The International Day of the Tiger is July 29, but there are still thousands of tigers living in captivity. The World Wildlife Fund has estimated there are about 8,000 living on farms, with only 3,900 living in the wild. Countries like Laos, Vietnam, China and Thailand may have about 200 tiger farms, and some of them
Among various solar energy technologies, one is referred to as concentrated solar power, or concentrating solar power. The acronym CSP applies to either. Worldwide CSP systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. The concentrated heat is used to eventually spin a
On a large organic mango farm, far into the countryside of northeastern Thailand, Steve Areen built a little house under a dome for under $10K. Enjoy the video tour below! Once a teacher in Nicaragua, Steve’s been a traveler for around 22 years. From his website, here’s the story of Steve’s “dome home”: “In 2011
During the first ten days of 2013, a total of seven rhinos have already been killed in South Africa and India, while arrests have been made in India, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam. Unfortunately, South Africa’s final body count for 2012 was even higher than expected. The South African Department of Environmental Affairs announced on January
The world’s largest producer of solar panels, Power Holdings Co., recently announced that the largest silicon photovoltaic power plant in South Asia, ‘Sunny Bangchak’, achieved grid connection on September 4, 2012. The 44-megawatt project is located in Bang Pa-In, Ayutthaya, 40 kilometers outside Bangkok, Thailand. It utilizes Suntech’s high performance solar panels and was
An 8.7 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia, reports the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake struck at 08:38:38 UTC, or 02:38:38 PM at the epicenter, some 33 kilometres beneath seafloor of the Indian Ocean and was felt as far away as Bangkok in Thailand and southern India.
Philippines is now suffering tremendous flooding most likely related to climate change — nice Christmas present, eh? The only way global warming deniers (or, “science deniers,” as I think I’m going to start calling them) can claim that the effects of global warming aren’t already hitting us is if they can prove that climate
Thailand has been nailed by catastrophic floods this year. We’ve covered the story several times. Apparently, a lot of Thai activists are upset with the Prime Minister’s handling of these floods and are suing. “Thai climate change activists from the Stop Global Warming Association on Wednesday led 300 flood victims in suing Prime Minister Yingluck
“If a new PC or hard drive is on your holiday wish list, you may be in for a rude surprise: supplies are running low and prices have skyrocketed, all because of an extreme weather event that took place halfway around the world,” Andrew Freedman of Climate Central notes. “One wouldn’t normally think of
We’ve written about Thailand’s flooding a few times now. Over a week ago, Michael wrote that 10% of the country’s rice crop had already been destroyed (and Thailand is the world’s leading rice exporter). The cost to the nation was already about $4 billion. Now, the flood waters are taking over the nation’s largest city and
Texas and other parts of the U.S. have suffered unprecedented drought this year, destroying incredible portions of this year’s crops. In a distant universe.. er, on the other side of this climatic globe, record floods are pounding Thailand, destroying huge portions of the world’s rice crop. Who could have imagined that the world would be seeing record floods and record droughts at the same time? (Too bad we don’t have any scientists studying the world’s climate and warning us about such things.)
The tropical tourist paradise of Thailand is currently suffering through enormously costly floods, resulting from a “weak” La Niña monsoon season. Following September’s extremely heavy rains — five feet of rain for the month — the monsoon season continues virtually unabated into this month, where it also coincided, last weekend, with the highest tides of the month. It is estimated that 10 % of the nation’s rice crop has been destroyed, so far, costing nearly 4 billion USD, and growing. This will have certain impact on global food prices (driving them higher) and on food security for tens of millions of people.
Customs officials in Thailand have rescued nearly 100 pangolins from certain death.
Thanks to a financially-focused rhino story that dominated the news during the past few days, crime syndicates could be more motivated than ever to “source” rhino horn.
The end of March traditionally brings with it dry weather to Thailand, but this year a powerful storm has settled over the Malay Peninsula and brought with it up to up to 1,270 millimeters (50 inches) of rain in little over a week. As a result, the rain has caused landslides and flooded 8 provinces , killed 13 and left 842,324 people affected as of April 1, according to the Thailand government.
Over 250 NGOs from 51 countries have called on the governments of Laos and Thailand to halt building the Xayaburi mega dam on the River Mekong in Northern Laos.
They claim the environmental impact assessment report into the project has been poorly prepared and fails to take into account the environmental and social impact of choking the water supply to ecosystems and populations downstream.
Last August, Planetsave reported on voluntary changes made by maga-wholesaler Costco to its seafood procurement practices. Most notably, in response to a letter from concerned share-holders, Costco ceased the sale of seven types of fish currently at risk of collapsing from over-fishing (the Atlantic cod, Atlantic halibut, Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, and
Security officials opened a suspicious suitcase in a Bangkok, Thailand airport recently and found a young tiger, 2 and 1/2 months old, sleeping, drugged a bit, and stuffed in the suitcase near a stuffed animal tiger. The message to the Thai woman who was boldly breaking the law and offending animal lovers everywhere: “Please, don’t smuggle
Costco has responded positively to its shareholders’ suggestions in a letter posted on its website last month. Costco has, as of 2009, voluntarily disclosed more information about its seafood suppliers.
Additionally, Costco has begun working with suppliers of farmed salmon to insure compliance with the Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue and will partner with the World Wildlife Fund to monitor Thailand’s compliance with the Shrimp Aquaculture Dialogue.
The Thai Navy arrested eight animal traffickers in possession of two tiger carcasses, both chopped in half, and 45 pangolins as they attempted to smuggle the animals across the Mekong River into Lao PDF.
Following the news of a 31-year-old chimp who evidently likes to plot out attacks on his Swedish zoo visitors, a monkey in Thailand became tired of his owner beating him and forcing him up trees to collect coconuts — so he threw one straight at the owner’s head.
Ginger and chilli are among the plants deemed “hazardous” by Thailand’s Department of Agriculture in a recent announcement. [social_buttons] Instead of only regulating the toxic pesticides used by large-scale agriculture, Thailand’s new law mandates that the plants themselves should be treated as hazardous substances. Farmers take this to mean that even their small-scale organic farms
