Wednesday, 24 July 2013

There's No Business Like Snow Business

Fashion sometimes appears to claim victims indirectly. Apparently, the burgeoning fashion for cashmere wool has led to a great increase in goat numbers in the mountains of Asia. Their requirement for vegetation has decimated the numbers of antelope in the region (which, along with also suffering Yaks, need the food), resulting in marked declines in the already rare and highly secretive Snow leopard that would feed on them  (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/23/snow-leopards-yaks-cashmere-gaots-fashion?INTCMP=SRCH). So a top predator falls prey to the pashmina!

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Sandwich Island Saga 62. Wind turbines and birds

Research in Norway has revealed that painting one blade of a wind turbine black, greatly reduces the number of bird collisions. ...