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Sanju · 02-28-2019, 07:07 PM

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Love Cheetah Lol

Sanju · 03-02-2019, 04:40 PM

The environment was once a safe space for activism in Iran. No longer
Kaveh Madani
Hardline forces increasingly view environmentalism as a threat to national security, and are throwing innocent experts in jail

*This image is copyright of its original author

‘Iran’s endangered Asiatic cheetahs are a matter of concern to the international environmental community: the lives of their endangered guardians should be too.’ Photograph: Vahid Salemi/AP

In early 2018, nine environmental experts and activists from the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF) were arrested in Iran. Disregarding their international reputation for tireless efforts to protect Iran’s endangered Asiatic cheetahs, the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accused them of being agents of the CIA, Mossad and MI6.

The IRGC, which acts as an alternative, hardline centre of power in Iran, claimed that PWHF was using environmental activism as a cover for a mission to disrupt national security. It accused them of collecting “sensitive” environmental information and using camera traps to monitor Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

A few weeks later, one of them, Kavous Seyed Emami, died suspiciously in an alleged suicide at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. His grieving wife, Maryam Mombeini, is still banned from leaving the country to join her two sons in Canada. The rest of the group are still in “temporary detention”. Four of them have been charged with “spreading corruption on the earth”, a crime that can carry the death penalty. The rest face serious security charges for “cooperation with hostile governments” and “acts against national security”. Their 300-page indictment was finally disclosed to them in a trial behind closed doors that began a few weeks ago.

While the country’s civilian ministry of intelligence has stated it believes the activists are innocent, the IRGC is determined to trumpet the discovery of another spy network. This heartrending story is yet more evidence of what I know from personal experience to be a trend: a move by security forces to start policing the environmental sector in Iran.

I was a tenured faculty at Imperial College in 2017 when, at the government’s invitation, I returned to Iran after 14 years to serve as the deputy head of the country’s department of environment. Upon arrival in Tehran, however, I was arrested by IRGC. Their members broke into my phone, computer, emails, and social media accounts. I was then released and started to work for the government while trying not to lose my enthusiasm in the face of the Guards’ continuous disrespectful and illegal behaviour. They viewed me as a western infiltrator.

I wanted to be an agent of positive environmental change, but in return for my love for and commitment to the country, I was named a “bioterrorist”, a “water terrorist”, and a spy for Mossad, CIA and MI6. The accusations were mind-blowing, more reminiscent of James Bond movies than reality. I was accused of manipulating the weather to create droughts, trying to ratify the Paris agreement to limit development, shutting down agriculture to make the country dependent on others for its food, causing migration and tension in the country, and importing genetically modified organisms to eliminate my fellow Iranians.

I ended up resigning after seven months of increasing pressure that involved detentions and interrogations. My wife and I spent some time in hiding outside Iran before I decided to return to academia. But the IRGC-sponsored smear campaigns are still going on. Last week, hardline media promoted conspiracy theories about my connection to Republican Zionist groups in the US and Israeli intelligence organisations, and even Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent televised message on Iran’s water crisis.

*This image is copyright of its original author

Only two female Asiatic cheetahs remain in wild in Iran

Environmental problems recognise no borders and have the power to unite people regardless of their beliefs, cultures, ethnicities, and socio-economic status. Precisely this power, however, makes the environmental sector vulnerable to the attention of authoritarian elements. For years it was a safe space for activism in Iran, but the combination of general environmental awareness and increasing public anger at the government for a range of grave environmental problems has convinced some that this space is now a threat to national security.

The loss of hope is destructive for any environmental movement. Faced with this kind of persecution, Iran’s environmental community has become scared and confused.

Iran’s endangered Asiatic cheetahs are a matter of concern to the international environmental community: the lives of their endangered guardians should be too. It is good to finally see that some organisations, experts and celebrities are starting to express their concerns publicly.

But the international environmental community as a whole needs to pay more attention to these developments before it’s too late. The policing of environmental activists will not remain a problem solely limited to Iran unless we stand up.

• Kaveh Madani is a former deputy vice-president of Iran and a Henry Hart Rice senior fellow at Yale University

@Lycaon

Lycaon · 03-02-2019, 05:52 PM

@Sanju

They will survive this .

Sanju · 03-02-2019, 05:53 PM

(03-02-2019, 05:52 PM)Lycaon Wrote: They will survive this .

Asian Cheetahs??? I doubt they will survive for 2 yrs from now. Let's hope for the best.

Lycaon · 03-02-2019, 05:59 PM

@Sanju

They are still present after the iranian revolution, and the iran iraq war. Plus the researchers don't really know how many there are in the wild. There have also been multiple reports of venaticus in other central asian countries such as kazakhsthan and turkmenistan.

Sanju · 03-02-2019, 06:02 PM

(03-02-2019, 05:59 PM)Lycaon Wrote: multiple reports of venaticus in other central asian countries such as kazakhsthan and turkmenistan.

Would love to see those reports. Lol

Can you provide them here? data or pics.

They survived then because, that was time, their population more than what today.

Yes, that's the reason: researchers are tentative. Now advanced tech to conduct census, all are individually identified. Their pop can be >50 or <50. It can go either way due to inaccurate counting with more error probability. Don't how many are "now" left. may be some 30 based on the news reporting coming showing cheetahs killed by livestock stake holders and in accidents.

Lycaon · 03-02-2019, 06:05 PM

An extinct steppe cheetah has been seen in a desert near the Aral Sea, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing Express-K. Russian travelers shot the predator on a mobile phone camera. “We were absolutely astonished. At first we thought that this was a caracal – a desert lynx. But then we realized that it was a larger predator. The cheetah easily left behind our Volkswagen Tuaregs despite the fact we drove at a sixty kilometers an hour. We simply weren't able to drive any faster, we were afraid of turning over on the bumpy road. Later, when we analyzed the video from our mobile phone, we realized that this was a cheetah,” Yevgeny Dyakonov, the traveler said. One more Russian traveler, Natalya Kalentyeva said that she saw huge cat-like trails everywhere at Barsakelmes island, at the Aral Sea. According to Arsen Kiyanov, Candidate of Science in Biology, a small steppe cheetah population remained intact in Turkmenistan territory. “It is possible that some animals have migrated. Cheetah was considered extinct more than one hundred years ago in Kazakhstan,” he added.
For more information see: https://en.tengrinews.kz/environment/Extinct-steppe-cheetah-was-found-in-Aral-4807/
Use of the Tengrinews English materials must be accompanied by a hyperlink to en.Tengrinews.kz

Source: https://en.tengrinews.kz/environment/Extinct-steppe-cheetah-was-found-in-Aral-4807/

Sanju · 03-02-2019, 06:19 PM

Thanks! @Lycaon but Photo is not appearing. @Lycaon, is the photo visible to you?

Rage2277 · 03-02-2019, 07:30 PM

(03-02-2019, 06:05 PM)Lycaon Wrote: An extinct steppe cheetah has been seen in a desert near the Aral Sea, Tengrinews.kz reports, citing Express-K. Russian travelers shot the predator on a mobile phone camera. “We were absolutely astonished. At first we thought that this was a caracal – a desert lynx. But then we realized that it was a larger predator. The cheetah easily left behind our Volkswagen Tuaregs despite the fact we drove at a sixty kilometers an hour. We simply weren't able to drive any faster, we were afraid of turning over on the bumpy road. Later, when we analyzed the video from our mobile phone, we realized that this was a cheetah,” Yevgeny Dyakonov, the traveler said. One more Russian traveler, Natalya Kalentyeva said that she saw huge cat-like trails everywhere at Barsakelmes island, at the Aral Sea. According to Arsen Kiyanov, Candidate of Science in Biology, a small steppe cheetah population remained intact in Turkmenistan territory. “It is possible that some animals have migrated. Cheetah was considered extinct more than one hundred years ago in Kazakhstan,” he added.
For more information see: https://en.tengrinews.kz/environment/Extinct-steppe-cheetah-was-found-in-Aral-4807/
Use of the Tengrinews English materials must be accompanied by a hyperlink to en.Tengrinews.kz

Source: https://en.tengrinews.kz/environment/Extinct-steppe-cheetah-was-found-in-Aral-4807/