The word is out. Shanghai's first nature reserve in Nanhui District's Dongtan area has officially been established. The 40.3 km long beach area will be a haven for birds such as white cranes and little stints. Many migratory birds also nest there each year.

People's Daily assures us that "anyone hunting in the area will be faced with punishment, according to established regulations for wildlife sanctuaries". But it doesn't elucidate what punishment await for those who flout the laws:

This means anyone who traps or kills wild animals will forfeit their prey, hunting equipment and income made from the illegal activity. They will also be fined. Serious offenders - defined as a hunter with 20 wild animals - will be treated as criminal cases. Hunters with 50 or more prey will receive a criminal penalty.

Huh? Is this just a case of vague wording on the part of the lawmakers or laziness on the part of the journalist who just doesn't bother to really inform his/her readers? (Probably a bit of both!)

Apparently, the Dongtan area in Nanhui district is not to be confused with the one on Chongming Island, where a huge green eco-city, make that eco-metropolis (if there was such a word), is being built — from scratch. Dongtan on Chongming Island is massive, about the size of Manhattan. The first residential and commercial space will the market in 2010, and by 2050 (one wonders if we'd still be around by then), it will boast of half a million residents. But hey, if they managed to build Pudong out of nothing, they can do it with Dongtan too. The only question that remains is: how much of the "eco" will be in that "eco-city"?

Picture from Juan Freire.

Some things you were never supposed to hear about ... so keep them to yourselves please! Shhhhh.

Fons Tuinstra of China Herald shares a rumour that our former mayor might be sent to the gallows:

"He is going to be executed for corruption," said a former colleague I met yesterday for lunch when the issue of Shanghai's former party secretary Chen Liangyu came up. "Of course, they have enough proof he is corrupt himself, not only his family. I heard the first stories already eight years ago." More than setting up yet another hapless bureaucracy to fight corruption, this upcoming court case is going to set the agenda of the fight against corruption. But whether the system will literally kill its own children? I'm sure he will get (and deserve) a heavy punishment, but I think the death penalty will be a step to far. What do you think?

Meanwhile, have you ever wondered on the true state of China's water sources? Chris O'Brien of Beijing Newspeak shares an amazing quote from Zheng Binghui, the director of the Chinese Research Academy of the Environmental Sciences’ Institute of Water Environment in an article from the South China Morning Post:

Dr Zheng said nearly half of all urban drinking water sources failed to meet national standards in 1981, and, in 1998, the failure rate was more than 83 per cent, according to studies carried out by his institute.

Their latest survey suggests more than 450 drinking water sources in key national environmental protection cities could not meet the standards, a number six times higher than the official figure. But these results have not been made available to the mainland public.

“If we release these figures to the public, there will be total havoc … The figures we reported to the central government are classified,” he said.

“There is only one correct figure you and Xinhua can report, and that is the official figure.”

One wonders if Zheng will get into trouble next!

Picture of former mayor Chen Liangyu when he was still in office from China Herald

Planning an October holiday escape? Need some fresh air? How does Norway sound? The European Arctic. That should be far enough from the pull of Shanghai's pollution, right? Wrong. These days, there's no escaping China's chief export: Crappy air.

Researchers at the Norwegian Polar Institute have said that they've detected chemical traces from China all the way up north on Spitsbergen Island. How do they do it, you ask? Well apparently with some smart detective work, scientists are often able to tell where certain chemical traces come from because "the particles are slightly different in the United States, Russia, China, Europe or India".

From a Reuters report:

Emissions from cars, for instance, have a different chemical signature according to national gasoline blends. Israel is alone in using a type of pesticide on its orange trees.

More ghoulishly, funeral pyres in some Asian countries release toxic mercury from fillings in the teeth of the deceased. If detected, the mercury means air did not come from Europe, North America or Japan where crematoriums have filters.

Greenhouse gases are at the highest levels in about 650,000 years, and a growing proportion of them can be traced to China. Carbon dioxide levels have also risen from 270 parts per million before the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century to 390 ppm this year. All that global warming means glaciers are melting, icebergs are disappearing, and polar bears are dying (with two thirds of them dead by 2050). Ironically though, Shanghai stands to gain from it all as global warming opens up arctic shipping routes. From a report we found on transarctic shipping and transportation:

The distance from Iceland to the Pacific through the Bering Strait is for instance about 3,500
nm whereas the distance from Rotterdam through the Suez Canal to Shanghai is about 9,600
nm. If ships are too large to pass the canal they have to go beyond The Cape of Good Hope in
South Africa a distance of 13,900 nm.

What all this means in dollars and cents is dramatic:

Based on a charter cost of $30,000 a day, traveling speed of 22 knots and fuel costs of $170 per tonne, the route from Rotterdam to Shanghai via the Northwest Passage would be $590,000 cheaper than through the Suez Canal if the Canadian passageway were free.

So while the significance of ports like Singapore and Hong Kong which have benefited from the opening of the Suez Canal is likely to be diminished, northern ports like Shanghai and Yokohama stand to gain by being the new shipping gateways to Asia. Honestly though, Shanghaiist hopes to be long dead before all of that happens along with the consequent environmental disasters of an ice-free arctic circle.

Related links
Reuters: In pure Arctic air, signs of China's economic boom
Reuters: Global warming boosts Arctic shipping, oil: report
Asia Times: Nations scramble over Arctic Silk Road
Arctic Portal: Breaking the Ice - Arctic Development and Maritime Transportation
Prospects of the Transarctic Route – Impact and Opportunities

Photo of Greenpeace ship travelling along the coast of Greenland to document the effects of rapid Arctic warming from adavies.