By Zachary Shahan •
October 30, 2009
Groningen would be number one on this list if we were looking at percentage of residents who bicycle for transportation purposes. About 57% of travel in Groningen is by bicycle!
The city has been named the world’s best bicycle city a couple of times (1993 and 2006). It is a university city which is part of the reason why it has so many people bicycling, but it has done amazing things to make the city more bicycle friendly as well. The bicycle facilities you can see on the following pages will probably blow your mind away.
By Rhishja Larson •
September 3, 2009
Disturbing information suggests that the wording of a Chinese forestry administration document is ambiguous enough to allow trade in products derived from critically endangered tigers.
According to The Times UK, wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC has sounded the alarm about a document issued by the Chinese State Forestry Administration, warning that the wording is “loose” enough to encourage China’s deplorable tiger farmers to begin processing tiger-derived products.
By Rhishja Larson •
August 14, 2009
Current laws in Thailand make it easy for live elephants - including infant elephants stolen from their mothers in the wild - to be traded unscrupulously for “entertainment” purposes.
For many people, thoughts of Thailand conjure up romantic notions of being transported to various tourist attractions on the back of an elephant. But tragically, many of the captive elephants used for the Thai tourist trade, and as zoo and circus exports, are the victims of an insidious, illegal market that threatens the survival of endangered Asian elephants, and is responsible for widespread exploitation and abuse of these intelligent and sensitive mammals.
Thankfully, a recent report published by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia exposes the loopholes and reporting inaccuracies that have been providing a smokescreen for Thailand’s illegal trade in endangered, wild-caught Asian elephants (Elephas maximus).
By Moiz Kapadia •
August 3, 2009
Sitting in traffic sucks. You know it, I know it, and so does the planet. Although driving isn’t the cleanest means of transportation, minimizing your time on the road is just plain healthy. Here are 5 emerging technologies that can help you not play, “How many state license plates can I count?”
By Zachary Shahan •
July 26, 2009
Earlier this month, Environmental Police in Vietnam found a frozen tiger and tiger bones in the back of a taxi cab. The tiger seems to have been a young one recently killed and the bones were of two adults, according to an expert at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR).
By Zachary Shahan •
July 23, 2009
The American Public Transportation Association is asking for great transit photos showing transportation that is green and friendly and will change our future.
As shown year after year, public transit is a key factor keeping our planet from warming much further than it already is! It is also one of our best bets for slowing and eventually stopping global warming in the future. Beyond that, public transit helps the environment, the economy, and you in many other ways as well.
An organization working for you to increase and improve public transportation and to fight global warming, smog, excessive traffic congestion, water pollution, hours lost from home, stress, road rage, and your car becoming your home needs your help now.
By Rhishja Larson •
July 16, 2009
Pangolins - scaly, toothless anteaters - are being poached incessantly from their native Southeast Asia habitats. TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, announced that the rising demand for Pangolin meat and scales, mostly from mainland China, is driving the disappearance of these shy animals.
The sheer size of recent Pangolin seizures is alarming:
They include 24 tonnes of frozen pangolins from Sumatra, Indonesia, seized in Viet Nam and 14 tonnes of frozen animals seized in Sumatra in 2008.
(Note: 1 metric ton = 2,204.6 pounds)
Earlier this year, 45 Pangolins were found in the possession of Thai smugglers.
By Derek Markham •
July 9, 2009
Poachers in Africa and Asia are killing rhinos at an alarming rate to meet the demand for rhino horns, which are believed to have medicinal value in some countries. According to new research, the level of rhino poaching is about to hit a 15 year high, and is “the worst rhino poaching we have seen in many years.”
Manchester, Tennessee- The first day of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, a day which has traditionally been a day of travel and arrival for most festival attendees, greeted an estimated crowd of seventy-five thousand music fans from around the world with some good old fashioned southern rainshowers. And this wasn’t a light rain, by any definition. The rain, which began shortly after the four-day festival’s first performances, didn’t dampen the mood of the smiling festivarians, but it didn’t help the speed with which people were able to enter the festival grounds and set up their encampments.
The elements may have slowed the entrance for many, but delays were nothing like those in years past. In 2002, for example, at the inaugural Bonnaroo, it took this author about 18 hours to cover the last 45 miles!
