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
NATURE, International Journey of Science
#BIODIVERSITY The tremendous diversity of life on Earth — a result of more than three billion years of evolutionary history — is facing an uncertain future. This Insight looks at how this biodiversity came to be, how it supports the goods and ecosystem services on which we depend and how it is being put to the test by the rapidly expanding human population. Crucially, strategies to safeguard this diversity are explored.
True environmentalism is not about making our rapacious and destructive industrialism a little more sustainable, writes Derrick Jensen, but transforming humankind's relationship with Earth and the life she sustains - for us to take our true place within, and as part of, the living biosphere... http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2751996/reclaim_environmentalism.html
- ▶ BIODIVERSITY IS VITAL TO MAINTAINING ECOSYSTEM AND HUMAN HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/5gy5Q1
EarthBlog, Glen Barry, August 04, 2014 -▶ NEW SCIENCE SUGGESTS MORE LAND-BASED ECOSYSTEMS LOST THAN BIOSPHERE CAN BEAR. New science finds that two-thirds of Earth’s land-based ecosystems must be protected to sustain the biosphere long-term. Yet about one-half of Earth’s natural ecosystems have already been lost. The scientific review article by Dr. Glen Barry – entitled “Terrestrial ecosystem loss and biosphere collapse” – was published today in the international journal “Management of Environmental Quality”.http://www.ecointernet.org/2014/08/04/biosphere_collapse/
IMPORTANT WATCH "A THOUSAND INVISIBLE CORDS"
University of Arizona 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 can be used to help save and restore natural ecosystems particularly in view of Climate Change evolutionary impacts. 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
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
A TED VIDEO Louie Schwartzberg: TED.com "HIDDEN MIRACLES OF THE NATURAL WORLD" We live in a world of unseeable beauty, so subtle and delicate that it is imperceptible to the human eye. To bring this invisible world to light, filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg bends the boundaries of time and space with high-speed cameras, time lapses and microscopes. http://www.ted.com/talks/louie_schwartzberg_hidden_miracles_of_the_natural_world
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS http://sco.lt/8fK5eT
SUMMARY TRANSCRIPT
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
Treehugger, February 26, 2015 - ▶ 'LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS" IS A MUST-READ FOR PARENTS AND EDUCATORS.Kids are developing more problems than ever (think obesity, technology addiction, adolescent depression, suicide, etc.), all of which Louv connects to nature deficit disorder. Spending more time outdoors could help resolve many of these issues, but this can happen only if kids are allowed greater access to nature. That’s where parents and policies come into play http://www.treehugger.com/culture/last-child-woods-must-read-all-parents-and-educators.html
Guardian, October 7, 2013 - ▶ REWILD THE CHILD by George Monbiot http://www.monbiot.com/2013/10/07/rewild-the-child/
- ▶ IF CHILDREN LOSE CONTACT WITH NATURE THEY WON'T FIGHT FOR IT. With half of their time spent at screens, the next generation will be poorly equipped to defend the natural world from harm...
... While the surveys show that the great majority would like to see the living planet protected, few are prepared to take action. This, I think, reflects a second environmental crisis: the removal of children from the natural world. The young people we might have expected to lead the defence of nature have less and less to do with it... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/19/children-lose-contact-with-nature
Two-toed baby sloth ‘Pelota’ in CostaRica will she make it? In Australia young kangaroo ‘Harry’ taught to socialize with his mates and Baby fruit bat ‘Bugsy’...
The Children & Nature Network was created to support people and organizations working worldwide to reconnect children with Naturehttps://www.childrenandnature.org/
When was the last time you actually stopped, and admired nature? Looked closely at an anthill, and watched them bring food to their nest... Observed the squirrels frolic and play in the trees, or even just paid mind to a bug walking by?
Today’s fast paced life has taken us so far out of our environment and detached us so far from reality, and we spend our days racing from one place to the next, not even giving our minds a chance to reconnect.
When we were kids, we ran through the woods, climbed trees, ate plants, caught bugs, we even dug holes and buried ourselves with dirt. We just let it all go and had fun.
Treehugger, March 18, 2015 - ▶ LET THE KIDS PLAY: NATURE CAN TAKE IT. Kids can be hard on a forest if left to run wild and free, but that's the best way to teach them to love nature. And kids' games will never be as destructive as what adults continue to do to the planet.http://www.treehugger.com/culture/let-kids-play-nature-can-take-it.html
Scholastic.com - ▶ WHY KIDS NEED NATURE. When a child is out in nature, all the senses get activated. He/She is immersed in something bigger than themselves, rather than focusing narrowly on one thing, such as a computer screen. They're seeing, hearing, touching, even tasting. Out in nature, a child's brain has the chance to rejuvenate, so the next time he has to focus and pay attention, perhaps in school, he'll do better.http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/parent-child/why-kids-need-nature
TribLIVE, August 02, 2014 - ▶ MORE PEOPLE AFRAID OF OUTDOORS - DISCONNECT WITH NATURE BLAMED.Once upon a time, children grew up playing outside: fishing the local creek, riding their bikes or building forts in the woods. But that's not the norm anymore...“You've kind of got a whole generation now that's isolated. They didn't grow up playing outside... http://triblive.com/sports/outdoors/6519595-74/outdoors-outside-baker
- ▶ ‘AGENTS OF NATURE' APP LAUNCHED FOR CHILDREN TO EXPLORE LOS ANGELES PARK . Agents of Nature gives youth the ability to learn about the plants, animals and sites they find while hiking through the park. It was developed by the non-profit Get to Know for kids to become “secret agents of nature” by getting outdoors and unlocking nature's mysteries...http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/09/15/agents-of-nature-app-launched-for-children-to-explore-griffith-park/
"A gripping story of the desperate struggle to lead our computer-crazed children back to nature." Harry Mount, The Daily Telegraph
WATCH (13.58) CAN "PROJECT WILD THING" FILM RECONNECT KIDS WITH NATURE? BBC Newsnight examines the documentary Project Wild Thing, which hopes to get children off computers and embracing nature, and whether it will succeed.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUMZL_cniCw
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SCHOOLS, EDUCATION, NATURE EXPOSURE
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VIDEO
PROJECT WILD THING
CONNECTING CHILDREN WITH NATURE
An interview with film producer David Bond talks about his exciting new film project, backed by the National Trust. Through Project Wild Thing, he's on a mission to reconnect children with nature. Find out more about Project Wild Thing athttp://www.projectwildthing.com/
documents innovative outdoor-education programs around the country created to help children understand and experience the wonders and joys of nature. The film explores the immediate and lasting benefits of introducing young children to "green" experiences. Natural spaces - in the form of gardens, small trails and outdoor "green adventure" areas - allow for the discoveries and choices vital to child development and learning. In addition, outdoor education can cultivate in children a permanent connection with the natural world - a crucial ethic of environmental responsibility. http://vimeo.com/channels/371945/30186232/77981721
-▶ CLASSROOMS THAT GROW FOOD. The SEED classroom is a place for children to learn and think about sustainability (SEED itself standing for Sustainable Education Every Day). Each 900 sq ft (84 sq m) building catches rainwater to be used in the sinks and basins, from which water is intercepted once again, and filtered through a "living wall" of edible plants. The classroom's energy is provided by rooftop solar powerhttp://www.gizmag.com/seed-classroom/27763/
BENEFITS OF SPENDING TIME IN NATURE - Video and Lessons Showing children how everything is connected reminds us all that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves!http://www.naturerocks.org/benefits/index.htm
Children In Nature Collaborative - ▶ LOOKING TOWARDS THAT MAGICAL MOMENT. A 69 percent decrease in time spent in outdoor activities and games on days off from school. These concerns and others related to children’s lack of connection to the natural world are part of a complex picture. Despite the extraordinary efforts of the movement, time spent outdoors by children across the globe continues to decline at an alarming ratehttp://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5098ae2bbd84a5038da2a0128&id=1766599b45&e=82fb31e8b3
Mother Nature Network, March 25, 2015 - ▶ EXPERIENCING NATURE MAKES US MORE LIKELY TO SAVE IT.A new study took a look at this relationship and found that we might have a kinder, gentler society if we all just spent a little more time outside.
Guardian, February 12, 2014 - ▶ TEN REASONS WHY WE NEED MORE CONTACT WITH NATURE. It improves your memory, helps you recuperate and even makes your sense of smell more acute. So turn off your computer and get outside
“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
The Independent, November 10, 2014
-▶ HUMANS ARE TURNING THE EARTH INTO A 'LONELY AND VERY DANGEROUS PLANET' ECOLOGIST WARNS
HuffPost Green, March 05, 2015 -▶ THIS IS WHAT HUMANITY'S IMPACT ON THE PLANET LOOKS LIKE. A new photo book from conservation experts aims to shine a light on humanity's impact on the planet and convince people to think about their contribution. Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot includes photos and essays exploring man's complicated relationship with the planet.
IN 40 YEARS WE HAVE DISAPPEARED HALF OF THE WORLD'S WILD ANIMALS http://sco.lt/8fK5eT
A GREAT WATCH
"EARTH - A NEW WILD"
Four-Part Series - PBS Nature Humans Are Part of Nature, Not Separate From It. 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/
True environmentalism is not about making our rapacious and destructive industrialism a little more sustainable, writes Derrick Jensen, but transforming humankind's relationship with Earth and the life she sustains - for us to take our true place within, and as part of, the living biosphere... http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2751996/reclaim_environmentalism.html
"We cannot continue to place our environment in danger. As long as we continue to put corporate profits ahead of the health and well-being of people and the environment, we have learned nothing."..Karen Graham, Digital Journal
University of Wisconsin-Madison, January 15, 2015 -▶ HUMANITY HAS EXCEEDED 4 of 9 'PLANETARY BOUNDARIES,' ACCORDING TO RESEARCHERS. An international team of researchers says climate change, the loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, and altered biogeochemical cycles like phosphorus and nitrogen runoff have all passed beyond levels that put humanity in a “safe operating space.”http://www.news.wisc.edu/23409
HuffPost Green, March 05, 2015 -▶ THIS IS WHAT HUMANITY'S IMPACT ON THE PLANET LOOKS LIKE. A new photo book from conservation experts aims to shine a light on humanity's impact on the planet and convince people to think about their contribution. Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot includes photos and essays exploring man's complicated relationship with the planet.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/05/human-impact-on-planet-photos_n_6784080.html
Mother Jones, January 16, 2016 -▶ WE'RE DESTROYING THE PLANET IN WAYS THAT ARE EVEN WORSE THAN GLOBAL WARMING.Humans are "eating away at our own life support systems" at a rate unseen in the past 10,000 years by degrading land and freshwater systems, emitting greenhouse gases and releasing vast amounts of agricultural chemicals into the environment, new research has found.http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/01/humans-destorying-planet-earth
TakePart, March 02, 2015 -▶ THE FORCE BEHIND SHRINKING SALMON, KILLER MICE, AND SILENT SONGBIRDS. Well-documented shifts in animal traits in response to urbanization: Pacific salmon in rivers are getting smaller, for instance, and some songbirds are changing their mating songs to find each other amid a city’s noise. That could mean that animals like endangered Southern Resident killer whales that depend on salmon for food will have to hunt harder and longer to get the same amount of calories, hurting their chances for survival.http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/03/02/urbanization-speeding-evolution-ecosystem-services-risks
RECLAIM ENVIRONMENTALISM
The Ecologist, February 13, 2015
True environmentalism is not about making our rapacious and destructive industrialism a little more sustainable, writes Derrick Jensen, but transforming humankind's relationship with Earth and the life she sustains - for us to take our true place within, and as part of, the living biosphere... http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2751996/reclaim_environmentalism.html
-▶ HEALING THE EARTH: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND CLIMATE CHANGE http://sco.lt/9HQq37
▶ AT THE LIMITS OF THE MARKET: WHY CAPITALISM HASN'T AND CAN'T SOLVE CLIMATE CHANGEhttp://sco.lt/84Vywz
-▶ BIODIVERSITY AND SUSTAINABILITY ARE CLOSELY LINKED TO SURVIVAL OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE.
An unprecedented study published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Loss of global biological and cultural diversity paints a dire picture of the state and future of our species. The world’s animal and plant species are disappearing 1,000 times faster than ever in recorded history. Some areas of the world have lost 60 percent of their languages since the mid-1970’s, and 90 percent of the world’s languages are expected to vanish by the year 2099. Life, in general, has suffered horribly from the runaway spread of European values and the notions of progress that began with the Industrial Revolution. A sharp bit of mathematics finally brings forth the maps that expose the poverty of the world’s major carbon emitters and the wealth that remains in those parts of the world where the indigenous are making their final stand....
A DISASTER -▶ BRAZIL: NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT Jair Bolsonaro THREATENS INDIGENOUS GENOCIDE - OPENLY
"Minorities have to adapt to the majority, or simply disappear," he said on the campaign trail, adding that under his administration, "not one square centimeter" of Brazil will be reserved for the country's indigenous peoples"
-▶ BRAZIL: BOLSONARO'S ELECTION IS CATASTROPHIC NEWS FOR BRAZIL'S INDIGENOUS TRIBES
Bolsonaro thinks “Indians smell, are uneducated and don’t speak our language”, and that “the recognition of indigenous land is an obstacle to agribusiness”. He declares that he will reduce or abolish Amazonian indigenous reserves and has vowed on several occasions: “If I become president, there will not be one centimetre more of indigenous land.” He recently corrected himself, declaring that he meant not one millimetre.
-▶ INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY: WHAT CAN BE DONE TO SAVE DYING LANGUAGES? The massacre of tribal peoples and colonial thinki9ng lead to loss of identity, says Survival International researcher via @AJEnglish
What do we lose when a language dies? What does it take to save a language?
Winner of the Grand Festival Award for Documentary
at the 23rd Annual Berkeley Video and Film Festival 2014
"Language Matters" asks what we lose when languages die and how we can save them. It was filmed around the world: on a remote island off the coast of Australia, where 400 Aboriginal people speak 10 different languages, all at risk; in Wales, where Welsh, once in danger, is today making a comeback; and in Hawaii, where a group of Hawaiian activists is fighting to save the native tongue.
There are over 6000 languages in the whole world. We lose one every two weeks. Hundreds will be lost within the next generation. By the end of this century, half of the world’s languages will have vanished.
Intercontinental Cry Magazine, April 19, 2014 RESISTING 'THE FOREIGN TENTACLE' The story of the last of the Kuna people, and their struggle to maintain its culture in a quickly developing country.http://intercontinentalcry.org/resisting-foreign-tentacle/
-▶ WEST PAPUA : 226 THOUSAND HECTARES OF VIRGIN FORESTS TO BE RAZED FOR CORPORATE PALM OIL, DESTROYING ALL LIFE AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/67I9ZJ
Guardian, December 30, 2014, John Vidal ▶ 'PEOPLE IN THE WEST LIVE SQUEEZED TOGETHER, FRENZIED AS WASPS IN THE NEST'An indigenous Yanomami leader and shaman from Brazil shares his views on wealth, the environment and politics
HuffPost Arts and Culture, February 18, 2015 ▶PHOTOS OF MONGOLIA'S DESERTIFICATION REVEAL SHOCKING EFFECTS OF CHANGING CLIMATE. To this day, at least 25% of Mongolia's population lives a nomadic life, and in doing so, they remain fiercely dependent on open land for survival. However, due to the fluctuation in climate in recent years, changes to the landscape have rendered this lifestyle difficult, if not impossible, to maintain. Over the course of the past 30 years, approximately a quarter of the country has turned to desert, with around 850 lakes and 2,000 rivers having dried out. If this pattern persists, the Mongolian tradition that's existed for thousands of years will become extinct.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/10/daesung-lee_n_6648868.html
▶ NICARAGUA'S MAYAGNA PEOPLE AND THEIR RAINFOREST COULD VANISH – More than 30,000 members of the Mayagna indigenous community are in danger of disappearing, along with the rainforest which is their home in Nicaragua, if the state fails to take immediate action to curb the destruction of the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve, the largest forest reserve in Central America and the third-largest in the world. http://intercontinentalcry.org/nicaraguas-mayagna-people-rainforest-vanish-24439/
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 collapse http://www.ecointernet.org/2014/08/04/biosphere_collapse/
THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM.
DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE, INDIGENOUS LAND AND LIVELIHOODS IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH"
▶ 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://sco.lt/9EV0jZ
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
LOCAL TRIBES UNDER THREAT FROM FOREIGN LAND GRAB "INVESTMENTS"http://sco.lt/7anisL
▶ AMAZON RAINFORESTS: DEFORESTATION, MINING RISES AGAIN IN BRAZIL'S AMAZON IMPACTING ECOSYSTEMS, CLIMATE, DEVASTATING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/9FG1Lt
-▶ MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/8nJQf3
VIDEO
FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/4l725B
- ▶ NO TO BIODIVERSITY OFFSETTING: CONSERVING OUR BIODIVERSITY IS BECOMING DEPENDENT ON IT'S DESTRUCTIONhttp://sco.lt/6ZjXGr
-▶ OUR INDUSTRIAL, WESTERN AGRICULTURAL FOOD SYSTEM IS DESTROYING THE EARTH, OUR CULTURES AND OUR HEALTHhttp://sco.lt/686Qi1
▶ KEEPING NATURE IN OUR FUTURE: HEALTHY ECOSYSTEMS ESSENTIAL FOR PLANETARY SURVIVALhttp://sco.lt/99SfhJ
-▶ ECO-SPIRITUALITY: TOWARDS A VALUES-BASED ECONOMIC STRUCTUREhttp://sco.lt/7tcgQj
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/
In this scoop i noticed many key points including, acculturation, placelessness, loss of language, and groups of indigenous people. We can see the acculturation since through the years languages, animal species and traditions have started disappearing 1000 times faster.Soon 90% of all languages will be gone. This will lead to loss of uniqueness and inevitably placelessness among the world. The reason why languages are being lost is because these indigenous people want to take the opportunity to get a higher level education and end up leaving their homes. Also they could be out on reserves and are confined to a certain area with many restrictions. If we continue this pattern we will lose the diverse groups in the world.
This scoop explains the rate at which the worlds languages are disappearing and how many languages have been lost. It compares the languages of the world to endangered species, being found in less and less areas.
Ending deforestation is our best chance to conserve wildlife and defend the rights of forest communities. On top of that, it’s one of the quickest and most cost effective ways to curb global warming. That’s why we’re campaigning for a deforestation-free future.
More than 7.5 billion humans currently occupy Earth together with an estimated three trillion trees, and both of these populations require water. The growing human population and climate change are exacerbating a looming global water crisis that could potentially be averted, if humans paid more attention to the links between forests and water.
An inviting perch turns out to be a deadly trap for two warblers. With feet and wings stuck to “lime sticks,” the songbirds cannot escape. Poachers placed these decoy shrubs along a highway near the Mediterranean
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November 30, 2019, The Guardian
-▶ SLAUGHTER OF THE SONGBIRDS: THE FIGHT AGAINST FRANCE'S 'BARBARIC' GLUE TRAPS
French hunters kill an estimated 17 million birds every year – more than any other country – from 64 species.
-▶ MIGRATING BIRDS COLLATERAL DAMAGE WITH POPULAR PESTICIDE
Neonicotinoids may be partly responsible for major declines in songbird populations.
The study examined the effects of imidacloprid, part of a class of neurological toxins called neonicotinoids used to target insect pests in farm fields
-▶ 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 this year.
PHOTO GALLERY - National Geographic MEDITERRANEAN SONGBIRD MASSACRE Across the Mediterranean, millions are killed for food, profit, and cruel amusement.
-▶ MASSIVE BIRD SLAUGHTER AROUND THE MEDITERRANEAN
Each year, millions of songbirds are killed for food, for profit or just for the joy of shooting something, as they move from their winter grounds in AFRICA to their summer breeding territories in Europe.
In EGYPT, hundreds of miles of nets cover the entire coastline, catching almost every bird that makes its way to shore from across the Mediterranean Sea. In ALBANIA, hunters set up dozens of hunting blinds inside wildlife refuges while officials turn a blind eye.
In CYPRUS, trees are outfitted with glue-covered lime sticks that catch birds like flies on flypaper as they attempt to land, breaking wings as the birds struggle to free themselves. The problem is widespread and growing as new methods and technology increase the deadly toll of the annual slaughter....http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/massive-bird-slaughter-around-the-mediterranean-shocking-photos/
Yale Environment 360, October 23, 2014 -▶ ALBANIA'S COASTAL WETLANDS: KILLING FIELD FOR MILLIONS OF MIGRATING BIRDS.
Millions of birds migrating between Africa and Europe are being illegally hunted on the Balkan Peninsula, with the most egregious poaching occurring in Albania.
Conservationists and the European Commission are calling for an end to the carnage.
Each spring, hundreds of thousands of migrating waterbirds flock northward from Africa across the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. In search of food, they alight briefly on Albania’s Buna Delta — one of the largest remaining wetlands in all of the Balkan Peninsula. The delta is also one of the most notorious killing grounds for migrating birds in all of Europe.http://e360.yale.edu/feature/poachers_in_albanias_wetlands_decimate_migrating_waterbirds/2819/
Green Prophet, October 18, 2014 -▶ PICKLED SONGBIRDS FOR A SONG:
If you think migratory birds are in trouble as they pass over just Lebanon, think again. In Cyprus song birds are hunted down by the millions every year for a pickled dish, and the images coming out of Cairo are just as gruesome...
There is no fighting chance for migratory birds when they fly over Lebanon: Hunting laws may be in place in the Middle East, but who’s enforcing them? From storks and pelicans to hoopoes to eagles to migratory songbirds… see the images of the bloodbath in Lebanon during this year’s hunting season. And these images are only from the jerks who posted their kill on social media networks. http://www.greenprophet.com/2014/10/europeans-try-to-save-storks-then-this-happens-over-lebanon-warning-graphic-images/
Guardian Environment, March 09, 2015 -▶ NEARLY ONE MILLION BIRDS WERE KILLED ON BRITISH MILITARY BASE IN CYPRUS
Poachers took 15,000 birds every day for two months last autumn on Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area as conservationists warn killing is at unprecedented levels
-▶ EMPTYING AFGHAN SKIES: MIGRATING BIRDS SLAUGHTERED BY AFGHAN HUNTERS
Untold numbers of migratory birds are being caught and killed every year in Afghanistan, helping drive species like the Siberian Crane to the verge of extinction.
-▶ JAPANESE PIGEON MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING IN CANADA Imagine going more than 4,000 miles in the wrong direction. You’d end up in the wrong town. On the wrong island. And in the wrong country. That’s what happened to a racing pigeon from Japan who took off in Sapporo, Japan, and came in for landing way off course — in a Canadian town in British Columbiahttps://www.pri.org/stories/2013-07-01/japanese-pigeon-makes-emergency-landing-canada
France24, March 17, 2014 -▶ HUNTERS SWEAR OFF KILLING IN BID TO PRESERVE IRANIAN WILDLIFE. "Hunting is out of control, and it’s destroying our wildlife. That’s why I and other hunters decided to set an example by taking an oath to stop killing all animals. We hope that this will make a dent in the problem, but the most effective solution would be for the government to revoke the huge number of gun licenses it has issued in recent years." http://observers.france24.com/content/20140317-iranian-hunters-rifles-protect-species
A GREAT SILENCE IS SPREADING OVER THE NATURAL WORLD
This film investigates the parallel stories of collapsing Pacific salmon populations and how biologists and engineers have become instruments in audacious experiments to replicate every stage of the fish’s life cycle. Each of our desperate efforts to save salmon has involved replacing their natural cycle of reproduction and death with a radically manipulated life history. Our once great runs of salmon are now conceived in laboratories, raised in tanks, driven in trucks, and farmed in pens. Here we go beyond the ongoing debate over how to save an endangered species. In its exposure of a wildly creative, hopelessly complex, and stunningly expensive approach to managing salmon, the film reveals one of the most ambitious plans ever conceived for taking the reins of the planet. Watch the full episode..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZrFT_pBHg4
OnEarth, February 16, 2015 -▶ BEAVERS ARE BUSY SAVING CALIFORNIA'S SALMON POPULATIONS. Only 5 percent of the Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon survived this year, according to a recent report from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Beavers Are Saving The Water table in Drought-stricken Californiahttp://www.onearth.org/earthwire/beavers-save-california-salmon
Summit County Citizens Voice, February 09, 2015 -▶ CLIMATE: GROWING VARIABILITY OF STREAM FLOW THREATENS CHINOOK SALMON SPAWNING IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST
New York Times, January 25, 2012 -▶ RUNAWAY GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON STIR CONSERVATION WORRIES.The disappearance of 300,000 farmed Scottish salmon from their cages in a storm has left many wondering whether they will breed with wild ones and upset the gene pool
“FATALLY FLAWED' FDA ASSESSMENT TO UNLEASH GENETICALLY ENGINEERED SALMON ONTO YOUR DINNER PLATE: NO REGULATION. NO OVERSIGHT. NO LABELINGhttp://sco.lt/67gold
IS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FARMED SALMON SAFE AND ETHICAL?
Summit Voice, November 26, 2014 -▶ IDAHO'S SOCKEYE SALMON ESCAPE THE 'EXTINCTION VORTEX'' A real American endangered species success story. After nearly disappearing in swirl of an “extinction vortex,” Snake River sockeye salmon are back and regaining the fitness of their wild ancestorshttp://summitcountyvoice.com/2014/11/26/idahos-sockeye-salmon-escape-the-extinction-vortex/
VIDEO
Mongabay, Jan 7, 2013
FISH UNABLE TO PASS THROUGH DAMS IN U.S. PRESENTS 'CAUTIONARY TALE' FOR DEVELOPING WORLD
Dams create a largely impenetrable barrier for fish even when the dams were installed with specially-built passages, according to a new study in Conservation Letters...The result has been a decimation of U.S. fisheries, food production, and wildlife across the river systems. "Once these rivers supported tens of millions of pounds of biomass of these species and provided valuable protein to a growing nation," noted another co-author, Karin Limburg, with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Dams create a largely impenetrable barrier for fish even when the dams were installed with specially-built passages, according to a new study in Conservation Letters...The result has been a decimation of U.S. fisheries, food production, and wildlife across the river systems. "Once these rivers supported tens of millions of pounds of biomass of these species and provided valuable protein to a growing nation," noted another co-author, Karin Limburg, with the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
International Rivers THE STATE OF THE WORLD'S RIVERS 2014 - INTERACTIVE
Already, over 50,000 large dams
have degraded more than two-thirds of the world’s. 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.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/
WATCH
April 22, 2013 - International Rivers "DAMOCRACY THE MOVIE"
-▶ ICELAND DAM PROJECT PLAYS DICE WITH NATURE, AND LOSES
Since the controversial Karahnjukar dam in East Iceland was brought into operation in 2006, conditions in the downstream Lagarfljot lake have become much worse, according to information gathered...
The salmon stock has virtually disappeared and the trout population has decreased by 80 percent. The colour of the lake has changed and become much darker due to all the sediment and suspended sediment emanating from the glacial river that now runs into the lake. The capacity for photosynthesis by algae and other plants has decreased as so little light penetrates due to the sediments in the lake. And the plant biota as a whole has declined.
PETITION · Stand with us and support removing the four lower Snake River dams to save the Southern Resident Killer Whales from being dammed to extinction. · Change.org
Has water replaced oil as the word’s scarcest resource? By 2030, 47% of the world’s population will be living in areas of high scarcity. In Yemen, the situation is already verging on catastrophic and is low on the government agenda. It has long been contentious between Israelis and Palestinians, and with little cooperation on the issue; there is no solution in sight. Whether it’s due to issues of natural or politically created scarcity, will future wars be fought over water? http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201304250019-0022703
The New York Times, October 14, 2014 - ▶ THE RISKS OF CHEAP WATER.This summer, California’s water authority declared that wasting water — hosing a sidewalk, for example — was a crime. Next door, in Nevada, Las Vegas has paid out $200 million over the last decade for homes and businesses to pull out their lawns... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/15/business/economy/the-price-of-water-is-too-low.html?_r=0
MAKE YOUR MONEY AND RUN :- FOREIGN MINING SAPS A THIRSTY GOBI DESERT - The Oyu Tolgoi largest copper-gold mine in the world operating in the southern Gobi desert in Mongolia has become a symbol of a looming crisis: a limited water supply that could be exhausted within a decade, seriously threatening the lives and livelihoods of the local population. http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/11/mining-saps-a-thirsty-desert/
HuffPost Impact, July 22, 2014 - ▶ ARMED BANDITS DEMAND WATER IN DRY NORTHERN INDIA. LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Armed bandits in drought-stricken northern India are threatening to kill hundreds of villagers unless they deliver 35 buckets of water each day to the outlaws in their rural hideouts.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/22/armed-bandits-water_n_5609652.html
Synopsis: Water Pressures helped create a game-changer in the global water crisis, building and documenting a collaboration between villagers in the water-distressed Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India and students at Northwestern University, in Evanston, IL,
- ▶ WHY KANSAS IS RUNNING OUT OF WATER. If you eat corn or wheat in the United States, there's a good chance it was grown with the help of paleowater left over from the last ice age when glaciers covered the Great Plains.And as neat and healthy as that sounds -- paleowater! -- this is not good news. The Ogallal Aquifer is one of the largest aquifers in the world, running beneath parts of eight states in the central US. And it is this giant, ancient aquifer that is being sucked dry faster than rain can keep up. Put another way, we've nearly used up a million-year-old source of water in the 100 or so years we've been tapping into it for irrigation. http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-agriculture/why-kansas-running-out-water-ogallala-aquifer.html
- ▶ MASSIVE DESERTIFICATION, EPIDEMIC ILLNESSES COMING WITH GLOBAL WARMING, THREATENING CIVILIZATIONhttp://sco.lt/7nU397
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Resources
WATER POLITICS BLOG Tracking geopolitical water issues before they boil over into political unrest or interstate competition http://www.waterpolitics.com/blog/
The planet has plenty of water to go around (except in places with limited ground water). Producing more clean water should be mostly the same as cleaning our dirty water. And doing that mostly requires clean energy.
Few places on earth harbor as much biodiversity as the Yasuni Biosphere Reserve, a 6,500-square-mile territory in eastern Ecuador where the Amazon basin ascends into the Andes Mountains. But Yasuni also sits atop vast reserves of oil, and this rainforest wilderness, home to the indigenous Waorani people, faces intense development pressure.
-▶ ECUADOR'S YASUNI BAIT AND SWITCH. Yasuní is a UNESCO Man and Biosphere reserve widely considered to hold the most biodiversity per acre on Earth. It is also home to the Waorani indigenous people, as well as two clans that are living in voluntary isolation. https://amazonwatch.org/news/2018/1206-ecuadors-yasuni-bait-and-switch
VIDEO 4:28
National Geographic
AMAZON ADVENTURE - DOCUMENTING LIFE IN ECUADOR'S YASUNI NATIONAL PARK
Inhabitat, July 03, 2014 -▶ PERU APPROVES LARGE GAS PROJECT THAT COULD WIPE OUT UNCONTACTED TRIBES.A controversial gas project recently approved by the Peruvian government has the potential to wipe out a group of uncontacted tribes who live in the area. Earth First Journal reports that Peru’s Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for protecting the country’s indigenous people, has approved a plan by three foreign oil and gas companies to do oil exploration on land just 100km from Machu Picchu, where 15 uncontacted tribes live in isolated regions of the Amazon Rainforest http://inhabitat.com/peru-approves-large-gas-project-that-could-wipe-out-uncontacted-tribes/
Gristmill, John Upton, September 23, 2013 -▶ CHEVRON SCORES LEGAL AND PR VICTORIES IN ECUADOR POLLUTION CASE. Between 1964 and 1990, Texaco drilled for oil in the Ecuadorian Amazon and left an outrageous mess, dumping 18.5 billion gallons of toxic sludge and wastewater into local waterways. Chevron, which acquired Texaco in 2001, was ordered by an Ecuadorian judge in 2011 to pay $19 billion for the damage. Chevron said, to paraphrase, “Eff you,” and has been fighting the judgment ever since. It’s little wonder, then, that Ecuador’s president is calling for a boycott of Chevron. In launching the “Chevron’s Dirty Hand” campaign last week http://grist.org/news/chevron-scores-legal-and-pr-victories-in-ecuador-pollution-case/
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 High Price of The Oil Industry's Destruction of Equador's Indigenous Communities and Environment. Shot over six years, Oil & Water is the true story of two boys coming of age in the middle of one of the world’s worst toxic disasters. Hugo fights for the survival of his Equador Amazonian tribe, while David attempts to revolutionize the oil industry. http://www.itvs.org/films/oil-and-water
World News Daily Report, December 10, 2014 ▶ LOGGERS "ACCIDENTALLY" CUT DOWN WORLD'S OLDEST TREE IN AMAZON FOREST.There are large portions of this national reserve that are rich in oil and natural gas. There has been committed action by energy corporations to lobby the government to exploit the area for years. http://worldnewsdailyreport.com/loggers-accidentally-cut-down-worlds-oldest-tree-in-amazon/
-▶ AMAZON RAINFOREST: DEFORESTATION, MINING RISES AGAIN IN BRAZIL'S AMAZON IMPACTING ECOSYSTEMS, CLIMATE, DEVASTATING INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/9FG1Lt
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YASUNI
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--- WATCH --
August 16, 2013 PBS Newshour OIL CORPORATION PLUNDER *** ECUADOR EXPOSES YASUNI RAINFOREST AND IT'S INHABITANTS TO MASSIVE OIL EXTRACTION Thousands of species of plant and wildlife call Ecuador's Yasuni National Park home, but it is believed that beneath the lush floor lies $7.2 billion of oil. Drilling could threaten the rain forest's biodiversity and indigenous populations. Some scientists argue a balance could be found. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec13/ecuador_08-16.html
August 28, 2013 Living on Earth: -▶ OIL OR TREES: Yasuni National Park in Ecuador is home to more species of plants and animals than all of the US and Canada combined. Below the park are billions of gallons of oil. In 2007 President Correa offered to keep the oil in the ground if the international community compensated Ecuador for some of the loss of money it could have made from oil concessions. BUT ...http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=13-P13-00035&segmentID=4
Guardian Environment, February 19, 2014 -▶ ECUADOR PURSUED CHINA OIL DEAL WHILE PLEDGING TO PROTECT YASUNI, PAPERS SHOWThe Ecuadorian government was negotiating a secret $1bn deal with a Chinese bank to drill for oil under the Yasuni national park in the Amazon while pursuing a high-profile scheme to keep the oil under the ground in return for international donations, according to a government document seen by the Guardian.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/19/ecuador-oil-china-yasuni
VIOLENCE, ILLEGAL LOGGING DRIVES UNCONTACTED TRIBES IN BRAZIL OUT OF RAINFORESTShttp://sco.lt/56ArZJ
▶ WORLD BANK AND UN CARBON OFFSET SCHEME 'COMPLICIT' IN GENOCIDAL LAND GRABShttp://sco.lt/5IxW2j
One World News, December 9, 2013 -▶ INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE VITAL FOR BIODIVERSITY, SAY EXPERTS. With species disappearing up to 1,000 times faster than the natural extinction rate, biodiversity experts say knowledge co-production with indigenous peoples has growing importance. http://oneworld.org/2013/12/05/indigenous-knowledge-vital-for-biodiversity-say-experts/
-▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING ECOSYSTEMS, INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCE AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/9KW9wn
VIDEO Ecowatch, January 29, 2014 FRACKING THE LAND OF LINCOLN:
A disturbing new video of poisoned water, leaking oil rigs, and lax enforcement at Illinois oil wells highlights why proposed fracking regulation won’t protect the state’s environment or people. http://ecowatch.com/2014/01/29/video-fracking-land-of-lincoln/
-▶ AN ENVIRONMENTAL & HUMAN HEALTH NIGHTMARE: Marcellus Energy Fracking Development Could Pave Over An Area of 1.3 million acres of land, impacting 1.1 million acres of forests, ecosystems, biodiversity and drinking water for 22 million peoplehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/25/natural-gas-marcellus_n_4855927.html
-▶ THE SHALE GAS REVOLUTION - FROM FRACK TO RICHES - AN ENVIRONMENTAL NIGHTMARE.Despite all the hopes of sun and wind enthusiasts, the real revolution in the energy world has been driven by old-style fossil fuels. Shale gas now dominates global energy policy... http://theeuropean-magazine.com/522-casertano-stefano/871-the-shale-gas-revolution
Oil Change International, December 15, 2014 -▶FRACKING: NOW THEY WANT YOU TO PAY FOR THEIR POLLUTION : Not content with polluting our air and water and causing immeasurable harm to both the environment and health, the fracking industry has now come up with a novel idea: the consumer should pay for the polluting process as well. we are not talking small change here. We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars per year.http://priceofoil.org/2014/12/15/fracking-now-want-pay/
HuffPost Green, February 21, 2015 -▶ FRACKING INDUSTRY DISTORTS SCIENCE TO DECEIVE PUBLIC AND POLICYMAKERS, SAYS WATCHDOG GROUP.The oil and gas industry sponsors and spins research to shape the scientific debate over horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. That's the conclusion of a watchdog group's analysis of more than 130 documents distributed to policymakers by industry representatives. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/21/fracking-research-deceive_n_6724162.html
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USA "NATURAL" GAS LNG EXPORTS - FRIEND OR FOE?
FOSSIL FUEL LEAVES A POLLUTION CESSPOOL FOR U.S. TAXPAYERS
Grist, January 10, 2015 ▶ HOW MUCH FRACKING IS HAPPENING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO?An increasingly common practice that hasn’t yet sparked the same public debate that fracking on land has. Will fracking in the Gulf of Mexico lead to the next Deepwater Horizon?http://grist.org/news/how-much-fracking-is-happening-in-the-gulf-of-mexico/
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.
What started as a short YouTube video and a couple of local news interviews about a Texas landowner being able to light his water on fire has ballooned into a free speech fight.Steve Lipsky has complained for years that fracking company Range Resources polluted his drinking water and streams that run through his property. The company sued him in 2011 for defaming its reputation for "environmental stewardship".
The Times-Tribune, July 19, 2014 - ▶ PENNSYLVANIA STATE FAIL TO PROTECT FRACKING LEASEHOLDERS. Given the determination of the state government’s top Republicans to shield the natural gas industry from fair taxation and aggressive regulation, you’d think they also would aggressively try to protect the interests of state residents who benefit directly from gas extraction. http://thetimes-tribune.com/opinion/state-fails-to-protect-leaseholders-1.1721400
Grist, January 29, 2014 -▶ POOR COWS: HARVESTING METHANE BY PUNCTURING COW'S STOMACHSArgentinian scientists are punching holes in the sides of cattle and passing pipes through to their stomachs. The other end of the pipe goes into a bag fitted on the cow’s back. The captured gas, which is basically the same natural gas that frackers and other drillers mine out of the ground, can be burned to produce energy. That releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere instead of the methane, which is a far more potent greenhouse gas.http://grist.org/news/we-can-harvest-methane-from-cow-guts-should-we/
-▶ QUESTIONING KEY CONCLUSIONS OF FAO PUBLICATIONS: "LIVESTOCK'S LONG SHADOW (2006) AND "TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE THROUGH LIVESTOCK (2013 The mentioned publications highly overstate livestock contribution to climate change in its extent and impact. It is not acknowledged that there is virtually no livestock signal discernible in global methane distribution and historical methane emission rates.http://www.pastoralismjournal.com/content/4/1/1
-▶ MIND THE FRACKING DATA GAP, STUDY SAYS. Scientists have long expressed concern about how a lack of data and access to drilling sites prevents a complete scientific assessment of how hydraulic fracturing and oil and gas production affect the climate, environment and public health.
Shale oil and gas production, which is expanding rapidly across much of the central U.S., is likely to be a driver of climate change, not only because burning petroleum products produced there emits vast amounts of carbon dioxide, but because natural gas production and distribution systems are likely to leak methane, a gas about 35 times more potent than carbon as a greenhouse gas...http://www.climatecentral.org/news/study-highlights-lack-of-fracking-research-data-17251
Chesapeake executed an adroit escape, raising nearly $5 billion with a previously undisclosed twist: By gouging many rural landowners out of royalty payments they were supposed to receive in exchange for allowing the company to drill for natural gas on their property.http://www.propublica.org/article/chesapeake-energys-5-billion-shuffle
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, October 06, 2014 -▶ WORLD HAS LOST NEARLY THREE QUARTERS OF ITS WETLANDS IN LAST CENTURY- STUDY"The evidence that comes out is the twentieth century we were destroying wetlands almost four times as fast as beforehand with the conversion to agriculture and crop production."http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-06/nrn-world-wetland-loss/5793302
-▶ POP-UP WETLANDS HELP CALIFORNIA FARMERS AND SAVE MIGRATORY BIRDS.Millions of birds migrate along the Pacific Flyway each year, traveling along an aerial highway that stretches from Mexico up to the Arctic. Although birds cover impressive distances along the way, they still need places to rest. California was once home to an estimated 4 million acres of wetlands in the pre-settlement 1800s. But today, 90 to 95 percent of that habitat has disappeared.
In seasons of drought, like the one we’ve experienced in the past year, the lack of wetlands can be devastating to bird populations. However a new program in California’s Central Valley is temporarily using farmland to create “pop-up” wetlands, which serve as rest stops for traveling birds.
Nature Conservancy, August 06, 2014 ▶ “POP-UP" WETLANDS: Each fall and winter, California’s Central Valley supports millions of birds stopping to rest and feed during their long migration from Canada and Alaska to Mexico and back again. With 95% of the valley’s historic wetlands converted to cities as well as rice, corn, alfalfa and other forms of agriculture, migratory birds traveling along this Pacific Flyway face a major habitat deficit each winter. Enter 'Pop-Up' Wetlandshttp://blog.nature.org/science/2014/08/06/birds-birdreturns-innovative-lands-conservation-science/
Summit County Citizens Voice, February 26, 2015 ▶ INDUSTRIAL FERTILIZER RUNOFF IS LITERALLY CHOCKING SOME LAKES TO DEATH RISKING HUMAN EXPOSURE TO DANGEROUS TOXINS The immoderate use of fertilizers in the last half century is literally choking some lakes to death and raises the risk of human exposure to dangerous toxins, scientists said after studying the proliferation of blue-green algae. http://summitcountyvoice.com/2015/02/26/scientists-document-the-rise-of-blue-green-algae-in-lakes-around-the-world/
-▶ THE CURSE OF INDUSTRIAL FARM FERTILIZERS AND RUNOFF
United Nations Environment Programme, February 02, 2015 -▶ WETLANDS FOR OUR FUTURE.Latest research shows that 64% of wetlands worldwide have been lost since 1900, and that 76% of populations of freshwater plants and animals have disappeared in the last 40 years alone (according to the WWF's Living Planet report), which is worse than any other ecosystem. To combat the downward global trends in loss and degradation of wetlands, Ramsar works with governments and conservation organisations as well as bringing in private sector and scientific expertise.http://www.unep.org/newscentre/Default.aspx?DocumentID=2818&ArticleID=11129&l=en#sthash.ZtYYMade.dpuf
IUCN February 02, 2015 International Union for Conservation of Nature -▶ CELEBRATING THE WEALTH OF WETLANDS
BBC Future, March 13, 2013 "PANTANAL: LIQUID HEART OF SOUTH AMERICA"
In this film Rob Shore, head of WETLAND CONSERVATION at the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust, Michael Becker, conservation director at WWF-Brazil, environmental economist Pavan Sukhdev, and lead scientist with The Nature Conservancy Dr M Sanjayan reveal the richness of life supported by the Pantanal but also the contribution this great wetland makes to the life of people living far beyond its limits...http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130312-liquid-heart-of-south-america
WATCH QuestScience WETLANDS TIME MACHINE More than 100,000 acres of wetlands are being restored in the San Francisco Bay Area, but how exactly do we know what to restore them to? QUEST discovers how historical ecologists are recreating San Francisco Bay wetlands that existed decades ago. http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/wetlands-time-machine/
ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) December 12, 2014 ▶ OIL SPILL THREATENS RARE DOLPHINS IN BANGLADESH'S SUNDARBANS REGION, OFFICIALS WARN. Thousands of litres of oil spilled into the protected Sundarbans mangrove area, home to rare Irrawaddy and Ganges dolphins. Bangladeshi fishermen using sponges and sacks have begun cleaning up a huge oil spill in a protected area that is home to the world's largest mangrove foresthttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-12/catastrophic-oil-spill-in-bangladesh/5963450
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MANGROVES, REEFS, FOREST AND DUNES BEING OBLITERATED: DOUBLING COASTAL FLOOD IMPACT AND SPECIES EXTINCTIONhttp://sco.lt/6tnLLF
-▶ CHINESE CONTRACTED FOR NICARAGUA "PANAMA" SIZE CANAL WOULD WREAK ENVIRONMENTAL RUIN.
The excavation of hundreds of kilometres from coast to coast, traversing Lake Nicaragua, the largest drinking-water reservoir in the region, will destroy around 400,000 hectares of rainforests and wetlands.
The accompanying development could imperil surrounding ecosystems. Some 240 kilometres north of the most likely route of the canal lies the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve — 2 million hectares of tropical forest that is the last refuge of many disappearing species (see 'Nicaragua carve-up'). Less than 115 kilometres to the south is the Indio Maiz Biological Reserve, with more than 318,000 hectares of tropical dry forest. Worse still, the probable canal route cuts through the northern sector of the Cerro Silva Natural Reserve.... http://www.nature.com/news/conservation-nicaragua-canal-could-wreak-environmental-ruin-1.14721
-▶ WEB-OF-LIFE UNRAVELLING - Healthy Ecosystems Vital for All Planetary Lifehttp://sco.lt/7Obz0L
Environmental Protection, February 03, 2014
-▶ REPRIORITIZING WETLAND PROTECTION THROUGH SEQUENCING.Wetlands serve to protect, enhance, and maintain the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the aquatic ecosystem. They are crucial to the maintenance of safety and welfare for human health and all associated environmental componentshttp://eponline.com/articles/2014/02/03/reprioritizing-wetland-protection-through-sequencing.aspx
"CRANE COURTSHIP" Wetlands For Life, April 17, 2014 HISTORIC EASTER EGG LAID AT WWT SLIMBRIDGE WETLAND CENTERWWT. A pair of four-foot high Eurasian cranes has nested at WWT Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire, raising hopes they could rear the first successful chick hatched in the wild in the west of Britain since the 1600shttp://www.wwt.org.uk/news/news/2014/04/wwt-news/historic-easter-egg-laid-at-wwt-slimbridge-wetland-centre/
-▶ RESTORING RIVERS: THE LIFEBLOOD OF BOTH HUMAN AND ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/5tVYLB
WATCH
FROGS: THE THIN GREEN LINE - A WORLD WITHOUT FROGS
allAfrica, January 07, 2014 ▶ 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
https://youtu.be/qSV8pRLkdKI In this award-winning film that Jane Goodall wants millions to see, three former federal agents and a Congressman blow the whistle on Wildlife Services--a barbaric, wasteful and misnamed agency within the USDA most Americans have never heard of--and expose the government's secret war on wildlife on the taxpayer's dime. coyotes, foxes, bobcats, wolves, birds and other wild animals including Wild Horse Roundups for slaughter.
In fiscal year 2013 alone included 75,326 coyotes, 866 bobcats, 528 river otters, 3,700 foxes, 12,186 prairie dogs, 973 red-tailed hawks, 419 black bears and at least three eagles, golden and bald.
Commondreams, April 2020 � THE CARNAGE OF WOLF TRAPPERS IN IDAHO
Wolf trappers killed 813 #wolves, caught 620 non-target species of which 269 were released alive and 351 were killed. It’s likely that those released alive died from injuries—a horrible death #Wildlife #Hunting
In 2017 alone, the agency killed more than 1.3 million native, wild animals. Wonder why wildlife is disappearing? The government is killing cougars, bobcats, bears, wolves and coyotes to protect cows, pigs and chickens.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own reports, it has killed over 34 million animals in the last decade alone.
Most of those animals were native, wild animals. The rest were accidental killings of domesticated animals.
Few Americans realize that as taxpayers we help fund a program called “Wildlife Services,” a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. This ironically named program doesn’t serve wildlife. It wages a clandestine war on America’s wildlife. Every year, the Wildlife Services killing machine poisons, traps, and guns down millions of our nation’s most majestic animals—from imperiled swift foxes to bald eagles—at the request of a minority of ranching and agricultural interests.
Intelligencer, December 29, 2018 -▶ THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S WAR ON WILDLIFE SHOULD BE A SCANDAL The Trump administration’s policies are leading to wholesale destruction of certain birds and other wildlife. This fact has escaped most public notice amid the broader damage the Cabinet is causing to the environment. Among other measures, the regulatory agencies have been working to lift protections on endangered animals, open up vast animal habitats for drilling, encourage more trophy-hunting, and repress treatment standards for farm animals. http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/trumps-war-on-wildlife-should-be-a-scandal.html
A Humane Nation, March 24, 2017
▶ USDA USING POISON EXPLOSIVES TO KILL WILDLIFE AND PETS IN THE WEST
This rogue agency of the federal government slaughters millions of wild animals each year, using an arsenal of M-44s, aerial gunning, traps, and firearms. It does so much of this work at the expense of taxpayers, and it collects plenty of unintended victims.
-▶ THE HIDDEN WAR ON WILDLIFE: KILLING CONTESTS IN NORTH AMERICA
Each year thousands of coyotes, foxes, bobcats, wolves and other wild animals are killed in senseless “competitions” throughout North America. Those who kill the most and the largest animals win prizes including cash, guns, and belt buckles. These “tournaments,” or “derbies,” are often held on public lands. Children as young as ten are encouraged to participate, and social media pages show them posing with assault rifles beside the bodies of the animals they killed. These contests send a chilling message that killing is fun, wild animals are disposable, and life is cheap.
Gruesome social media VIDEOS show how far modern "hunting" has drifted from its roots.
Right now, as you read these words, it is perfectly legal in the state of Wyoming for a person to climb on the back of a snowmobile and chase down wild wolves, pursuing them until they drop from physical exhaustion. And, if that’s not enough, you can then run them over relentlessly with the machine, injuring them until they die.
—In fact, wolves, which were recently taken off the list of federally protected species and their management handed over to the state unconditionally in 2017, can be killed by virtually any means, any time of day, any day of the year, without limit, in most of Wyoming.
The Humane Society of the United States has released the results of an undercover investigation into the little-seen but widely criticized culture of wildlife killing contests in the U.S. The investigator visited contest locations in Macedon, New York, and Barnegat, New Jersey and documented contest participants slinging the dead bodies of coyotes and foxes into piles, joking about the methods used to lure and kill the animals, and celebrating at an award ceremony for the New York event.
In FY 2010, Wildlife Services admitted it killed 5 million animals (but its numbers are suspect. In 2010, it belatedly claimed to have poisoned 4 million starlings, black birds, and others in 2009), including 112,781 mammalian carnivores such as coyotes, wolves, bobcats, cougars, badgers and bears.... http://www.predatordefense.org/exposed/
HLNtv, January 06, 2014 -▶ CONGRESSMEN CHALLENGE GOVERNMENT'S WAR ON WILDLIFE - The USDA's wildlife services is a cruel program that forces taxpayers to fuel the vicious killing of millions of wild animals for the benefit of select businesses like the cattle industry.
-▶ TRUMP ADMINISTRATION'S ABOUT TO GET SUED FOR FAILING TO PROTECT GIRAFFE PARTS IMPORTED INTO THE U.S.A.
Since the mid-1980s, the population of giraffes has declined by a startling 40 percent, leaving just over an estimated 97,000 individuals in the wild.
A recent investigation conducted by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) exposed how the trade in giraffe trophies and parts in the U.S. is contributing to their decline. According to the HSUS, on average, more than one giraffe is imported by a U.S. trophy hunter every single day, which is putting them at serious risk and making the U.S. a significant player that’s contributing to their decline.
-▶ Shocking Investigation Shows How We’re Pushing Giraffes to the Brink . How the trade in trophies and parts in the U.S. is contributing to their decline.
-▶ STATE REDUCES NUMBER OF MOOSE HUNTING PERMITS FOR HUNTING LOTTERY DUE TO DECIMATION OF HERDS FALLING PREY TO WINTER TICKS. This spring, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife reduced the number of moose permits for the 2014 fall hunt by nearly 25 percent – from 4,085, the number set in March, to 3,095, the fewest issued since 2009. http://www.pressherald.com/2014/06/14/winter-ticks-raise-concerns-about-future-of-maines-moose-herd/
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WILDLIFE KILLING CONTESTS
========================
-▶ SHOULD WILDLIFE HUNTING CONTESTS BE PERMITTED IN IDAHO?
Focusing On Wildlife, January 10, 2019 U.S. land managers approved a recreation permit on Thursday, January 10 2019 allowing a controversial hunting contest open to children to take place on public lands in Idaho,where contestants will seek to kill the most wolves and other wildlife for cash and prizes.
The hunting group Idaho for Wildlife requested the permit for the so-called predator derby to take place each January for five years on millions of acres (hectares) overseen by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in east central Idaho near Salmon.
▶ THE SHAME OF WILDLIFE KILLING CONTESTS MARS HUMANKIND. Perhaps you’ve never heard of wildlife-killing contests. They are organized events in which participants compete for prizes for killing the most animals. Prizes are also often awarded for shooting the largest, as well as the smallest – and youngest – animalshttp://www.abqjournal.com/533855/north/the-shame-of-killing-contests-mars-humankind.html
Focusing On Wildlife, February 25, 2014
▶ STOP WILDLIFE KILLING CONTESTS IN CALIFORNIA.
“This is obviously not about sport or fair-chase. Wildlife killing contests are conducted for profit, entertainment, prizes and, simply, for the ‘fun’ of killing. Such contests perpetuate a culture of violence and send the message to children that life has little value and that an entire species of animals is disposable.” http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/stop-wildlife-killing-contests-in-california/
▶ 2-DAY SLAUGHTER WITH PRIZES AND RECOGNITION TEACHES KIDS TO KILL USING WILDLIFE AS TARGETS Idaho coyotes and wolves will die in an unconscionable holiday killing contest. Following a 2-day slaughter, prizes and recognition will be bestowed upon contestants, including children as young as 10, for killing the most female coyotes and the largest wolf...http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/567808/ea2d7a99cf/1557503015/4e6cdd2cba/
Boise Weekly, January 04, 2015
▶ TWO DOZEN COYOTES KILLED SO FAR IN SALMON AREA PREDATOR 'DERBY' : NO WOLVES REPORTED TAKENhttps://youtu.be/G7B56M1eDVM
-▶ U.K.HUGE INCREASE IN BADGER CULL WILL SEE UP TO 42,000 SHOT
Scientists say a lack of statistical analysis in government documents means there remains no concrete evidence that the cull is working. The Badger Trust condemned the expanded cull as “largest destruction of a protected species in living memory”.
-▶ PROTESTERS FLOCK TOGETHER TO STOP 2,200 SWAN KILLINGS IN NEW YORK
Public outcry from legislators, animal rights groups and residents has forced the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to revise its plan to cull over 2,200 mute swans in New York state.
VIDEO THE PROFANITY PEAK PACK: SET UP & SOLD OUT https://youtu.be/G7B56M1eDVM via @YouTube This is the tragic story of a wolf pack living on pristine, forested public land in Washington State. They were slaughtered for simply being themselves. Their forest was invaded by cattle, which they were essentially set up to attack, and their natural prey had been displaced by the cows. The film reveals the insanity and injustice of America's war on wolves, while also exposing the ongoing set-up and sell-out being allowed by government agencies and certain "pro-wildlife" groups.
George Monbiot, The Guardian UK
MASS WOLF KILLINGS ARE BASED ON THE MOST CYNICAL OF PREMISES http://sco.lt/7PRq7t
▶ MICHIGAN GOP LAWMAKERS ARE CONSIDERING LEGISLATION TO MAKE GRAY WOLVES A "GAME SPECIES"TO HUNT. TRIBES OPPOSED TO POSSIBILITY OF MICHIGAN WOLF HUNTING SEASON
▶ ROGUE US BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT "CITIZEN" ADVISORY BOARD RECOMMENDS KILLING 45,000 WILD HORSES AND BURROS
In the world of the BLM and the public lands ranchers whose interests dominate agency policy, America’s cherished and federally protected mustangs are just another commercial livestock “product” to be rounded up and shipped off for commercial slaughter.
Every summer, some 800 pilot and beaked whales, as well as dolphins, are brutally killed across the Faroe Islands, a Danish archipelago located hundreds of miles off the Scottish coast between Norway and Iceland.
"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
Common Dreams, October 14, 2012 ▶ CORPORATE FINANCIALIZATION OF NATURE IS A RECIPE FOR DISASTER: The "financialization of nature" is a flawed approach to saving biodiversity, "Biodiversity and forests are critical for the survival of people and the planet, and are thus priceless. Our biodiversity needs to be protected, not speculated on by reckless and unaccountable financial markets,” says Isaac Rojas, Friends of the Earth International Coordinator of the Forests and Biodiversity Program. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2012/10/13/recipe-disaster-group-says-no-financialization-nature
It is not easy to put a value on a forest, a clean river, or unpolluted air, but that is what a group of the world's biggest banks is attempting to do.
43 financial institutions have agreed that the way the present economic system uses and often destroys the environment without paying to do so is not sustainable.
The banks are also concerned that some companies are using up natural resources so fast, with no thought for their own future, let alone that of the planet, that they will collapse. They want a way of warning them and ultimately withdrawing their credit unless the companies mend their ways...http://www.eco-business.com/news/banks-put-price-earths-life-support/
Ensia, August 12, 2014 -▶ ECOSYSTEMS ARE NOT MACHINES. If we want to save the world, we need to treat nature more as an organism and less as disposable and replaceable technology. http://ensia.com/voices/ecosystems-are-not-machines/
▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALEhttp://sco.lt/9KW9wn
BOLIVIA
FIRST NATION IN THE WORLD TO GIVE LEGAL RIGHTS TO THE EARTH http://sco.lt/83jybZ
VIDEO Global Alliance RIGHTS OF NATURE & INDIGENOUS PEOPLES (22:14)
Environmental News Network, September 11, 2014 ▶ ILLEGAL LAND CLEARING FOR COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE RESPONSIBLE FOR HALF OF TROPICAL DEFORESTATION. A comprehensive new analysis says that nearly half (49%) of all recent tropical deforestation is the result of illegal clearing for commercial agriculture. The study also finds that the majority of this illegal destruction was driven by overseas demand for agricultural commodities including palm oil, beef, soy, and wood products. In addition to devastating impacts on forest-dependent people and biodiversity, the illegal conversion of tropical forests for commercial agriculture is estimated to produce 1.47 gigatonnes of carbon each year—equivalent to 25% of the EU's annual fossil fuel-based emissions.http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/47822
Sustainable Brands, September 11, 2014 ▶ INVESTORS PRESS PALM OIL PRODUCERS TO HALT DEFORESTATION. Institutional investors representing over half a trillion dollars in assets under management are calling on four major palm oil producers to adopt an immediate moratorium on deforestation and join the growing effort within the industry to establish traceable, deforestation-free palm oil supply chains. http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/supply_chain/mike_hower/investors_press_palm_oil_producers_halt_deforestation
- ▶ MORE THAN HALF OF U.S. RIVERS ARE TOO POLLUTED TO SUPPORT LIFE SHOCKING REPORT REVEALShttp://sco.lt/5JvEi9
-▶ THE NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM. DESTRUCTION OF PLANETARY LIFE IN THE NAME OF "GROWTH" http://sco.lt/5nT3OT
▶ SHOULD COMPANIES COMPENSATE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION FROM WHICH THEY PROFIT? http://sco.lt/5I5UeX
-▶ THE GREAT AMERICAN CORPORATE GIVEAWAY, OUR PUBLIC LANDS: : COAL, OIL, FRACKING DESTROYING FOREST, WATER, ENVIRONMENThttp://sco.lt/9JCs8f
▶ HOLDING CORPORATIONS RESPONSIBLE: MINING COMPANIES DEVASTATE PRISTINE WISCONSIN FOR FRAC-SAND LEAVING CHEMICAL CESSPOOLhttp://sco.lt/6gL1ov
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. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0514-dulaney-regnskogfondet.html
The bankers went on to acknowledge this was partly their fault because they had no way of valuing this natural capital, nor did they currently recognize the danger to the stability of some companies because of its destruction. They want governments to force companies to disclose their dependence on natural capital and the impact they have on it by disclosures in annual financial reports.
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
Yale Environment, August 20, 2018
▶ LESSONS LEARNED FROM CENTURIES OF INDIGENOUS FOREST MANAGEMENT
In an era of runaway destruction of tropical forests, the centuries-old ecological understanding of indigenous woodland residents can help point the way to the restoration of damaged rainforests
IC Magazine, December 09, 2014 -▶ ARIZONA DEFENDERS FACE IMMINENT LAND GRAB OF SACRED LANDS BY FOREIGN MINING COMPANIES.Congress is set to approve the giveaway of 2,400 acres of National Forest lands, including the burial, ceremonial and medicinal lands of the San Carlos Apaches, to Resolution Copper, a subsidiary of British-Australian Rio Tinto Mining Corp., a company with a long history of environmental and human rights abuses in developing countries.https://intercontinentalcry.org/arizona-defenders-face-imminent-land-grab-26496/
University of Wisconsin-Madison, January 15, 2015 -▶ HUMANITY HAS EXCEEDED 4 of 9 'PLANETARY BOUNDARIES,' ACCORDING TO RESEARCHERS An international team of researchers says climate change, the loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, and altered biogeochemical cycles like phosphorus and nitrogen runoff have all passed beyond levels that put humanity in a “safe operating space.”http://www.news.wisc.edu/23409
-▶ 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 awareness http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/07/07/buddhist-economics-schumacher/
SHORT TED VIDEO 3:34 FRANS LANTING: PHOTOS THAT GIVE VOICE TO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. Nature photographer Frans Lanting uses vibrant images to take us deep into the animal world. In this short, visual talk he calls for us to reconnect with other earthly creatures, and to shed the metaphorical skins that separate us from each otherhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8-jp_6Uqg
"Thich Nhat Hanh suggests that a greater intellectual knowledge of the impact of our destructive behaviour, or of nature's wonders, will not create the change that is necessary and that only a deeper connection to our hearts and a personal insight into the inter-being of everything in the universe, can offer hope to humanity."
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 treasures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WNgoqBGw4Y
Why is palm oil still a leading driver of deforestation?
Eight Years Later Palm Oil is Still a Haunting Reality…As palm oil continues to be a key ingredient in chocolate and candy, this Halloween has us thinking back on our Kit Kat campaign from 2010.
In 2010, Greenpeace launched a video that had us all thinking twice before taking a bite out of Halloween candy. With gory detail, the Kit Kat campaign drove home the death and destruction of rainforests for the expanded production of palm oil. Watch the horror:https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/eight-years-later-palm-oil-is-still-a-haunting-reality/
INTERACTIVE Guardian Sustainable Business, November 10, 2014 ▶ FROM RAINFOREST TO YOUR CUPBOARD:
Palm oil can be used in everything from cosmetics to fuel, and is cheap and efficient to produce. But this versatile crop has a dark side — its incredible popularity has caused widespread environmental destruction.https://p.dw.com/p/32jIg
DW environment, July 25, 2018
▶ PALM OIL PLANTATIONS THREATEN THE RAINFORESTS
Indonesia is the scene of massive deforestation - Most of it illegal slash and burn
An Exquisite Dedication To the Stewards of Our Planet
Solutions For A Sustainable Planet
We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
Mongabay, October 21, 2014 ▶ INDONESIAN LAW NOW BARS PALM OIL COMPANIES FROM PROTECTING FORESTS. A law passed by the Indonesian government last month makes it even more difficult for palm oil companies to conserve tracts of wildlife-rich and carbon-dense forests within their concessions, potentially undermining these producers' commitments to phase deforestation out of their supply chains, warns a new report. This new law requires them to clear all their concession within 6 years. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1020-palm-oil-conservation.html
THE BAIT AND SWITCH
Palm Corporations Knew This Law Was Coming Up, Making It Easy to say "No" To Deforestation. They Can Now Blame Deforestation on the Law A Billion Dollar Ecocide Business, they will do everything they can to find a way around any moratorium. (pdjmoo)
▶ PALM OIL GIANTS ANNOUNCE DEFORESTATION MORATORIUM - - REALLY?!Five of the world's largest palm oil producers have announced an immediate moratorium on palm oil sourced via clearance of potential high carbon stock forests. On Friday, Asian Agri, IOI Corporation Berhad, Kuala Lumpur Kepong (KLK) Berhad, Musim Mas Group and Sime Darby Plantation said they will suspend forest clearing until they have completed a year-along study that aims to establish a threshold for defining what constitutes high carbon stock (HCS) forest.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0920-palm-oil-deforestation-moratorium.html
Green Global Travel, January 25, 2015 ▶ PALM OIL THREATENS PALAWAN PHILLIPPINESFor anyone worried about what GMOs are doing to our agricultural system and how Monsanto is patenting plants across the planet, there’s another dangerous devil on the horizon. Plantation palm oil has been around for years, but its evils largely go unnoticed by the average consumer. If you’ve not gotten the dirty details on palm oil yet, then buckle up for a bumpy ride we all need to take. Because the palm oil industry is not only endangering Palawan Philippines (named the Best Island in the World in 2014 by Conde Nast Traveler readers), but the health of our entire planet.
Mongabay, October 14, 2014 ▶ INDIA PLANS HUGE PALM OIL EXPANSION, PUTS FORESTS AT RISKPalm oil, a ubiquitous ingredient in supermarket products ranging from shampoos and cosmetics to processed foods, comes at a huge environmental cost. Between 1990 and 2010, palm oil monocultures replaced over 3.5 million hectares of forest in Malaysia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. This large scale deforestation has resulted in a massive loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitat, best illustrated perhaps by the annihilation of orangutan populations. Moreover, conversion of large peatlands to oil palm plantations releases millions of metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Mongabay, December 16, 2014 ▶ NEW REPORT: PALM OIL FACILITATES LARGE-SCALE LOGGING IN INDONESIA. Oil palm plantations provide a major loophole for evading the country's new protocol — the Timber Legality Verification System (Sistem Verifikasi Legalitas Kayu, or SVLK) — aimed at improving forest management and rooting out illegal logging. The report, titled Permitting Crime: How palm oil expansion drives illegal logging in Indonesia, shows links between illegal practices and local officials, illustrating continued problems with corruption and resource capture by well-connected businessmen. Forests and local communities lose out. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1216-palm-oil-logging-indonesia.html
Mongabay, November 03, 2014 ▶ INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT'S PALM OIL CONCESSION POLICY PRIORITIZES COMPANIES OVER FOREST COMMUNITIES. A report by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) analyzes 100 of these conflicts around the world in the mining, oil and gas, logging and agricultural sectors and examines how and why they come about. The report focuses on several emerging economies, including Brazil, Colombia, Liberia, Peru, and Indonesia. In Indonesia, the report says, 30 percent of the country has been handed over by the government to some type of extractive industry. Often permits are granted without the knowledge or approval of local communities, raising “grave” human rights concerns. “It’s crazy that local communities are not often seen as equal partners in the decisions regarding their land,” says Bryson Ogden, Private Sector Analyst at RRI. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1103-sri-eshelman-indonesia-industrial-concessions.html
▶ INDONESIA IS ENCOURAGING A NEW CORPORATE COLONIALISM: PALM OIL DEFORESTATION - ECOCIDE FOR PROFIThttp://sco.lt/88hVFx
▶ MAJOR PALM OIL CORPORATIONS ACCUSED OF ECOCIDE, BREAKING ETHICAL PROMISES IN AFRICA AND ASIA http://sco.lt/8TkGjh
▶ PAPUA : 226 THOUSAND HECTARES OF VIRGIN FOREST WILL BE CLEARED FOR CORPORATE PALM OIL DESTROYING ALL LIFE WITH IN THEM AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIEShttp://sco.lt/8mSxaD
▶ MASSIVE PALM OIL PLANTATION IN CAMEROON WILL "CUT THE HEART OUT" OF RAINFORESTS - THREATENING GREAT APES http://sco.lt/7pufxp
Inter Press Service, October 03, 2014 ▶ NEW GLOBAL DECLARATION "INSUFFICIENT" TO TACKLE DEFORESTATION. “The 2030 timeline would allow deforestation to continue for a decade and a half. By then the declaration could be self-fulfilling, as there might not be much forest left to save.” -- Susanne Breitkopf of Greenpeace http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/10/new-global-declaration-insufficient-to-tackle-deforestation/
WWF, February 05, 2015 ▶ MORE TO CONSERVATION THAN APP's FOREST CLEARING PLEDGE - Not much has changed on the ground - forests continue to disappear, peat soils continue to be drained and social conflicts remain unresolved. The company has even failed to protect forests they are legally required to conserve.” not much has changed on the ground - forests continue to disappear, peat soils continue to be drained and social conflicts remain unresolved. The company has even failed to protect forests they are legally required to conserve.”http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?uNewsID=238430&
▶ WORLD BANK AND UN CARBON OFFSET SCHEME 'COMPLICIT' IN GENOCIDAL LAND GRABShttp://sco.lt/5IxW2j
LAND GRABS
HOW FOREIGN "INVESTMENTS" ARE REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH, LAND AND WATER ACROSS THE GLOBE
▶ MEGA MINING, FOREIGN LAND GRABS DESTROYING LOCAL COMMUNITIES, ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMShttp://sco.lt/8nJQf3
▶ FOREIGN CORPORATIONS DESTROYING INDIGENOUS LIVELIHOODS, NULLIFYING LAND RIGHTS, CREATING DEPENDENCY AND POVERTY ON A GLOBAL SCALE http://sco.lt/9KW9wn
▶ DEFORESTATION IS DESERTIFICATION - A DEADLY GAME FOR ALL LIFE - GLOBAL ECOCIDEhttp://sco.lt/7xeu1Z
-▶ TREE HEALTH, FOREST HEALTH LINKED WITH HUMAN HEALTH - OUR INTERCONNECTED LIVEShttp://sco.lt/85WZ2v
In a development that has important implications for conservation, scientists are increasingly focusing not just on what species are present in an ecosystem, but on the roles that certain key species play in shaping their environment.
We must move beyond the mercantile mindset of perceiving everything only in terms of numbers, where “more” or “bigger” necessarily mean “better.”.. Traveling through the jungles of Yasuní National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon, it is difficult not to feel stunned by the amount of biological diversity in these forests. Writing about the experience, the difficulty lies in not succumbing to the exhausted turns of phrase and repetitive metaphors commonly used in attempting to depict the biological riches of these ecosystems.
In the name of conservation, Nature has been turned into an economic asset and, in many instances, its usefulness for humans has become the only value that we can bring to light for the common citizen.What is the economic value of natural resources, or how much would it cost to replace natural ecosystem services? If we are to reverse or at least attenuate the negative impacts of our civilization upon the environment, we must move beyond the mercantile mindset of perceiving everything only in terms of numbers, where “more” or “bigger” necessarily mean “better.”
▶ APPROXIMATELY 229,729 ELEPHANTS KILLED WORLDWIDE AND TRAFFICKED IN FEWER THAN SIX YEARS - INVESTIGATION REVEALS A HIGHLY ORGANISED IVORY TRADE ACROSS ASIA AND AFRICA -
▶ NEARLY 90 ELEPHANTS FOUND POACHED FOR THEIR TUSKS IN BOTSWANA
The deaths discovered follow action taken by the government of Botswana to disarm its anti-poaching unit without explanation in May 2018 after president Mokgweetsi Masisi took office, undoing its strong shoot-to-kill policy for poachers.
-▶ 62% OF ALL AFRICAN FOREST ELEPHANTS SLAUGHTERED IN 10 YEARS = INFOGRAPH More than 60 percent of Africa’s forest elephants have been killed in the past decade due to the ivory trade, reports a new study published in the online journal PLOS ONE. The study warns that the diminutive elephant species — genetically distinct from the better-known savanna elephant — is rapidly heading toward extinction....http://focusingonwildlife.com/news/62-of-all-africas-forest-elephants-killed-in-10-years-warning-graphic-images/
VIDEO BBC News, September 04, 2014 THE ELEPHANT THAT FLEW.
A baby elephant is filmed standing in a small aircraft, eye-to-eye with the pilot, Gary Roberts - an American nurse and missionary. The orphaned calf is the only survivor of a 100 elephant massacre by poachers. This is how Roberts did his best to keep the animal alive.http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29060814
-▶IMAGINING A WORLD WITHOUT ELEPHANTS. A poacher’s bullet kills more than elephants — an elephant’s death ricochets through the ecosystem, affecting everything from other animals to the vegetation where the pachyderms roam.https://www.thedodo.com/world-without-elephants-832031961.html
The elephant, Earth’s most charismatic and majestic land animal, today faces market forces driving the value of its tusks to levels once reserved for gold. This groundbreaking National Geographic special goes undercover to expose the criminal network behind ivory’s supply and demand. It also demonstrates how the elephant is far more complex than ever imagined.
Mongabay, July 07, 2014 -▶ PRICE OF IVORY TRIPLES IN CHINA. In the last four years the price of ivory in China has tripled, according to new research from Save the Elephants. The news has worrying implications for governments and conservationists struggling to save elephants in Africa amidst a poaching epidemic, which has seen tens-of-thousands of elephants butchered for their tusks across the continent annually.http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0707-hance-ivory-price.html
MAPPING THE GLOBAL TRADE IN ILLICIT ELEPHANT IVORY
On August 27, 2014, Born Free USA and data analysts at C4ADS released a new groundbreaking report, Out of Africa: Mapping the Global Trade in Illicit Elephant Ivory which focuses on the ivory supply chain and the trafficking of ivory from the bush in Africa to retail markets tens of thousands of miles away in Asia. We would like to thank the Giles W. and Elise G. Mead Foundation for their generous support.
World Wildlife Fund, May 15, 2014 ▶ HONG KONG SET TO DESTROY RECORD IVORY STOCKPILE - 28 TONS (HOW MANY DEAD ELEPHANTS IS THAT?) - The Hong Kong government has begun the destruction of a staggering 28 tons of illegal ivory, the world’s largest illegal ivory stockpile and more than every other country in history combined. Advocates believe this public stance against ivory trafficking is a hopeful sign that Hong Kong’s centuries-old ivory worship traditions are crumbling.http://worldwildlife.org/stories/hong-kong-set-to-destroy-record-ivory-stockpile
The Dodo, May 08, 2014 -▶ 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. The fund is not a moment too soon -- an estimated 22,000-35,000 elephants are killed every year by poachers, while last year poachers killed over 1,000 rhinos in South Africa alone...https://www.thedodo.com/china-steps-up-politician-pled-542006018.html
Mongabay, November 06, 2014 -▶ CORRUPTION IN TANZANIA FACILITATES IVORY TRADE. Corruption in Tanzania is enabling large volumes of illegal elephant ivory to be smuggled out of the country, alleges a new report from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) The report, titled Vanishing Point, says that high ranking officials are involved in the illicit trade, which have devastated the country's wild elephant population. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1106-tanzania-corruption-drives-ivory-trade.html
IFAW, October 14, 2014 ▶ WHY I LASHED OUT ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AGAINST ANOTHER CALL FOR MORE IVORY TRADE
National Geographic, August 29, 2014 ▶ CAN ELEPHANTS SURVIVE A LEGAL IVORY TRADE? It's one of the more incendiary questions discussed in wildlife conservation circles: Should there be a legal trade in elephant ivory? Elephant deaths from poachers skyrocketed after a one-off auction of stockpiled ivory was allowed in 2008. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140829-elephants-trophy-hunting-poaching-ivory-ban-cities/
Yale Environment 360, August 11, 2014 ▶ POISONED BY ELEPHANT POACHERS: AFRICA'S VULTURES THREATENED BY AN ASSAULT ON ALL FRONTS. Vultures are being killed on an unprecedented scale across Africa, with the latest slaughter perpetrated by elephant poachers who poison the scavenging birds so they won’t give away the location of their activities.http://e360.yale.edu/feature/africas_vultures_threatened_by_an_assault_on_all_fronts/2792/
Environment News Service, November 06, 2014 -▶ TANZANIA'S ELEPHANTS FALL TO CORRUPT OFFICIALS CONSPIRING WITH CHINESE GANGS.Chinese-led criminal syndicates are conspiring with corrupt Tanzanian officials to traffic huge amounts of ivory, a trade that has caused half of Tanzania’s elephants to be poached in the past five years, alleges a new study released today by the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency. http://ens-newswire.com/2014/11/06/tanzanias-elephants-fall-to-corrupt-officials-chinese-gangs/
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
-▶ POACHERS KILL 300 ELEPHANTS (AND OTHER ANIMALS) WITH CYANIDE AT WATER HOLE IN 'WORST MASSACRE IN SOUTH AFRICAhttp://sco.lt/7WbG9R
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
WATCH
"ASIAN ELEPHANTS IN PERIL"
Link TV
In Sumatra, Indonesia, just 2,500 Sumatran elephants remain. As their last great forest habitat is being logged at a feverish pace to make way for palm oil plantations, elephants are pushed into conflict with local people. In Thailand and Myanmar, an illegal and brutal trade in wild baby elephants is contributing to declining elephant populations http://www.linktv.org/video/9160/asian-elephants-in-peril
-▶ THE PALM OIL HOLOCAUST - DEFORESTATION DESTROYING ALL LIFE WITHIN IT -- AND WE STAND BY AND ALLOW CORPORATE ECOCIDE?http://sco.lt/5wsAPh
Mongabay, September 29, 2013 ▶ WORST RHINO POACHING YEAR ON RECORD FOR SOUTH AFRICA - 688 RHINOS At least 688 rhinos have been poached in South Africa this year, surpassing last year's record of 668 with more than three months remaining in 2013http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0929-rhino-poaching-record.html
France 24 TV, November 13, 2014 ▶ RHINOPOACHING-WEARY SOUTH AFRICA MULLS LEGALISING RHINO HORN TRADE. A kilogramme of rhino horn recently sold for $100,000 in Vietnam, double the price of gold... There is also criticism that the pro-trade lobby is promoting an argument from which it stands to benefit: in 2010, government and private owners were estimated to have more than 15 tonnes of rhino horn stockpiled, about a third of it belonging to the state.http://www.france24.com/en/20141113-poaching-weary-south-africa-mulls-legalising-rhino-horn-trade/
Reuters, July 11, 2014 ▶ FOUR RHINOS KILLED IN KENYA'S WORST POACHING ATTACK IN YEARS. The killings take the number of rhinos poached in Kenya so far this year to 22, which leaves just 1,037 rhinos still roaming private wildlife conservancies and KWS national parks, Muya said. Last year, 59 rhinos were poached in Kenya, a country famous for its sprawling Maasai Mara game park and abundant wildlife. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/11/us-kenya-rhinos-idUSKBN0FG1K920140711
Mongabay, October 20, 2014 ▶ WITH DEATH OF RHINO, ONLY SIX NORTHERN WHITE RHINOS LEFT ON THE PLANET. "Consequently the species now stands at the brink of complete extinction, a sorry testament to the greed of the human race," wrote the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in a statement. http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1020-hance-suni-rhino-death.html
New York Times, February 05, 2014 IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO PROTECT A RHINO.
The illegal wildlife trade and poaching are decimating the animals and landscapes of Africa. If you go there, it’s shocking. We hear about it and see these stories, but until you see it first hand it’s really hard to get your head wrapped around that... http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/it-takes-a-village-to-protect-a-rhino/?_r=0
The Dodo, November 25, 2014 ▶ RHINOS MOVED TO 'INTENSIVE PROTECTION ZONES' -
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/
▶ — Illegal trade in rhino horns involves highly organized, mobile and well-financed criminal groups, mainly composed of Asian nationals based in Africa. These networks have ... http://ecowatch.org/2013/rhinos-in-crisis/
▶ APPROXIMATELY 229,729 ELEPHANTS KILLED AND TRAFFICKED IN FEWER THAN SIX YEARS - INVESTIGATION REVEALS A HIGHLY ORGANISED IVORY TRADE ACROSS ASIA AND AFRICA - A new report uncovers the fact that Chinese ivory traffickers are present in virtually every African state, and operate at nearly every point along the supply chain. http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/organised-ivory-trade.htm
▶ THE TRAGIC SLAUGHTER OF TENS OF THOUSANDS OF ELEPHANTS... JUST FOR THEIR TUSKS...MAY BE EXTINCT BY 2020http://sco.lt/85wXBZ
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rescooped from Tui, Will come in handy for flipped classroom when looking into Biodiversity