So sad

[tommykjensen]

I just read this

The Zoological Society of London, ZSL, today expressed its disbelief and concern at the decision by the Russian Government to allow an oil pipeline to be built through the Kedrovya Pad nature reserve, home to the last 30 remaining wild Amur Leopards.


Read more here. (http://www.zsl.org/press/pr_0000001772.html)

[CyberDyneSystems]

"Nature Reserve"


Apperently this somehow similar to "Military Intelligence"?

On the other hand,. I guess an Oil pipeline could be construed as "nature"

:( :( :( Sheeesh :(

[PacAce]

I just hope that the key decision makers in Russia come to their senses and redirect the pipleline elsewhere away from the reserve. It'd be a crying shame to have the Amur Leopards (or any animal, for that matter) go extinct because of what man is doing to the environment.

[eosster]

I hate to say it, with Russian economy in chaos, they are not going to care about welfare of their animal habitat. Hope I am wrong about it.

[ssim]

I hate to say it, with Russian economy in chaos, they are not going to care about welfare of their animal habitat. Hope I am wrong about it.

Unforetuneately you are not wrong, that is the sad part. I have a buddy that works in the oil fields in Russia and he says the way they treat their land is an absolute disgrace. It's ironic that a percentage of the work being done in the Russian oilfields are contracted to a number of North American companies.

[Tom W]

The best hope is that they build the pipeline in such as way that it doesn't disturb the wildlife. The best thing that the rest of the civilized world can do is encourage them to consider this.

[CyberDyneSystems]

It's easy to blame the Russina economy...
At least they have an excuse,...

Keep in mind these two points before associating the decision with Russias economy,.

1) The current administration in the US would like to do the same through National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska...

2) The demand for Russias Oil is coming from US citizens and US companies. The entire Oil market is dominated the US as the single largest purchaser.

Thus the BEST thing the civilised world can do would be to at least make a cursory attempt at cutting back on burning oil... :cry:

All I'm saying is it is easy to look at this as a problem that exists on the other side of the world,. but in fact the problem is all of ours ,. and the loss will be world wide as well. :(

About ten years ago there was a "minor" oil spill in Narragansett bay very close to my Fathers home an Aquidneck Island.

The western shore was awash with oil soaked birds and dead fish...

When I went to help try and rescue the shore birds and gulls and such.. there were in fact about a dozen other bleeding heart's there as well,.. but these were the upper middle class crunchy granola type of bleedig heart,.. the type that shops at fancy high end grocery stores and willingly pay $5.00 for a loaf wheat free organic bread...

I was chagrined to see that the vast majority of them were driving hopelessly and rediculously huge SUVs for shuttling the kids back and forth to Soccer...

Stunned,. all I could say was "..you don't see the connection here? "

//sorry for preaching again... it seems to be my day... :( :rolleyes:

[neil_r]

And let's not mention the Kyoto Protocol and C02........

N

[Jesper]

That is sad indeed! :(

I saw an Amur leopard in the zoo here last week. There was a sign explaining how few of these animals there are left in the wild.

[Gus00]

uhmm.... A "pipeline" is just a steel pipe running through the forest. If construction is well regulated and spills dealt with quickly (granted Russia is unlikely to do either one) the pipeline itself will have little impact on wildlife. The Alaska Pipeline has proven itself environmentally benign despite the predictions of doom and gloom that preceded its construction.

[cmM]

either way it will have an impact on the environment over there. Like ssim says, them russians are not exactly famous for being neat and carrying

[Bodryn]

I'm not so sure the Alaska pipeline is as benign as it may seem. I remember reading that there are problems with permafrost as well. Any scar made in the permafrost does not heal like other land, it just festers and grows. Of course, the oil has to be heated, you see. And some oil spills aren't found immediately. And then there was the scandal about faked results of xray scans of pipe joints just to save costs. It just goes on and on. The saddest thing is that the news about such things often does not reach into the U.S. like it does in other countries and perfectly decent citizens just don't know what's going on sometimes. Oil spills should be 100% preventable. Maybe long prison terms is what it will take. :(

[CyberDyneSystems]

Again,. too easy to point fingers at Russia;
http://www.wwbphoto.com/projects.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0898869099/104-0430638-4513548?v=glance
http://magazine.audubon.org/features0109/arctic.html
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/08/01/html/ft_20010801.3.html
http://greennature.com/article772.html
http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/arctic/overview.html
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0028-01/
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/archive/page.cfm?pageID=780
http://www.artsandartists.org/exhpages/artic/images.html

One for the wall of ironies;
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/131906_oil23.html