15-08-2018

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ENVIRONMENT WEDNESDAY, AuguST 15, 2018 5 How ethical is it to visit the elephant sanctuary? Antonia Wilson Many parks advertise themselves as sanctuaries but they are not," says Maria Mossman, founder of non-profit group Action for Elephants UK. "Never go to a park that advertises shows, unnatural behaviour, tricks or painting - and please, never ride an elephant." Mossman, who has been involved in elephant activism since 2013, and also organises global marches, says that real sanctuaries will limit contact with the elephants, with visitors observing them from a distance the majority of the time. She warns travellers to avoid anywhere offering riding or allowing bathing sessions with elephants: "In some places this means a lot of people every hour with the elephants in the water - it's not natural for an elephant to be in the water all day with lots of people climbing all over them." Looking on review sites and images online before visiting elephant camps is also advised. Avoid any companies calling themselves "sanctuaries" that are using bull-hooks or chains, or lacking basic provisions of water, food and shade. Vicki Brown, editor at Responsible Travel, says that the prevalence of riding perpetuates the industry. "It increases demand for captive elephants to be used as tourist attractions - which means more baby elephants must be captured from the wild, or sometimes bred for a life in captivity," she says. "Captive elephants should be allowed to live as naturally as possible, so if they are forced to display unnatural behaviours - such as dancing, painting or playing football - this is being done for the tourists' benefit, not the elephants'. Don't visit these places." The cruel process of intensively Pick a trip that offers the chance to walk beside elephants - do not ride them. conditioning the elephants to obey keepers and allow people to ride them goes largely unseen by tourists. "In order to ensure they are safe around humans, the baby elephants must be broken in - a brutal and distressing process known as 'crushing the spirit'," says Brown. "They are kept in a tiny pen to prevent movement, with their legs tied tightly. They can be severely beaten with sharp objects, screamed at and starved of food and water, which can last for several days or weeks. The psychological impact then means that the fear of being beaten will ensure that the elephant 'behaves' around tourists." Unfortunately, riding elephants is still one of the most popular tourist activities in Asia. A two-year study by World Animal Protection (WAP) in 2017, investigating 3,000 elephants Photo: Nicolas Axelrod at tourist venues across Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Laos and Cambodia, found that 77% of them were living in inadequate conditions that were "severely cruel" and "deeply concerning". This included being chained up when not performing, with no interaction with other elephants, a poor diet, and stress-inducing noise levels. It also found that there had been a 30% rise in the number of elephants at tourism venues in Thailand since 2010. Mossman believes that "the tour sector needs to play a much bigger role" in clamping down on animal tourism overall. Earlier this year, Tripadvisor announced further changes to its animal welfare policy, following the "no touching of wild animals" addition in 2016. The company has now also banned sales of tickets to "animal shows and performances where animals are forced to perform demeaning tricks or unnatural behaviours". But it still lists these attractions on the site, and has been criticised for not going far enough. "We would question how educational touching captive wildlife can really be," Brown says. "It also permits encounters in zoos where 'physical interaction is initiated by the animals themselves', claiming this is 'a natural behaviour'. But in their natural habitats, wild animals almost never initiate contact with humans, so to describe this as natural is misleading." So what should travellers do if they see abuse happening? "Do your bit by leaving your own review to warn other travellers. It really does work - many camps are now becoming ride-free as a result of pressure from tourists, the industry and the media," Brown says. "Photos and videos are especially powerful tools, so be sure to capture evidence if you can. Share on review sites and social media. Tweet them directly." She also suggests that if you book through a tour operator or agent, raise your concerns with them - many do not have representatives on the ground and only find out about bad practices through travellers alerting them to it. "This is how several of our campaigns have come about - so it really can have a positive impact," she says. "And if you meet other travellers along the way, warn them. Word of New Caledonia vows to protect coral reef The coral reef in New Caledonia is home to thousands of marine species including dugongs and nesting green sea turtles. Photo: AFP Environment Desk New Caledonia has agreed to tougher protections around a huge swathe of some of the world's last near-pristine coral reefs, in a move conservationists hailed as a major breakthrough. The Pacific nation, a French overseas territory, is home to a rich array of wildlife including 2.5 million seabirds and more than 9,300 marine species such as dugongs and nesting green sea turtles, many of which thrive in and around remote zones off the island nation's coast. The archipelago boasts some of the world's healthiest reefs, including Astrolabe, Petrie, Chesterfield and Bellona, which are considered exceptional examples of coral ecosystems. After years of work, the New Caledonia government on Tuesday voted to set up marine protected areas (MPAs) surrounding the reefs, and to strengthen an existing one around Entrecasteaux, which is already a Unesco world heritage site. The move will see 28,000 square kilometres (10,810 square miles) of waters safeguarded from commercial and industrial fishing and other exploitation, helping conserve habitats and allow marine life to feed and reproduce undisturbed. Tourist activity around the reefs is also set to be more rigorously controlled. According to the South Pacific Tourism Organisation, New Caledonia had 27,000 visits in the first three months of the year, making up about 6% of trips to the South Pacific region. "This is the kind of leadership we need to see in coral reef conservation and we applaud it," said John Tanzer, the head of oceans for WWF International. "With good management, these marine protected areas will help maintain fish populations and ecosystem health that will build the reef's resilience to the impacts of climate change in future." Christophe Chevillon, head of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy in New Caledonia, which helped draft the plans, said it would elevate the territory as a global leader in ocean protection, but more could still be done. "Although we believe this to be a major breakthrough, we are convinced that New Caledonia can still go further and lead the way for other Pacific countries," he said. "In fact, the 28,000 square kilometres protected only represents 2% of the Coral Sea Natural Park." The MPAs fall within New Caledonia's enormous 1.3 million-square kilometre Coral Sea Natural Park, which was established in 2014 and covers the country's entire exclusive economic zone. Protections here, such as limiting shipping and banning shark, turtle and whale fishing, are not as comprehensive as under an MPA. Coral reefs, which only cover 0.1% of the ocean's surface but support a quarter of known marine species, are on the decline globally, threatened by climate change, pollution and overfishing. WWF estimates the world has already lost about half of its shallow water coral reefs. Plastic: an obsolete technology Lucy Siegle Everybody is moved by the plastic pandemic, but whenever I bring up the possibility of using something else a chorus of manufacturers and retailers tells me I must not demonise this "miracle material". After all, it has been included in heart valves, the cockpits of Second World War allied bomber aircraft, bulletproof vests and enabled space travel. It is heroic by implication. To which I can only reply: "Yes, but what about the spork, a sort of spoon, fork and knife combo?" Everybody is moved by the plastic pandemic, but whenever I bring up the possibility of using something else a chorus of manufacturers and retailers tells me I must not demonise this "miracle material". After all, it has been included in heart valves, the cockpits of Second World War allied bomber aircraft, bulletproof vests and enabled space travel. It is heroic by implication. To which I can only reply: "Yes, but what about the spork, a sort of spoon, fork and knife combo?" This must have really had the wow factor at the time, but now? Is this the extent of our vaulting ambition? Why aren't we focused on the material that will define us, in a new, post-plastics era? This complacency is matched by a curious tolerance for really terrible design. We all have multiple examples. My standout this year was a BA short-haul flight to Zurich (yes, I know, carbon emissions). The coffee was poured in a giant sippy cup, made from multiple different polymers and featuring a "patent-pending" mesh spout. It was so counterintuitive and so fraught with possibilities of causing injury that each passenger had to be given an induction in how to use it by the aircrew. We landed before mine was complete. But my true nemesis is the shrink-wrapped coconut. Today, you'll find a next-generation version in almost every supermarket in Britain. Not only are they shrink-wrapped, but they come on a special perch and fitted with a plastic ring pull. They are stamped "Genuine Coconut". Why? This week, I am launching #FreeYourCoconuts, a viral campaign to shame British retailers into eliminating this ridiculous overpackaging once and for all. There is plenty to get to grips with. In the UK, we're world leaders in consumption of wet wipes (10.8bn of these plastic-based drain-perils are used every year) and plasticstemmed cotton buds (13.2bn). This all adds up to a giant plastic footprint. By my reckoning, we each plough through 139kg-140kg of plastic a year, three times as much as in the 1980s. Much of it can be deemed unnecessary; some will end up in the marine environment (about 50 items a year). Just a tiny proportion will be recycled. The injustice is not only to the planet. Ninety per cent of the cost of disposal of plastic is borne by consumers and just 10% by the manufacturers and retailers that impose it on us in the first place. And let's face it, overengineered coffee cups and coconuts are not where human ingenuity should be utilised. We can do better. We must do it quickly. Last week, I spoke to fellow activist Emily Penn. Leading a voyage with an allfemale crew as part of eXXpedition, she was calling from the North Pacific gyre, one of the five gyres where ocean plastic congregates. She might have been on a crackly satellite phone, but the downcast tone of her voice was unmistakable. The little things that run the polar world. The arctic, in need of mosquitoes Kendra Pierre-Louis Ask just about any human and they'll tell you that mosquitoes are pests we'd be better off without, especially since some mosquitoes carry deadly diseases. Even many scientists agree: A 2010 article in the journal Nature concluded that a world without mosquitoes would be less itchy and less deadly for us, with few drawbacks for other species, outside of some ecological niches. One of those niches is the Arctic, where mosquitoes play a bigger role in sustaining the ecosystem but may be threatened by the changing climate, said Lauren E. Culler, a research assistant professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College. "You can collect pollen off of mosquitoes, indicating they may have a role in pollination," she said. "And we know that they're also food for other organisms in the food web." Just as the biologist Edward O. Wilson's essay "The Little Things That Run the World" described the importance of insects and other invertebrates, Dr. Culler calls mosquitoes "the little things that run the polar world." She is now researching how changes in the Arctic, which is warming twice as fast than the global average, are affecting mosquitoes. "Losing mosquitoes from Photo: Collected the Arctic ecosystem could have some unanticipated impacts," she said. We're not close to losing them yet, but things are changing fast in the region. In her most recent study Dr. Culler looked at how successfully mosquitoes were reproducing in Greenland. In her earlier work she found that mosquitoes were emerging earlier in the spring and maturing faster courtesy of the Arctic's warming temperatures. But it was unclear whether this earlier emergence was endangering their survival. Similarly concerning is that the ponds mosquitoes depend on as spots to lay eggs are disappearing in Greenland for unknown reasons. "We do know in some years and in some places ponds are disappearingfrom the landscape before the mosquitoes can emerge," Dr. Culler said. Her study found that with the exception of the coldest ponds closest to Greenland's ice sheet, female mosquitoes were successfully reproducing above the rate required to sustain the population. At least for now. Life for mosquitoes in the Arctic already seems difficult, Dr. Culler said. "Most of the time when you look out on the tundra you're not seeing tons of caribou or musk ox or other potential hosts for mosquitoes," she said, referring to the blood meal that female mosquitoes need to lay eggs.
INTERNATIONAL WEDNESDAy, 3 AUGUST 15, 2018 The Taliban had besieged the base, which housed about 140 Afghan troops. Turkey's president appeared to escalate a dispute with the United States that has helped foment a Turkish currency crisis, claiming Tuesday that his country will boycott U.S.- made electronic goods. Behind the scenes, however, diplomats resumed contact to ease tensions, reports UNB. Addressing a conference of his ruling party faithful in the capital, Recep Tayyip Erdogan added fuel to the spat with the U.S., even as local business groups called on his government to settle the dispute through diplomacy. Investors seemed to look through the fiery rhetoric, pushing the lira off record Photo : AP Taliban overrun Afghan army base, kill 17 troops The Taliban overran a base in northern Afghanistan, killing 17 soldiers, even as Afghan forces battled the insurgents for the fifth straight day in the eastern provincial capital of Ghazni on Tuesday, trying to flush them out of the city's outskirts, officials said. There were fears for the fate of the other troops from the base, known as Camp Chinaya, as the Taliban claimed that dozens had surrendered to them while others were captured in battle. The attack in the north took place in Faryab province, in the district of Ghormach, according to the spokesman for the defense ministry, Ghafoor Ahmad Jawed. Along with the 17 troops killed, at least 19 soldiers were wounded, he said, reports UNB. The Taliban had besieged the base, which housed about 140 Afghan troops, for three days before the massive push on it late on Monday night, said the local provincial council chief, Mohammad Tahir Rahmani. Rahmani said the base fell to the Taliban after the soldiers, who had resisted the three-day onslaught, failed to get any reinforcements and ran out of ammunition, food and water. He said 43 troops were killed and wounded in the attack but didn't give a breakdown. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, saying 57 Afghan soldiers had surrendered to the Taliban while 17 others were captured in battle. He said eight military Humvees were also seized. Meanwhile, Afghan security forces on Tuesday pushed back the Taliban from Ghazni, the provincial capital of a province with the same name, and were trying to flush the insurgents from the city's outskirts. The developments came on the fifth day after a massive Taliban attack on Ghazni. Hundreds of people have fled the fighting in the city, which has so far killed about 100 members of the Afghan security forces and at least 20 civilians. Nasart Rahimi, a deputy spokesman at the Interior Ministry, said security forces were searching every inch of Ghazni for remaining Taliban fighters on Tuesday. Military helicopters were supporting the ground forces' operations in Ghazni, said Abdul Karim Arghandiwal, an army media officer in southeastern Afghanistan. Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, denied the insurgents have been routed from Ghazni and said sporadic gunbattles were still ongoing. The Taliban's multipronged assault on the strategic city of Ghazni, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the capital, Kabul, began Friday. The insurgents overwhelmed the city's defenses, pushed deep into Ghazni and captured several parts of it in a major show of force. The United States has carried out airstrikes and sent military advisers to aid Afghan forces in the city of 270,000 people. The fall of Ghazni, which is the capital of the province of the same name, would be an important victory for the Taliban, cutting Highway One, a key route linking Kabul to the southern provinces, the insurgents' traditional heartland. The Taliban also destroyed a telecommunications tower on Ghazni's outskirts, cutting off landline and cellphone links to the city. The fighting brought civilian life in the city to a standstill, and also severely damaged Ghazni's historic neighborhoods and cultural treasures. In recent months, the Taliban have seized several districts across Afghanistan, staging near-daily attacks on security forces, but they have been unable to capture and hold urban areas. The U.S. and NATO formally concluded their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of 2014, but have since then repeatedly come to the aid of Afghan forces as they struggle to combat the resurgent Taliban Turkey’s Erdogan vows US boycott, but diplomats resume talks lows on reports that Turkish and U.S. government officials held talks on Monday. "We will implement a boycott against America's electronic goods," Erdogan told the conference. He suggested Turks would buy local or Korean phones instead of U.S.-made iPhones, though it was unclear how he intended to enforce the boycott. The move is seen to be in retaliation to United States' decision to sanction two Turkish ministers over the continued detention of an American pastor on terrorrelated charges, and to double tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum imports. Behind the scenes, however, diplomatic dialogue appears to have resumed. Turkey's state-run news agency and U.S. officials say U.S. National Security adviser John Bolton had met with the Turkish ambassador to Washington on Monday. That helped ease tensions in financial markets, with the Turkish lira stabilizing somewhat near record lows. It was up 5 percent on Tuesday, at 6.55 per dollar, having fallen 42 percent so far this year, with most of those losses coming in recent weeks. Investors are worried not only about Turkey's souring relations with the U.S., a longtime NATO ally, but also Erdogan's economic policies and the country's high debt accumulated in foreign currencies. Independent economists say Erdogan should let the central bank raise interest rates to support the currency, but he wants low rates to keep the economic growth going. In a joint statement issued Tuesday, the industrialists' group TUSIAD and the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges called on the government to allow the central bank to raise interest rates to help overcome the currency crisis. The business groups also urged diplomatic efforts with the United States and an improvement in relations with the European Union, which is Turkey's major trading partner. Crash outside parliament in London treated as terrorism A motorist slammed into pedestrians and cyclists near Britain's Houses of Parliament on Tuesday and police are treating the incident as an act of terror, reports UNB. A man in his 20s was arrested on suspicion of terrorist offenses after the silver Ford Fiesta collided with rush-hour commuters before slamming into a barrier. Two people were hurt, but authorities said none of the injuries is life-threatening. Armed police swooped into the area, cordoning off streets surrounding the heart of Britain's government. Police appealed to the public to stay away, and the Westminster subway station was closed. Several eyewitnesses said the driver's actions were deliberate. "The car drove at speed into the barriers outside the House of Lords. There was a loud bang from the collision and a bit of smoke," Ewelina Ochab told The Associated Press. "The driver did not get out. The guards started screaming to people to move away." Jason Williams also saw a car moving at high speed. "It looked deliberate. It didn't look like an accident," he said. "How do you do that by accident? It was a loud bang." The incident heightened tensions in a city that has seen four vehicle-based terror attacks in less than 18 months. The area was the site of a terror attack in March 2017, when Khalid Masood ploughed a car into crowds on Westminster Bridge, killing four people. Masood abandoned his car and then stabbed and killed a police officer before being shot dead in a courtyard outside Parliament. Swedish leader voices anger after dozens of cars are burned Masked youths torched dozens of cars overnight in Sweden and threw rocks at police, prompting an angry response from the prime minister, who denounced an "extremely organized" night of vandalism, reports UNB. Police spokesman Hans Lippens said Tuesday that initial reports indicate that about 80 cars were set ablaze overnight, chiefly in Sweden's second largest city, Goteborg, and nearby Trollhattan, an industrial city. Fires were also reported on a smaller scale in Malmo, Sweden's third largest city. In Trollhattan, northeast of Goteborg, where at least six cars were burned, rocks were also thrown at police and roads were blocked. Goteborg is 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Stockholm. Lippens said that because the fires started within a short period of time, "we cannot exclude that there is a connection between the blazes." Photos posted by Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet showed black-clad men torching cars on a parking lot near Goteborg. Sweden's news agency TT said witnesses had seen "masked youngsters" running away. No arrests have been made. Lippens said several youths that police met at the scene have been identified. "We have spoken with them but we cannot conclude they started the fires. We also have spoken with their parents," he told local media. He was not available for further comments. Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven lashed out at the perpetrators, asking them: "What the heck are you doing?" Indonesia woman irked by mosque noise on trial for blasphemy Indonesian prosecutors have sought an 18- month prison term for a woman who was charged with blasphemy after she complained about the volume of a mosque's loudspeakers, reports UNB. The ethnic Chinese defendant, Meiliana, 44, was arrested on May 18 about two years after her case triggered a riot in Tanjung Balai, a port town in North Sumatra province. A spokesman at the local prosecutor's office, Sumanggar Siagian, said Tuesday the sentencing demand for Meiliana was made at the District Court in Medan, the province's capital, on Monday. Mobs burned and ransacked at least 14 Buddhist temples throughout Tanjung Balai in a July 2016 riot after reports of Meiliana's complaints emerged. Prosecutors said the defendant had violated Indonesia's criminal code by committing blasphemy against Islam, the dominant faith in Indonesia. In this Dec 2, 2016 file photo, A Muslim man holds up a banner during a rally against Jakarta's minority Christian Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama who is being prosecuted for blasphemy, at the National Monument in Jakarta, Indonesia. | Photo Credit: AP Death toll from Pakistan coal mine blast climbs to 13 A Pakistani official says rescuers have recovered the bodies of five remaining miners who were missing after a mine caved in following a methane gas explosion this week. This brings the final death toll from the tragedy to 13, reports UNB. Iftikhar Ahmed, a mine inspector, said on Tuesday that despite rescue efforts in the mine in the village of Sanjdi, the five could not be saved. Earlier, eight other bodies were recovered. The mine is located some 50 kilometers, or 30 miles, east of the city of Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan. The explosion happened late Sunday. Cave-ins and other mining accidents in Pakistan are often attributed to poor enforcement of safety regulations. A Pakistani official says rescuers have recovered the bodies of five remaining miners who were missing after a mine caved in following a methane gas explosion this week. Photo : AP
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15-08-2018

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