When it comes to giant panda protection, climate change can be
seen as a black-and-white issue.
A lighting manufacturer yesterday
signed an agreement with the Wolong Panda Club of the China Conservation and
Research Center for the Giant Panda (WPC, CCRCGP) to adopt three one-year-old
pandas, donate 100,000 yuan ($13,100) worth of lighting equipment for their
habitat at the center and establish a "Care for Pandas Fund".
The three
cuddly creatures - Ouou, Sisi and Langlang, who live at the center's Wolong
Reserve in Sichuan Province - are named after OSRAM China Lighting Ltd's Chinese
pronunciation and are intended to remind consumers who they are protecting when
they purchase environmentally friendly products.
"It's a reminder that
good climate for the pandas is good climate for you and me," said the president
of OSRAM China, Lars Johnsen. "Raising awareness about climate protection is an
essential aspect of protecting giant pandas."
Langlang is the only male
and is Sisi's twin. Visitors to the center can visit the creatures and netizens
can log on to OSRAM's website to watch them frolic, munch bamboo and snooze in their homes,
which is monitored by video cameras 24 hours a day.
The company also
plans to start a panda blog, where netizens can share stories about, and photos
of, Ouou, Sisi and Langlang.
For every purchase of one of OSRAM's
environmentally friendly products, the company will donate 10 cents to the newly
founded "Panda Love Fund", which will provide necessities for the pandas at the
center in addition to supporting research. Lucky buyers can also win a trip -
with travel and accommodation paid - to the center where they would get to play
with and feed the three pandas.
"This partnership can create a call for
human beings to care and increase their concern for the environment," the
director of the Beijing Energy Saving Office, Liu Qianguang, said.
Wang
Pengyan, deputy director-general of the Wolong National Nature Reserve
Administration, said the center had only eight pandas when it opened and now has
more than 120 because of an increasing number of donations and adoptions.
"Raising a baby panda is very difficult," he said. "Now, we can be sure
these pandas grow up to be healthy and strong."
The installation of the
lighting equipment in the habitat - completed yesterday - is intended to raise
awareness of the environmental benefits of using compact fluorescent lighting
technology over general lighting
service (GLS) illumination.
"Globally, if you go from
the current GLS to compact fluorescent lighting, you could save about 460
billion kWh," Johnsen said. "If you take those lamps and replace them, you could
save the equivalent of 2.7 percent the amount of power produced by the Three
Gorges Dam Project."
(China Daily 07/20/2007 page 6)
Vocabulary:
frolic:嬉戏
general lighting service:普通照明
Questions:
1. Which company bought the naming rights
to the three pandas?
2. What is the "Panda Love Fund"?
3. How much
estimated power could be saved globally with fluorescent lighting compared to
GLS lighting?
Answers:
1. OSRAM China Lighting
Ltd.
2. It will provide necessities for the pandas at the center in
addition to supporting rsearch.
3. 460 billion kWh.
(英语点津 Linda 编辑)
About the broadcaster:
Matt Doran is an award-winning American newspaper journalist and an
undergraduate student at Albion College. He is currently a polisher for China
Daily Website and is on summer break from Beijing Foreign Studies University,
where he will resume his study of Chinese in the fall.