The Miraculous Web of Life Sustains ALL Species on Planet Earth – Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy Humans. WITHOUT NATURE WE DO NOT EXIST. PERIOD. To the degree Nature is sick, so are we. We humans must reintegrate into the greater web of life as a species within it and not separate from it, by returning to respect and restoring balance and harmony to that which supports all life on this planet ... Nature ... #GDP should be replaced by #EcoEconomics ... Putting front and center the concerns for how we are destroying and objectifying the natural world for profit #Conservation #Ecosystems #Wildlife #Forests #Environment #Biodiversity #Ecoeconomics #CSR #GDP #Anthropocene
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”... ALBERT EINSTEIN
-▶ BIODIVERSITY VITAL TO MAINTAIN ECOSYSTEM AND HUMAN HEALTH Over the years ecologists have shown how biological diversity benefits the health of small, natural communities. New analysis by ecologists at UC Santa Cruz demonstrates that even higher levels of biological diversity are necessary to maintain ecosystem health in larger landscapes over long periods of time....http://news.ucsc.edu/2013/06/ecosystem-biodiversity.html
VIDEO 11:35 Peak Prosperity, December 05, 2014 THE ENVIRONMENT: INCREASING WASTE
Science Daily, November 1`8, 2014 -▶ AS ELEPHANTS GO, SO GO THE TREES. Overhunting has been disastrous for elephants, but their forest habitats have also been caught in the crossfire. A first-of-its-kind study shows that the dramatic loss of elephants, which disperse seeds after eating vegetation, is leading to the local extinction of a dominant tree species, with likely cascading effects for other forest life.
The Mind Unleashed, May 15, 2014 - ▶ THE EARTH IS A SENTIENT LIVING ORGANISM. Contrary to the common belief that the Earth is simply a dense planet whose only function is a resource for its inhabitants, our planet is in fact a breathing, living organism. When we think of the Earth holistically, as one living entity of its own, instead of the sum of its parts, it takes on a new meaning. Our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival.http://themindunleashed.org/2014/05/earth-sentient-living-organism.html
IMPORTANT WATCH "A THOUSAND INVISIBLE CORDS" (56 min)
The Community of Genes in Ecosystems
The Greater the Biodiversity in the Ecosystem, The Greater Resilience of an ecological community and for adaption. Everything is Interconnected and interdependent. Myopic genetic engineering destroys these connections and breaks the link of naturally evolving organisms “A Thousand Invisible Cords: Connecting Genes to Ecosystems” is a 56-minute eco-documentary that can change how we view the world. Community genetics. No longer will we see species as isolated members of ecosystems but as genetically connected members of a rich interacting community. In the words of the 19th century naturalist, writer, and environmental activist John Muir: “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken to everything in the universe.” http://vimeo.com/40615050
-▶NEW HOLISTIC 'ONE HEALTH' CONNECTS HUMANS, ANIMALS AND ECOSYSTEMS. Recently, the dilemma of human–wildlife conflict has created great opportunity to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems for both people and ecosystems. The emerging holistic “One Health” movement explicitly recognizes the inextricable connections between human, animal, and ecosystem health, and is leading not only to new scientific research but also to projects that help people rise out of poverty, improve their health, reduce conflicts with wildlife, and preserve ecosystems, such as Bwindi’s tropical montane forest...http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0501-nicole-sri-ehp-one-health.html
Biodiversity International - INFOGRAPH AGRICULTURAL BIODIVERSITY IS KEY FOR RESILIENT FAMILY FARMS.Did you know that there are over 500 million family farms around the world and that 80% of all farms in Africa are small farms? When peoples' livelihoods directly depend on their small farm or home garden, pests, climate change and other variables can have a life-changing impact. Agricultural and tree biodiversity play an essential role in achieving a more nutritious, productive and adaptable food and agricultural system. Learn more in this Biodiversity International infographichttp://visual.ly/agricultural-biodiversity-key-resilient-family-farms
▶ **** IN COSTA RICA, FARMERS START TO SEE VALUE OF BIODIVERSITY(As It Used to Be Before Man Decided He Knew Better)
In Costa Rica, birds, bats and bees serve vital roles in controlling pests and pollinating crops. Now, researchers are measuring the contributions of these critters to encourage farmers to move away from the single-crop model and toward biodiversityhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/06/food-for-9-billion-costa-rica.html
IUCN RED LIST OF ENDANGERED ECOSYSTEMS Everyone knows that coral reefs are in danger, and that the rainforests are disappearing – or do we? What do we actually know in scientific terms? How much of these ecosystems are left, and how likely are they to disappear? IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature is developing a new tool to provide answers to these questions – the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems.http://www.iucnredlistofecosystems.org/about-us/red-list-ecosystems/
PHOTO: Father of five Joseph Kilimo Chebet stands next to the burned remains of his homestead, destroyed only hours prior by Kenya Forest Service officers.
------------------------------------------------
The Guardian environment, July 03, 2014
WORLD BANK, UN REDD COMPLICIT IN GENOCIDAL LAND GRABS
UN's REDD scheme promises carbon offsetting will empower local communities in the developing world while conserving forests - but critics say the scheme is fuelling genocidal evictions of indigenous people from their lands. Between 2000 and 2010, a total of 500 million acres of land in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean was acquired or negotiated under deals brokered on behalf of foreign governments or transnational corporations.
Many such deals are geared toward growing crops or biofuels for export to richer, developed countries – with the consequence that small-holder farmers are displaced from their land and lose their livelihood while local communities go hungry. The concentration of ownership of the world's farmland in the hands of powerful investors and corporations is rapidly accelerating, driven by resource scarcity and, thus, rising prices. According to a new report by the US land rights organisation Grain: "The powerful demands of food and energy industries are shifting farmland and water away from direct local food production to the production of commodities for industrial processing." Less known factors, however, include 'conservation' and 'carbon offsetting.' http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jul/03/world-bank-un-redd-genocide-land-carbon-grab-sengwer-kenya
INVESTIGATION Center for Public Integrity, April 16 2015 HOW THE WORLD BANK BREAKS ITS PROMISE TO PROTECT THE POOR Since 2004 an estimated 3,350,449 people were forced from their homes, deprived of their land or had their livelihoods damaged because they lived in the path of a World Bank project http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/04/16/17147/how-world-bank-breaks-its-promise-protect-poor
The Ecologist, December 07, 2014 ▶ KENYA: A FOREST PEOPLE ILLEGALLY EVICTED, BEATEN IMPRISONED: PAID FOR BY THE WORLD BANK. Financed by the World Bank, the Kenya Forest Service has intensified its illegal campaign of evictions, arson, beatings and arrests of the Sengwer forest people of the Embobut forest. And behind the violence lies the lure of hard cash - from the prospect of selling the forest's carbon to international financiershttp://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2664793/kenya_a_forest_people_illegally_evicted_beaten_imprisoned_paid_for_by_the_world_bank.html
Oakland Institute, July 28, 2014 -▶ THE WORLD BANK, THE IMF, US AID OPEN UP UKRAINE TO WESTERN INTERESTS. A new report from the Oakland Institute, Walking on the West Side: the World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict, exposes how the international financial institutions swooped in on the heels of the political upheaval and are vying to deregulate and throw open Ukraine’s vast agricultural sector to foreign investors, in return for aid
Inter Press Service, March 21, 2014 -▶ WORLD BANK CLEAR $73 BILLION DOLLAR GRANT FOR CONTROVERSIAL MEGA-DAM IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)As currently envisioned, the Inga III dam would be the first in a series of hydroelectric installations along the Congo River, collectively referred to as the Grand Inga project. This would include a single 145-metre dam, which would flood an area known as the BundiValley, home to around 30,000 people... “The project is being presented as if it will help the population...but these big mega-dam projects end up serving mines and related industry at the expense of local communities bein displaced once Inga 3 is fully developed.”http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/03/world-bank-clears-congos-controversial-dam-project/
IUCN RED LIST OF ENDANGERED ECOSYSTEMS Everyone knows that coral reefs are in danger, and that the rainforests are disappearing – or do we? What do we actually know in scientific terms? How much of these ecosystems are left, and how likely are they to disappear? IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature is developing a new tool to provide answers to these questions – the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems.http://www.iucnredlistofecosystems.org/about-us/red-list-ecosystems/
TreeHugger, April 03, 2015 ▶NATURAL PRAIRIES DESTROYED FOR CORN AND SOY FOLLOWING BIOFUEL LAW. If the goal of biofuels is to create a greener way to power transportation, converting prairies to do so is counterproductive. Grasslands are not only home to threatened plant and animal species, but they are also carbon sinks. Tilling natural grassland releases considerable carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, spurring on climate change. http://www.treehugger.com/environmental-policy/natural-prairies-replaced-corn-and-soy-following-renewable-fuel-standard.html
Rainforest Rescue, February 20, 2015 ▶PROTEST - STOP A BILLION-DOLLAR GIFT TO THE PALM OIL INDUSTRY. Bad news for the rainforest and its inhabitants: Indonesia’s President Widodo is planning a $1.35 billion biofuel subsidy that would dramatically speed up deforestation. The palm oil barons are looking forward to the windfall and are ready to fire up the chainsaws.https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/mailalert/986/stop-a-billion-dollar-gift-to-the-palm-oil-industry
-▶ FOOD OR FUEL? G8 UNDER PRESSURE TO RETHINK BIOFUEL MANDATES. Leaders of the EU and their partners in the G8 nations are under mounting pressure to reconsider their support for biofuel targets amid concern that plant oil production competes with food output in poor countries.... http://www.euractiv.com/cap/g8-pressure-rethink-biofuel-mand-news-519583
ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORT: GazetteNet, November 5, 2013
-▶ BIO-ETHANOL FUEL: THE SECRET DIRTY COST OF OBAMA'S GREEN POWER PUSH.Five million acres of land set aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined — have vanished on Obama’s watch. Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil. Sprayers pumped out billions of pounds of fertilizer, some of which seeped into drinking water, contaminated rivers and worsened the huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can’t survive. ... 15 million more acres of corn were planted last year than before the ethanol boomhttp://www.gazettenet.com/home/9190243-95/the-secret-dirty-cost-of-obamas-green-power-push
Delawareonline, August 03, 2014 -▶ THE REAL COST OF ETHANOL. There's now corn planted on 1.3 million acres that until recently was reserved for conservation – an area larger than all of Delaware. Last year, American farmers planted 95 million acres of corn, 10 million acres more than in 2008. This phenomenon is being driven by increased demand for corn-based ethanol, which now consumes more than 40-percent of corn grown nationwide. But the growth of ethanol, an alcohol-based additive that makes up 10-percent of each gallon of gas, has had unintended consequences...http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2014/08/02/real-cost-ethanol/13534077/
Emmy Award Winning 1 hr Film - University of Minnesota
▶ "TROUBLED WATERS: A MISSISSIPPI RIVER STORY" ▶ This excellent one hour documentary examines the "unintended consequences" of farming practices on water quality, soil loss and the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. Knitting together federal energy, farm and environmental policies, the film makes a compelling case for the revamping of US agricultural policy. http://www.rememberthispoint.com/?p=212
▶ THE GREAT AMERICAN CORPORATE GIVEAWAY: OUR PUBLIC WILDLIFE PRESERVES: BIOFUELS, GMO CROPS, PESTICIDES, CHEMICALShttp://sco.lt/99bwx7
100 Reporters, November 21, 2013 ▶ GLOBAL LAND GRAB: RAINFOREST VANISHING IN SHADY DEALS, REPORT SAYS. Spurred by increasing food prices and demand for biofuels in Europe and North America, one of the world’s largest rainforests in Papua New Guinea is quickly disappearing under a voracious land rush that has handed 12 percent of the country’s entire land area to foreign companies over the last decade, according to a new report.http://100r.org/2013/11/global-land-grab-rainforest-vanishing-in-shady-deals-report-says/
-▶ WORLD CAN'T WAIT UNTIL 2020 ON CLIMATE CHANGE, SAYS NEW HIGHLY-DISTURBING INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY REPORThttp://sco.lt/82bCM5
allAfrica, January 07, 2014
▶ AFRICA: OUR MODERN, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTH.
Today our food comes from across the world. More importantly, it is often produced in highly destructive ways, at the lowest possible cost.
Consequently our food production system is responsible for accelerating the rate of destruction of the very ecosystems we are reliant upon in order to maintain our delicate global environmental equilibrium.
We cut and clear the lungs of the world, our tropical rainforests, to feed livestock or grow dishonestly named "biofuels". We bulldoze natural filtration systems and the nurseries for life like wetlands and mangrove swamps to produce luxury foods for obese populations.http://allafrica.com/stories/201401071158.html?viewall=1
-▶ HOW FOREIGN 'INVESTMENTS' ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/8Ff27V
Common sense tells us that growing biofuels on arable land for fuel can, at the most, only provide us with a small percentage of so-called renewable fuel. It takes up huge acreage of good land for food; often from deforestation; it is constantly being harvested, not allowing natural biodiversity to re-establish itself; it requires water; pesticides, chemicals, fertilizers; it is energy intensive to process and transport; and it carries nice, hefty subsidies (as does wind) for investment and bottom-line. But it is not cost-effective when all is taken into account and t is dependent upon the weather and climate change is coming in fast. So let's stop with the public relations spin and tell it like it is. It is a boondoggle that will fade as the subsidies are withdrawn.
Environmental News Network, October 29, 2014 ▶ INSTEAD OF FEARING BATS WE SHOULD BE SCARED OF A WORLD WITHOUT THEM: CANADIAN BATS FACING BLEAK FUTUREhttp://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/47969
Science News, June 10, 2014 ▶ DEADLY BAT DISEASE GETS EASIER TO DIAGNOSE. In less than a decade, the deadly bat disease called white-nose syndrome has taken hold across the eastern half of the United States and up into Canada. With the disease confirmed in Michigan and Wisconsin in April, WNS has now been documented in 25 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces. Millions of hibernating bats from six species have been infected with the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, or Pd.https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/wild-things/deadly-bat-disease-gets-easier-diagnose
Digital Journal, February 03, 2014 ▶ DEADLY BAT DISEASE SET TO SPREAD. North American bats face a death toll approaching 7 million due to a fungus called white nose syndrome. As part of the campaign to help eliminate the killer disease, scientists have obtained a new insight into how the fungus spreads. The news is not good.http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/environment/deadly-bat-disease-set-to-spread/article/368746
▶ FRUIT BATS IN CYPRUS CLOSE TO EXTINCTION -- BATS -- WE NEED THEMhttp://sco.lt/5vPb7Z
Summit Voice, January 30, 2014 ▶ MORE BAD NEWS FOR BATS. A new study by University of Akron scientists forecasts a gloomy future for North American bats, showing that the fungus that causes the deadly white-nose syndrome can likely survive in caves with or without the presence of bats. http://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/01/30/biodiversity-more-bad-news-for-bats/
BATS AS EFFECTIVE PEST CONTROL
Huffington Post Green, April 13, 2011 ▶ BAT DISEASE, WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME, MAY INCREASE, NOT DECREASE, U.S. FARM PESTICIDE USE: STUDY -
A group of researchers says the threat posed to bats by a fatal disease isn't just a threat to the animals but to American agriculture, one they believe farmers and consumers alike scarcely appreciate.
Bats save American farmers at least $3.7 billion a year in pest-control costs by eating insects that feed on crops, a benefit that could be in jeopardy as a disease that has killed more than a million bats in the Northeast spreads to the Midwest, the researchers said in a paper published in the April 1 edition of the journal Science. They and others fear the disease could eventually affect fruit- and vegetable-growing areas in the West as well. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/13/bat-disease-pesticides_n_848556.html
▶ COULD DISAPPEARING WILD INSECTS TRIGGER A GLOBAL CROP CRISIS? BENEFICIAL POLLINATORS, BEES, BATS AND PESTICIDEShttp://sco.lt/9Id8RV
▶ LARGE-SCALE BIODIVERSITY IS VITAL TO MAINTAIN ECOSYSTEM HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/666xPN
Mother Nature Network, March 11, 2014 ▶ 25 OF THE CUTEST BAT SPECIES. Bats are crucial to diverse ecosystems across the globe, yet they are often vilified or feared. Let's take a moment to appreciate the adorable side these little critters. http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/25-of-the-cutest-bat-species
THE MOST TRAFFICKED MAMMAL YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF (4:20) National Geographic
What are Pangolins? If you’ve never heard of the pangolin, you’re not alone. This shy creature, as big as your cat or dog, is the world’s most trafficked mammal -- with more than one million pangolins poached in the past decade. Learn more about the pangolin, why all eight pangolin species are at risk of extinction, and the conservation efforts needed to save them.
Nearly 900,000 pangolins are believed to have been trafficked worldwide in the past two decades, a wildlife watchdog said, highlighting the challenge in tackling the illicit trade.
Also known as the scaly anteater, the shy, primarily nocturnal animal has been heavily poached for years in bio-diverse Southeast Asia and is being increasingly targeted in Africa.
How Endangered Pangolins Are Beaten With Sticks, Boiled Alive and Sold for Millions of Pounds.
Across sub-Saharan Africa and south-east Asia, hunters capture, beat and boil pangolins alive, smoking out the terrified creatures from their nests to sell at a high price.
Both the live animal and its scales, meat, and other body parts keep appearing in illegal wildlife seizures around the world. Between 2000 and 2019, at least 850,000 pangolins were trafficked internationally, a recent study found.
Every species of pangolin is threatened with extinction, and their status is only getting worse.
"Eye of the Pangolin" is the story of two men on a mission to share the wonder of all four species of African pangolin on camera for the first time ever. Follow their extraordinary journey to remote locations on the African continent, from arid savannah to exotic jungles. Become captivated by these extraordinary creatures as the filmmakers meet the people who are caring for and studying pangolins in a desperate attempt to save them from being poached and traded into extinction.
The West Australian, June 17, 2014 -▶ HUGE HAUL OF RARE ANTEATER SCALES SEIZED IN HONG KONG.
"The seizure was the largest in five years for Hong Kong," a customs spokeswoman told AFP, adding that the raids uncovered 3,300 kilos (8,160 pounds) of the scales, worth about HK$17 million (USD$2.19 million).
-▶ PITY THE PANGOLIN: LITTLE-KNOWN MAMMAL MOST COMMON VICTIM OF WILDLIFE TRADE
But the biggest mammal victim of the wildlife trade is not elephants, rhinos, or tigers, but an animal that receives little notice and even less press: the pangolin. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, you’re not alone.
WATCH (53:11) "ASHES AND SNOW" on Vimeo A poetic field study that depicts the world not as it is, but as it might be—a world in which the natural and artificial boundaries separating humans from other species do not exist. The viewing experience is one of wonder and contemplation, serenity, and hope. http://vimeo.com/64458967
Program Description: What would it be like to go inside the mind of an animal? Now, the revolutionary science of animal cognition is revealing hard evidence about how animals understand the world around them, uncovering their remarkable problem-solving abilities, and exploring the complexity of their powers of communication and even their emotions. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/inside-animal-minds.html
WATCH "LOVE IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM" PBS Nature - Full Episode
Animals dance, sing, flirt, and compete with everything they’ve got to find and secure a mate. For many, the all-important bonds they share as a couple are what enable the next generation to survive. But can we call these bonds love? In this delightful, provocative look at the love life of animals, we see the feminine wiles of a young gorilla, the search for Mr. Right among a thousand flamingos, the open “marriages” of blue-footed boobies, the soap opera arrangements of gibbons, and all the subtle, outrageous, romantic antics that go into finding a partner. These are love stories all right, as various and intriguing as the lovers themselves. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/love-in-the-animal-kingdom/love-in-the-animal-kingdom/8501/
WATCH MY WILD AFFAIR (53.41) "The Rhino Who Joined The Family" Hear extraordinary stories of the bonds between humans and their animal companions, including an orphaned baby elephant, an orangutan raised as a human child, a rhinoceros raised in suburbia and a harbor seal that entered the human world but remained wild at heart.http://www.pbs.org/program/my-wild-affair/
MY PICK OF THE MONTH PBS Nature "SNOW MONKEYS" An Incredible story of a troop of snow monkeys In the frigid valleys of Japan’s Shiga Highlands raising their families in a complex society of rank and privilege where each knows their place. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/snow-monkeys/snow-monkeys/8736/
- ▶ THOSE EYES LOOK HUMAN: COULD ANTHROPOMORPHISM BE USED FOR CONSERVATION?According to the researchers, anthropomorphism is an important way in which people make sense of their interactions with the non-human world. When there is a sense of connection, there is often a stronger commitment to conservation. .http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0328-devitt-anthropomorphism-rootbernstein.html
- ▶ IGNORING NATURE NO MORE: THE STATE OF THE ANIMALS 2013
There are a number of questions that frequently arise in discussions of the cognitive, emotional and moral lives of animals. For example: Are "they" (other animals) like us? Do other animals have language? Are dogs smarter than cats or vice versa? Are we smarter than other animals? Are there "higher" and "lower" animals, and do "smart" animals suffer more than less-intelligent animals? How does relative brain size (brain size expressed as a function of body mass, called the encephalization quotient) figure into the discussions of the cognitive capacities of animals and their ability to suffer — do animals with relatively larger brains suffer more than animals with relatively smaller brains? Does it really matter if, for example, a dog or a chimpanzee behaves in the same way that young humans do?http://www.livescience.com/42157-state-of-animals-in-2013.html
A HEART WATCH BBC. Natural World. A WHALE CALLED "LUNA"
A Friendship Beyond Our Understanding The emotional story of a young killer whale's quest for companionship after he was separated from his family and found himself on the rugged, wild coast of Vancouver Island. The film records the human friendships he developed and the trouble this led him into. From death threats to numerous capture attempts by the government, the film-makers watched as various people tried to determine Luna's fate...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFFs9PPFiNM
VIDEO OutsideOnline, April 09, 2014 THIS HORSE DOES YOGA Equine yoga, in which humans and horses practice the ancient tradition simultaneouslyat the Doma India School, a 50-year-old school of horsemanship in Argentina, uses yoga to heal abused or otherwise nervous equines.http://www.outsideonline.com/news-from-the-field/Yoga-Goes-to-the-Horses.html
VIDEO BBC Nature, April 15, 2014 MALE MONKEY CARES FOR DYING PARTNER
▶ A WORLD WITHOUT ELEPHANTS - UNBEARABLE - POACHING TO EXTINCTIONhttp://sco.lt/6hXE5x
WATCH WHAT ARE ANIMALS THINKING?(60:00)
Probe animal morality, the "swarm intelligence" of a beehive, the amazing navigation talents of pigeons, and more.
NOVAScienceNOW Program Description We humans have long wondered how animals see the world—and us. Does your dog really feel shame when it gives you that famous "guilty look?" What is behind the "swarm intelligence" of slime mold or a honeybee hive? How can pigeons possibly find their way home across hundreds of miles of unfamiliar terrain? In this episode of NOVA
The film demonstrates that animals have rich emotional lives - in many ways similar to our own. It explores the various ways in which animals are used in society and encourages students to question our current relationship with the animal world.
Rather than simply describing the suffering of animals in laboratories and factory farms, this is a film of hope, which shows how we can all help to create a better world for humans, animals and the environment.
WATCH: WHY WE LOVE CATS AND DOGS What Makes These Creatures Such Key Members of Our Family? PBS Nature - Introduction and Full Episode
Animals have rich and deep emotional lives: Some people are cat people, some are dog people. But regardless of which camp they fall into, most people are simply crazy about their pets. The connections people form with their cats and dogs are often the longest, strongest relationships in their lives. They are our soul mates, our best friends, sometimes even our surrogate children. What makes these creatures such key members of our families?http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/why-we-love-cats-and-dogs/introduction/4538/
The natural world is filled with “moments of impact” – the split seconds when animals come into contact with each other and the world around them. Previously many of these moments were too fast or too hidden for us to see. But now new camera technologies reveal what’s behind these remarkable moments, and cutting edge animations illustrate the “inside story” of animal bioengineering that allows each moment of impact to take place....http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/moment-of-impact/introduction/5583/
-▶ KEEPING NATURE IN OUR FUTURE: HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS ESSENTIAL FOR ECONOMIC AND PLANETARY SURVIVALhttp://sco.lt/99SfhJ
Earth In Transition, May 01, 2014 ▶ OF MICE AND MEN -- AND WOMEN.Mice and rats make up about 95 percent of all animals used in vivisection. No one knows the exact number because mice, rats and birds aren't counted as "animals" in the provisions of the Animal Welfare Act, which means their numbers don't even have to be reported. Most experts reckon it's about 25 million, with some estimates as low as 13 million and others as high as 100 million. Not that the numbers mean a whole lot when you're the mouse who's swimming for her life, stressed out in a tube, or being killed by a man rather than a womanhttp://www.earthintransition.org/2014/05/of-mice-and-men-and-women/
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security."~ Albert Einstein
▶ ONLY LOVE FOR MOTHER EARTH CAN SAVE US FROM CLIMATE CHANGE. Leading spiritual teacher warns that if people cannot save themselves from their own suffering, how can they be expected to worry about the plight of Mother Earth. "By recognising the inter-connectedness of all life, we can move beyond the idea that we are separate selves and expand our compassion and love in such a way that we take action to protect the Earth."
Thay suggests that our search for fame, wealth, power and sexual gratification provides the perfect refuge for people to hide from the truth about the many challenges facing the world. Worse still, our addiction to material goods and a hectic lifestyle provides only a temporary plaster for gaping emotional and spiritual wounds, which only drives greater loneliness and unhappiness.....http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/zen-master-thich-nhat-hanh-love-climate-change
-▶ BUDDHIST ECONOMICS: HOW TO STOP PRIORITIZING GOODS OVER PEOPLE AND CONSUMPTION OVER CREATIVE ACTIVITY: "Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered" — a magnificent collection of essays at the intersection of economics, ethics, and environmental awarenesshttp://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/07/07/buddhist-economics-schumacher/
▶ POPE FRANCIS WARNS ON COMING "IDOLATROUS" GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE, PLEAS FOR ENVIRONMENThttp://sco.lt/9JnutN
▶ JOINT WORKSHOP OF THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES: MAY 02-06, 2014
Are Humanity's dealings with Nature sustainable? What is the status of the Human Person in a world where science predominates? How should we perceive Nature and what is a good relationship between Humanity and Nature? Should one expect the global economic growth that has been experienced over the past six decades to continue for the foreseeable future? Should we be confident that knowledge and skills will increase in such ways as to lessen Humanity's reliance on Nature despite our increasing economic activity and growing numbers? Is the growing gap between the world's rich and world's poor in their reliance on natural resources a consequence of those growths? Contemporary discussions on the questions are now several decades old. If they have remained alive and are frequently shrill, it is because two opposing empirical perspectives shape them.http://www.casinapioiv.va/content/accademia/en/events/2014/sustainable.html
========================
▶ WHY GOOGLE IS TURNING TO ZEN MASTER THICH NHAT HANH AND MINDFULNESS TO INSPIRE THEIR LEADERS. http://sco.lt/8Q2xQ9
=======================
WATCH
DR. VANDANA SHIVA "RIGHTS OF NATURE"
2014 Tribunal President Statement - Environment, Biodiversity
"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security."~ Albert Einstein
New York Times, October 12, 2013 ▶ MONARCHS FIGHT FOR THEIR LIVES: WHAT FARMERS CALL A "WEED" MONARCHS DEPEND UPON FOR SURVIVALhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/10
Guardian Environment, January 29, 2014 ▶ MONARCH BUTTERFLY DECLINE LEADS TO WARNING OVER FAMED MIGRATION. INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE FAULTED - Low levels in central Mexico blamed on Big Agriculture disappearance of the Monarchs's milkweed breeding grounds in US and Canadahttp://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/monarch-butterfly-decline-mexico
▶ MONARCH MIGRATION PLUNGES TO LOWEST LEVEL - THREATENING EXTINCTION The monarch migration population to their winter home in a Mexican forest sank this year to a 59 percent declines since December 2011 due to extreme weather and a lack of the milkweed that the butterflies feed on, experts say.
But an equally alarming source of the decline is the explosive increase in American farmland planted in soybean and corn genetically modified to tolerate herbicides.
The American Midwest’s corn belt is a critical feeding ground for monarchs, which once found a ready source of milkweed growing between the rows of millions of acres of soybean and corn. But the ubiquitous use of herbicide-tolerant crops has enabled farmers to wipe out the milkweed, and with it much of the butterflies’ food supply.
“That habitat is virtually gone. We’ve lost well over 120 million acres, and probably closer to 150 million acres,” Mr. Taylor said.
Ottawa Citizen, March 27, 2014 ▶ BUTTERFLY COUNT IN MEXICO WORST ON RECORD: HABITAT LOSS AND PESTICIDES DECIMATE SPECIES. — This is the worst year on record for the monarch butterfly, with North America’s entire population of the orange insects now squeezed into less than one hectare in Mexico. Farm pesticides in their main flyway through the United States and into Canada are one hazard, he said. The conservation group Monarch Watch also blames herbicide-resistant crops, which allow farmers to do a better job of killing weeds, including milkweed, the monarchs food source.http://www.ottawacitizen.com/technology/Butterfly+count+Mexico+reveals+bleak+winter+monarchs/9669976/story.html
HuffPost, December 29, 2014 ▶ JUST IN TIME ... THE MONARCH BUTTERFLY MAY SOON BE PROTECTED BY THE U.S. ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT. Monarch populations are estimated to have fallen by as much as 90 percent during the past two decades because of destruction of milkweed plants they depend on to lay their eggs and nourish hatching larvae, according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
February 09, 2015 ▶ U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE TEAMS WITH CONSERVATION PARTNERS TO LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO SAVE BELEAGUERED MONARCH BUTTERFLIES. Spectacular as it is, protecting the monarch is not just about saving one species. The monarch serves as an indicator of the health of pollinators and the American landscape. Monarch declines are symptomatic of environmental problems that pose risks to our food supplyhttp://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ID=6F9989BD-0738-14CE-50EAC980BE1A75FC
▶ DRAMATIC EUROPEAN 50% BUTTERFLY DECLINE IMPACTING HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS, BIODIVERSITY AND OTHER SPECIES
Hans Bruyninckx, the EEA’s executive director, said: “This dramatic decline in grassland butterflies should ring alarm bells – in general Europe’s grassland habitats are shrinking. If we fail to maintain these habitats we could lose many of these species forever. We must recognise the importance of butterflies and other insects – the pollination they carry out is essential for both natural ecosystems and agriculture.” The report flags the over-intensification of agriculture in Western Europe as major cause of the decline. A statement accompanying the report blames agricultural intensification for creating vast sterile, uniform grasslands which do not provide the habitat needed for many indigenous species to survive. Butterflies, and other species, are also vulnerable to the over-use of chemical pesticides, a major component of intensive farming....
ClimateProgress, June 25, 2014 ▶ DON'T FORGET BUTTERFLIES! OUR POLLINATiON CRISIS IS MORE THAN HONEYBEES.“Our natural ecosystems depend upon pollination from many species, including birds, bats, native bees, and butterflies — not just honeybeeshttp://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/25/3447062/pollination-crisis-honeybees/
▶ WHY WE NEED INSECTS: EVEN PESKY ONES - PESTICIDE REDUCTION ESSENTIALhttp://sco.lt/94UwhF
The Ecologist, July 02, 2014 -▶ NEONICOTINOIDS ARE POISONING NOT INSECTS BUT ENTIRE FARMLAND ECOSYSTEMS The world's most widely used insecticides have contaminated the environment across the planet so pervasively that global food production is at risk, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment of the chemicals' impacts
▶ HOW BIOTECH CORPORATIONS AND GMO CROPS ARE THREATENING THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMANKIND ALIKEhttp://sco.lt/7OmezB
March 29, 2013 EWG Environmental Working Group ▶ A LOOPHOLE FOR PESTICIDES PUTS PUBLIC'S HEALTH AT RISK -the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved roughly 11,000 pesticides intended for use in agriculture, inside homes, on lawns, in hand soaps, on clothing and other consumer goods with little or no safety tests, according to a multi-year investigation by the Natural Resources Defense Council.http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2013/03/loophole-pesticides-risks-public-health
▶ 226 THOUSAND HECTARES (558,458 ACRES) OF FOREST IN PAPUA WILL BE CLEARED FOR PALM OIL PLANTATIONS BY CORPORATIONS.This condition is very worrying as it not only could it damage the forest ecosystems, flora and fauna but also threaten the existence of communities, http://tabloidjubi.com/en/?p=2254
All the Papuan peoples have suffered greatly under the Indonesian occupation which began in 1963. The Indonesian army has a long history of human rights violations and genocide against the Papuans, and the racist Indonesian soldiers generally view the Papuan people as little more than animals.
Mongabay, February 23, 2015 ▶ 24% OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA'S RAINFOREST DESTROYED OR DEGRADED BY LOGGING IN 30 YEARS
AL Jazeerah, October 13, 2011 WEST PAPUA: A HISTORY OF EXPLOITATION WEST PAPUA NEW GUINEA: A HISTORY OF OUTSIDE EXPLOITATION NATURAL RESOURCES AND DESTRUCTION OF INDIGENOUS SOCIETY. West Papua was illegally taken over by Indonesia in 1969, and a legacy of oppression and environmental devastation has followedhttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182814172453998.html
Survival International, January 15, 2015 ▶ PAPUANS FLEE BRUTAL MILITARY INDONESIAN CRACKDOWN
August 14, 2013 Mongabay ▶ PALM OIL LICENSES TO FOREIGN CORPORATIONS BEING USED TO PERPETUATE FRAUD, LAND GRABBING PROVIDE COVER FOR LOGGING IN NEW GUINEAForeign companies stripped Papua New Guinea of community-owned forests...Developers are seeking palm oil concessions as a means to circumvent restrictions on industrial logging in Papua New Guinea...foreign companies stripped Papua New Guinea of community-owned forests...Eleven percent of Papua New Guinea's land area has been handed over to foreign corporations, displacing indigenous owners, stripping them of their land rights http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0814-palm-oil-png-sabls.html
Survival International URGENT ACTION: STOP KILLING PAPUANS “Civilians have been shot and killed without reason. These actions show that security personnel have treated residents not as citizens but as enemies who must be eliminated,” Rev. Neles Tebay, Papuan leader http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b14580b05b832fb959c4ee444&id=38d15dc9e0&e=[UNIQID
Papua’s natural resources are being exploited at great profit for the Indonesian government and foreign businesses, but at the expense of the Papuan peoples and their homelands.
When international companies come to Papua, the Indonesian military accompanies them to ‘protect’ the ‘vital projects’. The military presence is almost always associated with human rights violations such as killings, arbitrary arrests, rape and torture.
Mongabay, November 19, 2014 ▶ PALM OIL INTEREST SURGES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA DESTROYING MILLIONS OF ACRES OF PRISTINE FORESTS, INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES. As the lands of traditional palm oil powerhouses like Indonesia and Malaysia have become saturated with plantations, companies looking to profit have turned to vast areas of seemingly untouched tropical forest in other parts of the world – places like Papua New Guinea. But, in fact, say advocates of local communities, those forests often support the lives and livelihoods of millions of people who must have their rights taken into account.
Mongabay, August 14, 2014 ▶ PALM OIL LICENSES PROVIDE COVER FOR EXTREME LOGGING IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA. Eleven percent of Papua New Guinea's land area has been handed over to foreign corporations, displacing indigenous owners, stripping them of their land rights http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0814-palm-oil-png-sabls.html
100 Reporters, November 21, 2013 ▶ PAPUA NEW GUINEA LANDGRAB: RAINFOREST VANISHING IN SHADY DEALS, REPORT SAYS. Spurred by increasing food prices and demand for biofuels in Europe and North America, one of the world’s largest rainforests in Papua New Guinea is quickly disappearing under a voracious land rush that has handed 12 percent of the country’s entire land area to foreign companies over the last decade, according to a new report. http://100r.org/2013/11/global-land-grab-rainforest-vanishing-in-shady-deals-report-says/
Mongabay, August 22, 2014 -▶ INDONESIA TO HEAR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' GRIEVANCES ON LAND DISPUTES. "the government's refusal to acknowledge the rights of indigenous people continues to create conflicts throughout the country. He likens the situation to colonial era rule, and hopes this national inquiry will expose all prolonged conflicts that have arisen from the governments failure to protect indigenous peoples' claim to forest lands" http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0822-lbell-indonesia-land-disputes.html
▶ PAPUAN ACTIVISTS' WEBCAST SILENCED: WAS INDONESIA BEHIND IT?The Papuans are members of the Amungme tribe, whose land is home to Grasberg, the world’s biggest corporate copper and gold mine. They were highlighting the problems facing the tribe in the face of massive environmental damage and human rights violations.http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10043
▶ WEST PAPUA - WORLD'S LARGEST MINING CORPORATIONS RAVAGE ENVIRONMENT. Some of the world's largest transnational mining corporations have been active in exploiting West Papua's oil and minerals, including Union Oil, Amoco, Agip, Conoco, Phillips, Esso, Texaco, Mobil, Shell, Petromer Trend Exploration, Atlantic Richfield, Sun Oil and Freeport (USA); Oppenheimer (South Africa); Total (France); Ingold (Canada); Marathon Oil, Kepala Burung (UK); Dominion Mining, Aneka Tambang, BHP, Cudgen RZ, and CRA (Australia).http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~cline/papua/mines.htm
The Global Mail, December 17, 2012 ▶ UP THE FLY WITHOUT A PADDLE. The Global Mail investigates rumours of a mysterious plague down-river from a giant gold mine in remote Papua New Guinea, and uncovers disturbing questions about the flow of benefits from the resources boom.http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/up-the-fly-without-a-paddle/523/
VIDEO:
Narrated by Robert Redford, Winner of the Goldman Prize THE INDIGENOUS MOLLO PEOPLE IN TIMOR STRUGGLE TO PROTECT THEIR SACRED NATURAL WORLD FROM FOREIGN MINING CORPORATIONShttp://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/aleta-baun
- ▶ PALM OIL COMPANIES IGNORING COMMUNITY RIGHTS, NEW STUDY SHOWS, Members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are violating the rights of local communities in tropical forests and failing to live up to social and environmental commitmentshttp://news.mongabay.com/2013/1107-dparker-palm-oil-rights.html?n3ws1ttr
- ▶ MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS ENDANGERING ENVIRONMENT, ECOSYSTEM AND LOCAL COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/5M5eLp
▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/9KW9wn
▶ LAND GRABS: HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/96H2yv
▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH" http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
ECOCIDE:
A PLAGUE OF DEFORESTATION SWEEPS ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH TERRIBLE LOSS OF WILDLIFE AND BIODIVERSITYhttp://sco.lt/4lJ5ZR
▶ HUMANITY HAS EXCEEDED 4 OF 9 'PLANETARY BOUNDARIES' THAT KEEP HUMANITY IN A 'SAFE OPERATING SPACEhttp://sco.lt/7Ji72v
THE ANTHROPOCENE: OUR PLANET'S THRESHOLDS AND BOUNDARIES. As scientists learn more about how our planet works, both now and in the past, they are increasingly aware of the existence of environmental ‘tipping points’ – points of no return. These are thresholds beyond which environmental change becomes hard to stop....http://www.anthropocene.info/en/thresholds-boundaries
THE ANTROPOCENE: THE EARTH SYSTEM
We aren’t an outside force disturbing the natural order of things – we’re an integral part of the Earth system ourselves. But as our societies have grown, the impact of our actions has increased too; we’re now among the main causes of environmental change....http://www.anthropocene.info/en/earth-system
Patterns In Nature Blog, October 26, 2014 -▶THE ANTHROPOCENE - NATURE'S BROKEN LINKS. The impact of humanity is so huge that much of our planet is undergoing large changes in many ways. The momentum of unstoppable exponential human population growth, coupled with a political and social will that ignores Nature, has produced an uninformed and irresponsible worldview about Nature. With time and despite our technology, this worldview could result in the destruction of our race.
-▶LIVING IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: TOWARD A NEW GLOBAL ETHOS
A decade ago, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Paul Crutzen first suggested we were living in the “Anthropocene,” a new geological epoch in which humans had altered the planet. Now, in an article for Yale Environment 360, Crutzen and a coauthor explain why adopting this term could help transform the perception of our role as stewards of the Earth....http://e360.yale.edu/feature/living_in_the_anthropocene_toward_a_new_global_ethos/2363/
August 5, 2013 - Seed Magazine -▶ EMBRACING THE ANTHROPOCENE - The Earth has entered a new geological period in which human influence dominates the state of the planet, compounding uncertainty about the future....http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/embracing_the_anthropocene/
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS http://sco.lt/8fK5eT
New York Times, September 05, 2014 -▶ 'THE HUMAN AGE' - FUTURE FOOTPRINTS. Since the late-18th-century industrialization that marks the Anthropocene’s beginnings, humans have shaken Earth’s life systems with a profundity that the paleontologist Anthony Barnosky has likened to an asteroid strike.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/books/review/the-human-age-by-diane-ackerman.html?_r=0
Truthout, December 01, 2014 -▶ ARE HUMANS GOING EXTINCT?. We've never been here as a species, and the implications are truly dire and profound for our species and the rest of the living planet... there is nothing to indicate, in the political or corporate world, that there will be anything like a major shift in policy aimed at dramatically mitigating runaway anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD).http://truth-out.org/news/item/27714-are-humans-going-extinct
NPR FreshAir, February 12, 2014 Interview With Elizabeth Kolbert, Author
▶ IN THE WORLD'S "SIXTH EXTINCTION": ARE HUMANS THE ASTEROID?Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of the new book The Sixth Extinction. It begins with a history of the "big five" extinctions of the past, and goes on to explain how human behavior is creating this sixth one — including our use of fossil fuels and the effects of climate change.
"We are effectively undoing the beauty and the variety and the richness of the world which has taken tens of millions of years to reach," Kolbert tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "... We're sort of unraveling that. ... We're doing, it's often said, a massive experiment on the planet and we really don't know what the end point is going to be."http://www.npr.org/2014/02/12/275885377/in-the-worlds-sixth-extinction-are-humans-the-asteroid
UNPRECEDENTED STUDY
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE DISAPPEAR WITH WESTERN DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBALIZATIONhttp://sco.lt/9EV0jZ
-▶ NEW THREAT IS LOOMING FOR MOUNTAIN GORILLAS -- OIL EXPLORATIONExploitation of the land for agriculture and the timber trade has devastated the habitat, while new roads built for timber trucks have made it easier for poachers to reach the gorillas. But another threat is looming. Virunga national park in the DRC is a target for oil exploitation. The park is a Unesco world heritage site, but, if the Congolese government goes ahead with oil plans, the park could lose its status. There will be an impact on gorillas because more than 70% of the park will be affected,
VIDEO REPORT Newshour PBS, November 12, 2014 IN 'VIRUNGA', RANGERS RISK DEATH TO SAVE AFRICA'S OLDEST NATIONAL PARK. Virunga National Park in Eastern Congo is the spectacular home to the only mountain gorillas left on the planet, and many other types of wildlife. A new documentary tells the story of a group of rangers working to protect the park from threats of civil war, poachers and oil exploration. Jeffrey Brown interviews filmmaker Orlando von Eisiedel.http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/virunga-rangers-risk-death-save-africas-oldest-national-park/
VIDEO REPORT Al Jazeera English, January 04, 2015 POACHERS NOW TARGETING ENDANGERED GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES FOR THEIR SKULLS, NOT MEAT Yaounde, Cameroon - For years, traffickers fuelled the slaughter of gorillas and chimpanzees in Cameroon's rainforests to meet demand for bush meat - an activity conservationists feared could wipe out the great apes in the wild in a few decades. But now they fear a far worse scenario is taking place. A previously unknown trade in ape heads, bones and limbs - rather than full bodies for meat - is encouraging poachers to kill more animals than previously done, and wildlife law enforcement officials say it is speeding up population declinehttp://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/01/trafficking-great-ape-body-parts-cameroon-2015148945815121.html
Cross River gorillas and eastern gorillas lost more than half their habitat since the early 1990s due to deforestation, logging, and other human activities, finds a comprehensive new assessment across great apes' range in West and Central Africa..http://news.mongabay.com/2012/1001-great-apes-habitat.html
Mongabay, July 09, 2014 -▶ SOLD INTO EXTINCTION: GREAT APES BETRAYED BY PROTECTORS.Corruption in high places, CITES, the international body charged with protecting endangered species has turned a blind eye to massive illegal trade of endangered Great Apeshttp://news.mongabay.com/2014/0709-sri-stiles-cites-commentary.html
-▶ LOSS OF LARGE PREDATORS CAUSING WIDESPREAD DISRUPTION OF ECOSYSTEMS.The study looked at research results from a wide range of terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems and concluded "the loss of apex consumers is arguably humankind's most pervasive influence on the natural world."http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=121020
Top predators may hold a key to life itself. Can people and predators coexist? Can we afford not to
Birds, butterflies, beaver and antelope, wildflowers and frogs — could their survival possibly be connected to top predators like the wolf and cougar?
LORDS OF NATURE: Life in a Land of Great Predators tells the story of science now discovering the great carnivores as revitalizing forces of nature, and a society now learning tolerance for the beasts they had once banished.
Filmed in high-definition, 60 minutes. LORDS OF NATURE is a documentary and education campaign about the vital ecological role large predators play in restoring the health of America’s wild ecosystems
The story of science now discovering the great carnivores as revitalizing forces of nature, and a society now learning tolerance for the beasts they had once banished. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PagO3gmwmA0
DailyMail Online, October 1, 2014 -▶ HALF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS HAVE DISAPPEARED IN 40 YEARS:Humankind held responsible for plummet in figures as report reveals the US needs 3.9 planets to sustain current lifestyle
-▶ ESSENTIAL ROLE OF CARNIVORES ON THE WANE. these essential ecosystem engineers are extremely prone to persecution and decline/extinction. Of the 31 largest (≥ 15 kg) carnivores (excluding pinnipeds – i.e., seals, sea lions & walruses), 61 % are threatened, 77 % are declining, and the average occupancy of their original ranges is just 47 % (ranging from < 1 to 73 %). The ages-old notion that predators should be feared and eliminated is waning, but perhaps not quickly enough before the predators themselves disappear. The evidence that they provide positive outcomes for human society is mounting and vindicates these species as vilains. Anyone doubting the essential role of carnivores needs to read this paper.http://conservationbytes.com/2014/01/10/essential-role-of-carnivores-on-the-wane/
-▶ LOSS OF BIGGEST PREDATORS IS SEEN AS A THREAT THAT MIGHT RIVAL CLIMATE CHANGE.The faltering fortunes of the world's 31 largest carnivores are having ripple effects far beyond simple predator-prey relationships, setting off cascades of ecological change that could prove as significant a threat as climate change to earthly life as we now know it... http://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2014/01/loss-biggest-predators-seen-threat-might-rival-climate-change
International Business Times, January 10, 2014 -▶ AS NUMBERS OF LARGE CARNIVORES DECLINE, SCIENTISTS URGE EFFECTIVE CONSERVATION METHODS Populations of large carnivores such as lions, wolves and bears are declining in ecosystems around the planet, changing the face of landscapes from the tropics to the Arctic while also putting humans at risk, according to a new study published Friday in the journal Science. http://www.ibtimes.com/numbers-large-carnivores-declines-scientists-urge-effective-conservation-methods-1534374
-▶ ACROSS THE WORLD, WE'RE LOSING OUR LARGE CARNIVORES
The decline of large predators and other "apex consumers" at the top of the food chain has disrupted ecosystems across the planet
STUDY FINDS found that more than three-quarters of all large predators—including wolves, bears, and lions—are in decline due to habitat loss and human persecution. Many of the animals now roam territory that’s half the size of what it once was, and most carnivores have already become extinct in the developed world.... http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=121020
Mongabay, August 04, 2014 -▶ WHERE HAVE ALL THE BIG ANIMALS GONE? INDIAN PARK DEVOID OF MANY SPECIES, FURTHER THREATENED BY FOREST LOSS
BBC News, September 07, 2014 -▶ WHY DOZENS OF INDIA'S ASIATIC LIONS ARE DYING. Is the last abode of the Asiatic lion turning into a death trap for the big cat? Gir in India's Gujarat state is home to Asiatic lions and has seen 256 lions dying in the past five years. Experts say their population is at risk with the big cats making new homes in human settlements.http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29009234
National Geographic May 08, 2014 -▶ AFRICA'S SILENT SPRING IS UPON US. POISONING OUR WILDLIFE WITH PESTICIDES - AN EPIDEMICThe use of highly toxic pesticides to poison wildlife can be best described as silent, cheap, easy, and effective. It is so effective that a number of species of African wildlife are in decline due to poisoning. These include lions, hyenas, eagles, and especially vultures.http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/05/08/africas-silent-spring-is-upon-us/
-▶ WEB-OF-LIFE UNRAVELING - Healthy Ecosystems Vital for All Planetary Lifehttp://sco.lt/7Obz0L
Wildlife Extra News, March 2014
▶ THE DEATH (POISONING) OF DINGOES PROVES TO HAVE NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON AUSTRALIAN BIODIVERSITY. “Dingoes should not be poisoned if we want to halt the loss of mammal biodiversity in Australia,” said Dr Mike Letnic, senior author of the report. “We need to develop strategies to maintain the balance of nature by keeping dingoes in the bush, while minimising their impacts on livestock." This is the first study to show how removing large carnivores can result in simultaneous population outbreaks of herbivores and smaller predators, and that these population outbreaks can, in turn, have negative effects on smaller mammals.http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/dingo-poisoning-685.html
Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction is the first feature documentary to investigate the growing threat to Earth’s life support systems from this unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Through interviews with leading scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and indigenous and religious leaders, the film explores the causes, the scope, and the potential effects of the mass extinction, but also looks beyond the immediate causes of the crisis to consider how our cultural and economic systems, along with deep-seated psychological and behavioral patterns, have allowed this situation to develop, continue to reinforce it, and even determine our response to it. Call of Life tells the story of a crisis not only in nature, but also in human nature, a crisis more threatening than anything human beings have ever faced before. http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/call_of_life_facing_the_mass_extinction_2010/
August 15, 2010 Guardian Environment UN Environment Programme:
-▶ 200 SPECIES EXTINCT EVERY DAY, UNLIKE ANYTHING SINCE DINOSAURS DISAPPEARED 65 MILLION YEARS AGO
According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago...http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security
▶ HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS VITAL FOR BOTH HUMAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/7rCeWH
-▶ CLIMATE CHANGE TO HALVE HABITAT FOR OVER 10,000 COMMON SPECIEShttp://sco.lt/8G99Av
======================
KILL ALL WOLVES
MASS WOLF KILLINGS ARE BASED ON THE MOST CYNICAL OF PREMISEShttp://sco.lt/5TCsBl
NBC News, July 09, 2014
-▶ CRY WOLF? LARGE CARNIVORE DECLINE PUTS HUMANS AT RISK, STUDY SAYS . Coexistence is increasingly necessary if the world hopes to reverse a downward spiral of its largest carnivores such as wolves as well as lions, tigers, and bears, according to a review study published Thursday in the journal Science.
"Guardianship is a word that rings out in my head. We are meant to be guardians and trustees of this planet. For me, and for many others, the collective goal of humanity is towards the stewardship of our people, the planet and our ecosystems. We have a duty to protect and enhance our communities and ecosystems for the betterment of future generations"...Nicole Tilde
Earth Justice, August 11, 2014 ▶ THE CLEANUP BUCK SHOULD STOP WITH POLLUTERS:Earthjustice is challenging the EPA’s 30-year-long failure to require that polluters pay for the cleanup of their own messes, rather than stick taxpayers with the often-hefty bill... https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2#inbox/147e3f44615e9d70
September 11, 2013 Common Dreams -▶ CORPORATE DESTRUCTION OF OUR ENVIRONMENT IS OUT OF CONTROLIt doesn’t take much to envisage what the world would look like if activists such as those in Romania who are systematically opposing this pillage of the earth are silenced: it would be barren, grey and empty, bereft of birds and butterflies, of the clear streams and biodiversity that once bejeweled the landscape...Indigenous people, first nations people, farm laborers and peasants who, all over the world, have to pick up the pieces after such corporate ransacking; who pay the price in terms of debilitating illness and unrelenting poverty as their crops fail and animals succumb to the poisoned land. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/11-7
▶ MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. RIVERS ARE TOO POLLUTED TO SUPPORT LIFE. REPORT REVEAL SCALE OF WATER CONTAMINATION http://sco.lt/5Gpafx
▶ PALM OIL BONANZA FOR CORPORATIONS WHILE DESTROYING FORESTS AND ALL LIFE WITHIN THEMhttp://sco.lt/5VN27l
▶ MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/8nJQf3
▶ WHO OWNS NATURE? CORPORATE POWER AND THE FINAL FRONTIER IN THE COMMODIFICATION OF LIFE?http://sco.lt/8Bx5er
VIDEO REPORT
"BEYOND GDP"
The Search For a New Economic System -- With Meaning
"WALLS AND THE TIGER" - Documentary Rampant consumerism divides the world. People in the West get cheap fashion and cutting-edge electronics at a fraction of the real cost. People in developing countries pay the hidden price. Farmers and fishermen in sustainable communities are relocated to slums. Fertile farmland is turned into industrial parks. Oceans are poisoned by chemical waste. All of this will be illustrated through stunning images in the film. By understanding the interdependency of our consumption and the rest of the world, we hope to inspire change in our audience.http://www.ejolt.org/2014/10/walls-and-the-tiger/
▶ MODERN SLAVERY WILL CONTINUE IF CORPORATIONS KEEP PASSING THE BUCK: THE SUPPLY CHAINhttp://sco.lt/87TMnJ
OnEarthMagazine, February04, 2015 ▶ CLOTHES HAVE AN ECOLOGICAL PRICE TAG, TOO: OUR TOXIC SUPPLY CHAIN. The companies that make and sell most of the world’s clothing insist they want to operate without endangering workers, polluting waterways, or using toxic chemicals. But clean practices can be a hard sell.http://www.onearth.org/magazine/trying-sustainability
Mongabay, August 11, 2014 ▶ INDONESIA'S CHILDREN SEE RAVAGED ENVIRONMENT IN THEIR FUTURE. A generation ago, Borneo was one of the wildest places on the planet, a stronghold for species like orangutan, pygmy elephants, Sumatran rhinos, and clouded leopards among tens-of-thousands of other. But decades of logging and oil palm plantations has changed the landscape of Borneo forever: in fact a recent study found that the island has lost 73 percent of its intact lowland forest and 30 percent of its total forest cover since 1973. In the face of this large-scale environmental destruction, a new study in PLOS ONE finds that Indonesian Borneo's children have a pessimistic view of their future, predicting rising temperatures, wildlife declines, and continued destruction of the island's great rainforests.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0811-hance-kalimantan-children.html
WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min) We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life.http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/
▶ LARGE CORPORATE SUBSIDIZED FISHING FLEETS EMPTYING OUR OCEANS: THE $400 BILLION OCEAN FISHING INDUSTRY http://sco.lt/7ABxHV
▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. - DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH"http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
▶ FUTURE GENERATIONS TO PAY FOR OUR MISTAKES: BIODIVERSITY LOSS IMPACT DOESN'T APPEAR FOR DECADEShttp://sco.lt/5kP4Of
-▶ BILLIONS OF POUNDS OF PLASTIC IN OUR OCEANS: IMPACT ON SEA LIFE, YOUR SEAFOOD AND YOUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/768Gsz
▶ THE ENVIRONMENT IS A PUBLIC GOOD We all share and depend on clean water, a stable atmosphere, and abundant biodiversity for survival, not to mention health and societal well-being. But under our current global economy, industries can often destroy and pollute the environment—degrading public health and communities... http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0429-hance-teeb-externalities.html
Mongabay, May 14, 2014 ▶ NEW REPORT REVEALS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY CORPORATIONS, GOVERNMENTS IN THE AMAZON.
The report took over six months to complete and gives an in-depth account of the conflicts activists and indigenous peoples (IPs) are having with corporations and governmental agencies. It relays a situation that does not look good. The report details everything from physical attacks to “systematic pressure” by corporations and governments. According to the report, conflicts over land and territories have reached a ten-year peak in Brazil. In Peru, social conflicts have tripled since 2008, with two-thirds of the reported cases defined as “socioenvironmental” conflicts.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0514-dulaney-regnskogfondet.html
WATCH
DR. VANDANA SHIVA "RIGHTS OF NATURE"
2014 Tribunal President Statement - Environment, Biodiversity
▶ AS CORPORATE DAIRY FARMS GROW BIGGER, NEW CONCERN ABOUT POLLUTION. Dairy operations in the U.S. are consolidating, with ever-larger numbers of cows concentrated on single farms. In states like Wisconsin, opposition to some large operations is growing after manure spills and improper handling of waste have contaminated waterways and aquifers.http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_dairy_farms_grow_bigger_new_concerns_about_pollution/2768/
WATCH:
"A RIVER OF WASTE"
The Massive Pollution and History of Factory Farms - CAFOs (Confined Animal Feed Lots)http://sco.lt/6PQUk5
▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH AND OUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/7Ueckb
▶ BUSINESS SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIAL HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/8aEijR
UNPRECEDENTED STUDY
THREATENING OUR OWN EXTINCTION WITH LOSS OF BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL DIVERSITYhttp://sco.lt/64XtcP
▶ A CULTURE SEPARATED FROM NATURE CANNOT SURVIVE: BANKRUPTING NATUREhttp://sco.lt/7HFVYH
Earth, October 10, 2014 ▶ BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHT TO THE EARTH.Law of Mother Earth sees Bolivia pilot new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature. Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people.http://earthweareone.com/bolivia-gives-legal-rights-to-the-earth/
▶ RESPECTING HUMAN RIGHTS: SHAREHOLDERS SHIFT FROM POLICY TO ACTIONhttp://sco.lt/7hwpBB
▶ THE STATE OF THE WORLD: IS IT TOO LATE FOR SUSTAINABILITY?http://sco.lt/4ueEQz
FOOD AID FOR THE 21st CENTURY
MEETING THE OBJECTIVE OR FEEDING CORPORATE COFFERS
▶ TERRACIDE: The Biggest Criminal Enterprise in History - Destroying the Planet for Record Profits http://sco.lt/8poZIf
-▶ STATE OF THE WORLD'S BIRDS REPORT INDICATES A PLANET IN PERILhttp://sco.lt/4yq6z3
▶ UN IPCC REPORT AND NASA-FUNDED STUDY: INDUSTRIAL CIVILIZATION HEADED FOR "IRREVERSIBLE COLLAPSE?http://sco.lt/8lOuIr
Common Dream, April 22, 2014 -▶ CORPORATE COLONIALISM: PROTESTERS SLAM TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP. .These secretive trade pacts are really about restoring global U.S. military power and economic dominancehttp://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/22-3
It is crazy to see the costs of the pollution and impacts of big companies that are having an impact on the environment around them put into a dollar value. It really gives a better view ti the picture. Hearing that in 2009 alone the damages exceeded the worth of $7 trillion. That is a giant amount of damage that is being done to the world we live in. The article states that a great deal of companies would not be able to continue making a profit if they stopped making the damages. This is very sad.
This article gives insight about what kind of trouble our generations have gotten us into throughout the years and some of the damage done is irreversible. It emphasizes the importance yet struggle to improve how we do things that impact around us. With the discussion we had in class regarding the increase in population and what will happen in 2050; this will have a huge influence in the future. Becoming more sustainable should be a top priority for the world to approach together.
How we see the world determines how we act. Western thought sees us at war with each other over resources. Indigenous philosophy, we are all related as individuals in balance wih nature...
Indigenous people resist government mega-projects, consumer culture, competing religions, resource extraction and climate change in this four-part documentary series. In the US and around the world, native communities share ecological wisdom and spiritual reverence while battling a utilitarian view of land http://standingonsacredground.org/learn-more/synopses
The Nature Conservancy -▶ A CALL FOR INCLUSIVE CONSERVATION- Acrimonious debate between, in essence, those who argue that nature should be protected for its own sake (intrinsic value) and those who argue that we must also save nature to help ourselves (instrumental value). http://blog.nature.org/science/diversity-conservation-petition/
DW.DE APRIL 14, 2015 -▶ NEPAL'S COMMUNITY FORESTS FIGHT POVERTY AND DESTRUCTION. Climate change, deforestation and land grabbing don't only threaten Nepal's rich biodiversity, but the economic wellbeing of millions of its citizens. Could community-managed forests hold the key? http://www.dw.de/global-ideas-tourism-wildlife-conservation-biodiversity/a-18379931
WISDOM OF THE AGES International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) May 26, 2014 RESPECTING INDIGENOUS AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE.
We may think that our high-tech era will deliver all the solutions to global problems including environmental degradation. But have we lost sight of age-old solutions that have been staring us in the face? For thousands of years indigenous peoples and local communities have been custodians of nature, living in harmony with the land and the oceans that sustain them, based on a deep knowledge of the natural world. But in our drive for development this knowledge is being lost. Policies relating to land and resources have largely ignored the role of indigenous peoples in conservation and they have little say in how these resources are used.http://www.iucn.org/knowledge/focus/copy_of_improvinghealthandwellbeing_28042014_1118/
Intercontinental Magazine, December 23, 2013
-▶ THE HEALTH OF OUR EARTH IS WANING . INDIGENOUS PEOPLES VIEW THE EARTH AS A LIVING ENTITY, Indigenous people know the Earth is a living entity, our civilisation has lost it's "spiritual" connection to Earthhttp://intercontinentalcry.org/health-earth-waning/
August 9, 2013 United Nations Development Programme
▶ UNEP HIGHLIGHTS KEY ROLE OF INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN TRANSITION TO A 'GREEN' ECONOMY. "UNEP is seeking to further amplify the voice of indigenous communities in environmental governance and to bring forward to world attention the centuries-old knowledge, cost-effective technologies and experience of working with rather than against nature that offers a treasure trove of inspiring principles and practical actions for the rest of humanity," - See more at: http://www.unep.org/NewsCentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=2725&ArticleID=9589&l=en
Narrated by Robert Redford, Winner of the Goldman Prize THE INDIGENOUS MOLLO PEOPLE IN TIMOR STRUGGLE TO PROTECT THEIR SACRED NATURAL WORLD FROM FOREIGN MINING CORPORATIONS http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/aleta-baun
▶ INDIGENOUS DIETS CAN HELP FIGHT MODERN ILLNESSES, SAY HEALTH EXPERTS. Traditional food consumed by rural communities contain nutrients that are lacking in high- and middle-income countries
-▶ MOTHER OF MEDICINE TREE. A story of a dangerous collision between two worlds. On the Pacific island of Palau, the modern world rubs shoulders with the traditional, and as the inhabitants eat a more Western diet, they often develop diabetes. But a traditional tree that grows there, known as the mother of medicine tree, promises a treatmenthttp://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=14-P13-00004&segmentID=7
ETC Group, December 05, 2014 ▶ INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL DEMANDS GENETICALLY MODIFIED MAIZE BAN IN MEXICO. the Tribunal ruled, must "adopt all necessary measures to ensure the conservation of peasant maize as the main food source and as a vital element of the social structure and cohesion." http://www.etcgroup.org/content/international-tribunal-demands-gm-maize-ban-mexico
These mysterious lands would seem to rise out of the clouds of the highlands, situated in the east of the island of New Guinea, to the North of Australia...http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/ambassadors-jungle/
▶ DEFORESTATION, MINING RISES AGAIN IN BRAZIL'S AMAZON IMPACTING ECOSYSTEMS, CLIMATE, DEVASTATING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES http://sco.lt/6831nN
▶ BUILDING UNITY AND SOLIDARITY TO EFFECT A SYSTEM CHANGE. Women from all the corners of the Southern African region descended on Bulawayo to participate in a parallel of the SADC Heads of State Summit, the People Summit. They have converged to share their experiences on how they have been affected either by decisions made by governments with little consultations with the people or the inherited colonial agro-mining complex, which continues to grab land for extractive purposes. http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/news-from-the-regions-mainmenu-29/1649-sadc-building-unity-and-solidarity-to-effect-a-system-change
A terrifying but terrific short documentary explaining Chevron's #ecocide and #genocide in Ecuadorhttp://sco.lt/63ewyH
Mongabay, May 14, 2014
▶ NEW REPORT REVEALS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES BY CORPORATIONS, GOVERNMENTS IN THE AMAZON.
The report took over six months to complete and gives an in-depth account of the conflicts activists and indigenous peoples (IPs) are having with corporations and governmental agencies. It relays a situation that does not look good. The report details everything from physical attacks to “systematic pressure” by corporations and governments. According to the report, conflicts over land and territories have reached a ten-year peak in Brazil. In Peru, social conflicts have tripled since 2008, with two-thirds of the reported cases defined as “socioenvironmental” conflicts.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0514-dulaney-regnskogfondet.html
▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH" http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
▶ AN ABSOLUTE MUST WATCH ▶
September 15, 2013 The Real News PHILIPPINES: CORPORATE AND MILITARY FORCES DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LAND, FORESTS AND LIVELIHOODS
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBE http://sco.lt/5YJpKb
▶ THE BUSHMEN OF THE CENTRAL KALAHARI GAME RESERVE - BOTWANA'S GENOCIDE http://sco.lt/5Vb0gj
▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY http://sco.lt/9KW9w
Ensia Magazine
-▶ THE GIFT OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE: : International conservation strategies increasingly look to indigenous knowledgehttp://ensia.com/notables/#notable7617
THE MEN OF THE FIFTH WORLD They are the original inhabitants of the land called Australia by the white man. They have been there since the beginning of time, since the dream time, when everything they know was created...http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/men-fifth-world/
▶ AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL ROCK ART AT RISK BY MINING EXPLORATION. Across Australia there are more than 100,000 rock-art sites, with millions of unique indigenous works, created over tens of thousands of years. Now mining exploration is threatening significant sites.http://rockart.theglobalmail.org/
▶ GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS IN BHUTAN: THE BIG IDEA FROM A TINY STATE THAT COULD CHANGE THE WORLD http://sco.lt/7BBtHV
▶ FOOD FORESTS CAN MITIGATE RISKS OF "FEAST OR FAMINE": BIG CORPORATE AG IS NOT THE ANSWER http://sco.lt/5U402L
WATCH
Global Voices
How Do You Feed The World? LANDRUSH: WHY POVERTY How do you feed the world? 75% of Mali's population are farmers, but rich, land-hungry nations like China and Saudi Arabia are leasing Mali's land in order to turn large areas into industrial agribusiness farms. Many Malian peasants do not welcome these efforts, seeing them as yet another manifestation of imperialism.http://www.whypoverty.net/en/all-about/land-rush/
VIDEO
Ethopia
ETHOPIA LOCAL TRIBES UNDER THREAT FROM FOREIGN LAND GRAB "INVESTMENTS" DEFORESTATION http://sco.lt/4kFdrd
▶ ECUADOR TO SELL A THIRD OF THE INDIGENOUS AMAZON RAINFOREST TO CHINESE OIL COMPANIES http://sco.lt/8Q38K1
▶ PAPUA : 226 THOUSAND HECTARES OF VIRGIN FOREST WILL BE CLEARED FOR CORPORATE PALM OIL DESTROYING ALL LIFE WITH IN THEM AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES http://sco.lt/8mSxaD
February 17, 2012 Tribal Cultural Heritage In India ▶ INDIGENOUS OR TRIBAL GROUPS RELY ON BIODIVERSITY FOR SUSTAINING THEIR LIVELIHOODS http://www.indiantribalheritage.org/?p=5026
Mongabay, February 11, 2014 ▶ HELPING THE AMAZON'S JAGUAR PEOPLE PROTECT THEIR CULTURE AND TRADITIONAL WISDOM. The process of acculturation transformed once proud cultures into fragmented remnants, their self-sufficiency and social cohesion stripped away, left to struggle in a new world marked by poverty and external dependence. ... Read more at http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0211-matses-fleck-interview.html
WATCH The Globalization Program | Global 3000 | DW.DE ▶ In this edition of Global 3000, we visit the people of Inle Lake in Myanmar, one of the few cultures in the world living entirely on the water. But their traditional way of life is under threat. We also go to Rio de Janeiro, where residents of a favela have to make way for a redevelopment project... http://www.dw.de/global-3000-the-globalization-program-2013-12-30/e-17291121-9798
The Daily Climate, October 23, 2013 ▶ ESSAY: THE WAY WE ARE IN THE WORLD, CHANGES THE WORLD Here's something Native elders understand: Without respect for natural laws, no amount of technology will get us out of this mess. Why can't we hear that message?http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/10/native-american-climate-approach
-▶ FINANCIALIZING NATURE COULD BANKRUPT US ALL. OLD ECONOMIC OR SUSTAINING POLICY? http://sco.lt/8fNIET
▶ MAJOR PALM OIL COMPANIES ACCUSED OF ECOCIDE, BREAKING ETHICAL PROMISES IN ASIA AND AFRICA http://sco.lt/8TkGjh
-▶ WHY WILD ANIMALS NEED WILDLIFE CORRIDORS Species are disappearing at thousands of times the historical extinction rate, mainly due to habitat loss. But as the recent success of wildlife corridors suggests, a little connectivity can go a long way. http://www.mnn.com/leaderboard/blogs/why-wild-animals-need-wildlife-corridors
▶ HALF THE WORLD'S WILDLIFE HAS GONE EXTINCT IN 40 YEARS.Human activity has been blamed for the drop, as the US reports dwindling populations of bumblebees and polar bears, and one of the world's biggest decreases in sealife.
Mankind's need for land and resources, combined with hunting and poaching, are causing our wild animals to die out
Wildlife populations around the globe have declined by 52 per cent on average since 1970, a new report has found
The likes of forest elephants, African lions and tigers are under threat, as well as American sharks
Lion numbers dropped 90% in 40 years, tigers by 97% in 100 years and elephants 60% since 2002, WWF reported
"Over the past 40 years, human activity has exacted a devastating toll on the planet’s wildlife population. According to a shocking new report from the World Wildlife Fund , 52 percent of the world’s mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have vanished between 1970 and 2010.
Exploitation and habitat degradation/loss are the primary culprits, accounting for 82 percent of the primary threats to wildlife populations across the globe. Human activity including damming, shipping and pollution has proven particularly disastrous for the planet’s waterways with freshwater species plunging 76 percent.
The biggest wildlife declines have been recorded in low-income and developing nations with various conservation efforts making small gains here and there. Still, the sheer scale of this report makes for very grim reading indeed – humans are cutting down trees faster than they can regrow while fish are being caught before the ocean can restock. It’s time for a wake up call." Forbes, September 30, 2014
- ▶ LAST TIME, IT TOOK 60,000 YEARS TO KILL NEARLY EVERYTHING ON EARTH: WE'RE DOING IT IN 250 YEARS
IUCN Red List, November 17, 2014 ▶ GLOBAL APPETITE FOR RESOURCES PUSHING NEW SPECIES TO THE BRINK. “Each update of the IUCN Red List makes us realize that our planet is constantly losing its incredible diversity of life, largely due to our destructive actions to satisfy our growing appetite for resources,” says IUCN Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre.http://www.iucnredlist.org/news/global-appetite-for-resources-pushing-new-species-to-the-brink
Guardian Environment, George Monbiot October 01, 2014 ▶ IT'S TIME TO SHOUT "STOP" ON THIS WAR ON THE LIVING WORLD.
This is a moment at which anyone with the capacity for reflection should stop and wonder what we are doing. If the news that in the past 40 years the world has lost over 50% of its vertebrate wildlife (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish) fails to tell us that there is something wrong with the way we live, it’s hard to imagine what could. Who believes that a social and economic system which has this effect is a healthy one? Who, contemplating this loss, could call it progress?
The Mind Unleashed, May 15, 2014 - ▶ THE EARTH IS A SENTIENT LIVING ORGANISM. Contrary to the common belief that the Earth is simply a dense planet whose only function is a resource for its inhabitants, our planet is in fact a breathing, living organism. When we think of the Earth holistically, as one living entity of its own, instead of the sum of its parts, it takes on a new meaning. Our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival.http://themindunleashed.org/2014/05/earth-sentient-living-organism.html
Summit Voice, October 05, 2014 ▶ REPORT: GLOBAL WILDLIFE POPULATIONS DROP 50 PERCENT. ‘We’re gradually destroying our planet’s ability to support our way of life’. —Neocolonialism under multinational corporations is devastating biodiversity in developing low-income countries, as the wealthy part of the world continues to increase consumption of resources at an unsustainable rate. As a result, populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish around the globe dropped 52 percent, according to the annual 2014 Living Planet report released last week by the World Wildlife Fund. http://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/10/05/report-global-wildlife-populations-drop-50-percent/
Just Brilliant: WATCH "RACING EXTINCTION" For Climate Summit 2014 - Entire UN building illuminated with a spectacular light display. The next mass extinction and its causes
PHOTO ARK by Award-Winning Photographer Joel Sartore For many of Earth’s creatures, time is running out. Half of the world’s plant and animal species will soon be threatened with extinction. The goal of the Photo Ark is to document biodiversity, show what’s at stake and to get people to care while there’s still time. More than 3,700 species have been photographed to date, with more to come. http://www.joelsartore.com/galleries/the-photo-ark/1/
▶ BOLIVIA: FIRST COUNTRY TO GIVE LEGAL RIGHTS TO THE EARTH. Bolivia pilots new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature. Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. http://sco.lt/83jybZ
-▶ THE END OF CORAL REEFS? AROUND FOR 10 MILLION YEARS, WIPED OUT IN 100 http://sco.lt/7y1XHt
▶ HEALTH OF OCEANS 'DECLINING FAST' - MASS EXTINCTION MAY BE INEVITABLE http://sco.lt/8ZyX6v
▶ CHANGING OUR WORLD FOREVER. THE WAY TO A NEW, UNKNOWN ARCTIC ECOSYSTEMhttp://sco.lt/8eWiUz
▶ SUMATRAN RAINFORESTS RAVAGED WITH ALL LIFE WITHIN IT - FOR INVASIVE PALM OILhttp://sco.lt/6Sdg13
▶ ECOCIDE: A PLAGUE OF DEFORESTATION SWEEPS ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH TERRIBLE LOSS OF WILDLIFE AND BIODIVERSITYhttp://sco.lt/8aPgp7
WE WERE WARNED
UN Environment Programme
August 15, 2010
-▶ 200 SPECIES EXTINCT EVERY DAY, UNLIKE ANYTHING SINCE DINOSAURS DISAPPEARED 65 MILLION YEARS AGO
According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago...http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security
▶ HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS, HEALTHY PLANET: HOW BIODIVERSITY COULD SAVE YOUR LIFEhttp://sco.lt/7Uk10D
ONE SHORT VIDEO
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PALM OIL DEFORESTATION
▶ HOW FOREIGN INVESTMENTS ARE REDISTRIBUTING LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBE
"Land grabbing" involves capital-rich countries investing in land and subsequent agricultural operations in poorer foreign countries. ..
...there are an estimated 62 'grabbed countries' and 41 'grabbers,' with the Middle East, South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia acting as the biggest grabbers. Estimates of the total amount of grabbed land are variable, but it is clear that numbers are steadily on the rise...
▶ THE 'GLOBAL' LAND RUSH.The first years of the twenty-first century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale.Today, enthusiasm for agriculture borders on speculative mania. When the price of food spiked in 2008, pushing the number of hungry people in the world to over one billion, it spiked the interest of investors as well, and within a year foreign land deals in the developing world rose by a staggering 200 percent.http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/08/the-global-land-rush/
Action Aid Report, May 23, 2014 ▶ GLOBAL POLICIES ENCOURAGE LAND GRABBING AND WORSEN HUNGER AND POVERTY. “Allowing land to become vehicles for wealthy corporations and individuals to become richer while pushing vulnerable rural people into poverty and hunger is unjust, unwise and unethical,” it said in the report.http://www.trust.org/item/20140523061928-bn12w/
Phnom Penh Post, February 21, 2015 ▶ CAMBODIA: LIVELIHOODS DESTROYED AS LOGGERS MOVE IN. In Cambodia’s forests, families face a stark choice: sell their resin trees for a paltry amount to local officials or have them stolen by loggers.http://www.phnompenhpost.com/livelihoods-destroyed-loggers-move
Truthout, November 09, 2014 ▶ MILITARY PERSONNEL TRAINED BY THE CIA USED NAPALM AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLE FOR LAND GRABS IN BRAZILhttp://ow.ly/E2D4r
GRAIN, October 23, 2014 ▶ HARVEST OF HARDSHIP: YALA SWAMP LAND GRAB DESTROYS KENYAN FARMERS' LIVELIHOOD.Dominion Farms arrived in Kenya's Yala Swamp basin in 2004 with big promises. The company claimed it would turn a defunct state demonstration farm into a modern rice plantation, provide locals with good jobs, and build hospitals and schools. The American owner of the company, Calvin Burgess, presented himself as a 'man of God', on a mission to bring US-style progress to Africa. The locals, sold on this grand vision, decided – with some hesitation and dissent – to allow Dominion to farm on 3,700 ha of their lands...http://www.grain.org/article/entries/5061-harvest-of-hardship-yala-swamp-land-grab-destroys-kenyan-farmers-livelihoods
Food Crisis and The Global Land Grab, November 2, 2013 -▶ TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY LAND GRABS: ACCUMULATION BY AGRICULTURAL DISPOSSESSION -For the world’s people to have secure access to the quantity and quality of food needed for a decent life, the land grabs and the development of large, highly mechanized factory farms must stop...http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/22761
April 15, 2013 farmlandgrab.org - Food Crisis and The Global Land Grab - ▶ "SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE EARTH": INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES AND LAND GRABS IN GUATEMALAhttp://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/21932
The Land Matrix is a global and independent land monitoring initiative that promotes transparency and accountability in decisions over land and investmenthttp://landmatrix.org/
▶ WEST PAPUA : 558,000 ACRES OF VIRGIN FOREST WILL BE RAZED FOR CORPORATE PALM OIL: INDONESIAN OCCUPATION, GENOCIDE AND LAND GRABS http://sco.lt/4o9GD3
-▶ IN THE RAIN FORESTS OF PERU, A MODERN LAND GRAB GOLD RUSH POISONS THE ENVIRONMENT AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES http://sco.lt/8m0TwH
Inter Press Service, November 18, 2014 - ▶ SHALE OIL FUELS INDIGENOUS CONFLICT IN ARGENTINA.
Three thousand metres below Campo Maripe lies one of the world’s biggest reserves of shale gas and oil. The land that the community used for grazing is now part of the Loma Campana oilfield, operated by the state-run YPF oil company in partnership with U.S. oil giant Chevron.
farmlandgrab.org, May 07, 2014 -▶ WHEN OUR LAND IS FREE, WE'RE ALL FREE. Communities are resisting this corporate takeover of their land and they are winning. All over Africa people are sending a clear message to their governments; stop selling Africa to corporations. The Jogbahn Clan in Liberia is one such community and here is their story.http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23469
farmlandgrab.org, May 05, 2014 -▶ RESISTANCE TO LIBERIA LAND GRABS A WARNING TO AFRICA INVESTMENTFriends of the Earth Liberia are warning governments and investors that any investment must respect communities’ rights and ownership of landhttp://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/23462
-▶ MASSIVE LAND GRABBING BY MULTINATIONAL FIRMS PREVALENT IN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES AND WILL GET WORSE WITH TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP , At present, some 1.5 million hectares of land are primed for lease to foreign countries, and the Philippine government is set to open more agricultural lands to monopoly corporations of the United States, European Union, South Korea and Australia. Lawmakers in the Philippines are pushing for amendments to the 1987 Constitution to allow 100 percent foreign ownership of land. This is reportedly a condition set on the Philippine government before being accepted to the TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP, a trade pact being organized by the US government. http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/22386#sthash.xl4kiTPB.dpuf
- ▶ Big business wants to control our resources--grabbing land, privatizing water, patenting seeds, and trying to squeeze out anyone who gets in the way of their profits. Fortunately, there is an alternative that places the rights of people and communities ahead of corporate interests--resource rights.
▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/9KW9wn
- ▶ STOLEN LAND: NIGERIAN VILLAGERS WANT THEIR LAND BACK -This is the second of a series of interviews about resistance to the expansion of industrial oil palm plantations in West and Central Africa.
- ▶ UNCOVERS TOP LEVEL CORRUPTION IN SARAWAK, MALAYSIA OVER INDIGENOUS FORESTShttp://sco.lt/5Y6uUT
WATCH
Global Voices
How Do You Feed The World? LANDRUSH: WHY POVERTY How do you feed the world? 75% of Mali's population are farmers, but rich, land-hungry nations like China and Saudi Arabia are leasing Mali's land in order to turn large areas into industrial export agribusiness farms. Many Malian peasants do not welcome these efforts, seeing them as yet another manifestation of imperialismhttp://www.whypoverty.net/en/all-about/land-rush/
100 Reporters, November 21, 2013
- ▶ GLOBAL LAND GRAB: RAINFOREST VANISHING IN SHADY DEALS, REPORT SAYS. Spurred by increasing food prices and demand for biofuels in Europe and North America, one of the world’s largest rainforests in Papua New Guinea is quickly disappearing under a voracious land rush that has handed 12 percent of the country’s entire land area to foreign companies over the last decade, according to a new report.http://100r.org/2013/11/global-land-grab-rainforest-vanishing-in-shady-deals-report-says/
Mongabay, November 7, 2013
- ▶ PALM OIL COMPANIES IGNORING COMMUNITY RIGHTS, NEW STUDY SHOWS,Members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are violating the rights of local communities in tropical forests and failing to live up to social and environmental commitmentshttp://news.mongabay.com/2013/1107-dparker-palm-oil-rights.html?n3ws1ttr
Corporations and investors are buying into agriculture in Germany’s Eastern states on a big scale and pushing out long-established businesses. In some areas, investors now own almost a third of total arable land. Many farmers are worried they’ll be forced out of business entirely.http://www.dw.de/land-grab-are-speculators-buying-up-eastern-germany/av-17511574
May 13, 2013 - farmlandgrab.org - ▶ POLICY BRIEF: THE ROLE OF EUROPEAN DEVELOPMENT FINANCE INSTITUTIONS IN LAND GRABShttp://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/22067
June 6, 2013 Al Jazeera
- ▶ MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATE GREED: WINNER TAKES ALL
Action Aid Report, May 23, 2014 ▶ GLOBAL POLICIES ENCOURAGE LAND GRABBING AND WORSEN HUNGER AND POVERTY.“Allowing land to become vehicles for wealthy corporations and individuals to become richer while pushing vulnerable rural people into poverty and hunger is unjust, unwise and unethical,” it said in the report.http://www.trust.org/item/20140523061928-bn12w/
-▶ MAJOR PALM OIL CORPORATIONS ACCUSED OF ECOCIDE, BREAKING ETHICAL PROMISES IN ASIA AND AFRICAhttp://sco.lt/8TkGjh
May 24, 2013 100 Reporters
- ▶ TWIN FACES IN PALM OIL LAND DEAL.An affiliate of a New York-based venture capital firm has been forced to halt a major palm oil project in Cameroon, amidst c
pdjmoo's insight:
=========RESOURCES=============
***** OAKLAND INSTITUTE
Oakland Institute is a globally respected, independent policy think tank, bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic, and environmental issues of our time. Land Rights, High Food Price Crisis, Sustainable Food Systems, Foreign Investment, International Aid, Trade Agreements, Climate Change and Poverty...http://media.oaklandinstitute.org/
Bolivia pilots new social and economic model based on protection of and respect for nature.
BOLIVIA GIVES LEGAL RIGHTS TO THE EARTH
Earth, October 13, 2014
Bolivia is to become the first country in the world to give nature comprehensive legal rights in an effort to halt climate change and the exploitation of the natural world, and to improve quality of life for the Bolivian people. Developed by grassroots social groups and agreed by politicians, the Law of Mother Earth recognises the rights of all living things, giving the natural world equal status to human beings. Once fully approved, the legislation will provide the Earth with rights to: life and regeneration; biodiversity and freedom from genetic modification; pure water; clean air; naturally balanced systems; restoration from the effects of human activity; and freedom from contamination.
Bolivia’s government will be legally bound to prioritise the wellbeing of its citizens and the natural world by developing policies that promote sustainability and control industry. The economy must operate within the limits of nature and the country is to work towards energy and food sovereignty while adopting renewable energy technologies and increasing energy efficiency.Preventing climate change is a key objective of the law, which includes protecting the lives of future generations. The government is requesting that rich countries help Bolivia adapt to the effects of climate change in recognition of the environmental debt they owe for their high carbon emissions.
The legislation is based on broader principles of living in harmony with the Earth and prioritising the “collective good.” At its heart is an understanding that the Earth is sacred, which arises from the indigenous Andean worldview of ‘Pachamama’ (meaning Mother Earth) as a living being. An initial act outlining the rights – which was passed by Bolivia’s national congress in December 2010 and paves the way for the full legislation – defines Mother Earth as a dynamic and “indivisible community of all living systems and living organisms, interrelated, interdependent and complementary, which share a common destiny.”...More
(Skip Ad) -▶ BOLIVIA'S MORALES WINS THIRD TERM AS PRESIDENT IN LANDSLIDE VICTORY.Bolivian President Evo Morales declared a landslide re-election victory on Sunday, hailing it as a triumph for socialist reforms that have cut poverty and vastly expanded the state’s role in the booming economy.http://www.france24.com/en/20141013-bolivia-morales-wins-third-term-president-landslide-victory/
GreenLeft, October 20, 2014 -▶ BOLIVIA LEADS CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT.On a global scale, Bolivia is punching way above its size in drawing attention to the climate crisis and formulating answers to it ― within the limits of its situation as a small landlocked country in South America. https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/57571
New York Times, February 16, 2014 -▶ TURNABOUT IN BOLIVIA AS ECONOMY RISES FROM INSTABILITY. Morales’s enduring popularity is a result of his extraordinary socio-economic reforms, which have transformed Bolivia from an “economic basket case” into a country that receives praise from such unlikely contenders as the World Bank and the IMF – an irony considering the country’s success is the result of the socialist administration casting off the recommendations of the IMF in the first place.http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/17/world/americas/turnabout-in-bolivia-as-economy-rises-from-instability.html?_r=0
▶ PROTECTING BOLIVIA'S DELICATE ECOSYSTEMS.In Bolivia's remote Chaco region, poor natural resource management coupled with changes in the climate are making family farming a very risky business... http://www.new-ag.info/en/focus/focusItem.php?a=2362
DW.DE November 19, 2014 ▶ REPORT ON BOLIVIA'S CHILD WORKERS. In Bolivia, one of South America's poorest countries, some 850,000 children are working instead of attending school. The Bolivian parliament has recently passed a law which permits even 10 year olds to work under certain conditions. Child workers themselves campaigned for the law because they hope that it will help improve conditions for child workers http://www.dw.de/top-stories/world/s-1429
Once fully approved, the legislation will provide the Earth with rights to: life and regeneration; biodiversity and freedom from genetic modification; pure water; clean air; naturally balanced systems; restoration from the effects of human activity; and freedom from contamination. The legislation is based on broader principles of living in harmony with the Earth and prioritising the “collective good.”
▶APPROXIMATELY 229,729 ELEPHANTS BRUTALLY SLAUGHTERED AND TRAFFICKED IN FEWER THAN SIX YEARS - INVESTIGATION REVEALS A HIGHLY ORGANISED IVORY TRADE ACROSS ASIA AND AFRICA -
▶ THE ECONOMICS OF THE ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE :ONE OF THE MOST LUCRATIVE, DESTRUCTIVE BLACK MARKETS IN THE WORLD
The illegal trade of animals or animal parts has become one of the most lucrative black market activities in the world. Driven by the promise of high profit margins, poachers in Africa – namely militias, armed groups, and insurgent groups – have driven rhinos and elephants close to extinction, while murdering hundreds of park rangers in the process. NGOs and governments now face a race against time to reduce demand for wildlife trade, particularly in Asia, as well as to equip those on the frontline to fight a well-armed enemy.... http://www.economywatch.com/economy-business-and-finance-news/the-economics-of-the-illegal-wildlife-trade.29-05.html
Guardian Environment, December 10, 2012 ▶ ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE THREATENING NATIONAL SECURITY
▶ GLOBAL URGENCY: TACKLING THE ILLEGAL TRADE IN WILD ANIMALS The grisly trade in wild animals is underpinned by slaughter, smuggling and money-laundering. It's time to get serious
Elephant poaching in the African continent is now at its highest for 20 years, with an estimated 25,000 elephants killed in 2011.
Illegal trade in wildlife has now reached a scale that poses an immediate risk to wildlife and to people. Over the past five years, we have seen a dramatic spike in the poaching and illegal trade in elephants and rhinos. In 2011 an estimated 25,000 elephants were poached across Africa and in South Africa alone 668 rhinos were lost to poachers in 2012....http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2013/mar/01/cites-animals-illegal-trade
-▶ WILDLIFE POACHERS FACE A NEW ENEMY: According to the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, illegal trafficking of wildlife now ranks as the 3rd largest criminal industry in the world. Every year, millions of animals are slaughtered or kidnapped because of the value placed on their pelt, skin, horns, tusks or meat. This industry driven not just by criminals looking to make a quick buck, but also by complex social, economic and environmental issues...http://ablorg.tumblr.com/post/32674612392/wildlife-poachers-face-a-new-enemy
-▶ NEARLY 3,000 WILD GREAT APES STOLEN OR POACHED EACH YEAR- Almost 3,000 great apes are killed or captured in the wild each year because of rampant illegal trade, according to a new UN report voicing fears for their survival....More than 22,000 great apes are estimated to have been lost to the illicit trade between 2005 and 2011, according to the study by the UN Environment Programme, which oversees the Great Apes Survival Partnership (Grasp).
WATCH Wildlife Extra News, April 2014 "HOPE" (15:00) - Rwanda's mountain gorillas star in new documentary The film, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, takes a historical look back to 1967 when Dian Fossey began her work. Fewer than 300 mountain gorillas remained at the time, their population ravaged by poachers, who for years targeted the gorillas to make money, selling infant gorillas to zoos or the hands and heads of the adults as trophies to wealthy tourists. http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/Mountain-gorillas-film.html#cr
-▶ CHINA STEPS UP: PLEDGE A WHOPPING $100 MILLION TO STOP POACHINGChina, a notorious source of demand for a massive illegal wildlife trade, is stepping up its game to save wildlife with a massive $100 million donation to combat poaching in Africa. The Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang, announced the fund during a visit to the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa.
Delegates from 46 different countries and 11 UN organisations have signed The London Declaration. With four African presidents - as well as delegates from China and Vietnam - among the signatories, the illegal animal trade has been pushed from the conservation agenda to the political one. But now the hard work begins.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26172179
▶ OUTGUNNED: ILLICIT TRADE IN WILDLIFE HAS EXPLODED INTO A $19 BILLION CRIMINAL ENTERPRISEhttp://sco.lt/7RuB9d
Wildlife Extra News TROPHY HUNTING IS BACK IN ZAMBIA
WHEN KILLING WILDLIFE BECOMES AN ECONOMIC BOON
Zambia’s 2013 ban on hunting has been lifted, its Minister of Tourism and Arts, Jean Kapata, has announced. This means hunting wildlife, with the exception of big cats, is now legal across the 19 hunting blocks. Hunting elephants, though, will be allowed. This news comes at the same time as new research has revealed that an estimated 100,000 elephants in Africa were killed for their ivory between 2010 and 2012 and elephant population numbers are declining by two per cent to three per cent a year. This effectively means that more of the animals are being killed than are being born.http://www.wildlifeextra.com
Treehugger, June 24, 2014 ▶ ECOCIDE: IT'S TIME TO TREAT ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE LIKE A SERIOUS CRIME.A new U.N. report calls for international collaboration to fight the crime organizations behind illegal trading in wood and wildlife. It’s difficult to put an exact value on the clandestine trade in timber and animals, but estimates from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the UN Environmental Programme and INTERPOL range from $70 to $213 billion U.S. dollars per year. Steiner said these numbers are very likely an underestimate.http://www.treehugger.com/endangered-species/its-time-treat-illegal-wildlife-trade-serious-crime.html
▶ INDONESIA; THE RAPE AND PILLAGE OF SUMATRAN TIGERS' LAST STRONGHOLDhttp://sco.lt/8B8NWb
ELEPHANT CULTURE "ECHO" AN ELEPHANT TO REMEMBER" (53:10) PBS Nature: Intro & Full Episode Echo, Africa’s most famous elephant, was the subject of many films and the matriarch of perhaps the most studied wild elephant herd in the world. In May of 2009, she died of natural causes. This film is a look back at this remarkable animal through extraordinary footage and interviews with the researchers that cared for and studied Echo and her family http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/echo-an-elephant-to-remember/introduction/5755/
Eco-cide derives from the Greek “oikos” meaning “house” or “home” and the Latin “caedere” meaning “strike down, demolish, kill”. It literally translates to killing our home. Ecocide is the destruction of our natural environment
ECOCIDE: PUTTING PEOPLE AND PLANET FIRST
Ecocide: Until the value of nature is shared, humanity will continue to destroy nature in an effort to prolong its own existence.
"Guardianship is a word that rings out in my head. We are meant to be guardians and trustees of this planet. For me, and for many others, the collective goal of humanity is towards the stewardship of our people, the planet and our ecosystems. We have a duty to protect and enhance our communities and ecosystems for the betterment of future generations"...Nicole Tilde
EJOLT October 13, 2014 ▶ END ECOCIDE ON EARTH.Around 100 scientists, lawmakers, jurists and activists gathered in Brussels on 13 October 2014 for an End Ecocide on Earth conference. Here's a rundownhttp://www.ejolt.org/2014/10/end-ecocide-on-earth/
Huffington Post Green, August 26, 2014 A GLOBAL ECOCIDE RAMPAGE
(Warning: Graphic Photos)
Each year, looting Earth's forests, its animals, waterways, wetlands, coral reefs and its oceans account for $400 billion in commerce. This ecocide rampage is run by organized crime and, in part, fueled by Big Oil subsidies in excess of $1.9 trillion annually. About 1.1 billion people, or 15 percent of the human race, depends upon killing our living planet for their daily livelihood. This also includes enslaving millions of children....http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-reese-halter/a-global-ecocide-rampage_b_5706703.htm
▶ IS IT TIME TO CHARGE PEOPLE AND CORPORATIONS WITH ECOCIDE? Ecocide is the crime of mass destruction of the environment and everything that lives in it. Because it's considered on par with things like genocide and torture, there's been a push since the 1970s to put ecocide under the purview of the International Criminal Court at The Hague http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/22804-is-it-time-to-charge-people-with-ecocide
▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT?http://sco.lt/5I5UeX
Earthblog, August 04, 2014 ▶ NEW SCIENCE SUGGESTS MORE LAND-BASED ECOSYSTEMS LOST THAN BIOSPHERE CAN BEARAn important scientific journal article published today finds that 66% of Earth’s land area must be maintained as natural and agro-ecological ecosystems to sustain a livable environment. Yet about 50% have already been lost, threatening global biosphere collapsehttp://www.ecointernet.org/2014/08/04/biosphere_collapse/
ECOLOGICAL ARMAGEDDON
EXTINCTION CRISIS
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS http://sco.lt/8fK5eT
WE WELCOME THE UN HUMAN RIGHT COUNCIL MOVE TO CHALLENGE CORPORATE IMPUNITY
Switzerland, Geneva, June 27, 2014
La Via Campesina welcomes the resolution approved at the UN Human Rights Council to draw up a binding treaty to punish the crimes of transnational companies (TNC's). “This is a victory for peasants, who in most cases are unable to access legal systems to take actions against the impunity of TNCs. Also, looking at the current agricultural activities that have been captured by multinational companies, the instrument will be a great tool for the victims to file cases against land-grabbing by TNCs. We thank the initiating countries and the countries that voted in favour.” said Themba Chauke from the South African Landless Peoples Movement, a member of La Via Campesina.
Violence, evictions, intimidation, the criminalisation of struggles as well as assassinations of farmers who are defending their livelihood, their land and their communities have become common practice used by agribusiness, TNCs, local elites and governments. This violence is linked to the privatization of nature, the concentration of land and the increased corporate control of the food chain.
Transnational companies such as Nestlé, Syngenta, Bayer... have been responsible for numerous crimes such as violent land evictions, abuse and contamination of the commons (seeds, water, soil...), the promotion of unhealthy junk food and the increased use of agrotoxins in food production. The industrial food system exploits agricultural and food workers, especially the undocumented workers.
VIDEO (10:00) OUR FORESTS ARE DYING, ARE WE NEXT? Trees are the terrestrial lungs of the planet, and they are dying all over the globe. Government agencies and mainstream media are not reporting on the unfolding cataclysm of this die off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPzix8TiHR8
▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH"http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
▶ MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS ENDANGERING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/5M5eLp
▶ HOLDING CORPORATIONS RESPONSIBLE: MINING COMPANIES DEVASTATE PRISTINE WISCONSIN FOR FRAC=SAND: LEAVING A CHEMICAL WASTELANDhttp://sco.lt/66Gc7N
▶ THE PALM OIL HOLOCAUST - AND WE STAND BY AND ALLOW CORPORATE ECOCIDE?http://sco.lt/7KU641
-- A MUST WATCH ON GROWING CORPORATE ECOCIDE -- Video Report September 15, 2013 The Real News -▶ PHILIPPINES: CORPORATE AND MILITARY FORCES DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LANDS, LIVELIHOODS AND ECOSYSTEMS. Corporate agri-businesses like U.S.-based Dole, Del Monte, Monsanto, along with international and Philippine mines, are polluting waterways and destroying the surrounding farms. Chinese, European, Canadian, and Filipino mines are stripping away the mountains to get at what some estimate to be the largest iron deposit in the world. There also some of the most significant gold, nickel, and copper reserves in Asia.http://sco.lt/7SYVXt
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES, ECOSYSTEMS, FORESTS DEVASTATED: BIG MONEY DRIVES EXTINCTIONhttp://sco.lt/6zxQWX
UNPRECEDENTED STUDY
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE DISAPPEAR WITH ECOSYSTEM AND BIODIVERSITY LOSS http://sco.lt/8PcKsD
▶ TREE HEALTH LINKED WITH HUMAN HEALTH - OUR INTERCONNECTED LIVEShttp://sco.lt/85WZ2v
▶ MONSANTO GMO TREES COULD DEVASTATE FOREST ECOSYSTEMS, CREATING A BIOLOGICAL WASTELANDhttp://sco.lt/52lFDN
▶ AGRICULTURE CAUSES 80% OF TROPICAL DEFORESTATION - THE TERRIBLE PRICE WE PAYhttp://sco.lt/8DCl1d
-- WATCH --
"POISONING PARADISE: ECOCIDE NEW ZEALAND
Every year, New Zealand drops huge quantities of poison-laced food into its forest ecosystems; enough poison to kill its human population 4 times over, every year. No country has ever done anything remotely similar, on such a scale... The targets are possums and rats, but the poisonous bait kills everything that eats it - including native birds, deer, farm stock, pets, and even insects http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/festival/play/7123/
▶ HOW FOREIGN 'INVESTMENTS' ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBEhttp://sco.lt/8Ff27V
▶ THE GLOBAL BIOTECH CORPORATE TAKEOVER OF AFRICA: WHO BENEFITS, WHO LOSES?http://sco.lt/7TWVwP
▶ HOW BIOTECH CORPORATIONS AND GMO CROPS ARE THREATENING THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMANKIND ALIKE http://sco.lt/7OmezB
WATCH "INSIDE THE GARBAGE OF THE WORLD" (80 min) We're living on a beautiful planet and as a human race we've been here for thousands of years. Our planet didn't need to be protected; life was flourishing on its own, with its own agenda. However for the past 100 years we've made a tremendous impact with our footprint due to the growth of world population and the industrialization of our everyday life. Economy, profit and capitalization became more important than respecting our planet and an ancient knowledge to advance a new way of life. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/inside-garbage-world/
▶ A GREEN, COMMONS-BASED GOVERNANCE: THE RIGHT TO A CLEAN AND HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT FOR ALL SPECIEShttp://sco.lt/8qokwj
In the final analysis we cannot drink oil or eat money. It is folly to expect infinite growth and profits from a finite source. Without Nature we humans do not exist. To the degree Nature is sick and out of balance so are we for we depend upon the natural world every moment of every day for our survival. We source everything from Nature. Everything we consume and create has it's origins in Nature, down to the ingredients (resources) for products, food, shelter, and all of our consumer items. And then, in our crazy busy, treadmill lives, there is the ascetic beauty and wonder we have forgotten to appreciate of an miraculous biosphere NOT created by man. Time to pause and reflect?
A “biological annihilation” of wildlife in recent decades means a sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history is under way and is more severe than previously feared, according to research.
Scientists analysed both common and rare species and found billions of regional or local populations have been lost. They blame human overpopulation and overconsumption for the crisis and warn that it threatens the survival of human civilisation, with just a short window of time in which to act.
Just Brilliant: WATCH "RACING EXTINCTION" For Climate Summit 2014 - Entire UN building illuminated with a spectacular light display. The next mass extinction and its causes http://www.racingextinction.com/
May 6, 2013 Newsweek, The Daily Beast
THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION IS UPON US
CAN HUMANS SURVIVE?
-▶ Are we in the first act of a mass extinction that will end in the death of millions of plant and animal species across the planet, including us? Proponents of the “sixth extinction” theory believe the answer is yes.
NPR FreshAir, February 12, 2014 Interview With Elizabeth Kolbert, Author @ElizKolbert
IN THE WORLD'S "SIXTH EXTINCTION": ARE HUMANS THE ASTEROID?Elizabeth Kolbert is the author of the new book The Sixth Extinction. It begins with a history of the "big five" extinctions of the past, and goes on to explain how human behavior is creating this sixth one — including our use of fossil fuels and the effects of climate change.
"We are effectively undoing the beauty and the variety and the richness of the world which has taken tens of millions of years to reach," Kolbert tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "... We're sort of unraveling that. ... We're doing, it's often said, a massive experiment on the planet and we really don't know what the end point is going to be."http://www.npr.org/2014/02/12/275885377/in-the-worlds-sixth-extinction-are-humans-the-asteroid
-▶ 200 SPECIES EXTINCT EVERY DAY, UNLIKE ANYTHING SINCE DINOSAURS DISAPPEARED 65 MILLION YEARS AGO
According to the UN Environment Programme, the Earth is in the midst of a mass extinction of life. Scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every 24 hours. This is nearly 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate and, say many biologists, is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65m years ago...http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/aug/16/nature-economic-security
- ▶ GREENLAND'S MELTING: CREATING A DIFFERENT CLIMATE THAN EARTH HAS EVER SEENhttp://sco.lt/8bjv73
-▶ ARCTIC OCEAN 'ACIDIFYING RAPIDLY - HIGHEST LEVELS IN 55 MILLION YEARS - ARCTIC ICE-FREE IN TWO YEARShttp://sco.lt/6qm61h
Summit Voice, June 06, 2014 - ▶ STUDY SHOWS FLURRY OF THREATS TO RAINFORESTS. The 35-year study focused on how diverse communities of trees and vines respond when the Amazonian rainforest is fragmented by cattle ranching. And the new threat of climate change could be the knockout punch. “Humans continue to dump billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year, and it’s evidently affecting even the remotest forests on Earth,”http://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/06/06/study-shows-flurry-of-threats-to-rainforests/
Documentary -CALL OF LIFE: FACING THE MASS EXTINCTION (2010)
Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction is the first feature documentary to investigate the growing threat to Earth’s life support systems from this unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Through interviews with leading scientists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, and indigenous and religious leaders, the film explores the causes, the scope, and the potential effects of the mass extinction, but also looks beyond the immediate causes of the crisis to consider how our cultural and economic systems, along with deep-seated psychological and behavioral patterns, have allowed this situation to develop, continue to reinforce it, and even determine our response to it. Call of Life tells the story of a crisis not only in nature, but also in human nature, a crisis more threatening than anything human beings have ever faced before.http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/call_of_life_facing_the_mass_extinction_2010/
-▶ PESTICIDE/CHEMICAL REGULATION OVERHAUL NEEDED TO PROTECT WILDLIFE ECOSYSTEMS AND FOOD CHAINhttp://sco.lt/5oplFx
Excellent Read: Bee Strawbridge Blog June 5, 2013
-▶ SPEAKING UP FOR WILDLIFE Have we perhaps been afflicted with some kind of madness? Surely it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that life on Earth cannot be sustained if we continue to systematically wipe out the plants and animals that the planet's food chains and eco-systems depend upon for their very existence?http://beestrawbridge.blogspot.com/2013/06/speaking-up-for-wildlife.html
-▶ MASS WOLF KILLINGS ARE BASED ON THE MOST CYNICAL OF PREMISEShttp://sco.lt/5TCsBl
-▶ CANNED TROPHY HUNTING - ANIMALS BRED IN CAPTIVITY FOR TROPHY HUNTINGhttp://sco.lt/6qdbW5
- ▶ TO SAVE ENDANGERED SPECIES, EVERYONE HAS A ROLE TO PLAY (THIS MEANS YOU) . One-fourth of Earth’s species could be driven to extinction by 2050, just as a result of climate change. That’s not even counting the ones threatened by habitat eradication, toxins, and other plagues we have wrought on those with whom we share our home. Solving these problems will take a global village. Every sector has some role to play, including the private sector, which has until recently been cast primarily as the problem, not part of the solution.http://www.takepart.com/article/2014/05/16/endangered-species-day-everyone-has-role-play
Scientists have warned that current hunting trends in Central African forests could result in complete ecological collapse.
The authors maintain that the current rate of unsustainable hunting of forest elephants, gorillas and other seed-dispersing species threatens the ability of forest ecosystems to regenerate, and that landscape-wide hunting management plans are needed to avoid an environmental catastrophe..... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130723103451.htm
Science Daily, November 1`8, 2014 -▶ AS ELEPHANTS GO, SO GO THE TREES. Overhunting has been disastrous for elephants, but their forest habitats have also been caught in the crossfire. A first-of-its-kind study shows that the dramatic loss of elephants, which disperse seeds after eating vegetation, is leading to the local extinction of a dominant tree species, with likely cascading effects for other forest life. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141118124534.htm
▶ THE TRAGIC SLAUGHTER OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ELEPHANTS -- JUST FOR THEIR TUSKS - MAY BE EXTINCT BY 2020http://sco.lt/85wXBZ
SustainableBusiness.com, October 22, 2014 -▶ THE EBOLA-DEFORESTATION CONNECTION. "As the forests disappeared, so too did the buffer separating humans from animals - and from the pathogens that animals harbor," says Vanity Fair.http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25968
New Scientist, September 08, 2014 ▶ EBOLA'S SILVER LINING: WE CAN CLAMP DOWN ON BUSHMEAT.According to the World Health Organization, the Ebola virus enters human populations when people handle or eat infected wildlife, especially fruit bats, chimpanzees, monkeys, forest antelopes and porcupines. Eating bushmeat remains common throughout Africa, either for subsistence or as a luxury.
Mongabay, July 09, 2014 -▶ SOLD INTO EXTINCTION: GREAT APES BETRAYED BY PROTECTORS.Corruption in high places, CITES, the international body charged with protecting endangered species has turned a blind eye to massive illegal trade of endangered Great Apeshttp://news.mongabay.com/2014/0709-sri-stiles-cites-commentary.html
-▶ SURROUNDED BY DEFORESTATION, CRITICALLY ENDANGERED GORILLAS HANG ON BY A THREADhttp://sco.lt/7yO9ZJ
▶ INDONESIA: THE RAPE AND PILLAGE OF SUMATRAN TIGERS' LAST STRONGHOLDhttp://sco.lt/62jf3h
▶ RUSSIAN FORESTS AND TIGERS LEFT FLOORED BY ILLEGAL LOGGINGhttp://sco.lt/8ROSsD
WATCH
Nature PBS "SIBERIAN TIGER" | Full Episode
Ecologist Chris Morgan travels to far eastern Russia, in search of the Siberian tigers that hold rank in the frozen forests. The film features the work of Korean cameraman Sooyong Park, the first individual ever to film Siberian tigers in the wild. Park spent years in the forest tracking and filming the world’s biggest cat
CLIMATE CHANGE COULD ENDANGER MORE ANIMALS THAT WE THOUGHT. A new study presents startling findings that rapid climate change may threaten many more species of plants and animals than previous measures have led us to believe. The study, one of the biggest of...
▶ CLIMATE CHANGE TO HALVE HABITAT FOR OVER 10,000 COMMON SPECIEShttp://sco.lt/8IiixN
VIDEO REPORT PBS Newshour, February 17, 2015 THE PLIGHT OF THE MIGRATING PIPING PLOVER Scientists hope to protect the piping plover’s winter home climate change is likely to disrupt the habitat of about half of North America’s bird species by 2080http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/scientists-want-protect-piping-plovers-winter-home/
Summit County Citizens Voice, September 13, 2014 -▶ STUDY TRACKS BIG DROP IN PACIFIC WALRUS NUMBERS. Population dropped by about half between 1981 and 1999, but scientists aren’t sure if the numbers have stabilized since then. In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledged that the species was under pressure from sea ice loss and over-harvestinghttp://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/09/13/study-tracks-big-drop-in-pacific-walrus-numbers/
Summit Voice, December 18, 2014 -▶ THE 'GREENING' OF THE COLORADO RIVER DELTA : Last May’s historic pulse flow in the Colorado River helped revive vegetation along a huge swath of the river’s edge, triggering new plant growth and raising the water table in the delta. After comparing satellite images taken August 2013 with new images from this year, scientists calculated a 23 percent increase in the greenness of riparian zone vegetation.
The engineered spring flood was the result of a U.S.-Mexico agreement called Minute 319. Starting March 23, 2014, and ending May 18, approximately 105,392 acre-feet (130 million cubic meters) of water was released into the dry river bed below Morelos Dam, which straddles the U.S.-Mexico border just west of Yuma.
“The pulse flow worked,” said Karl W. Flessa, co-chief scientist for the Minute 319 Science Team. “A small amount of water can have a big effect on the delta’s ecosystem. The groundwater was recharged, vegetation got greener than previous years and the water helped germinate new native vegetation,” said Flessa, a University of Arizona professor of geosciences. “As a bonus, the river reached the sea.”
In addition, people living along the river benefited, he said.
Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2014 -▶ WATER, WILDLIFE SURGE BACK INTO ONCE-PARCHED COLORADO RIVER DELTA.The water is running deeper, faster and wider than anticipated in a channel that was once bone-dry. Hinojosa has spotted hawks, egrets and ospreys flying above the newly flowing water. He's even seen beavers.
International Rivers THE STATE OF THE WORLD'S RIVERS 2014 - INTERACTIVE Mapping The Health of the World's Fifty Major River Basins
Our world’s rivers are at a tipping point – and now is the time to demand change before it’s too late. Already, over 50,000 large dams have degraded more than two-thirds of the world’s. The database is really a stunning piece of interactive software. There’s a lot of excellent information and it’s easy to get lost in exploration. Make sure to have a look through it here. http://www.internationalrivers.org/worldsrivers/
World Wildlife Fund, March 13, 2014 -▶ DEPENDING ON CLEAN WATER: FIVE FRESHWATER ANIMALS.While about 70% of the Earth is covered in water, only 3% of that is freshwater. Found in glaciers, lakes, reservoirs, rivers, ponds streams, wetlands and in the ground, fresh water is essential to life. More than 100,000 species rely on freshwater ecosystems, which make up less than 0.01% of the planet’s total surface area.http://worldwildlife.org/stories/depending-on-clean-water-five-freshwater-animals
International Rivers has launched 'The State of the World's Rivers', an interactive online database that illustrates the role that dams have played in impoverishing the health of the world's river basins.
The database shows how river fragmentation due to decades of dam-building is highly correlated with poor water quality and low biodiversity. Many of the world's great river basins have been dammed to the point of serious decline, including the Mississippi, Yangtze, Paraná and Danube. "The evidence we've compiled of planetary-scale impacts from river change is strong enough to warrant a major international focus on understanding the thresholds for 'river change' in the world's major basins, and for the planet as a whole system", said Jason Rainey, Executive Director of International Rivers. http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/47761
Turning on the lights? Driving to work? Surfing the web? You’re using water! Energy is inextricable linked to water. With the greater need for energy, the demand for water will continue to increase. How can we balance the need for water in energy with water for crops, households, and factories? How can we make do with the water we have? http://www.prairiepublic.org/television/prairie-public-on-demand/water-the-lifeblood-of-energy
Summit Voice, January 17, 2015 ▶ STUDY FIND ECSTASY IN RIVER WATER NEAR MUSIC FESTIVAL.Pharmaceuticals and cosmetics aren’t the only emerging pollutants to threaten water quality, according to researchers who studied a river near a major music festival in Taiwan. Wastewater treatment plants are not set up to remove them efficiently, so they get into soil and water. Some have been shown to affect the behavior of fish and to have other adverse effects on the environment.http://summitcountyvoice.com/2015/01/17/study-finds-ecstasy-in-river-near-music-festival/
-▶ MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. RIVERS ARE TOO POLLUTED TO SUPPORT LIFE. REPORT REVEALS SCALE OF WATER CONTAMINATIONhttp://sco.lt/5Gpafx
SummitVoice, October 25, 2014 -▶ GLOBAL HYDROPOWER BOOM POSES ENVIRONMENTAL AND BIODIVERSITY RISKS. The boom is expected to double production of hydropower, but could also reduce the number of our last remaining large free-flowing rivers by about 20 percent and pose a serious threat to freshwater biodiversityhttp://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/10/25/global-hydropower-boom-poses-biodiversity-risks/
▶ INDIA PLANS TO SPEND $1 BILLION TO CLEAN WATER WAYS BY 2017. India plans to spend 62.4 billion rupees ($1 billion) by 2017 to clean waters in 10,000 canals, lakes and rivers as it seeks to irrigate more land in a nation that runs the world’s largest food subsidy program. Of almost 524,000 water bodies used for irrigation in India, the government said about 80,000 aren’t operational because of increased usage of groundwater by farmers, lack of maintenance and diversion of land for different uses.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-14/india-plans-to-spend-1-billion-to-clean-waters-by-2017.html
National Geographic, August 26, 2014 ELWHA: WORLD'S LARGEST DAM REMOVAL SETS U.S. RIVER FREE AFTER CENTURY OF HYDROELECTRIC PRODUCTION.As Washington State’s Elwha River runs free, a habitat for fish and wildlife is restored
ELWHA RIVER RESTORATION U.S. National Park Service, Olympic National Park Start your exploration of this landmark project here, by watching our growing series of short web videos, reading the weekly Elwha River Restoration Blog, checking project webcams and much more... http://www.nps.gov/olym/naturescience/elwha-ecosystem-restoration.htm
New York Times, April 4, 2014 -▶ CHINA'S POISONOUS WATERWAYS:More than 50 percent of China’s rivers have disappeared altogether, and few of the surviving waterways are not completely polluted. Some 280 million Chinese people drink unsafe water, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Nearly half of the country’s rivers and lakes carry water that is unfit even for human contact. And China’s cancer mortality rate has soared, climbing 80 percent in the last 30 years. About 3.5 million people are diagnosed with cancer each yearhttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/opinion/chinas-poisonous-waterways.html?_r=0
UNBELIEVABLE, UNACCEPTABLE, OUTRAGEOUS: WEST VIRGINIA MASSIVE COAL ASH CHEMICAL DISASTERhttp://sco.lt/4saARl
========================
WATCH
VIDEO REPORT Newshour, March 05, 2014 COAL PRODUCER TO PAY HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS FOR MASSIVE WATER POLLUTION ACROSS APPALACHIA. .. The Associated Press: The biggest ever fines for a company that violated its water pollution permits: Alpha Natural Resources, which is based in Virginia, and 66 of its subsidiaries.: 6,000 violations, violations over 300 state-issued permits, hundreds of streams, tributaries and rivers, 79 active coal mines, 25 coal processing plants, where they put the coal and wash it before it’s shipped, over five Appalachian states. So it’s a pretty massive coverage area for the settlement. Twenty-seven-and-a-half million dollars in fines, $200 million for the cleanup, in the range of penalty, how does this rank?http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/coal-producer-pay-hundreds-of-millions-water-pollution/
Grist, February 27, 2014 ▶ SALINE SOLUTION: WHEN DE-ICING ROADS, WE MAY WANT TO PASS ON THE SALT: IT ENDS UP IN OUR RIVERS - Just a teaspoon of salt for five gallons of water — for four days can be deadly to aquatic life. The excess salt messes with certain sensitive fishes and amphibians’ osmotic balance.http://grist.org/article/need-to-de-ice-a-road-might-want-to-pass-on-the-salt/
-▶ LIKE DIET COKE, ONTARIO'S GRAND RIVER IS ARTIFICIALLY SWEETENED - 'HIGHEST' LEVELS IN THE WORLD, STUDY SAYS. Researchers with Environment Canada and the University of Waterloo found record levels of acesulfame, sucralose, saccharin, and cyclamate – artificial sweeteners commonly found in diet pop and toothpaste – in the Grand River to be “the highest reported concentrations of these compounds in surface waters to date anywhere in the world” http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/15/sweetener-river_n_4448501.html?ir=Canada
▶ RIVERS WORK BEST WHEN THEY'RE WET. The water supply system in the Colorado River Basin is near its breaking point. Despite an above normal snowpack in the Rockies, climate change and prolonged drought have sapped the once-vigorous Colorado River, threatening the water supply for 36 million people, 15% of the nation’s agriculture, and a $26 billion recreation economy. http://www.americanrivers.org/blog/rivers-work-best-when-theyre-wet/
▶ CRYPTIC RIVER: THE TORRENTS THAT FLOW ON THE SEABEDCryptic river: The torrents that flow on the seabed. Myriad underwater rivers criss-cross the ocean floor, some many thousands of kilometres long, tens of kilometres wide and hundreds of metres deep. They are the arteries of our planet. They shunt sediments into the deep, carrying with them the oxygen and nutrients that allow life to thrive at great depths. They also seem to be a vital part of the world's carbon cycle, burying organic matter carried from the shore. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129570.700-cryptic-river-the-torrents-that-flow-on-the-seabed.html#.Uw1F4V5kJK4
-▶ STATE OF THE WORLD'S BIRDS REPORT 2013 INDICATES A PLANET IN PERIL - INVESTING IN CONSERVATION MAKES ECONOMIC SENSE. Declines in birds across the globe are providing evidence of a rapid deterioration in the global environment that is affecting all life on earth – including people. However, birds also tell us that saving the planet comes at a relatively small price – an investment that’s vital to secure our own future. These are some of the messages in a new report State of the world’s birds: indicators for our changing world by the world’s largest Partnership of conservation organisations... http://www.birdlife.org/community/2013/06/birds-indicate-a-planet-in-peril-but-investing-in-conservation-makes-economic-sense/
-▶ TOXIC GULLS: QUEBEC'S CONTAMINATED BIRD COLONY OFFERS CLUE ABOUT FLAME RETARDANTS Flame retardants are the 21st century’s PCBs, and Great Lakes birds still are the victims. These chemicals in the gulls of Deslauriers Island off Montreal are altering their hormones. In kestrels, they are causing aggressive behavior.http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2014/aug/wingedwarnings5flame-retardants
Environmental Health News, February 09, 2015 -▶ MICHIGAN'S BALD EAGLES FULL OF PHASED-OUT FLAME RETARDANTS. Starting in the early 2000s, phase-outs of PBDE's began. After four decades, PBDEs have been found in air, dirt and people in virtually every corner of the globe, including the Great Lakes region.
Climate Progress, June 13, 2014 -▶ CANADIAN TAR SANDS DEVELOPMENT HAS KILLED 58,000 to 402,000 MIGRATING BIRDS OF 22 PROTECTED SPECIES UNDER THREAT 58,000 to 402,000 birds.
Summit Voice, September 21, 2014 -▶ U.S. SOUTHWESTERN BIRD POPULATIONS IN STEEP DECLINE.Bird populations are dwindling all over North America, especially in the Southwest, where some species have declined by as much as 48 percent since the late 1960s, according to the 2014 State of the Birds Report released last week. In Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, habitat loss and fragmentation due to development are the largest threats. These are also significant threats in the nation’s grasslands, where breeding birds like the eastern meadowlark and the bobolink have declined by 40 percent since 1968, with the steepest declines coming before 1990, when stakeholders started investing in grassland bird conservation. And experts say it’s not just rare birds that are vanishing. The report includes a list of 33 common species in steep decline, losing ore than half their global populations over the past four decades — a clear warning sign that birds can undergo a massive population collapse with surprising rapidity. http://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/09/21/southwestern-bird-populations-in-steep-decline/
Focusing on Wildlife, October 25, 2014 -▶ BRITAIN'S MIGRATING BIRDS ARE DRASTICALLY DECLINING. Bird populations that make the great journey between northern Europe and Africa – including the nightingale and turtle dove – are drastically declining, conservationists have warned.Nearly half of the 29 summer migrants, who appear in the UK in spring to breed before returning in the autumn, show long-term population declines.http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/britains-migrating-birds-are-drastically-declining-rspb-says/
The Guardian, ctober 30, 2014 -▶ THE MINDLESS SLAUGHTER OF U.K. BIRDS OF PREY: Birds of prey are being shot or poisoned in UK... as the killing goes on and on. We’re losing hundreds of our most magnificent birds each year because of the mindless and senseless slaughter by a minority group, and it needs to stop. Shooters pay around £2,000 to £3,000 a day for shooting, the fines and other punishments being handed out for persecution did not form a meaningful deterrent.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/30/hundreds-of-birds-of-prey-being-shot-or-poisoned-in-uk-rspb
WATCH
"EARTHFLIGHT"
PBS Nature
Magnificent six-part series of Migrating Birds:
EARTHFLIGHT invites us to see the world from a bird’s perspective with state-of-the-art technology and sophisticated camera techniques that take viewers on a breathtaking aerial adventure over six continents. It took series producer John Downer and his team four years to film more than 100 bird species in 40 different countries, capturing amazing viewpoints that have never been seen before.
Produced by Environmental Health News, an independent, nonprofit news organization, and published in conjunction with National Geographic. Read additional stories in the series at EHN's website. Follow EHN on Twitter.
We depend on songbirds to keep the Earth’s plant life flourishing. Like the bees, it is the birds who pollinate the flowers and disperse the seeds. They keep insects under control, protecting leaves and seeds and human crops. “By some estimates, we may have lost almost half the songbirds that filled the skies almost forty years ago” says respected ornithologist Bridget Stutchbury.http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/blog/are-songbirds-disappearing
HuffingtonPost Green, May 02, 2014 -▶ 26,000 BIRDS KILLED BY JFK AIRPORT CONTRACTORS IN FIVE YEARS, RECORDS SHOWWildlife control contractors have shot almost 26,000 birds at John F. Kennedy International Airport over the past five years to stop them interfering with passenger flights — including more than 1,600 protected birds the airport did not have express permission to kill, internal records showhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/01/jfk-birds-shot-protected-airport-port-authority_n_5246071.html
July 30, 2013 Focusing on Wildlife -▶ THE U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE HAS ISSUED A PERMIT TO THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE TO KILL OVER 90 SPECIES OF BIRDSWITHIN NEW YORK STATE The birds slated for killing include owls, herons, hawks, and woodpeckers, in addition to the slaughter of Canada geese that has been widely publicized... http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/dozens-of-bird-species-could-be-slaughtered-in-new-york/
-▶ BIOLOGICAL DESERTS: THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF THE GMO MONOCULTURE BIOFUEL AND PALM OIL INDUSTRY
The mass clearing of trees for farmland disturbs the ecosystem of the rainforest by decimating rare and exotic flora and fauna. With the planting of a single crop plantation, the natural biodiversity of the rainforest is lost. The mono-crop culture that has long-plagued environmentalists in the west displaces or destroys most of the species in a single sitting, as they are unable to adapt to living within vast acres of a single crop. The environment, habitats and species that are destroyed have lived together since the dawn of the rainforest, and the damage caused by palm oil farming is irreversiblehttp://sco.lt/9AeHbN
-▶ HOW WORLDWIDE USE OF NEONICOTINOID PESTICIDE IS LETHAL TO WILDLIFE (AND YOU?)“A single corn kernel coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird. Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with the oldest neonicotinoid -- called imidacloprid -- can fatally poison a bird. And as little as 1/10th of a neonicotinoid-coated corn seed per day during egg-laying season is all that is needed to affect reproduction.”http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2013/07/17/neonicotinoid-insecticide-toxicity.aspx
-▶ AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS/PESTICIDES ARE KILLING OFF AMERICA'S BIRDShttp://sco.lt/62g2IT
When rare weather systems bring heavy rains, huge numbers of Australian pelicans abandon the sea and coastal waters and embark on a mass pilgrimage to a place a thousand miles inland. It’s the last place you would look for one of their kind – the Australian Outback, one of the driest, hottest places on the planet. But what exactly triggers their journey? How do they find their way? How do they know what is waiting for them? And where do they go when they leave? NATURE looks for answers to questions researchers are only now beginning to unravel. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/outback-pelicans/introduction/6438/
-▶ WHERE HAVE ALL THE BLUE-FOOTED BOOBIES GONE?Populations of blue-footed boobies, one of the Galápagos Islands iconic species, have dwindled by a third since the 1960s, mainly because the birds don’t seem to be finding the food they need to breed and raise chicks.. The population decline is so steep that the birds are in danger of dying out,http://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/04/22/where-have-all-the-blue-footed-boobies-gone/
Azcentral.com, January 22, 2014 -▶ WHO NEEDS A REFUGE? LITTLE OWLS.Around Phoenix and other flat Western expanses where the 10-inch-tall creatures were once ubiquitous, bulldozers churn and pavement covers their native turf. Newly planted trees, cactuses and fences hide potential predators such as coyotes or hawks. http://www.azcentral.com/travel/articles/20140119phoenix-owls-refuge-growth.html?nclick_check=1
Here are many links all in one place so you can start looking over the bird situation from one site. I think we all love birds when they don't leave us too many "presents" in the wrong places or wake us up too early. I certainly will lovingly accept unwanted presents if the price is to loose my feathered friends.
I personally share my yard and often my porch or deck with a peacock that decided to live at my house. I clean-up a bit after him and he loudy lets me know when someone strange is in the yard.....And then we just walk, fly, sit and stand around watching each other do things.
Ecologist Chris Morgan travels to the jungles of Northern Sumatra to document the work being done to save its population of wild orangutans. Asia’s most intelligent ape once roamed across the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Java, but today, fewer than 7,000 Sumatran orangutans remain in the wild. The film cites rapid deforestation — clearing the land for vast palm oil plantations — as the chief reason for the species’ declining population. But as Morgan shows, conservationists are trying to reverse that trend by teaching orphaned orangutans the survival skills they’ll need for release back into the jungle. He also accompanies researchers deep into a remote and protected peat swamp forest to study wild orangutans up close to learn about their culture and behavior.
Multi award winning. Set in Indonesia. Meet Green, an orangutan and victim of human impact. Follow the devastating journey as her home is destroyed by logging, clearing for palm oil plantations, and the choking haze of rainforest fires. Hauntingly poetic and without narration, the film creatively depicts the effects of consumerism on tropical rainforests as we are faced with our personal accountability in the loss of the world's rainforests http://sco.lt/6IIb0T
All Things Considered, March 11, 2015 ▶ AS PALM OIL FARMS EXPANDS, IT'S A RACE TO SAVE INDONESIA'S ORANGUTANS http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2015/03/11/392292008/as-palm-oil-farms-expand-its-a-race-to-save-indonesias-orangutans
An eight-part program with our Special Correspondent Philippe Cousteau who explores the Sumatran rainforest and its animal sanctuaries. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/environment/
---- WATCH ----
INDIGENOUS AND THEIR FORESTS DESTROYED IN SARAWAK,
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS: DEFORESTATION, OCEANS, AGRICULTUREhttp://sco.lt/8fK5
AND ANOTHER GREAT WATCH
"EARTH - A NEW WILD"
Four-Part Series - PBS Nature Take a new look at humankind’s relationship with the wildest places on Earth. Dr. M. Sanjayan, takes viewers on a stunning visual journey to explore how humans are woven into every aspect of Earth’s natural systems. The series features footage from the most striking places on Earth and encounters between wild animals and the people who live and work with them. http://www.pbs.org/earth-a-new-wild/home/
pdjmoo's insight:
YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY NEWS AGGREGATES @pdjmoo
To get content containing either thought or leadership enter:
To get content containing both thought and leadership enter:
To get content containing the expression thought leadership enter:
You can enter several keywords and you can refine them whenever you want. Our suggestion engine uses more signals but entering a few keywords here will rapidly give you great content to curate.
Your new post is loading...
YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOW MY NEWS AGGREGATE @pdjmoo
▶ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY http://www.scoop.it/t/environmental-and-human-health
▶ CLIMATE CHANGE WILL IMPACT US ALL http://www.scoop.it/t/changingplanet
▶ BIODIVERSITY IS LIFE http://www.scoop.it/t/biodiversity-is-life
▶ OUR OCEANS NEED US http://www.scoop.it/t/our-oceans-need-us
▶ OUR FOOD, OUR HEALTH http://www.scoop.it/t/agriculture-gmos-pesticides