UNESCO delists a World Heritage Site

by Neil Woodburn on

It would be easy to think that once a location becomes a UNESCO World Heritage Site that such an honor is irrevocable.

UNESCO, however, recently shocked the world by proving that they can just as easily remove a site from the list as they can add one.

And why would they do such a thing?

Because sites can change for the worse over time and become something entirely different.

Ironically, it is quite often the UNESCO stamp itself that is the downfall of these World Heritage Sites. Once a location makes the list, tourists soon follow. And tourists, as we all know, quickly attract local authorities and entrepreneurs trying to make a buck.

The problem is that UNESCO actually has no authority over their World Heritage Sites–that’s up to the local governments. And when these local governments start dabbling in the sites, their status becomes endangered.

This is exactly what happened at the Arabian Oryx Sanctuary in Oman after poaching decreased the oryx population by 85% and the government followed up reducing the land area by 90%. This pissed off UNESCO bad enough that they responded by honoring the sanctuary with the organization’s first ever delisting.

It’s sort of sad to see it on the website, with a big line drawn through the name, but I think UNESCO made the right choice. Hopefully this will be a shot across the bow for other countries that need to start thinking seriously about protecting their own World Heritage Sites.

It’s been a 1000 years – time to clean up, don’t you think?

by Abha Malpani on

A 300,000 tonne garbage mountain on the shores of the Yangtze River in South-West China is finally going to be cleared by September 2008, after a 1000-years of being there!

Since the Song Dynasty (960-1279), residents of the Chinese town Luoqi have been adding 400 kilograms of waste to the pile every day because they have no where else to dispose it.

This is just one of the environmental problems of the controversial US$70 billion Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangtze — China’s largest construction project after the Great Wall.

Away from the commotion of the country, a cruise along the Yangtze river (world’s 3rd largest river) has always been a popular tourist selection that fortunately has nothing to do with this shock-stash of trash.

Having said that, and understanding that there are many other grave problems China has to deal with, why has it taken them a 1000 years to address this one?

Message in a bottle: stainless steel, aluminum or plastic?

by Iva Skoch on

Catherine’s posting about Nalgene bottles actually inspired me to look into the whole water bottle business. I heard from a biologist once, years ago, that Nalgene bottles leech carcinogenic chemicals and shouldn’t be used. I never got one. Then again, I already have cancer so what do I have to worry about!

Yesterday, I decided I wanted to get a reusable stainless steel bottle. I did some research online and found out that people are essentially split between Klean Kanteen fans and SIGG fans. Whereas KK is made out of just steel, SIGG has aluminum lining, if I understand it correctly.

My question is, is aluminum honestly better for you than plastic? Sounds pretty scary to me. I remember when anything made out of aluminum was an absolute no no. Any bottle experts out there?

Tapping into the wind to charge your portable electronics

by Neil Woodburn on

There seems to be a whole industry dedicated to novel ways of powering up small electronic devices these days. Because God only knows that today’s modern travelers get a little nervous when venturing to places where their juice might peter out.

And so we bring you yet another way to charge up that iPod when your battery dies in Mongolia.

The Hymini is a small, handheld windmill that generates power when, you guessed it, the wind blows. Of course, most users aren’t going to stand around for an hour in a windstorm waiting for the unit to charge, but they will strap it to their bikes and even their cars where a 40 mile per hour journey will generate enough go-juice to operate a cell phone for 40 minutes. Or simply strap the Hymini to any of the blowhard politicians running for the American presidency and you’ll be able to power up a small city for the next decade. Don’t you just love election season?

“Catastrophe tourism” on the rise in Greenland

by Iva Skoch on

Greenland says it doesn’t like to be seen as the global warming poster child, according to an article in Sunday’s NY Times entitled “As Ice Recedes, Interest Surges.” They have witnessed a spike in “catastrophe tourism,” or “Come see if before it’s too late” kind of tourism, lately. Apparently it is human nature to enjoy watching things–Greenland, in this case–die.

If morbid curiosity is what does it for you, you can now take a direct flight from Baltimore to Greenland on Air Greenland for about $1300. You can sit on the Ilulissat ice fjord, watching the glacier melt in 3D. Or you can visit the 25-foot ice wall Kangerlussuag, which–if it melts–is supposed to be responsible for raising the world’s ocean level by 24 feet.

Of course, by increasing the air traffic in Greenland, you might actually be helping global warming…