A rather depressing article about the state of panda conservation in china

Seed Magazine: "Black and White and Desired All Over"

Sometimes—when I read something like this, when I am in a bus going through the city—I can feel, so sharply, all these problems and conflicts that China is facing. It's so like China, isn't it? To want more UNESCO sites, more panda bears, more medals at the Asia Games, more honors and awards that we can plaster to our face and call ourselves splendid, great, modern. But then inside it's a rotting, stinking mess, and the quest for international prestige is not going to sideline the race to make more money, develop more land, build more tacky resorts, whatever the cost.

So many things, panda bears not being the least, are being sacrificed for these $1 milion RMB housing developments, because we want to have an apartment in the "Versailles Gardens" or "Victoria Palm Beach," and drive our shiny shiny Audi to the disgustingly pretentious mall or home-improvement center, where we will load up on assembly-line statuettes of eyeless Greek gods to fill our home and make believe that there is some meaning to this.

And then, at the same time, this country is also so wonderful, and beautiful, and there have been so many great things done and read and drawn and written here. It makes my heart hurt.