Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – New Year’s resolutions aside, some people are getting off to a positive start in 2011 and to help you do the same, here is a roundup of some bright spots from the news scene, from GenevaLunch editor Ellen Wallace:
Zurich marathon first to host burn fundraiser and racer Hinett’s
Karl Hinett, 23, former British soldier and marathon runner, 1 January in Zurich began the daunting self-assigned task of running one official marathon a week for a year, to raise money for Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital burns unit. Hinett “suffered 37 percent burns to his hands, legs, arms and face and had to learn to walk again and had multiple operations and skin grafts when he was injured in September 2005,” reports Express and Star. (Hinett’s sponsorship page)
There’s still room for change in business battledress
“Since the early 20th century the battledress of the executive has changed little, at least on the outside,” writes The Economist, in writing a brief history of the 150-year-old “lounge suit”. For those who fear that this represents unswerving conformity on a frightening scale, relax: the modern world, the author adds, “has transformed the suit’s interior” with tailors prepared to add such useful options as iPad pockets that might resemble the old “inside of field coats worn by country gents that will hold birds and rabbits felled with a shotgun”. A world of stuffy business types takes on new meaning.
Human babies and joeys: scientists finding that evolution plays a role in breast milk
Swiss hare in field with bare patch (photo ©2010 Swiss Ornithological Institute / Marcus Jenny)
Nyon, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Tigers have a hope of surviving, at the end of 2010, but bluefin tuna could well disappear from the face of the Earth and its cousins in the fish world are not in good shape, with one in five species threatened.
These are some of the conclusions of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), which runs the Red List of Threatened Species. WWF Switzerland, in a year-end look at IUCN’s winners and losers in the species departments, notes that worldwide, the number threatened with extinction has been rising steadily, from 16,928 in 2008 to 18,351 two years later, some 33 percent of all species.
Bluefin tuna (photo: WWF)
Tigers have a fighting chance, after governments agreed in 2010 to a series of protective measures, according to the IUCN. But governments let down the bluefish tuna, whose stocks are badly overfished, the Gland-based group states.
And then there is the hare-razing tale of one of Switzerland’s disappearing creatures.
The hare and the wolf are two of the losers in Switzerland, with the hare population falling to 2.7 per square metre, in some areas 1.6/m2, with experts saying that 2-6/m2 pushes a population into the critical stages to remain viable. Hare numbers are shrinking rapidly due to urban growth, reduced protected road passages and less ground cover that leaves young hares in above-ground nests where they are easily run over by tractors.
Switzerland has an estimated population of only 15 wolves, but even this small number is threatened by parliamentary approval that would give hunters and farmers the right to shoot. If parliament passes changes to the law, which are under discussion, the country would need to pull out of the Bern Convention, a strict international agreement to save the wolf.
IUCN, Gland, extension using new technologies for zero emissions concept (photo, Alain Bucher, Holcim)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – It’s time to shift from trying to simply save energy in our buildings to a “zero emission building” approach, the Zurich federal polytechnic institute, ETH, is arguing 19 November, presenting its concept to the public.
“People have been heating with the help of combustion processes ever since man discovered how to make fire, using wood and fossil fuels like coal or natural gas to keep their homes warm and snug. The CO2 problem and climate change, however, have put a major question mark over the method. The Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich is therefore urging a paradigm shift: not just away from combustion technologies and towards seasonal energy storage, but also from simple energy-saving towards zero emissions,” members of the department of architecture state in a press release.
One of its example of how this can work is the extension of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) building in Gland.
The zero emission concept suggests buildings that don’t need thick layers of insulation in the building shell unnecessary and that are thus free from standardized regulations.
Panay Monitor Lizard (Varanus mabitang) © Tim Laman
Gland, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A major new assessment of the threats to the world’s biodiversity shows that the continuing encroachment on many species’ habitats is increasing their vulnerability. The 2009 edition of world’s most comprehensive list of life under threat of extinction, the Red List of Threatened Species, was published Tuesday 3 November. The Red List is published yearly by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in Gland, near Geneva.
“The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis is mounting,” says Jane Smart, Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group.
Cheetah cubs at Basel Zoo, born 2007, photo by Tambako the Jaguar on flickr
Click on images to view larger
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Three young cheetahs born in June were shown to the public for the first time at Basel Zoo 9 September. The zoo calls it a “sensation”, because the mother, 10 year-old Msichana, who last gave birth in 2007, was not expected to become pregnant again. Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are listed as “vulnerable” on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of endangered species, and there are an estimated 7,500 cheetahs living in the wild in Africa and some areas of Iran.
The two males and one female are in robust good health.
Ed. note: Tambako the Jaguar, pseudonym for a photographer on flickr, has extensively photographed cheetahs and other animals at Basel Zoo. We include shots from cubs born in 2007 and 2008, images taken a few months later:
The Wild Horse (Equus ferus) previously was listed as Extinct in the Wild, but as a result of ongoing reintroduction efforts it is now showing signs of improvement and has moved down a category to Critically Endangered. Photo, IUCN; Patricia Moehlman
Barcelona, Spain (GenevaLunch) – Gland-based IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) is bringing together 8,000 “world’s leading decision-makers in sustainable development” at its World Conservation Congress, 5-15 October. The congress had a colourful opening session but quickly settled down to business as the group issued its latest red list for the world’s animals: one in four, or 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth now risk extinction.
