Long time readers of this blog know that in a world filled with stupidity and nastiness, I occasionally like to post items that are uplifting or optimistic. Here are three good news items.
Tigers: According to an article by Christine Hauser in the Times on April 12, the number of tigers in the wild has risen for the first time in a century. Yes, the Chinese are still buying tiger parts for impotence, but measures against poaching are paying off. Unfortunately, in China, Vietnam, and Laos, tigers are in single-digit numbers, but India has 2,226 and Russia had 433. Whether we should consider an animal that we can count to the individual to be truly wild is another question.
Bees: Ortho, a major company for lawn care chemicals, (and if you are using chemicals on your lawn, stop it) announced that it was phasing out eight products that use neonicotinoids by 2021. Neonicotinoids are thought by many scientists to be the chemicals that are killing off our honeybees.
Polio: On Sunday 150 counties and territories will switch to a new oral polio vaccine. We are really close to getting rid of this disease. Last year there were 74 cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This year there were 9 cases.
The new vaccine improves on the old one in a number of important ways. Polio experts hope to make the switch in two weeks. China, Indonesia, and India use up to 1.8 billion doses of vaccine a year. The fact that the world can cooperate to make such a change gives me hope.
Roy, Marie says Countries, not Counties.
ReplyDeleteTell Marie she is absolutely right. It should have been countries. I know there is a way to go back and edit the post, but I am so bad at this that I don't know how to do it.
ReplyDelete