was eight times higher than the official limit of 0.005 milligrams per liter as ofnoon on Sunday.
Water located within a 16-km radius from the Hexi water plant is considered vital for water supply safety. The Sunday morning tests showed that the cadmium concentration on a section of riverlocated 16 km from the plant was 0.0041 milligrams per liter, just below the official limit, Gan said.
“However, the rising cadmium concentration means that the pollutants are approaching, and it is still unknown when the concentration peak will occur and how high it will be,” Gan said. “We arekeeping a close eye on the river’s water quality.”
“The Nuomitan hydropower station is a vital spot for the control of pollutants and it determines water safety in Liuzhou,” said Tang Zhenguo, deputy head of Liucheng county.
The lives of fishermen along the Liujiang River have been severely affected by the cadmium pollution.
The family of Xie Shuisheng from Fengshan township, Liucheng county, lives on a boat.
“We have to drive our boat to the Rongjiang River to fetch drinking water, as we were informed acouple of days ago that the Longjiang River was polluted and the water is undrinkable,” Xie said.
“We dare not to fetch water from the river before the threat is eased,” Xie added.
Other fishermen are worried about the pollution’s negative effects on the river’s fish.
Cadmium is a carcinogenic chemical mostly used in industrial effluents.
A chemical agent designed to clump the contaminants together has been dumped into a dam on theLongjiang River to assist in clean-up efforts.
All seven of the heavy metal production plants located upstream of the river have suspended operations in order to curb potential sources of new pollution.
Jinhe Mining Co, Ltd is suspected to be one of the sources of the pollutant, as its dumping site isnot up to the national standard, according to Wu Haique, director of the environmental protectionbureau of the city of Hechi.
However, further investigations into other plants must be conducted as more proof is needed to ascertain the sources of the pollution, Wu said.
Source : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-01/29/content_14500572.htm
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Energy update : China plans Asia’s biggest coal-fired power plant
Image by cypheroz via Flickr
China‘s Shenhua Group will build the largest coal-fired power station in Asia over the next five years, the official Xinhua news agency said in December, as the country struggles to meet its energy needs. Yahoo News & http://twitter.com/#!/greenlawchina reports.
China’s biggest coal company and officials in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region signed a deal for the 8-gigawatt thermal planton Monday, according to Xinhua and the local government‘s website.
The plant would be built in the southern port city of Beihai to help ease power shortages caused by drought, which has strained power supplies.
China relies on coal for nearly 70 percent of its energy needs, which have soared in recent years as the country’s economy grew at a blistering pace.
Power outages and rationing have been imposed in 17 provinces this year and shortages could worsen if coal supplies are not increased or if the country’s north sees particularly harsh winter weather.
Shenhua’s plans come days after local governments were ordered to reduce emissions of “major pollutants” by as much as 10 percent by 2015, amid growing public anxiety over bad air.
China is the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter with many of its cities cloaked in a polluted haze.
Shenhua and the Guangxi government will ensure the new plant’s eight power generators get a steady supply of coal from company mines in Indonesia and Australia by building four 100,000-tonne deepwater loading docks, Xinhua said.
Beihai city will also build a coal storage facility capable of handling 30 million tonnes a year in the nearby port of Tieshan.
Source : http://news.yahoo.com/china-plans-asias-biggest-coal-fired-power-plant-152834418.html
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