SEARCH
A great gift
for crisis deniers!
Humoring the Horror of the
Converging Emergencies
94 color pages
$24.99 now $15!
Or read FREE online!
Twitter
Ping this story
in social media:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
NowPublic
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
Green grass of steppes falls victim to West's stampede for cashmere http://apocadocs.com/s.pl?1249822911
Fly over Mongolia in summer and the steppes look as green as they must have done when Genghis Khan and his armies galloped across the land -- but the switch is startling as the flight crosses the border into China's Inner Mongolian region. The ground suddenly turns brown.
The danger facing Mongolia is that its steppes may be transformed into a desert similar to the one eating away at neighbouring China. The culprit is the humble goat -- and the fascination of fashionistas for cashmere. The money to be earned from "diamond fibre" cashmere, so prized among wealthy shoppers in Europe and the US, has resulted in Mongolia's population of cashmere goats soaring to 40 million in 2007 from 25 million in 1993.
The World Bank warned of grave consequences for the environment and for farmers. "Mongolian herds will be at greater risk of severe weather conditions if growing livestock populations and deteriorating pastureland is not reversed," it said in a report. A combination of the sharp hooves of the goats and their voracious consumption of all greenery -- including roots -- is harming the steppes.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
[Read more stories about:
unintended consequences, overpopulation]
|
 |
|
New!:
| |
|
Your Quips:
Ned says: "You bette -- goattes are baadd for grasse."
| |
|
Got a PaniQuip?
|
|
|
We reserve the
right to reuse, remove, or refuse any entry.
| |
|
|
'Doc Michael says:
|
|
|
 |
|
Just one more steppe down the road to helle.
|
|
|
|
|
Want to explore more?
Try the PaniCloud!
|
