fashionably panda

Beijing has drafted a law that will ban THIS. Thank God!!!

Unfortunately, it is NOT a ban on bad fashion, but a ban on abusing or debasing the panda's image. Which this dress does.

China and the Environment

There's nothing I can add to the New York Times series titled "Choking On Growth: A series of articles and multimedia examining the human toll, global impact and political challenge of China’s epic pollution crisis" except to encourage everybody I know to read it.

Not to pick on China - every nation has got its own green skeleton in the closet. But China is in the world spot light now due to the unprecedented growth of their economy, world-wide press coverage of the upcoming 2008 Olympic games, and just plain old curiosity about the once insular Communist country. Basically, the new millennium IS China and every country on the planet knows it.

In Installment One, China's failed "Green GDP" plan is discussed. I wondered in an earlier post why the US had no similarly government sanctioned plan. Well, now China doesn't either! It appears that, once the green numbers were calculated in, the news was so sobering that the Chinese government decided to shelve the project and never discuss it again. In some areas, the green GDP figures came out to ZERO and government officials were afraid that civil unrest might ensue.

China is learning to recognize that short term gains might not be worth the long term pain. But in the meantime, China says that developed Western nations like Britain and the US started the global warming problem, and that they (we?) (us?) were permitted to expand our economies unfettered, so why shouldn't they? Touche. However, to borrow the NYT's metaphor, China is like "a teenage smoker with emphysema" - meaning China's environmental problems are growing at a rate never before seen in a developing nation. We're in uncharted territory here and there's no denying that all nations are eventually going to have to work together to fix it. It may be China's economy but the environment is everyone's to share. Just ask LA about its smog problem.

The NYT series is long - at five+ pages per article - but well worth the read.

Pictured above: Subversive cute pandas want you to read this article. Not this one, the NYT article.

I need $121,000! Any suggestions?

This lucky guy, a Norwegian man living in China, paid a million Chinese yuan (or 718,000 NOK or $131,000 bucks) to officially adopt Jing Jing the panda. Jing squared is the official mascot for the 2008 Olympic games. Stein Frode Ertzeid can now visit Jingy any time he wants to and the Chengdu facility is required to send him regular updates on the panda's life. Ertzeid lobbied the director of the China Committee of Breeding Technique for Giant Pandas for months for the honor and was selected for his earnestness and sincere love for the Giant Panda.

Huh! Does Ertzeid have an entire website devoted to the panda?? Mister Director Sir, Zhang Zhihe, I'm coming for my panda!

China's Got a Greep GDP, Why Don't We?

This is a GREAT news item from the NYT. It's long (6+ minutes) but totally worth the watch. The correspondent describes how China, in an effort to curb a potential environmental disaster resulting from rapid expansion and exponential growth, has devised a "Greep GDP" whereby they subtract the environmental costs of the GDP, to arrive at a truer reflection on the health of China's economy.

So, what's the US's Green GDP? How are we doing?

A new breed of baby boomer

Panda boomers, that is!

This article from The Hindu Online addresses the recent boom in panda births in China over the last couple of years. Years in the making, this boom is a mixed blessing as pandas large and small begin to overrun the place.

If they want, I'll take some off their hands. They can sleep in my tub.




Pictured right: Cutest infestation ever!

It's Pandamonium Down Under

This is some Australian guy's first hand account of his harrowing journey through inner-China, ending with a fight to the finish in an historic battle royale against ferocious forest dwelling beasts in which he barely escaped with his life.

"Those black eyes ... they will haunt my nightmares forever" he said of his perilous adventure and near death experience.

Pictured above: the aussie's attacker

This Could Be You!

See a couple of pandas behind some glass in some overcrowded humid city zoo enclosure? Bah! This guy -----------------> travelled all the way to China to pet a whole bunch of baby pandas. I have to warn you - this article will make you green with envy and possibly induce serious spontaneous trip-planning. Amazingly, it only costs $130 to cop a panda feel. TOO CUTE!


http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/traveltips/08/13/pandas/


Sorry for the ugly link - I can't figure out if I can hyperlink through Safari so, well, deal.

Here's another article on four newborn panda cubs born on the same day in China. There are a couple of images showing interesting interaction between a mother panda - black, white, furry and huge - and her baby cub - tiny, pink, and wriggly looking.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=475339&in_page_id=1770