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|  » Stats |
Members: 50,169
Threads: 82,383
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Top Poster: glsammy (15,069)
| | Welcome to our newest member, worrit | |  | 
18-01-2011, 07:27 PM
|  | Knight Grand Cross of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Northants.
Posts: 11,628
| | | Natural World Special
Natural World Special
Miracle In The Marshes Of Iraq..
On now BBC 2 |
18-01-2011, 10:19 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Sandbach, Cheshire
Posts: 1,310
| | | Re: Natural World Special
I was out tonight, was it any good? |
19-01-2011, 02:46 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Hayes, Middlesex
Posts: 3,716
| | | Re: Natural World Special
Just watched it, excellent program.
Really, really great to see something good coming out of Iraq! I never knew of teh marshes there before and what Saddam did to them.
Well worth watching. |
19-01-2011, 10:03 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: North Yorkshire
Posts: 2,983
| | | Re: Natural World Special
Wilfred Thesiger wrote a book about the marsh arabs, called "The Marsh Arabs" The Marsh Arabs (Penguin Classics): Amazon.co.uk: Wilfred Thesiger, Jon Lee Anderson: Books
Darn that just cost me a few quid to my Kindle.
Used to be in our local library...
Thrown out to make room for comics (illustrated novels)
__________________
Genio Terrę Britannicę |
19-01-2011, 10:09 PM
| | Knight Grand Cross of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Northants.
Posts: 11,628
| | | Re: Natural World Special
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meta menardi  | Looks a good read, thanks for posting MM  |
20-01-2011, 02:48 AM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 1,227
| | | Re: Natural World Special
The draining of the Marshes in retribution for the '91 uprising lost the world at least 4 species indigenous to the area, the African Darter Anhinga rufa chantrei. Bunn's Short-Tailed Bandicoot Rat Erythronesokia bunnii and the Smooth-coated Otter subspecies Lutra perspicillata maxwelli, which had only been described from specimens obtained in the Central Marshes plus a species of Barbel. Maybe others never known to science vanished due to one man's arrogance and spite. Our Government was also quite heavily involved with a drainage campaign during the 1950's in reaction to the myriad mosquitoes breeding in the wetland. Apart from the draining itself water poisoning by the Ba'athist party was also employed to force the human inhabitants away from the area by starvation. By this action the waterways of the Shatt el Arab have become polluted and fish consumption in this area has many deleterious side effects. Almost 8000 square miles of wetland has become dessicated. Dairy and rice production and fishing is affected due to a severely increased salination of the area, many plants and some animals are totally extinct and finally the feeding and resting places for millions of migratory birds have been destroyed resulting in lowered populations in the Ukraine and Caucasus. A true ecological catastrophe, but barely mentioned in the aftermath of the War there.
A Ma' dan, living and working in Austria told me the tale of his village of 90 souls all starved, he lives and works still in the VoestAlpin as it is now his only home. He visited his homeland in 2002, there was nothing.
h
Last edited by tcvarlh; 20-01-2011 at 02:53 AM.
|
20-01-2011, 09:47 AM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: SW London
Posts: 2,099
| | | Re: Natural World Special
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meta menardi | A wonderful read that - also "A Reed Shaken by the Wind" by Gavin Maxwell, who was with Thesiger on that journey. I remember the photos of the huge cathedral-like constructions made using the reeds.
I only caught the tail-end of the program but will watch online. | | |
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