Guest guest Posted December 30, 2002 Report Share Posted December 30, 2002 ***************************Advertisement*************************** eCentral - Your Entertainment Guide http://www.star-ecentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: This article is from thestar.com.my URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/12/24/features/greenote2412\ & sec=features ________________________ Tuesday, December 24, 2002 Unbearable pain WHEN rescuers whisked away 17 moon bears from lucrative Chinese bile farms last week to a new refuge facility in their native south-west China, some had wounds weeping bile and puss and needed life-saving surgery. Three with inoperable tumours were put to sleep by the Moon Bear Rescue Centre in Sichuan, ending lives spent in tiny cages with surgically implanted catheters milking bile from their gall bladders. “Their condition was beyond belief,” animal activist Jill Robinson told reporters visiting the centre. “They have appalling physical and mental problems.” The Asiatic black bears, called moon bears for the golden crescent of fur ringing their chests, are captured in the wild or bred in farms for green bile used in traditional Chinese medicine. It hurts so much when bile is extracted that some animals gnaw at their own flesh to relieve their pain. More than 80 bears, rescued with the help of local officials since the centre began operating in 2000, are now housed in the refuge built by the Hong Kong-registered Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) at Longqiao, in the suburbs of the Sichuan capital Chengdu. After months of recovery, bears can be seen roaming around a grass enclosure, playing with toys designed to spark instinctive behaviour suppressed in bile farms. Bear bile farms began spreading in Asia in the 1980s after development of the new method of tapping bile with catheters. Chinese farmers, which had killed bears for their gall bladders for thousands of years, adopted the practice because bears produced more bile alive than dead. The Chinese authorities, which at first endorsed bear farms as a way of protecting bear populations in the wild, has now begun to crack down on them but has yet to ban them. The Asiatic black bear is recognised by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) as an endangered species. The Longqiao centre opened after an agreement in 2000 between the AAF, the Sichuan forestry department and the state-endorsed China Wildlife Conservation Association to rescue 500 bears from farms and work towards ending bear farming for good. Bear bile farms have proliferated across China, where people consume thousands of kg of the bitter liquid every year to treat ailments such as soaring temperatures and liver problems, rather than take herbal or synthetic substitutes. Sichuan authorities have closed down 35 of the farms and issued no new licences since 1994, the AAF said in a statement. & #8211; Reuters Fir or fake? SHOULD your Christmas tree be made of plastic to save the forests or should it be natural? It is commonly thought that cutting trees kills the forest. Wrong. The fir trees Western consumers buy for Christmas are specially grown for the occasion. They are planted in light, clean soil to ensure the lower branches spread and are pruned by hand for the special tall cone effect. Generally the trees are grown in mountainous regions where little else would do well. Is it environmentally preferable to buy an artificial tree that will last from year to year? Possibly, but producing plastic pine-trees costs more energy and lets off more greenhouse gases. “It takes years to write off the environmental costs in comparison with a real fir tree,” says Nadia Boeglin of France & #8217;s environmental watchdog, Ademe. In France for example, lovers of plastic trees buy a new one every three years because the shine has worn off, the dust has settled in, or simply because the design is out of fashion. & #8211; AFP Another hot year THIS year has been the second warmest since 1860, extending a quarter-century pattern of accelerated global warming linked to greenhouse gas emissions, scientists said last Tuesday. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said 1998 remained the hottest year on record, with 2002 surpassing last year as the next warmest. The 10 warmest years had all occurred since 1987, nine since 1990. “Clearly for the past 25 or 26 years, the warming is accelerating. The rate of increase is unprecedented in the last 1,000 years,” Kenneth Davidson, director of WMO & #8217;s world climate programme told a news briefing in Geneva. A moderate El Nino system warming the tropical Pacific since mid-year was expected to last through April, according to WMO. While El Nino is smaller in magnitude than the 1997-98 event, which caused US$34bil (RM129bil) in damage, it has coincided with “climate anomalies” including droughts in Australia and southern Africa, as well as warmer conditions across Asia. Global surface temperatures have risen six-tenths of a degree Celsius since 1900, according to the Geneva-based body. & #8211; Reuters Recycling blues EUROPE & #8217;s consumers face higher prices for electrical goods after the European Parliament passed a major new recycling law last week. Under the law, which applies to all electrical and electronic goods sold in the EU, consumers must be able to return items for recycling free of charge by 2005. Firms will have to recycle between 50% and 75% of the products by weight, depending on the product type. This would include plastics and metals recycling. The law also bans the use of several hazardous substances, including mercury, cadmium and lead. EU member states will have to ensure that 4kg of old appliances per person per year are collected by the end of 2006. The law aims to reduce the estimated total 3.5 tonnes of waste each EU citizen generates a year, most of which is buried or incinerated. Manufacturers and exporters of everything from calculators to electric cookers will be responsible for funding the recycling of their own brand products made after 2005. It is believed that forcing firms to pay for recycling would encourage them to design products that were easier to deal with at the end of their working life. But CECED, which represents European household appliance makers with annual sales of 35 billion euros (RM138bil), says the added costs will inevitably filter through to consumers in higher prices. & #8211; Reuters<p> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2002 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. 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