Loggerhead turtles, endangered-type, were found just after birth on a beach in Cyprus. Cyprus took the lead in conservation of the slow fellows in 1978. The results are bearing fruit as a number of nests for both loggerheads and green turtles can now be found.

The turtles are said to have been around for 10,000 years and return every 25-30 years after hatching to lay their own legs and keep the reproduction process going.

But, then there are people like the woman in the photo who will do their part to disrupt the process, no? Why can’t we leave the animals alone? They don’t check on us to make sure we are reproducing at an appropriate rate, do they? Come to think of it, maybe they should.

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From January 1, 2009, China will begin recycling by a law that will promote a circular economy. The law was passed at the 11th Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC). It took three readings to get it right.

China is riding on the heels of a very successful Olympics. The new push – boost sustainable development through:

1. energy saving
2. pollution reduction

No mystery here. If China can get on track, one fifth of the world will be on track and the world’s worst polluter will have been reeled in. Generally speaking, however, it would be much better for people to want to save the world than to be afraid of punishment if they did not.

Eight teams completed a 4,022.5km (2,500 mile) car rally, “Grease to Greece,” from London to Athens. The event was aimed at promoting awareness of cheap environmentally-friendly bio-fuels.

Londoner Andy Pag is the brains behind the idea. The eight teams were required to beg for oil from restaurants, motorway cafes and fast-food joints along the way. Or they could go to KFC and just squeeze their own.

Pag drove a Peugot 405 for no cost from London to Athens.

Pag has also driven a truck powered by waste chocolate from Timbuktu to Mali. His next challenge – a round-the-world trip using aviation fuel from recycled plastic bags.

What I want to know is – who are the fuels, fools who are wasting chocolate??!!

Nippon Yusen KK and Nippon Oil Corp are working on the world’s first solar powered ship … well, at least partially solar powered, they are saying. What? A hybrid ship? The two companies want to put solar panels on top of the 60,000-ton ship that are capable of generating 40 kilowatts of electricity each.

The ship will carry Toyota cars. Is anybody surprised?

Fuel savings are expected to be in the neighborhood of 6.5% and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 1-2% or 20 tons per year. It will cost Nippon Usen about $1.4 million to create the solar panel system.

The ship is expected to be completed by December with damage to the panels from salt and vibration the biggest obstacles.

A Nippon Oil dude says, “If it’s possible, we want to aim for the full commercialization of the system in the next three to five years.” Yeah, we got to make money out of this operation, for sure.

This story/pic so reminds me of a heartbreaking one I heard a while back. Rangers came upon a deer that was emaciated. When the little fellow finally died, they cut it open to find out what had happened. The deer had eaten a plastic bag and it blocked its food track.

Somebody thinks it’s cool that this 9-month old female octopus is feeding itself from a jar. Shrimps, crabs and clams are put in the jar and the eight arms fight over which gets to dig in and pull out a munchy.

The living stop sign is in a zoo in Munich – Hellabrunn Zoo.  And, tell me again, is this cute? funny? ridiculous? When are people going to leave the animals alone?

A Giant Panda gave birth to a cub in Japan at the Oji Zoo. It was the first time in 20 years that a panda cub was successfully bred by artificial insemination. Two experts came from China’s Sichuan province to help with the procedure. Apparently the sexy panda videos didn’t work.

The last panda bred by artificial insemination in Japan was in 1988 at Ueno Zoo. The sex of the newcomer is not known. The little critter is just 25 cm long and weighs just 100 grams. (10″ 3.5 oz)

Parents are Dan Dan and Xing Xing. Panda’s in captivity often have low sex drive. I reckon I wouldn’t be too interested in doing “it” either if everyone was watching, would you?

China wants to lease two pandas to Japan’s Ueno Zoo since Ling Ling died but the doubters question China’s good will intention. Can’t have good intentions, now can we?

What do you think of helping animals to breed?

When pimping your car, who in the world things about the environment. It’s simple. It has to look better and drive faster. But then you have Scott Wade an experienced artist in love with dirty-rear-windows that will make an eco-friendly graffiti on your car’s back. Check more images after the jump.

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Mt. Fuji is tall enough to get snow pretty early on in the season. It’s something like 3,776 meters. I know, I have been up it three times…despite the old proverb.

“He who climbs Fuji once is wise, he who climbs it twice is a fool.”

What about three times?

Anyway, it can get cold up there in late spring, early fall. But, this year, snow fell on Mt. Fuji on August 9th. It is the earliest time ever for Japan’s iconic symbol to get snow fall.

The previous record was August 12th, 1914.

This year’s snowfall is 53 days earlier than average and 58 days earlier than last year.

Does that mean Japan can expect a serious winter?

Or is just Global Cooling?

We like animals here at Greenpacks. But, I reckon if we had to draw a line, this might be where we do it. A Japanese knucklehead was found to have kept 51 snakes in his Tokyo apartment…cobras and mambas, oh, my! When he was feeding one of them, he got bitten so he called the police.

“Let me think this through. Call the police? Or die?”

The man kept the snakes, one as long as six feet in his apartment without informing the Tokyo metropolitan government.

“Hey do you mind if I keep these deadly snakes in my teeny tiny apartment and your phone number on speed dial in case I get bitten?”

Nobody knows where the snakes are now, but they might be in your neighbor’s apartment. Do you know why your neighbor keeps buying mice?

A rare albino southern right whale calf was spotted at West Australia’s Finder’s Bay. Makes sense to find the calf in Finder’s Bay, eh? The calf is about 2 months old and has the name “Wilgi Ma Nung” which very unoriginally means “white whale” in the local Wardani Aboriginal language. I mean, why not call him/her “Spot?”

Whale watchers say “Spot” will remain in the area for another month or so to gain its strength, swim laps, get ready for the Olympic swim, then make the journey to the Antarctic for the summer feeding months.

Finder’s Bay is noted as a birthing and nursery ground for southern right whales. Right whales usually vote conservative, too. Speaking of names, um, where do they get this southern right whale classification?