'Garden of Eden' Dying of Poison

[chlamor]

'Garden of Eden' dying of poison

5,000-year-old Marsh Arab haven is devastated by fishermen's use of chemicals and electric shocks

Rory Carroll in Baghdad
Tuesday April 19, 2005
The Guardian

Farmers and fishermen are devastating Iraq's marshes, considered by some to be the site of the Garden of Eden, with uncontrolled use of chemicals and fishing using electric shocks, researchers warned yesterday.

The illegal methods are wiping out wildlife, polluting water, endangering human health and undermining the recovery of one of the world's great wetlands, they say.

The marshes are part of what British troops stationed there call Iraq's "wild, wild east", a remote, lawless region where impoverished communities have a tradition of defying authority.

Since the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein two years ago there has been a boom in the use of electroshocking - nets attached to car batteries - to catch fish, says Iraq Nature, an environmental group.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1462893,00.html

[leesa]

1. Oh please! Like the tons of depleted uranium have nothing to do with it.

[knowbody0]

2. planting only crops that

do not produce seeds as well.

[blogbear]

3. Even more 'shock and awe'?..

[htuttle]

4. I'm sure the US plans to pave it and put up a parking lot, anyway

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don't know what you’ve got
‘Til it's gone

[xchrom]

5. sigh -- ain't that the way it goes.