Protecting panda

Female panda Shuan Shuan is expected to mate with the male panda Ling Ling the Mexico City Zoo. A 15-year-old male giant panda from Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, Ling Ling arrived in Mexico City on a three-month mission to mate with three female partners.

UN experts foresee ozone smog blanketing northern hemisphere AFR Traffic pollution, especially in Asia, is becoming so bad that most of the northern hemisphere will eventually be blanketed by ozone smog, triggering asthma epidemicsand damaging crops and vegetation. UN scientists say.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that by 2100, ozone smog will longer be limited to traffic-choked conurbations - - it will be a hazard "on a hemispheric scale."

The warning is buried in a 1,000-page report issued by the IPCC in Shanghai last week that focussed on the threat of global warming, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday's issue.

The document predicts that background levels of ozone will rise from 25 part s per billion (ppb) to 60 ppb by 2060 and more than 70 pph by2100.

"It may be impossible to achieve a clean-air standard of 80 ppb over most populated regions." the IPCC, a panel of top climate scientists, says. ,

Above 30 ppb. ozone can damage trees and causing wilting among crop staples such as wheal. according to the European Environment Agency (F.EA).The figure of80 ppb is also significant as it is considered the trigger for asthma attacks among many people.

Compounding this damage is the fact that ozone in the lower atmosphere acts as a "greenhouse" gas which accelerates global warming, thus increasing the pace of climate change.

Migratory birds lose Bangkok perch

AFP, Bangkok

Swallows migrating to Bangkok from northern Asia have lost a seasonal perch due to the removal of electrical lines and trees to make way for the city's Skytrain network, a report said Wednesday.

Power cables lining Bangkok's busy Silom Road have long pro-vided a winter home for thousands of bam swallows who fly south from Russia and China,The Nation new’spapersaid.

The bright lights that draw partygoers to the district's restaurants and bars, including Patpong's fabled strip of go-go bars, also attract swarms of fixing insects that are the birds' staple food.

But the number of swallows passing the winter on Silom Road has declined every year since 1992. when there were some 130,000 living along the thoroughfare.

When the first cables were removed in 1993, the number of bam swallows dropped to about 71,000. In 1996, when Skytrain construction began, the number sank to 48,000 and last year a mere 38.000 were counted.

The Silom Road Tagging Project is monitoring the changes wrought by the elevated rail network which has revolutionised travel around Bangkok's business and tourist districts, but proved less helpful for the swallows.

A joint venture of Telecom Asia Co-operation Co. the Royal Forestry Department and the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand, it has been studying swallow migratory patterns inThailand.

Each year the Silom Road Tagging Project's staff join up with student volunteers to catch the birds with large nets before tagging and releasing them with a coded band showing the time and location of theircapture.

Thisyear's round of tagging will take place Wednesday night.

However, a Telecom Asia spokesman told The Nation that the project could end this year if the swallow’population dwindles further.

Drastic changes in the environment along Silom Road could someday deter the birds from ever returning. Watchara Yoosawad of the Bird Conservation Society told The Nation.

"Historically the birds have arrived in October and stayed for about six mon ths before fixing back to China or Russia.

Greeceplans to turn airport into park

AFP, Athens

Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said Wednesday he would turn the I lellenikon international airport south of Athens into a park alter a new airport is opened in March.

German consortium Hochtief AG is building the new facility, Spata airport, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of the capital. It is due to be inaugurated in March.

The park would "create a completely different environment in the /Mhens basin."Simitis said.