The world's most polluted river

Clips from an article about the Citarum river, in Indonesia: possibly the most polluted river in the world.

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Is this the world's most polluted river? It was once a gently flowing river, where fishermen cast their nets, sea birds came to feed and natural beauty left visitors spellbound. Villagers collected water for their simple homes and rice paddies thrived on its irrigation channels. Today, the Citarum is a river in crisis, choked by the domestic waste of nine million people and thick with the cast-off from hundreds of factories. So dense is the carpet of refuse that the tiny wooden fishing craft which float through it are the only clue to the presence of water. A man picks through the rubbish in the Citarum river 'I said we shouldn't have scrapped weekly collections' Plastic rubbish has clogged up the waterway

via: Sea of Garbage

New animals found in Indonesia

A Giant Rat and a Tiny Possum

clipped from afp.google.com Two new mammals found in Indonesian 'lost world': green group JAKARTA (AFP) — Two mammals believed new to science have been found on the latest expedition to a virtual lost world found in Indonesia's Papua in 2005, Conservation International (CI) said Monday. "During the June expedition, the team documented two mammals, a Cercartetus pygmy possum, one of the world?s smallest marsupials, and a Mallomys giant rat, both currently under study and apparently new to science," CI said. clipped from news.bbc.co.uk The 1.4kg Mallomys giant rat is one of two species of mammal found by Conservation International on an expedition to the Foja Mountains in the north of Papua province, Indonesia. This tiny species of Cercartetus pygmy possum - one of the world's smallest marsupials - is also thought to be new to science after being spotted in the remote jungle.