China Environmental Law

It finally occurred to me that there isn’t going to be any more substantive news until after the Olympics.  Of course, the Olympics themselves have their own environmental and energy angles, but I don’t think the Olympic stories can be written until the event is over.  When faced with a lack of news in the past, our fall back source has always been Shanghai’s paper of record, the Shanghai Daily.  I’m happy to report it is still chock full of those features which keep the reader happy.

First up, an environmental good news story: “Chinese water deer return to Shanghai“  (these links only last for several days before the stories go behind a pay wall).

The Chinese water deer, a native species that disappeared from the city in early last century, has returned, the Shanghai Greenery Administrative Bureau said.

Officials said a community of 53 adult and young deer has been established in the Outer Ring Road forest belt.

“In the future, the Chinese water deer will live in the forest freely and citizens may find the timid animal in suburban woodlands,” bureau officer Gao Xiangwei said.

The Chinese water deer, under state protection as an endangered animal, is the only deer species on the coastal plain and is native to Shanghai. It is believed the species lived in the city in the Neolithic Period about 10,000 years ago. But the animal moved away early last century.

Cool.  So, how will I know if I see one of these deer in the wilds of Shanghai?  Here’s a picture:

Slightly larger than a big dog, these little deer sure are cute, aren’t they?  Let’s go in for a close up. 

Holy *&%$!  That’s no bambi, that’s a saber-toothed man killer.  Here’s the skull to prove it:

I don’t want to meet one of these beasts on a night stroll through a “suburban woodlands.”

It would be even scarier, however, to meet one of the subjects of our second story in broad daylight: “Games girls survive ‘beautiful suffering.‘”

Today more than 300 of the most beautiful young girls in China will graduate as hostesses for the Beijing Olympics. It has been a long and grueling journey filled with as many tears as cheers.

These suffering beauties were “selected from more than 5,000 candidates from Beijing and Shanghai.”  The training must have indeed been mentally and physically exhausting.  One “games girl,” 19-year old Ms Yang Xu, was so traumatized by the experience, that when interviewed she could only respond with a bizarre (perhaps fever-induced) fantasy:

“I’ve always dreamed of being a guide hostess for the table tennis athletes at the Olympics.”

One World (ok, that’s nice), One Dream (I’m going to need some clarification on this one).