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Towards a New Paradigm of Non-Captive Research on Cetacean Cognition

2012-02-26T22:44:00.002Z

Lori Marino1,2*, Toni Frohoff3

Abstract

Contemporary knowledge of impressive neurophysiology and behavior in cetaceans, combined with increasing opportunities for studying free-ranging cetaceans who initiate sociable interaction with humans, are converging to highlight serious ethical considerations and emerging opportunities for a new era of progressive and less-invasive cetacean research. Most research on cetacean cognition has taken place in controlled captive settings, e.g., research labs, marine parks. While these environments afford a certain amount of experimental rigor and logistical control they are fraught with limitations in external validity, impose tremendous stress on the part of the captive animals, and place burdens on populations from which they are often captured. Alternatively, over the past three decades, some researchers have sought to focus their attention on the presence of free-ranging cetacean individuals and groups who have initiated, or chosen to participate in, sociable interactions with humans in the wild. This new approach, defined as Interspecies Collaborative Research between cetacean and human, involves developing novel ways to address research questions under natural conditions and respecting the individual cetacean's autonomy. It also offers a range of potential direct benefits to the cetaceans studied, as well as allowing for unprecedented cognitive and psychological research on sociable mysticetes. Yet stringent precautions are warranted so as to not increase their vulnerability to human activities or pathogens. When conducted in its best and most responsible form, collaborative research with free-ranging cetaceans can deliver methodological innovation and invaluable new insights while not necessitating the ethical and scientific compromises that characterize research in captivity. Further, it is representative of a new epoch in science in which research is designed so that the participating cetaceans are the direct recipients of the benefits.

Citation: Marino L, Frohoff T (2011) Towards a New Paradigm of Non-Captive Research on Cetacean Cognition. PLoS ONE 6(9): e24121. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024121

Editor: Karen McComb, University of Sussex, United Kingdom

Published: September 7, 2011

Copyright: © 2011 Marino, Frohoff. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: The authors have no support or funding to report.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

* E-mail: lmarino@emory.edu

Introduction Top
Cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and whales) are an order of fully-aquatic mammals who have engrossed scientists and the public alike with their large complex brains, impressive intelligence, and social and communicative sophistication [1]–[3]. For a long time the study of these characteristics in cetaceans lagged behind the rich literature on cognitive, social and even cultural aspects of nonhuman primates. And, just as we have learned that some nonhuman primates possess such qualities as self-awareness, morality, culture, empathy and politics, we now have evidence for similar sophisticated abilities in cetaceans and other animals such as elephants. These developments have provided new lenses through which we have reconsidered these aspects of ourselves; the reference point by which we can view our own characteristics relative to other animals has expanded and diversified beyond the primates. Therefore, the complex sentience of other animals such as cetaceans must be recognized and their physical, psychological and behavioral needs appropriately protected. Accordingly, scientists are now faced with the task of accommodating this contemporary knowledge of cetacean neuroanatomy and behavior in ways that alter their research approaches and priorities.

Cetacean cognition

Cognition refers to the thought processes of an individual; it typically comprises memory, problem-solving, concept formation, self-awareness, and other abilities that involve information processing at various levels and in various domains. It is important to define the term cognition in the context of our arguments in order to be clear about what kinds of studies we are proposing in this paper. Cognition can be assessed through indirect measures and inference as well as through direct tests. Ongoing long-term field studies of social complexity, foraging, and culture in dolphins and whales continue to yield some of the most intriguing insights into cetacean behavior. Examples include long-term observations of sponge-carrying in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Shark Bay, Western Australia, which have led to the discovery of tool use in dolphins and provided important information about learning and cultural transmission [4]–[6] and work on communication among dolphins and whales which has produced insights into vocal learning and referential signaling in cetaceans in the wild [7]–[9]. Generally, field studies reveal the importance of cetaceans learning and remembering individuals within their community and recognizing their particular characteristics and interrelationships, all abilities reliant upon strong long-term memory and of relevance to cognition [10]. Likewise, neuroanatomical postmortem studies of brain size, structure and complexity in dolphins and whales provide critical information about the neurobiological bases of intelligence and cognition and allow for inferences about these processes that may be tested through behavioral studies [11], [12].

Field and neuroanatomical studies like the ones mentioned above are potentially important sources of relevant data about cognition and promote the generation of hypotheses. But they often do not allow measures of cognitive abilities. In this paper we propose developing ways to more directly assess cognition in wild individuals that may replace studies in captivity and form the basis for a more extensive cognitive ethological approach in cetaceans; one that also encompasses aspects of their behavioral ecology. There are a number of protocols available for studying cognition that either can be potentially transferred to research on dolphins in the wild or are already being applied to study wild individuals, including cetaceans. We describe several below. One of the keys to being able to transfer cognitive tasks from the captive situation to the wild is the opportunity to work with individual dolphins one-on-one. Individuals known as lone sociable dolphins present the potential for doing so. Lone sociable dolphins are free-ranging cetacean individuals who are often solitary, yet, for one reason or another, have initiated, or participated in, sociable interactions with humans in the wild with some regularity [13], [14]. Some of these individuals were orphaned and have become separated from their social group and are truly isolated from conspecifics. Others move back and forth between interactions with humans and members of their own (or other) species but nevertheless fall under the category of lone sociables. There are numerous known individual cetaceans who fit this description; mostly bottlenose dolphins in various regions (Tursiops truncatus), beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) in Eastern Canada and orcas (Orcinus orca) in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. And while not all of them will be good candidates for research, many of them can be with the right circumstances and proclivities of the individual dolphin or dolphin group.

Cognitive Tasks with Cetaceans

Many cognitive tests assess processes such as learning, memory, communication, attention, the ability to discriminate stimuli, imitation, and preferences through basic procedures that involve repeated interactions with particular individuals. If these protocols are developed they could be used to assess cognitive capacities in lone sociable dolphins in the wild. As described later in this paper, interactions with lone sociables may, under certain circumstances, afford the opportunity to present stimuli of various kinds (including mirrors for testing self-awareness), present “choice paradigms” with objects to assess preferences, and initiate simple training procedures that can be used to probe learning and memory and other cognitive abilities. Most of these kinds of tests do not require an extensive experimental set-up but are dependent upon regular access to an individual in a way that allows a certain degree of methodological consistency.

Communication and language research has been one of the most vigorous areas of cetacean study. Studies of natural communication have been ongoing for decades and can be complemented by further work using new technologies and methods. These studies typically involve acoustic and visual recording in order to extract correlations among sounds, behavior and context. Playback experiments - a set of techniques by which natural or synthetic signals are broadcast to an animal or groups of animals and the response noted – are subsequently used to reveal what listeners know about the broadcast signal or the signaller that produced it. These kinds of studies have typically been conducted with groups of cetaceans but can also be applied to individuals in order to learn more about how individuals process communicative sounds. Capabilities to perform this sort of research will grow with our ability to create increasingly sophisticated pattern detection algorithms, present relevant stimuli in playback experiments, and monitor the detailed behavioral responses of subjects underwater.

One of the main goals of research with captive cetaceans has been to determine whether dolphins and other cetaceans can comprehend an artificial symbolic language. The work in captivity heretofore has provided important insights into cetacean intelligence and cognition [15], [16]. However, similar methods can potentially be used to engage individual lone sociable dolphins in tests of language comprehension. For instance, interactive underwater keyboards containing visual symbols that dolphins could select have been used to study these skills in captive dolphins [16], providing a closer approximation to two-way communication. Denise Herzing and her colleagues piloted the use of an underwater keyboard with a habituated group of wild spotted dolphins with some success. Moreover, Herzing and collaborators from Georgia Tech in Atlanta are currently developing a cutting-edge technology that will potentially provide a much more sophisticated interactive interface for human-dolphin communication in the wild. Although these efforts are challenging and not a guarantee of success, they represent the promise of applying new technologies to the study of communication and language comprehension in wild dolphins.

Analysis Top
Why do we need a new paradigm for cetacean cognition research?

There are advantages and disadvantages to studying dolphins and whales in captivity versus the natural setting. Research in captivity affords a level of experimental control and internal validity that cannot be as easily achieved in the natural setting. Decades of research on captive dolphins has resulted in a rich literature on their intelligence, self-awareness, and cognitive abilities [11]. On the other hand, captive studies are limited in external validity for a variety of reasons. These comprise the unknown and largely uncontrollable developmental-cognitive effects of living in an artificial physical, perceptual and social environment on the generalizability of findings to wild cetaceans. Captive studies may be confounded by the physical and psychological stress and trauma evidenced in illnesses and aberrant dolphin behavior described below. Also studies of wild dolphins may reveal behaviors and capacities that are absent or diminished in captivity. Recently, a study of a group of wild chimpanzees revealed that their gestural repertoire was over twice the size suggested by studies of captive chimpanzees [17]. Such studies suggest that captivity may truncate capacities under some circumstances and lead to inaccurate conclusions. On the other hand, there are also difficulties and limitations associated with interacting with wild dolphins and, in particular, lone sociable dolphins, who may not be representative of other dolphins who live in normal wild social groups.

As important as the above pro and con arguments are, there is an arguably more compelling reason to consider adopting a new paradigm for studying cetacean cognition. This has to do with the essential importance of adjusting our behaviors, protocols, and paradigms to the very information provided by our scientific endeavors. In our view, the conclusion from decades of cumulative results of both captive and field studies is that cetaceans possess a level of intelligence, awareness and psychological and emotional sensitivity that makes it unacceptable to continue to keep them in captivity if not necessary for their welfare, survival, or conservation. We do not deny that captive studies have contributed substantially to this conclusion. Our point is that now that we have this knowledge about cetaceans it is incumbent upon us to revise our approaches to studying them.

How and why captivity harms cetaceans

Captivity for both wild-caught and captive-born cetaceans is devastating on a number of levels ranging from harm to the captive individuals to negative impacts on entire populations in the wild, even when even a small number of individuals are removed from their social groups [18], [19]. There is a copious scientific literature confirming the damaging effects of captivity on dolphin and whale physical health and psychological well-being. The challenges to cetaceans in captivity are numerous beginning with the physical constraints of the artificial enclosures (regardless of how natural they may appear to humans aesthetically) that limit physical exercise and are often harmful in other ways to the cetaceans' distinctive physiology [20]. Confinement impacts social relationships, degrades autonomy through the imposition of an enforced schedule of activity and behavior, causes boredom produced by a relatively sterile and unchanging environment, induces frustration, and inhibits incentives and abilities to carry out natural behaviors such as hunting and traveling. While awareness of how husbandry in cetaceans in captivity can be significantly improved is increasing [21], the abundant evidence for stress, disease and increased mortality in captive cetaceans is an inevitable outcome of such confinement, loss of control and deprivation where dolphins are held subordinate to humans in unnatural physical and social conditions.

Aberrant behavior.
There is ample anatomical and behavioral evidence that dolphins are not only self-aware but also emotionally sensitive and psychologically complex [2], [3], [22]–[24]. Many captive cetaceans display physiological and behavioral abnormalities indicative of psychological distress and emotional disturbance. These include stereotyped behavior [25]–[27], unresponsiveness, excessive submissiveness, hyper-sexual behavior (towards humans or other dolphins), self-inflicted physical trauma and mutilation [28], stress-induced vomiting [29], compromised immunology [25], [29] and excessive aggressiveness towards other dolphins and humans [22], [30]. One of the more dramatic forms of aberrant behavior in captive cetaceans is evidenced in the long record of orcas and other dolphins killing and seriously injuring humans, other whales, and themselves in captivity [31]–[36]. These statistics are striking considering that there is not a single recorded instance of an orca seriously harming, let alone killing, a human being in the wild. Moreover, serious aggression among orcas in the wild is relatively low and most injuries, e.g., rake marks, are superficial [37]. These discrepancies in aggression and aberrant behavior between cetaceans in the wild and captivity provide particularly clear evidence for psychological and behavioral disturbances in captive orcas.

Stress and Disease.
Stress derives from many aspects of captivity, not the least of which is that associated with the many changes in social groupings and isolation that occur in captivity. Social relationships play a critical role in the lives and well-being of dolphins and whales. Bottlenose dolphins, orcas, and other cetaceans are not merely gregarious. They form complex societies with dynamic social roles in intricate social networks [18], [38] many with cultural traditions [39], [40]. In the wild individuals can have very strong and long-lasting relationships [41]. In the “resident” orca groups of the Northeast Pacific, both sons and daughters remain with their mothers in their matrilineal cultures [42]. Conflict in the wild is resolved effectively through various means that include dispersion and shifting alliances within large groups of animals [43], an opportunity not afforded by captivity. Social group composition is dynamic and fluid with individuals exerting choice about their associations. In the confines of captivity where social groups are often artificially constructed and transferred in and out of different pools and facilities without choice, and there is not enough room or social support to resolve conflict, dolphins and whales suffer extreme stress that has led to reduced life expectancy [44]. Waples and Gales (2002) state that a decline in fitness, reproductive and physiological problems or even death can be the result of an animal being subjected to stress. There are several cases where stress, social stress in particular, was the probable cause of illness and death in captive bottlenose dolphins [44]. Several studies [44], [45] provide overviews of behavioral measures of dolphin welfare related to stress in captivity.

Furthermore, the U.S. Marine Mammal Inventory Report [46] lists numerous stress-related disorders, such as ulcerative gastritis, perforating ulcer, cardiogenic shock and psychogenic shock as ‘cause of death’ in captive cetaceans, strongly indicating that stress is an important component of captive display. Moreover, recent work shows that handling and transportation of captive dolphins is so stressful that it can decrease their immune system function [47].

Mortality.
The effects of increased stress and disease in captive cetaceans are evident in the mortality records as well. Up until a few years ago mortality rates were significantly higher in captivity than in known wild populations of bottlenose dolphins. Only recently have survivorship statistics in captivity (6.4%) reached a level not statistically significantly different from that thought to exist in the wild (3.9%) [48]–[53]. The best estimate of average and maximum lifespan for captive and wild bottlenose dolphins is about 25 and 45 years, respectively [51]. But there are biases in these data that make it doubtful that bottlenose dolphins live as long in captivity as in the wild (see below).

Importantly, bottlenose dolphins face a six-fold increase in risk of mortality immediately after capture from the wild and immediately after every transfer between facilities [51]. These findings demonstrate that the stresses associated with transfer from one captive facility to another and capture from the wild are similar.

For orcas the discrepancy in mortality rates between captivity and the wild is even greater. The natural average lifespan for male and female orcas is 29.2 and 50.2 years, respectively, with a maximum longevity of 60 and 90 years, respectively [50], [52]–[55]. In captivity most orcas do not survive much past the age of 20 years ([36] for a review). DeMaster and Drevenak [45] estimated the annual mortality rate for captive orcas at 7.0%, and two further studies, Small and DeMaster (1995) and Woodley et al (1994) both estimated (captive) annual mortality rates at 6.2% (excluding calves) [51], [53], considerably higher than the 2.3% annual mortality rate figure for wild populations [48]. Moreover, there is evidence suggesting belugas die prematurely in captivity as well [56].

It should be noted, when interpreting any of the above findings, that survivorship statistics from captive facilities often exclude periods of sharply increased mortality – those associated with capture and transfer. According to Small and DeMaster (1995) [51] the first 60 days of captivity should not be taken into account when calculating survival rates for wild-born individuals, since the mortality during this time is so high. Further, remote locations and many non-western or developing countries were not included in these studies; hence it is likely that the worst of these facilities were omitted from these data. These biases can easily lead to artificially inflated survivorship data.

All of these findings provide empirical evidence that captivity is harmful to cetaceans, resulting in abnormal behavior, stress-related disease, and, ultimately, high mortality/short lifespans. This state of affairs is not only unfavorable as a context for scientific work it makes the confinement of cetaceans for research purposes difficult to defend ethically.

Given all of the disadvantages of maintaining cetaceans in captivity for research, how should we move forward if we wish to continue learning about and from cetaceans? The answer lies in building upon ongoing research in the natural habitat and using these various efforts to create a new paradigm of research on cetacean cognition.

Results and Discussion Top
A New Paradigm of Interspecies Collaborative Research

An ethically and scientifically progressive research paradigm takes into account current knowledge about the complex psychological and sociological needs and capacities of cetaceans as well as the increasing anthropogenic challenges to their survival worldwide. A new era of cetacean research has been developing ‘beneath the surface’ over the past three decades that exemplifies a more responsive approach to what we now know to be key aspects of both individual cetacean wellbeing and conservation. This new approach is called Interspecies Collaborative Research (ICR) [57], [58]. ICR amounts to optimizing existing natural conditions for the primary benefit of the cetacean rather than imposing artificial ones for the sole benefit of the researcher. (Moreover, this new paradigm does not include research on captive animals unless exceptional circumstances exist that involve rehabilitation and eventual transfer to a sanctuary or release to the wild as well as mutual cooperation in the absence of human withholding of positive stimuli or applying negative reinforcement.).

Possibilities for studying free-ranging cetaceans who initiate close proximity and even sociable interactions with humans have been providing unique scientific opportunities for an era of less-invasive cetacean research. Inherent to the methodology of ICR is respect for and protection of cetacean individuals, groups, societies, and cultures. We now know that the survivorship of individuals is inextricably linked to that of their culture [40], [59] and a population's ability to survive may be particularly dependent upon the cultural role of key individuals in their group - so that the concept of wellbeing must encompass all levels of concern ranging from the individual to the society. ICR offers unique insights and methodologies concordant with new empirical data compelling us to reevaluate what is rigorous and ethical science with respect to the individual as well as the conservation of entire populations and species.

Habituation and interspecies sociability in the wild has certainly been explored in prior years by pioneering scientists such as Jane Goodall with chimpanzees in the 1960's and Cynthia Moss with elephants beginning in the 1970's. But the line between the observer and the observed is especially blurred when cetaceans initiate aspects of close proximity and sociability towards human boaters and swimmers. The choice of some free-ranging dolphins and whales (as individuals and in groups) to initiate or participate in sustained physical proximity and even sociable interactions with humans is somewhat unique among wild animals (especially those not provisioned with food). What we knew of as fables of free-ranging dolphins exhibiting sociable behavior towards humans from times of antiquity [60] are realities encountered by modern day researchers.

Interspecies cetacean-human sociability in the wild involves a continuum of behaviors in which cetaceans approach, or are receptive to human approach, and exhibit close and sustained physical proximity with humans that may include prolonged visual and acoustic contact and exchange, and may even involve tactile sociable contact, acoustic and postural mimicry, and play [57], [61]. Cetacean sociality with humans ranges from the extreme of solitary individuals who are geographically isolated from conspecifics (typically, young orcas or belugas who have been orphaned but are nutritionally weaned) to individuals who interact with conspecifics, e.g., bottlenose dolphins (though some are solitary), mother and calf pairs of gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus), humpback whales (Megaptera novaeanglia) individually or in groups, dwarf minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in groups, and whole populations of spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) in the Bahamas.

Unique opportunities for studying cetaceans with deference to their choice, on their terms, and in their own environments are providing alternatives to more invasive methods of scientific investigation.

Over the past few decades, not only have dolphin- and whale-watching become popularized, but even in-water encounters with dolphins and whales have become commercialized in various areas around the world [61]-[65]. The commercial aspects of observing cetaceans in their natural habitat are certainly preferable to the unsustainable (let alone cruel) aspects of intentionally slaughtering. Yet, it is critical to acknowledge that close contact with any wild animals, including dolphins and whales, can present serious risks for cetaceans (and humans) and implementation of precautions are warranted to protect them [66].

ICR with Solitary Cetaceans

A unique situation arises when cetacean individuals socialize exclusively with humans or have somehow lost contact with and access to conspecifics. When addressing such lone, sociable cetaceans research protocols can and should be developed to do “double-duty” as protection and enrichment on the one hand and data collection on cetacean psychology on the other [67], [68].

In the only on-site assessment of multiple species of solitary, sociable odontocetes (toothed whales, dolphins and porpoises) over numerous years, Frohoff identified three critical aspects of successful protection of solitary individuals (especially apparent when implemented in stewardship programs with Catherine Kinsman designed to protect orphaned and isolated belugas); (1) early assessment of the unique and varied risks encountered by each individual as well as any distinctive behavioral or physical qualities, (2) carefully designed, but nimble and quickly-implemented protocols tailored for each circumstance to mitigate risks to the cetaceans (and sometimes humans), and (3) early implementation of research (including aspects of communicative, cognitive, psychological and emotional complexity) feeding back directly into the second aspect, risk management and promoting wellbeing [66]-[71].

In the past, scientific documentation of sociable interactions with cetaceans has almost entirely been with odontocetes and typically with members of the family Delphinidae, particularly bottlenose dolphins (Figure 1). However, notable exceptions have been documented in the lone, sociable beluga whales (family: Monodontidae) observed annually for the past ten years under the Whale Stewardship Project and TerraMar Research [68], [70] and for two orcas (see various contributors in both [13], [72]). These studies are the first in the world of their kind for orphaned and solitary individuals of these species. In the intensive research efforts for the belugas, it was found that the interactive behaviors of these individuals with humans, boats and other objects were complex and numerous. Frohoff and Kinsman have, to date, collected approximately 500 hours of videotape data for seven individual belugas over a decade. Previously, orphaned and solitary belugas were considered demographic and behavioral anomalies, but their more commonplace occurrences have brought attention to their importance in conservation. With the marked increase in the number of orphans spotted over time, uncertainty about the cause of these orphanings, and a deepened understanding of the role of sociality in overall odontocete population viability, the study and protection of these individuals is of critical conservation concern [67]. The proximal objectives have been to study and support the factors important to each beluga's physical, psychological, and behavioral health and then apply this knowledge to long term conservation.

Figure 1. Free-ranging dolphin in the Irish Sea initiating what became a collaborative “choice” study.

(Photo: Ute Margreff).

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024121.g001
The beluga whale named “Q” is one of several orphaned whales who Frohoff and Kinsman have studied over the past decade. This beluga has not only been monitoring the researchers in turn (as interpreted by frequent approaches and often sustained proximity to us, with prolonged visual and acoustic observations,) but has displayed an astonishing array of interesting behaviors that can be explored to study cognition (Figure 2). For example, Kinsman reported a behavior of interest when reviewing footage from a remotely-operated underwater video camera beneath the boat. She noted: “When you see the beluga looking into the extra-wide lens of the camera, he is apparently watching what is a reflection of himself in that reflective lens.” (C. Kinsman, personal communication 2010). Presentation with a mirror (or playing sounds resembling those made by other cetaceans) to an isolated cetacean individual may mislead them into thinking they are not alone and could potentially therefore be undesirable and unethical. Yet, mirror self-recognition tests may be perfectly reasonable choices for dolphins and whales who are already in the company of conspecifics in the wild.

Figure 2. Beluga “Q” observing occupant of boat.

(Photo: Catherine Kinsman).

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024121.g002
ICR Research with Cetacean Groups

In addition to the study of cognition and other aspects of individual psychology, ICR has also been developed through ongoing efforts to study habituated groups of wild cetaceans. One such example is that of The Wild Dolphin Project, led by Denise Herzing. This research, in its 25th year, involves observations and interactions with a habituated group of wild Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) in the Bahamas. These spotted dolphins also frequently swim with bottlenose dolphins affording the opportunity to observe natural inter-species dolphin behavior. The goal is to develop a two-way communication system between humans and dolphins and to accomplish these studies with the least amount of invasiveness possible and, importantly, on the dolphins' own terms. This research uses the psychological model of distributed cognition, using observable and measurable phenomena to infer the flow of information in a group of cetaceans. Anticipating a watershed change in cognitive research on dolphins. Herzing and Johnson (2006, p.554) [73] wrote:

“Data from observational settings may be critical… when the cognitive laboratories of the past no longer exist or no longer conduct experimental cognitive work.”

Another example of ICR that combines protection and research in the wild is that of the Orca Research Trust, lead by Ingrid Visser in New Zealand and other parts of the world where orcas are found. This work provides proof of concept that important research can be done with individual as well as groups of wild orcas. This research project led to recent detailed reports of a special type of cooperative hunting among orcas in which they work together to create waves to displace penguins and seals on ice floes [74]. These findings, along with other similar reports, provide insight into the cognitive capacities of orcas. Much of the research done by Visser involves interaction with habituated individual orcas as well – an approach made possible by engaging the orcas in their familiar natural habitat.

ICR presents unprecedented opportunities for studying cognition and psychology in mysticetes (baleen whales) as well. In some parts of the world, gray, minke, and humpback whales are well known for their “friendly” behavior towards humans; although the degree and form of attraction and sociability towards humans varies widely across whale individuals, species, and locations. In the Baja lagoons in Mexico where the northwest Eastern Pacific gray whales migrate annually to breed and give birth, a tradition of sorts has developed over the past few decades in which some whales often initiate prolonged visual and even tactile interaction with boaters [75], [76]. After having documented aspects of this unique type of interspecies communication, Frohoff has been exploring the potential for cognitive and psychological studies; including carefully implemented mirror response studies with the whales who approach the small boats; a rare opportunity for looking into the minds of mysticetes in a minimally intrusive way and one that may yield results supporting their increased protection (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Frohoff studying cognitive and communicative aspects of "friendly" gray whale behavior is an example of the unprecedented research opportunities for collaborative research in mysticetes (baleen whales).

Photo: Toni Frohoff.

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The potential for collaborative research between the two species is beautifully illustrated in these lagoons; particularly when regulations honoring the need for space and privacy for the whales are judiciously self-enforced by the boat operators and whale watchers. Also, one of the best examples of the benefits of wildlife-tourism dollars on wildlife conservation can be found here given the notable influence of these funds on the government protection of these lagoons for the whales [76]. The need for reciprocity inherent in research, let alone in whale-watching, is perhaps no more clear than when mother whales bring their calves and initiate and seem to encourage gentle touch and even play with boaters. Also warranting respect are situations in which humpback whales and minke whales in other parts of the world not only tolerate, but sometimes approach humans in the water. Frohoff (in progress) is currently documenting the in-water interactions that are occurring between humans and humpback whales and analyzing them alone and also relative to in-water human interactions with free-ranging groups of odontocetes she has studied (including spotted, spinner, and bottlenose dolphins). Accordingly, while studying the cognitive and communicative aspects of these interactions, the concordant research goal is to assess the differential impacts of contact with humans and to encourage the amelioration of any identified negative effects and expanding on those that may be positive for these “friendly” cetaceans.

Caveats and Precautions

Despite the range of potential direct benefits to the cetaceans studied, this new research paradigm is not without its need for stringent precautionary measures for their protection. The same risks inherent in direct or indirect recreational interaction with these cetaceans need to be carefully considered and mitigated. For example, care needs to be taken that habituation, or the positive reinforcement of increased habituation, of free-ranging animals does not occur (except in unique circumstances) given the clearly demonstrated dangers that such misplaced trust in humans can have for cetaceans. And exposure to humans can also increase susceptibility to pathogens [77], [78] just as there are health risks for marine mammal workers handling diseased cetaceans [79]. But Geraci and Ridgway (1991) stated that microorganisms introduced into a pre-existing microbial pool – such as would naturally exist in the wild – would have “no particular benefit or harm to a healthy, immunologically competent animal” [77, p. 192]. Common sense suggests that disease transmission risks for dolphins in the wild are much less than in confined quarters due to the dispersal of microorganisms in an open environment. Also, risks of brief tactile interactions would be mitigated by healthy human investigators who would avoid mucus membranes and other inappropriate touching such as is often observed when these lone sociables interact with the general public [13]. Taken together, although there is always a risk of disease transmission and injury, well-controlled interactions between professionals and cetaceans in open waters represents the least risky scenario when compared with those in captivity where micro-organisms are more concentrated and cetaceans are stressed and confined.

In addition, the integrity of the research methods themselves needs to be maintained through creative procedures that will render meaningful data in the wild. Methodological and logistical challenges to the human researcher working in the natural environment can be intensive anytime, but especially so when responding respectfully to the often unexpected choices and timing initiated by the cetaceans. Such spontaneous events (some involving real-time participation) require that researchers be flexible, and highly prepared for the rapid and unexpected changes that occur in the natural setting. Because no aspect of the situation is controlled, copious detailed records must always be maintained in order to preserve the validity and reliability of the observations.

Just as the psychological and emotional wellbeing of solitary and orphaned individuals is likely much more fragile and precarious than that of any other type of free-ranging cetacean (see above mentioned ethical concerns about mirror self recognition and auditory experiments), so is their vulnerability to serious injury and early mortality, especially in the case of young individuals and solitary belugas and orcas (who seem to be particularly susceptible to injuries from boat propellers) [67], [68]. Therefore, implementation of judicious precautionary welfare measures should take priority in these contexts. Yet because of the unique needs of these individuals, they may be in the most need for the potential benefits of enrichment and support that collaborative research may provide for them. Regardless, precautionary measures in any context are always good practice if such research is to yield benefits for the individuals, let alone the species.

Moving Forward: Integrating Research with Ethical Responsibility

There is no single and comprehensive prescription for the design of protocols for ICR, yet some commonalities have been observed across species and situations that can inform this approach. In groups of cetaceans as well as solitary individuals who interact closely with humans, research has shown that successful efforts are directly related to early implementation and consistency of on-site, pro-active protection and research programs [66], [68]. Studies on lone, sociable cetaceans of various species such as bottlenose dolphins and beluga whales [62], [68], [69] have shown that ongoing, systematic research integrated with responsible decisions about protection and conservation provide vital feedback on how our interactions with cetaceans affect their welfare.

The suitability and feasibility for the release of various dolphins to the wild has been debated also and almost as much as has the conservation and welfare related ethics of capturing free ranging dolphins for captivity. Yet if some dolphins are considered unequivocally to be non-releasable to the wild once captive (for health or survival reasons), the question of what is best for them should be at the forefront of consideration. Sanctuaries exist for virtually every type of animal, both domestic and wild, except for small cetaceans. A true dolphin sanctuary, defined as being created and operated primarily for the benefit of the dolphins rather than for the gain of people, has not yet been formally created. Sanctuary-living would be preferable to the stresses of being maintained in the confinement of artificial tanks. Any knowledge gained about dolphins and whales while in sanctuary is of value and importance but, as with wild individuals, collected on the cetaceans' terms.

Limited Resources for Critical Needs

Resources have been severely limited for ICR programs. Only about 20% of the videotaped data on solitary, sociable belugas have been quantitatively analyzed to date and the researchers … “have been unable to capitalize on numerous unique opportunities to implement wild-based studies in areas such as cognition and acoustics” (66 pg. 27). Attempts by Frohoff and others to implement protection and enrichment programs coinciding with research, such as was in the case of an orphaned and solitary orca named “Luna” (who was subsequently killed by a boat's propeller), as well as for various belugas and other habituated cetaceans, have been thwarted by outdated policies and limited funding. But with an infusion of support, ICR is poised to open up new avenues of understanding between humans and cetaceans.

When conducted responsibly, ICR is a collaborative endeavor with other species that creates a two-way lens of observation, i.e. it is the humans who are also being observed and the other species are afforded at least as much choice in participating as the researchers. This approach can open up unparalleled opportunities for obtaining data about normative aspects of cetacean behavior, lifestyle, culture, and some of the more subtle and nuanced, yet vital, aspects of cetacean cognition, communication, emotion, sociality, and behavioral ecology. Moreover, this method also allows for cognitive research on the larger sociable mysticetes which has been, up to now, almost nonexistent. When conducted in its best, most rigorous, and most conscientious form, interspecies collaborative research with free-ranging cetaceans can deliver methodological innovation and invaluable new insights without the ethical and scientific compromises that characterize research in captivity. Researchers may be surprised at what we can learn not only from cetaceans and other animals, but also about ourselves as a species, particularly as we relate to the natural world.

Acknowledgments Top
The authors would like to thank Catherine Kinsman and Ken Petersen, Ann Smith, Wildquest, Tom Conlin of Aquatic Adventures, Ute Margreff, Baja Discovery, Baja Expeditions and all of the supporters of TerraMar Research & Learning Institute and Whale Stewardship Project.

Author Contributions Top
Conceived and designed the experiments: TF. Performed the experiments: TF. Analyzed the data: LM TF. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TF. Wrote the paper: LM TF.

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Monsanto Guilty: Paul Francois, French Farmer, Poisoned By Biotech Giant’s Chemicals

2012-02-22T19:16:00.001Z

“A French court on Monday (13 Feb 2012) declared U.S. biotech giant Monsanto guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a judgment that could lend weight to other health claims against pesticides.
In the first such case heard in court in France, grain grower Paul Francois, 47, says he suffered neurological problems including memory loss, headaches and stammering after inhaling Monsanto’s Lasso weedkiller in 2004.”

That is an extract from : « Monsanto Guilty: Paul Francois, French Farmer, Poisoned By Biotech Giant’s Chemicals (in English) », a very complete story on the case in the Huffington Post Site.

Declaration of Cetaceans Rights

2012-02-21T04:24:00.002Z

No life can measure what we have achieved
By whaling and slaughtering, so much to be grieved
It’s time to support the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans
Protect dolphins, whales and porpoises as "non-human persons"
Intelligent beings should have a legally enforceable right to life
How can anyone not support this glorious plight?

We have the same intelligence and we are self-aware
This is why we should all care
They recognise themselves in a mirror in a short blink
Lori Marino has found that dolphins also think
Whales are very clever – and they sing beautiful songs
Listen to David Rothenberg's interspecies communication
Try to sing along

But we also know cetaceans are suffering – something is wrong
They have chronic stress – shipping traffic is to blame
With military nuclear breaching – whales end up beaching
Whales and dolphins captured for Sea World tortures
Nature’s intelligence - massacred in Taiji by ignorance
If you want to know more – watch “The Cove” and see all that gore
Japanese whaling in the name of research, whales are left in the lurch
It’s irresponsible and only for business gain
Save beautiful beings like dolphins and whales
Stand up and fight for the Declaration of Cetaceans Rights

We know that when we disrespect and harm nature
We diminish ourselves and impoverish our future
“Mother Earth is a living being”
We’re part of her indivisible breathing
Intrinsically interlinked complex ecosystems
We need them for resilience and our future existence
“All life forms have the right to exist”
That’s what the Declaration insists

“A human right to life and dignity
Is meaningless without water and wilderness”
Remember, what your life means to you
And give back that love to our Earth Mother too
For cetaceans to thrive like you and me
I wrote this song for you to see
Imagine a world with peace and no crime
We could all be having a whale of a time!

Poem written by Irene Schleining
Whale of a Time - www.whaleofatime.org

Whales and dolphins 'should have legal rights'

2012-02-21T04:21:00.000Z

Campaign for intelligent marine mammals to have right to life, which would protect them from hunters and captivity

Ian Sample
The Guardian, Tuesday 21 February 2012

Fishermen drive bottle-nose dolphins into a net during their annual hunt off Taiji, Japan. Photograph: Kyodo News/AP
Campaigners who believe that dolphins and whales should be granted rights on account of their intelligence are to push for the animals to be protected under international law.

A group of scientists and ethicists argues there is sufficient evidence of the marine mammals' intelligence, self-awareness and complex behaviour to enshrine their rights in legislation.

Under the declaration of rights for cetaceans, a term that includes dolphins, whales and porpoises, the animals would be protected as "non-human persons" and have a legally enforceable right to life.

If incorporated into law, the declaration would bring legal force to bear on whale hunters, and marine parks, aquariums and other entertainment venues would be barred from keeping dolphins, whales or porpoises in captivity.

"We're saying the science has shown that individuality, consciousness and self-awareness are no longer unique human properties. That poses all kinds of challenges," said Tom White, director of the Centre for Ethics and Business at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

"Dolphins are non-human persons. A person needs to be an individual. And if individuals count, then the deliberate killing of individuals of this sort is ethically the equivalent of deliberately killing a human being. The captivity of beings of this sort, particularly in conditions that would not allow for a decent life, is ethically unacceptable, and commercial whaling is ethically unacceptable," White said.

The group spoke at the annual meeting in Vancouver of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to raise support for the declaration among scientists and the visiting public. The 10-point declaration sets out a framework to protect cetaceans' "life, liberty and wellbeing", including rights to freedom of movement and residence in their natural environment, and protection against "disruption of their cultures".

"The next step is taking the science and advocating for law in different places, from a regional point of view, from a national point of view, and eventually from a multinational and international view," said Chris Butler-Stroud of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

Decades of research on cetaceans, and dolphins in particular, has revealed that their brains, while markedly different from humans, are large, complex and capable of sophisticated behaviour. Observations of dolphins have shown that they can recognise themselves, use tools and understand symbols and abstract concepts.

In 2001, Lori Marino of Emory University in Atlanta, who is promoting the declaration, tested whether dolphins recognised themselves by drawing temporary marks on different parts of their bodies and watching them check the mark by swimming up to an immersed mirror. "When we did that with two dolphins they passed with flying colours," she said.

Orcas off Patagonia displayed a seemingly extraordinary act when an aged member of the group suffered jaw damage and could no longer eat properly. The whale's companions kept the animal alive by feeding it. "The animal, we would say, was past its sell-by date, an older creature. They must have conceptualised that if it wasn't fed, something would have happened to it, and they were able to work out what was needed to keep it alive," said Butler-Stroud.

At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, a dolphin named Kelly outwitted its human keepers and passed on some of its tricks to its offspring. Dolphins at the centre were rewarded with fish if they collected litter from their tanks and carried it in their mouths to the staff but Kelly found a weakness in the scheme. When people dropped paper into her tank, she hid it under a rock on the bottom. When a keeper next approached, she swam down and tore a small piece off, and returned to the surface to claim her reward. She worked out that a small piece of paper earned the same reward as a big piece, and so maximised her meals.

Then one day, Kelly managed to grab a gull that flew into the tank. When she delivered it to her keepers, she got an especially large fish reward. The next time Kelly was fed she hid the fish at the bottom of the pool, and later brought it to the surface to lure more gulls into the pool. The strategy proved so successful that she taught her offspring, who went on to teach others.

Though much of the declaration is intended to bring pressure on whaling nations and venues that keep cetaceans in captivity, the document has major implications for conservation programmes and environmental assessments that impinge on communities of dolphins, whales and other cetaceans.

As an early step, the special rights for cetaceans are being considered by the UN as part of its convention on migratory species, which aims to protect migrating species over their entire ranges.

Enshrining the rights in law could be some time, though. "If we are lucky it could take 10 years," said White. "We are at the stage of climate scientists 20 years ago. This is the first step."

Occupy for Nature’s Right

2012-02-15T03:46:00.000Z

Occupy for Nature’s Right

Man Builds Fairy Tale Home for $4700

2012-02-12T19:04:00.000Z

--by Heidi Stevenson , Original Story, Jan 28, 2012

Simon Dale is a family man in Wales, the western part of Great Britain. His interest in self-sustainability and an ecological awareness led him to dig out and build his own home—one of the loveliest, warmest, most inviting dwellings you could ever imagine. And it cost him only £3,000, about $4,700 American dollars!

Can you imagine a more charming entrance than this?

Simon gives two reasons for building the home. The first elegant one, from his website, is:
It’s fun. Living your own life, in your own way is rewarding. Following our dreams keeps our souls alive.
His second reason is a plea for sustainability, in which he states that “our supplies are dwindling and our planet is in ecological catastrophe”. You can read the full and passionate statement here.
Simon is also a photographer, and as you can see throughout this article, a talented one.

A beautiful view in another home that Simon is helping build for someone else. (Originally, this was mistakenly identified as a photo of the home he and his family are living in.)
The tools are fairly simple. The main concession to modernity was a chainsaw, which he used to cut down about 30 small trees. No old growth forest fell to his family’s needs. He focused on tools that used his own energy, like shovel, chisel, and hammer. Yet it took him only four months to produce this lovely home.

The home is constructed from wood, stone, straw, and has a sod roof. It’s heated with a wood fireplace and has a solar panel for power. Most materials were scavenged. The effect, though, isn’t of a run-down get-by-with-second-best sort. It’s creative, artistic, elegant, and cozy.Most amazingly, the home didn’t require years of training or experience. Simon had none. He’s not an architect. He’s not an engineer. He’s not a carpenter. He started from scratch in every sense. He told the Daily Mail:
Being your own have-a-go architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass-produced box designed for maximum profit and the convenience of the construction industry.
Building from natural materials does away with producers’ profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.

He was fortunate in obtaining the land for his home. The plot, a bit of a large piece, was given to him in exchange for its caretaking.

Simon Dale, his wife Jasmine Saville, and their two children in front of their completed home just 4 months after starting it! This and all photos on this page are by Simon Dale (http://simondale.net).
The attention to making the home eco-friendly extends to a compost toilet, the use of straw over a plastic layer for insulation, and a refrigerator that’s cooled with air that flows from under the home’s foundation. Cement is a high carbon emitter, so the interior walls are finished with lime plaster instead of cement plaster.

Simon is now involved in building another home for the Lammas Project, an organization dedicted to low-impact building. Focus is not only on the homes themselves, but also on planting trees and gardens, and on low impact living in general. Here’s how he sums up his view on his home and the Lammas Project:
This building is one part of a low-impact or permaculture approach to life. This sort of life is about living in harmony with both the natural world and ourselves, doing things simply and using appropriate levels of technology. These sort of low cost, natural buildings have a place not only in their own sustainability, but also in their potential to provide affordable housing which allows people access to land and the opportunity to lead more simple, sustainable lives.
I cannot imagine a home more lovely, appealing, and livable than this one. This could be and should be the wave of the future in home building.
For more information about Simon Dale’s home, plans, and more photos, please go to his website, A Low Impact Woodland Home.

Occupy for Nature's Right

2012-02-12T17:34:00.001Z

Occupy for Nature’s Right
By Irene Schleining
Whale of a Time
Irene@whaleofatime.org

“Sach’amama, Dreams of Transformation” by Cyberstarlet

The birth of the Occupy movement stirs sleepy nations
Crying out for environmental, social and economic liberations
While the G20 summit is in the red zone to resolve the Eurozone -
Greece, Italy and Spain are zoned out in deprivation
While governments search for a deficit cure
Budgets are cut for society’s poor
While climate change in Durban struggles to find an ear
Farmers are struggling to keep crops alive amid droughts in fear
While the Occupy Movement is expanding to all lands
People are joining in global conversation to take matters in their own hands.

With the Occupy Agenda seeking referenda with some extra time
Ideas issued in the “Bank of Ideas” are paving the way for a new paradigm
The campaign against the injustices of the global financial system calls for “an end to tax havens and tax avoidance”
The small tax payer is looking for condolence
“More transparency over business lobbying”, no more space for bargaining!
Clear calls to prosecute executives, a legal reform, that should be the norm
Our fundamental message is that we are all affected. We’re all connected - Entangled in the web of life
Stand up for justice in our fight!
Occupy for Nature’s Right!

Corporate Executives are having a laugh, but enough is enough!
As we all know from Annie Leonard’s “Story of Stuff”
Corporations need limitations, to avoid people’s and nature’s deprivations
Democracy has been kidnapped by global corporations, with insufficient regulations
Banks without social nor environmental responsibility, exploitation without taxation nor liability.

It’s the “End Of The Line” in 2009, with fish stock decline
Whales and dolphins captured for Sea World tortures
Nature’s intelligence - massacred in Taiji by ignorance
Rainforests – the green lungs of the planet, more than half already vanished -
Traded for oil, soya and paper in vain
It’s irreversible and only for short-term gain
Billions of years of evolution lost!
Half of the world’s biodiversity at super low cost!
Environmental regulations needed for future generations
Climate protocols aren’t binding, while world temperatures are rising
And the icing? Our polar bears are dying!
If you think the situation isn’t dire
Think about “The Revenge of Gaia!”

We need a new system recognising ecological and moral worth
So support the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth!
We know that when we disrespect and harm nature
We diminish ourselves and impoverish our future
No business interests come first, and nature, communities and ecosystems will be reimbursed
Bolivia and Ecuador are in the lead, they saw the threats and urgent needs
Ecuador rewrote its Constitution, the people of Ecuador found the best solution
Ratified by people’s referendum, this is where democracy comes from.

Treating nature as property is daylight robbery
“Mother Earth is a living being”, we’re part of her indivisible breathing
“All life forms have the right to exist”, that’s what the Declaration insists
Intrinsically interlinked complex ecosystems, we need them for resilience and our future existence
“For nature to persist, maintain and regenerate”, people need to congregate
If we can enforce Mother Earth’s Right, then maybe after all - there is some light.
Stand up and fight! Occupy for Nature’s Right!

We recognise that Genocide is a crime against peace
So why not recognise the crime of Ecocide and kill that beast
“A human right to life and dignity is meaningless without water and wilderness”
We are part of Nature and Nature is part of us
A self-regulating community should live in unity
Let’s redefine our human relationship with Mother Earth
Just in time for 2012 for planetary rebirth
Remember, what your life means to you
And give back that love to our Earth Mother too
Imagine a world with peace and no crime
We could all be having a whale of a time!
Stand up and fight! Occupy for Nature’s Right!

The obvious truth of the Rights of Nature, is implicit in the Occupy Agenda
This message is transparent and this message is clear, that’s why we are here
Nature needs a voice in our democracy, the 99% includes nature too, and you and me
We can’t cure the symptom of bankruptcies, by bailing-out banks that created these
And paying with endangered species, leaving a planet devastated in pieces
The cause of much destruction and war is a psychotic disease, created by money and greed.

Let’s reset our democratic system, play a new melody with a different rhythm
With laws in force that are 100% for people and nature
For a peaceful foundation to thrive in healthy nations and for all future generations
Stand up and fight! Occupy for Nature’s Right!

Read the complete Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth at
www.rightsofmotherearth.com

If you agree that Nature has rights, like the right to exist, then please encourage the UN and heads of state to accept the Declaration by signing this petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/yes-to-rights-of-nature

Poem written by Irene Schleining, Whale of a Time - www.whaleofatime.org

With thanks to Melanie Strickland (Wild Law UK) for her valuable feedback.

Shipping causes 'chronic stress' to whales

2012-02-08T20:50:00.000Z

First evidence of physical harm of propeller noise on the animals

Damian Carrington
The Guardian, Wednesday 8 February 2012
Article history

New evidence shows for the first time the harmful effect of shipping noises on whales. Photograph: Barrett & MacKay/Corbis

Shipping noise causes chronic stress to whales, scientists have shown for the first time, after using the halt in marine traffic after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to conduct a unique experiment.

The effect on whales of propeller noise, military sonar and explosions set off in the search for oil and gas is highly controversial. Environmental campaigners claim the noise interferes with the singing of whales, or even kills the animals, and are currently suing the US government over the navy's use of sonar.

The research, published on Wednesday, provides the first evidence of physical harm, according to Rosalind Rolland, a researcher at the New England Aquarium, in Boston, US.

"We showed whales occupying oceans with high levels of ship noise have a chronic stress response," said Rolland, who led the study. "We knew whales changed the frequency of their calls to adapt to the ship noise, but this work shows it is not merely an annoyance – it is having a physical effect."

She had not originally set out to study the effect of noise on the animals. The hormone data was part of a study of the whales' health and reproduction but Rolland realised many years later it could be combined with data on noise levels from shipping to draw conclusions about how the whales are being affected.

Whales use sound as their primary sense, just as humans use sight, and their singing enables them to find food, mates and to navigate. They are believed to be able to communicate over hundreds of kilometres. But the frequencies they use largely overlap with the frequencies generated by human activities in the oceans, which have increased tenfold in volume since the 1960s, disrupting their ability to communicate.

A separate study published in January showed the singing of humpback whales was disrupted by sonar noise caused over 200km away while measuring fish stocks.

Rolland was at sea in the Bay of Fundy on 11 September 2001: "There was a dramatic reduction in ship traffic that day. It was like being on the primal ocean." The noise levels from shipping fell by half, as transport was shut down in response the terror attacks. Rolland's team also collected faecal balls from the whales, which float, and analysed the levels of stress hormones present. They found a "highly significant" decrease in stress hormones coincided with the drop in shipping noise.

"Instant responses to stress – like running away from a tiger – can be life-saving," said Rolland. "But if it becomes chronic, it causes profound depression of the immune system, making them vulnerable to disease, and it depresses reproduction."

The northern right whales Rolland studied are one of the most endangered whales, with 475 in the world and a population growing at just 1% a year. In contrast, the southern right whale numbers 8-10,000 and a growth rate of 7-8% a year, as they recover from the decimation of whaling. Rolland dubbed the northern right whale "the urban whale" in a book she co-authored, because its territory is close to the busy eastern seaboard of North America. She said damage caused by noise is very likely to be a factor in the population's slow recovery, and may also affect other whales. Beaked whales, which Rolland is now studying, are particularly sensitive to sonar she said, and are frequently the species involved in mass beachings.

"The positive aspect to this particular issue is that it is a solvable problem," Rolland said. The noise is largely down to engine inefficiencies, she said, which is possible to remedy and doing so would reduce fuel consumption in return for upfront investment. The International Maritime Organisation and the European Union are both investigating how to reduce marine noise. But with 50,000 large ships travelling the oceans on any given day and a ship lifespan of about three decades, changing the fleet will not occur overnight.

Danny Groves, at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: "Not enough is being done to reduce noise in our oceans Very little is known about its long-term effects and more research is needed.

"Amazingly, there are currently no accepted international standards regarding noise pollution in our seas."

Asked how the whale faecal balls were found, Rolland said: "We find the pellets opportunistically, but we do also use trained scent-detection dogs. They are phenomenal. They work off the bow and can detect the scent up to 1km away."

Navy Training Blasts Marine Mammals with Harmful Sonar

2012-02-08T20:42:00.000Z

Wildlife protection agency challenged for not doing its job
January 26, 2012

Southern Resident orcas (Kelly Balcomb-Bartok)
Fact Sheet: "West Coast Marine Life and the Navy's NW Training Range"
Video: Orcas and Navy Sonar

San Francisco, CA — A coalition of conservation and American Indian groups today sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for failing to protect thousands of whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions from U.S. Navy warfare training exercises along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington.
Southern Resident orcas. (Kelly Balcomb-Bartok)
Fact sheet: "West Coast Marine Life and
the Navy’s NW Training Range"
Video: Orcas and Navy Sonar
Earthjustice, representing InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Friends of the San Juans, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and People For Puget Sound, today filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Northern California challenging NMFS’s approval of the Navy’s training activities in its Northwest Training Range Complex. The lawsuit calls on NMFS to mitigate anticipated harm to marine mammals and biologically critical areas within the training range that stretches from Northern California to the Canadian border.
“These training exercises will harm dozens of protected species of marine mammals—Southern Resident killer whales, blue whales, humpback whales, dolphins, and porpoises—through the use of high-intensity mid-frequency sonar,” said Steve Mashuda, an Earthjustice attorney representing the groups. “The Fisheries Service fell down on the job and failed to require the Navy to take reasonable and effective actions to protect them.”
The Navy uses a vast area of the West Coast for training activities including anti-submarine warfare exercises involving tracking aircraft and sonar; surface-to-air gunnery and missile exercises; air-to-surface bombing exercises; sink exercises; and extensive testing for several new weapons systems.
“Since the beginning of time, the Sinkyone Council’s member Tribes have gathered, harvested and fished for traditional cultural marine resources in this area, and they continue to carry out these subsistence ways of life, and their ceremonial activities along this Tribal ancestral coastline. Our traditional cultural lifeways, and our relatives such as the whales and many other species, will be negatively and permanently impacted by the Navy’s activities,” said Priscilla Hunter, chairwoman and co-founder of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council. “Both NMFS and the Navy have failed in their obligations to conduct government-to-government consultation with the Sinkyone Council and its member Tribes regarding project impacts.”
In late 2010, NMFS gave the Navy a permit for five years of expanded naval activity that will harm or “take” marine mammals and other sealife. The permit allows the Navy to conduct increased training exercises that can harm marine mammals and disrupt their migration, nursing, breeding, or feeding, primarily as a result of harassment through exposure to the use of sonar.
“The Navy’s Northwest Training Range is the size of the State of California, yet not one square inch is off-limits to the most harmful aspects of naval testing and training activities,” said Zak Smith, staff attorney for NRDC. “We are asking for common-sense measures to protect the critical wildlife that lives within the training range from exposure to life-threatening effects of sonar. Biologically rich areas like the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary should be protected.”
The Navy’s mid-frequency sonar has been implicated in mass strandings of marine mammals in, among other places, the Bahamas, Greece, the Canary Islands, and Spain. In 2004, during war games near Hawai’i, the Navy’s sonar was implicated in a mass beaching of up to 200 melon-headed whales in Hanalei Bay. In 2003, the USS Shoup,operating in Washington’s Haro Strait, exposed a group of endangered Southern Resident killer whales to mid-frequency sonar, causing the animals to stop feeding and attempt to flee the sound.
“In 2003, NMFS learned firsthand the harmful impacts of Navy sonar in Washington waters when active sonar blasts distressed members of J pod, one of our resident pods of endangered orcas,” said Kyle Loring, Staff Attorney for Friends of the San Juans. “Given this history, it is particularly distressing that NMFS approved the Navy’s use of deafening noises in areas where whales and dolphins use their acute hearing to feed, navigate, and raise their young, even in designated sanctuaries and marine reserves.”
“Whales and other marine mammals don’t stand a chance against the Navy,” said Miyoko Sakashita, Oceans Director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Navy’s mitigation plan for sonar use relies primarily on visual detection of whales or other marine mammals by so-called “ watch-standers” with binoculars on the decks of ships. If mammals are seen in the vicinity of an exercise, the Navy is to cease sonar use.
“Visual detection can miss anywhere from 25–95% of the marine mammals in an area,” said Heather Trim, Director of Policy for People For Puget Sound. “It’s particularly unreliable in rough seas or in bad weather. We learn more every day about where whales and other mammals are most likely to be found—we want NMFS to put that knowledge to use to ensure that the Navy’s training avoids those areas when marine mammals are most likely there.”
The litigation is not intended to halt the Navy’s exercises, but asks the Court to require NMFS to reassess the permits using the latest science and to order the Navy to stay out of biologically critical areas at least at certain times of the year.
Marcie Keever of Friends of the Earth noted, “It has become increasingly clear from recent research that the endangered Southern Resident killer whale community uses coastal waters within the Navy’s training range to find salmon during the fall and winter months. NMFS has failed in its duty to assure that the Navy is not pushing the whales closer to extinction.”

Related Documents:
Read the complaint.
Read the fact sheet: "West Coast Marine Life and the Navy’s NW Training Range"
Watch B-Roll and narrated video of orcas and Navy sonar.

Related Video:
In May 2003, a group of about 20 killer whales and dozens of porpoises were forced to flee the waters near the San Juan Islands in Washington State after a Navy ship passed by with its active sonar blasting. The incident was captured by whale researchers from the Center for Whale Research on San Juan Island. Ken Balcomb, executive director of the Center for Whale Research, narrates this video. (Read related press release and NMFS's report on this incident. B-Roll footage is available for use by reporters and editors.)

Contact:
Steve Mashuda, Earthjustice, (206) 343-7340, ext. 1027
Miyoko Sakashita, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 632-5308
Hawk Rosales, InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, (707) 489-3640
Marcie Keever, Friends of the Earth, (415) 544-0790, ext. 223
Kyle Loring, Friends of the San Juans, (360) 378-2319
Jessica Lass, NRDC, (310) 434-2300
Heather Trim, People For Puget Sound, (206) 351-2898

Industry figures confirm GM food is a commercial flop in Europe

2012-02-08T14:29:00.000Z

GM crops still largely restricted to the Americas

*Brussels, 7 February 2012 ˆ *Annual industry figures to be released on
Tuesday are expected to confirm the commercial failure of genetically
modified (GM) food in Europe, said Greenpeace. Only around 0.06% of the
EU‚s agricultural land was used in 2011 to grow GM food, the report by the
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications
(ISAAA), a group funded by the biotech industry to promote GM crops, is
expected to say.

Total used agricultural land in the EU amounts to around 179 million
hectares. The biotech industry figure for overall cultivation of GM food in
Europe in 2011 is expected to be just over 110,000 hectares [1].

Widespread public opposition and environmental concerns expressed by
several European governments, scientists and farmers have made GM food a
commercial flop in Europe, said Greenpeace [2]. Only Spain saw a noticeable
rise in cultivation in 2012, slightly increasing overall figures for Europe
after three consecutive years of decline [3].

The publication of the annual ISAAA industry report follows an announcement
in January by BASF, the world‚s biggest chemical company, that it was
abandoning plans to develop and commercialise GM food in Europe due to
opposition from „the majority of consumers, farmers and politicians‰ [4].
Cultivation of BASF‚s flagship antibiotic-resistant potato, known as
Amflora, has been negligible since its controversial authorisation in March
2010, under 20 hectares in 2011 [5].

The only crop that will still be grown in Europe in 2012, Monsanto‚s
pesticide-producing GM maize MON810, is still banned in seven EU countries
because of environmental and health concerns [6]. In January, Monsanto
announced that it would no longer seek to sell its GM maize in France,
saying that „favorable conditions for the sale of the MON810 in France in
2012 and beyond are not in place‰ [7].

*Greenpeace EU agriculture policy director Marco Contiero said: **„There is
no escaping the hard facts: GM food has flopped in Europe, is increasingly
opposed in Asia and is retreating to the Americas. Public rejection and
market failure have already forced BASF to scaling back in Europe, while
Monsanto is holding on by its fingernails. Crops that are only grown on
0.06% of Europe‚s agricultural land can only be described as a failure.‰*

After 16 years of aggressive commercialisation, over 80% of global GM crop
production is still restricted to only four countries in the Americas: the
United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina. Recent attempts to introduce
GM food to China (GM rice) and India (GM aubergine) have failed [8].

*Ends

Notes to editors:*
[1] See: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/agrista/2010/table_en/C5-2-3522.pdf.
In comparison, the organically farmed area in the EU is almost 7.8 million
hectares (see:
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Organic_farming_statistics
).
[2] 61% of Europeans reject GM crops, according to EU polls (Special
Eurobarometer 341 - 73.1 on Biotechnology:
http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_341_en.pdf).
[3] In 2010-2009, cultivation of GM crops in Europe declined by 13%. In
2009-2008, the ISAAA also reported a 12% EU-wide decline (see: ISAAA,
global status of commercialized biotech/GM Crops: 2009. By Clive James,
ISAAA brief 4, pp. 181-182).
[4] BASF press release: www.basf.com/group/pressrelease/P-12-109.
[5] See: http://www.foodprocessing-technology.com/news/news109205.html.
[6] Countries with a ban on MON810 are: Germany, France, Austria, Hungary,
Greece, Luxembourg and Bulgaria.
[7] See:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/24/us-gmo-france-monsanto-idUSTRE80N1NI20120124
.
[8] See:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/China-says-no-to-genetically-engineered-rice/and
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/monsanto-GE-brinjal100210/

Survival of the Beautiful by David Rothenberg

2012-02-01T18:33:00.000Z

Survival of the Beautiful: Art, Science, and Evolution

David Rothenberg, Bloomsbury UK, 2012

A brilliant investigation of why nature is beautiful and how art has influenced science.

Taking inspiration from Charles Darwin’'s observations that animals have a natural aesthetic sense, philosopher and musician David Rothenberg dives into the mysteries of why we create art, and why animals, humans included, have innate appreciation for beauty.

The book will be launched in the UK at the GV Art London on Feb. 15th, 6pm, a venue specializing in art/science exhibitions. All are welcome.

49 Chiltern Street
London W1U 6LY
+44 208 408 9800

Why did the peacock’s tail so trouble Charles Darwin? Natural selection could not explain it, so he had to contrive a whole new theory of sexual selection, which posited that certain astonishingly beautiful traits became preferred even when not exactly useful, simply because they appealed to the opposite sex, and specifically so in each case. And yet the parallels in what gets preferred at different levels of life suggest that nature may in fact favor certain kinds of patterns over others. Visually, the symmetrical; colorwise, the contrasting and gaudy; displaywise, the gallant and extreme. Soundwise, the strong contrast between low note and high, between fast rhythm and the long clear tone. For that matter, plenty of beauty in nature would seem to arise for reasons other than mere sexual selection: for example, the mysterious inscriptions on the backs of seashells, or the compounding geometric symmetries of microscopic diatoms, or the live patterns pulsating across the bodies of octopus and squid.

Humans see such things and find them astonishingly beautiful: are we wrong to experience Nature in such terms? Far greater than our grandest edifices and epic tales, Nature itself nevertheless seems entirely without purposeful self-consciousness or self-awareness. Meanwhile, though we ourselves are as nothing compared to it, we still seem possessed of a parallel need to create. So: can we in fact create our way into better understanding of the role of beauty in the vast natural world?

A searching, accessible, and often ecstatic book.
-- Wall Street Journal

A bravura investigation..with verve, multidiscipline fluency, and an encompassing vision, Rothenberg accomplishes his mission to change the way we perceive and understand the intertwining of natural evolution and human cultural evolution, beauty and life, art and science.
-- Booklist (starred)

Survival of the Beautiful is not just a book about beauty, but a beautiful book. And also an important one that moves the debate about the biology of aesthetics beyond the cozy fables of evolutionary psychology to probe the deep nature of art and its origins. Both provocative and generous, Rothenberg's work is pervaded with a sense of wonder at and appreciation of the world.
-- Philip Ball, author of Critical Mass and Self-Made Tapestry

David Rothenberg is a brilliantly fun guide on a journey that takes us from bowerbirds to the neuroaesthetics of Semir Zeki. Survival of the Beautiful is just about the best travel literature of the mind out there. With wit by turns gentle and sharp, Rothenberg shows us how art is shaped by animals, and by us.
-- Roald Hoffmann, chemist and writer, winner of the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The nerdy mind-set of modernity often suffers allergic outbreaks when confronted with the softer side of cognition. Aesthetic pleasures are then cordoned off from the serious core work of science. But David Rothenberg makes a convincing case that beauty is an intrinsic aspect of reality. He argues, among other things, that without modern art, modern science would have been hobbled by inadequately challenged cognitive habits. Beauty evolved. Perhaps we should take it seriously.
-- Jaron Lanier, author of You Are Not a Gadget

David Rothenberg is a rarity--an actual polymath--and his writing, like the music he plays, reveals an extraordinary mixture of curiosity, intelligence, and playfulness. Tracing complex ideas that link consciousness, human spirit, and creativity within the framework of Darwinian theory leads to the sort of book you would expect from a man who makes music with whales and cicadas. Where does the impetus for the making of art and music reside? How does that fit into an evolutionary scheme? Read this book and enter into Rothenberg's world. You will be rewarded with an exploration of these questions that is both entertaining and revelatory.
-- David Ross, director emeritus, Whitney Museum of American Art

Support Aboriginal rights in the NT

2012-02-01T12:47:00.000Z

The Federal Government is threatening to extend the Northern Territory Intervention for 10 more years, under its proposed Stronger Futures legislation.

It goes against the wishes and concerns of Aboriginal people across the Territory.
And it will lead to 10 more years of disempowerment and despair in their communities.

It has been opposed by community groups and civil society across Australia, as expressed in their Joint Statement: Cooperation not Intervention - A call fo a new direction in the Northern Territory

A Senate Inquiry has been established to look into the legislation, and is asking for people to submit their views which will help influence the Government's action.

The deadline for submissions is WEDNESDAY 1st FEBRUARY

Individuals, groups and organisations can submit to the Inquiry, by simply sending an email to community.affairs.sen@aph.gov.au

PLEASE MAKE A SUBMISSION, AND SUPPORT SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORY.

It doesn't have to be long. A few words will suffice.
We can each make a real impact here.

Pasted below is some sample text that you are also welcome to use.

Make sure you include in the email: Your contact details and postal address.
And attach your submission as a PDF or Word document.
More info can be found on the Submissions website, if needed.

Please, act now!
And give a few minutes of your time to support Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.

Thank you.

Our Generation Team

Sample submission

EMAIL SUBJECT: Submission re Stronger Futures

To the Senate Community Affairs Committee
Regarding the Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory Bill 2011

Your name & position/organisation

I wish to make a submission to the Committee to express my opposition to the proposed Stronger Futures legislation.

I concur with the concerns expressed by community groups and national organisations, that the legislation does not reflect the views expressed by communities during the Stronger Futures consultations, and that it will further embed the disempowerment and discrimination that was begun under the Northern Territory Intervention.

I ask that the legislation be withdrawn and that an alternative policy is developed, based on genuine consultation, community empowerment, the respect of Aboriginal culture, lands and languages, and the fundamental right of Aboriginal people to be able to control their own lives.

Thank you.

JOHN SMITH

Toxic chemicals to pollute Europeans for another generation (Greenpeace EU pressdesk)

2012-02-01T11:35:00.004Z

Find out more
Read full report

Brussels, 31 January 2011 ˆ *A review of chemical laws announced today will
allow continuing toxic contamination of European lakes and rivers linked to
serious human illnesses. The European Commission has dodged its
responsibilities for over a decade and is allowing some of the most
dangerous chemicals to continue polluting for a generation, said Greenpeace.

Today‚s European Commission proposal to amend existing water legislation
[1] makes progress on the monitoring of harmful chemicals and for the first
time targets pharmaceutical ingredients, such as those used in
contraceptives.

But the Commission fails to set out clear timetables to phase out the most
dangerous chemicals, despite explicit legal requirements agreed since 2000
[2]. It is adding only 15 new chemicals from a list of 2,000 potentially
dangerous substances that should be monitored and reduced. But the
Commission wants to allow the most dangerous of these chemicals to continue
polluting waterways for 20 years.

*Greenpeace EU chemicals policy director Kevin Stairs said: **„It‚s been 12
years since lawmakers agreed to phase out the most dangerous chemicals from
our water - chemicals linked to serious human illnesses and toxic
contamination of rivers and lakes. Since then, the Commission has
systematically dodged its responsibility to set concrete plans to rid our
water of these known poisons and would instead allow them to contaminate
yet another generation.‰*

The EU proposal will now be debated by the European Parliament and EU
governments. The revision process is expected to be completed by the end of
the year.

Last year, Nike, Puma, Adidas and other global sportswear brands agreed to
phase out toxic chemicals from their supply chain by 2020, the direct
result of a successful Greenpeace campaign [3]. The companies agreed to put
in place action plans and a timetable to phase out chemicals that end up in
water.

*Ends*

*Notes to editors:*
[1] Water Framework Directive and Environmental Quality Standards
Directive.
[2] Water Framework Directive. Article 16, paragraph 6 reads: „The
commission shall submit proposals of controls for∑the cessation or phasing
out of discharges∑of the substances∑including an appropriate timetable for
doing so.‰
[3] Dirty Laundry report:
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/water

10 Reasons I love Monsanto.

2012-01-28T14:57:00.000Z

10 Reasons I love Monsanto.

1. Contaminating the global food chain with GMO’s.

2. Intimidating small farmers with bullying and lawsuits.

3. Propagating the use of destructive pesticides and herbicides across the globe.

4. Using “Terminator Technology”, which renders plants sterile.

5. Attempting to hijack UN climate change negotiations for your own fiscal benefit.

6. Reducing farmland to desert through monoculture and the use of synthetic fertilizers.

7. Inspiring suicides of hundreds of thousands of Indian farmers.

8. Causing birth defects by continuing to produce the pesticide “Round-up”

9. Attempting to bribe foriegn officials

10. Infiltrating anti-GMO groups

Imker in Grosser Sorge

2012-01-24T23:12:00.000Z

Diese Forderungen wurden im Thingbuch niedergeschrieben:

Wir fordern:
1. Das Recht auf pestizidfreie Lebensmittel
2. Unabhängige, bedarfsorientierte Forschung
3. Förderung des Ökolandbaus
4. Schutz der Bienen für die Zukunft unserer Kinder
---

Pesticide exposure in honey bees results in increased levels of the gut pathogen Nosema

2012-01-24T23:00:00.000Z

Naturwissenschaften
DOI 10.1007/s00114-011-0881-1
Jeffery S. Pettis & Dennis vanEngelsdorp &
Josephine Johnson & Galen Dively

Received: 1 May 2011 / Revised: 25 December 2011 / Accepted: 31 December 2011
# The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

Abstract Global pollinator declines have been attributed to habitat destruction, pesticide use, and climate change or some combination of these factors, and managed honey bees, Apis
mellifera, are part of worldwide pollinator declines. Here we exposed honey bee colonies during three brood generations to sub-lethal doses of a widely used pesticide, imidacloprid, and then subsequently challenged newly emerged bees with the gut parasite, Nosema spp. The pesticide dosages used were below levels demonstrated to cause effects on longevity or foraging in adult honey bees. Nosema infections increased significantly in the bees from pesticide-treated hives when compared to bees from control hives demonstrating an indirect effect of pesticides on pathogen growth in honey bees. We clearly demonstrate an increase in pathogen growth within
individual bees reared in colonies exposed to one of the most widely used pesticides worldwide, imidacloprid, at below levels considered harmful to bees. The finding that individual
bees with undetectable levels of the target pesticide, after being reared in a sub-lethal pesticide environment within the colony, had higher Nosema is significant. Interactions between pesticides and pathogens could be a major contributor to increased mortality of honey bee colonies, including colony collapse disorder, and other pollinator declines worldwide.

Keywords Apis mellifera . Imidacloprid . Nosema .
Sub-lethal . Pesticides . Pathogens

Introduction

The honey bee, Apis mellifera, is arguably the most important pollinator of agricultural crops (Klein et al. 2007). While worldwide managed honey bee populations have increased over the last 50 years, colony populations have decreased significantly in many European and North American nations (Aizen and Harder 2009) as a result of habitat destruction, pesticide use, pathogens, and climate change (NRC 2007) or some combination of these factors (vanEngelsdorp and
Meixner 2010). At the same time, cultivation of crops that are dependent on insects for pollination (Aizen et al. 2009) has increased. The ability to provide sufficient colonies to meet this anticipated demand is questionable, especially in light of the elevated losses experienced by US beekeepers over the winters of 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 (vanEngelsdorp et al. 2007; vanEngelsdorp et al. 2008). Colonies that die with a condition known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) make up a signifi- cant proportion of recent overwintering losses in the USA
(vanEngelsdorp et al. 2008). While the cause of CCD remains unknown, affected colonies are often infected with a greater variety and higher loads of disease agents than apparently
healthy colonies (Johnson et al. 2009; vanEngelsdorp et al. 2009a; Cox-Foster et al. 2007). This suggests that some factor or combination of factors may be weakening bees by making
them more susceptible to infection (vanEngelsdorp et al. 2009a). A myriad of abiotic and biotic factors can adversely affect the ability of honey bees to fight infection, including interactions between disease agents, mite parasitism, poor nutrition, and sub-lethal exposure to pesticides (Johnson et al. 2009; vanEngelsdorp et al. 2009a). Systemic pesticides such as
imidacloprid pose a new route of exposure in pollen and nectar and have been demonstrated to have negative effects on learning in adult bees (Decourtye et al. 2004).
Here we test the hypothesis that bees exposed to sub-lethal levels of pesticide are more susceptible to disease. We exposed colonies of honey bees to the insecticide imidacloprid at
sub-lethal levels and then challenged newly emerged workers from those colonies with the gut parasite Nosema spp., two species (Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae) of which are
known to adversely affect colony health (Higes et al. 2008; Kauko et al. 2003). The pesticide dosages used were below levels demonstrated to cause effects on longevity or foraging
in adult honey bees (Maus et al. 2003; Bonmatin et al. 2007; Deseneux et al. 2007).

Discussion

We clearly demonstrate an interaction between sub-lethal exposure to imidacloprid at the colony level and the spore production in individual bees of honey bee gut parasite Nosema. Two similar studies have just been published that directly treated individual bees with imidacloprid, fipronil,
or thiacloprid and then challenged them with Nosema with similar synergistic interaction between Nosema and pesticide exposure (Alaux et al. 2010; Vidau et al. 2011). Our study differs in several significant ways; (1) our study employed sub-lethal colony-level pesticide chronic expo-
sure instead of laboratory direct exposure to experimental bees, (2) no imidacloprid residues could be found in the newly emerged worker bees challenged in our study (Table 1),
(3) our test bees could only have received pesticide exposure during larval development, thus (4) pesticide exposure to test bees could only have been indirectly from brood food from
nurse bees (Winston 1987) that were exposed as they fed on imidacloprid-spiked protein. We can only speculate as to why sub-lethal exposure in brood food to larva resulted in in-
creased spore production in adult bees. Since Nosema initiates infection in the mid-gut then perhaps in the larval stages the mid-gut ways altered or weakened in some manner that
resulted in increased Nosema infection in adult bees. Vidau et al. (2011) failed to demonstrate a change in the pesticide detoxification system in adult bees yet still demonstrated an
increase in mortality in adult bees when pesticides and Nosema were combined. Alaux et al. (2010) showed that co-exposure to imidacloprid and Nosema weakened bees but they
also showed a trend toward a slight decrease in spore production with pesticide exposure. Individual bees in our study showed a marked increase in Nosema spore production in
the laboratory but the parent colonies failed to show increased Nosema levels over time. Our understanding of N. ceranae at the colony level is still very limited as colony-level spore counts can be highly variable. Perhaps spore production is not the proper way to measure N. ceranae infection as has always been the case with N. apis? Taken together these three
studies clearly demonstrate synergism between pesticides and Nosema. The current study, with the more robust chronic sublethal pesticide exposure at the colony level, clearly demon-
strates that such interactions are possible in the real world, not just in a laboratory setting. Additional research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms of pesticide pathogen
interactions. This is especially true in our study in trying to determine how the pesticide moved in the colony, affected nurse bees, and what level of exposure that larvae in these colonies actually received. The pesticide was consumed equally among the two dosages and house bees contained the pesticide but the pharmacokinetics within the colony is yet to be determined.

Past studies have found that chronic, sub-lethal exposure to pesticides can have an adverse effect on colonies (Bendahou et al. 1999) and has been associated with overt disease out-
breaks in honey bees (Morse et al. 1965). Conversely, further infection with the chronic bee paralysis virus can affect honey bee tolerance to agricultural pesticides (Bendahou et al. 1997).
Recent increases in colony losses in the USA and Europe have drawn particular attention to one relatively new class of systemic pesticides, the neonicotinoids, of which imidacloprid is
a member. Beekeeper conviction that imidacloprid is responsible for colony losses in France has resulted in the withdrawal of its registration (under the trade name Gaucho, Bayer, Leverkusen, Germany) as a seed treatment for sunflowers and corn Ministere de l’Agriculture et de la Peche (1999 and 2004). Similar pressure in California has resulted in a reevaluation of four neonicotinoids, including imidacloprid, because of elevated levels of residues in leaves and blossoms of ornamental plants after imidacloprid applications. The published levels of imidacloprid expressing acute and chronic toxicity on bees are variable and conflicting (Nguyen et al. 2009). Most studies suggest that imidacloprid can cause disorientation and associative learning problems in honey bees at exposure levels above 20 ppb (Decourtye et al. 2004; Deseneux et al. 2007). However, crop residue studies have detected imidacloprid at levels of 2–5 ppb in
pollen and >1.5 ppb in nectar of seed-treated corn, sunflowers, and rape (Kauko et al. 2003) well below the 20 ppb level documented to cause acute and chronic toxicity effects. To our knowledge no studies have examined chronic effects of dietary exposure to imidacloprid in functional colonies over multiple brood cycles and potential synergistic effects of pesticide and disease interactions. Our results suggest that the current methods used to evaluate the potential negative effect of pesticides are inadequate. This is not the first study to note a complex and unexpected interaction between low pesticide exposure and pathogen loads. Trem-
atodes levels in amphibian populations are driven by atrazine in the aquatic environment (Rohr et al. 2008). Elevated levels of the fungicide chlorothalonil in honey bees have
been associated with “entombed pollen” which is linked with increased risk of colony mortality (vanEngelsdorp et al. 2009b). The call for a reevaluation of pesticide test protocols required for the registration of products is not new (Colin et al. 2004; Halm et al. 2006). These proposed
new standards utilize the Predicated No Effect Concentration which is determined using chronic and acute toxicity data and not potentially indirect effects of pesticide exposure, such as
increased susceptibility to pathogens. With the wide variety of pesticides that have been documented in failing beehives (Mullen et al. 2010), it is imperative that we understand both
the synergistic effects these compound may have and the interactions with other variables, like pathogens, involved in bee health. We suggest new pesticide testing standards be
devised that incorporate increased pathogen susceptibility into the test protocols. Lastly, we believe that subtle interactions between pesticides and pathogens, such as demonstrated here, could be a major contributor to increased mortality of honey bee colonies worldwide.

Dolphins have no part in this dispute with Iran | Peter Singer

2012-01-19T21:46:00.001Z

Peter Singer
Today, 3:19 PM

For the US Navy to put dolphins in harm's way in the Persian Gulf is a form of speciesist enslavement we should be ending

The US Navy has trained dolphins to detect mines. Now, they might be used in the conflict with Iran over its nuclear policies.

In response to heightened sanctions, Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, the only sea route out of the Persian Gulf and, according to the US energy department, "the world's most important oil choke". Iran might use mines to do it, and if they should do so, then, according to retired US Admiral Tim Keating, who previously commanded the US 5th Fleet in Bahrain, "we've got dolphins."

According to earlier reports, the US Navy has trained about 80 dolphins to detect mines. Some reports say that the dolphins only locate the mines and drop acoustic transponders nearby, so that humans can destroy the mines, but it is also possible for the dolphins to set off the mines and die in the resulting explosion, and, of course, using the dolphins in this way makes them – and any other dolphins in the area – targets for the Iranians to destroy if they can.

Animals, or at least those who are conscious and capable of suffering or enjoying their lives, are not things for us to use in whatever way we find convenient. To believe that, because they are members of a different species, we can ignore or discount their interests is speciesism, a form of prejudice against beings who are not "us" that is akin to racism and sexism. We should give equal consideration to the interests of any sentient being, where their interests are similar to our own.

Dolphins are social mammals, capable of enjoying their lives. They form close bonds with other members of their group. They respond to images of themselves in a mirror, and use the mirror to examine marks on parts of their body that they cannot otherwise see – a test that is widely taken to be a sign of self-awareness, which human children cannot pass until they are somewhere between 18 months and two years of age.

The United States no longer conscripts its citizens to fight its wars. All its human troops are volunteers. But even conscripts have some basic rights. The dolphins have none.

Late last year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, together with three international orca experts, and two former orca trainers asked a federal court in San Diego to declare that five orcas held and forced to perform by SeaWorld are held as slaves in violation of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution that outlaws slavery. The suit has yet to be heard, but a similar case might be made against the US Navy for its use of dolphins.

Various civilizations have, at times, enslaved human beings and forced them to fight for their oppressors. That despicable practice is now rightly condemned, as far as human beings are concerned, but the enslavement of other species continues, in many areas of human life, and the use of slaves in war continues in the United States Navy.

It might be argued that as long as billions of animals are confined in factory farms to produce meat, eggs and milk, the use of a few dolphins in military action is trivial. Obviously, the amount of suffering we inflict on factory-farmed animals every day dwarfs whatever might happen to the dolphins.

Nevertheless, just when we are starting to realize how gravely we are wronging animals, and to do something about this – like the very welcome European Union ban on standard battery cages for laying hens, which came into effect on 1 January this year – we ought not to be finding new ways to exploit them.

Dolphins have nothing to do with the dispute over Iran's nuclear plans. Whatever the rights and wrongs of taking military action against Iran, let's leave the dolphins out of it.

Read more…

Read more about Military Testing: The Unseen War

guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions |

Louie Schwartzberg: The hidden beauty of pollination

2012-01-19T03:44:00.000Z

Sorgloser Umgand mit Gentechnologie und Pestizide bei Monsanto

2012-01-06T20:12:00.000Z

This film shows how carefree genetic engineering and pesticides are used in our agriculture and highlights also the backgrounds. (in German)

Interview with Shannon Biggs and Maude Barlow for The Rights of Nature

2011-12-17T00:16:00.000Z

GRIT tv interview with Shannon Biggs and Maude Barlow, co-authors of the new book, The Rights of Nature: The Case for a Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth.

Whale Mail - Blessed Christmas & a Whale of a 2012!

2011-12-16T23:52:00.000Z

Whale of a Time Workshop - November Review

The Whale of a Time Workshop was a huge success at WhaleFest in Brighton & Hove.

Special WhaleFest guests included Anne Meadows, Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Mark Brownlow, BBC Producer "Ocean Giants", David Rothenberg, Professor of Philosophy and Music at New Jersey Institute of Technology, author of "Thousand Mile Song".

Read Whale Mail - Blessed Christmas & a Whale of a 2012!

System Change - Shannon Biggs

2011-12-16T23:37:00.000Z

15th December: Silent Protest Held in Support of Communities of Limpopo

2011-12-15T18:57:00.000Z

Yesterday in central London a silent protest took place outside the General Meeting of Shareholders of Australian mining company, Coal of Africa Ltd (CoAL). The protest was held in solidarity with the communities of the Limpopo Province, South Africa, who face untold ecological, social and economic damage to their ancestral homes should the mine go ahead.

The CoAL project which will affect this region is known as the Makhado Project. It is in addition to one other mine owned by the company in Limpopo Province, known as Vele, and a further two in the neighbouring Mpumalanga province. Yesterday’s meeting preceded CoAL’s Conditional Placing of Shares on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange plc, which is set to take place today.

Liz Hosken, founding director of The Gaia Foundation took part in the protest: “We are here in support of the local communities and especially the Makadzhis- the guardians of the sacred sites and sacred lands of Venda in Limpopo Province. These are the spiritual leaders of the people whose responsibility it is to protect their ancestral homeland, which these coal-mining projects will destroy if they go ahead. The company haven’t even carried out proper studies, but the one thing that they have admitted is that the underground water will be finished within two years. So there isn’t even enough water for their own projects; let alone for life itself. If there is no water, there is no life. This is truly Ecocide.”

Earlier this week twelve civil society groups and community members from the Limpopo Province sent a letter to over fifty shareholders and potential investors of Coal of Africa (CoAL) demanding that they reconsider their plans to support the company - and specifically the Makhado Project.

The letter set out a number of grave concerns relating to CoAL’s handling of the Makhado project and their neighbouring Vele mine. These included a flawed public participation process; failure to provide adequate answers to questions raised by the community; no water licence; and an insufficient Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA), Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Management Plan.

The letter states: “We have a responsibility to our ancestors and to our children to stop the destruction of our ancestral lands. You would do the same if someone wanted to mine your home. Please think about that”.

Notes to Editors:

For further information please contact Rowan Phillimore at The Gaia Foundation on 0207 428 0054 or rowan@gaianet.org

or A.M. Mudau, Dzomo la Mupo, South Africa email: azwihangwisimosesm@yahoo.com or +27 79 412 2666

Watch a short film about yesterday’s protest and what the mine will mean to the communities of Limpopo here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZG0Sc9NTRY&feature=youtu.be
Image: Silent protest outside CoAL’s General Meeting of Shareholders which took place in Central London yesterday (Wednesday 14th December). Copyright, The Gaia Foundation.

The letter which was sent to CoAL shareholders and investors earlier this week has been based on evidence and analysis drawn from a research report commissioned by an alliance of groups, to look into the impacts of coal mining. The report Mine Not – Waste Not: A preliminary critique of aspects of the CoAL Makhado Colliery Project EIA and EMP is available on the following websites: The Gaia Foundation http://www.gaiafoundation.org and London Mining Network www.londonminingnetwork.org.

Coal of Africa’s website states today that, ‘subject to obtaining shareholder approval to issue the Conditional Placing Shares, the Company will apply for admission of the Conditional Placing Shares to trading or quotation and listing of the Conditional Placing Shares on the AIM market of London Stock Exchange plc ("AIM") on 15 December 2011 and on the Main Board of JSE Limited ("JSE") on 20 December 2011. Accordingly, the anticipated settlement date for the Conditional Placing Shares on AIM is 15 December 2011’. www.coalofafrica.com

Durban climate talks ending: Polluters won, people lost

2011-12-12T23:58:00.001Z

Durban ˆ 11 December 2011 - On the closing of the latest round of UN
climate talks in Durban Greenpeace today declared that it was clear that
our Governments this past two weeks listened to the carbon-intensive
polluting corporations instead of listening to the people who want an end
to our dependence on fossil fuels and real and immediate action on climate
change.

„The grim news is that the blockers lead by the US have succeeded in
inserting a vital get-out clause that could easily prevent the next big
climate deal being legally binding. If that loophole is exploited it could
be a disaster. And the deal is due to be implemented 'from 2020' leaving
almost no room for increasing the depth of carbon cuts in this decade when
scientists say we need emissions to peak," said Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace
International Executive Director.

„Right now the global climate regime amounts to nothing more than a
voluntary deal that‚s put off for a decade. This could take us over the two
degree threshold where we pass from danger to potential catastrophe.

"Our atmosphere has been loaded with a carbon debt and the bill, carrying a
Durban postmark, has been posted to the world‚s poorest countries. The
chance of averting catastrophic climate change is slipping through our
hands with every passing year that nations fail to agree on a rescue plan
for the planet."

www,greenpeace.org

Gift a Tree to the Rainmakers! | Sponsume

2011-12-08T16:37:00.000Z

Gift a Tree to the Rainmakers! | Sponsume

Spectacular Time Lapse Dam "Removal" Video ... The best solution for Belo Monte! ;)

2011-12-05T17:14:00.000Z

Scientists ask public to help decode whale song

2011-12-02T03:30:00.000Z

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 November 2011 16.56 GMT

Global 'crowdsourcing' experiment aims to discover new phrases, meanings and dialects among pilot and killer whales

Marine scientists have launched an appeal asking wildlife enthusiasts for help in decoding the secrets of whale song in a global "crowdsourcing" experiment.

Experts in the UK and north America are asking "citizen scientists" to study and sift through about 15,000 recordings of calls by pilot whales and killer whales around the planet, to see if new phrases, meanings and dialects can be uncovered.

The Whale Project, launched on Tuesday by Scientific American and the online citizen science organisation The Zooniverse, is similar to the first major attempt to use crowdsourcing by amateur astronomers to help discover new galaxies by studying images taken by the Hubble space telescope in July 2007.

Participants visiting whale.fm will be asked to study and then compare the sound wave patterns, or spectograms, of calls made by whales in different pods and families of whales around the world.

They will be asked to identify identical or very similar sound wave patterns, and will be able to play back each sound excerpt to help them match segments. Every sound recording is linked to a specific location in the sea, or geotagged, allowing scientists to precisely place clusters of calls in the areas where specific families of whale are known to inhabit.

Prof Ian Boyd, one of the project's collaborators from the University of St Andrews' sea mammal research unit, said scientists had discovered that people were often naturally much more able than computers to see similarities in complex spectograms.

"The first thing we want them to do is compare the images because what the human brain is very, very good at doing is comparing images, and is much better than a computer," Boyd said. "For someone like me who's tone deaf, who isn't very good at telling sounds apart, we're very, very good at making distinctions between small changes in shapes and objects."

He said pilot and killer whales had very complex calls or repertoires. Marine scientists now wanted to investigate the differences in each group's calls, like a dialect, and whether they could discover different kinds of messages from analysing these calls.

"If these animals have some form of linguistics or language tradition, we're wanting to try to find the words within that repertoire of sounds. We don't know what they mean but what we do find is they have different lexicons; different groups have different types of sound, and they probably inherit these sounds from their parents," he said.

"It's like a dialect. We want to be able to compare them; both these species have such complex sorts of sounds, and some of these sounds are repeated again, again and again. So they are not random."

Every matched group of sounds would be compared with the whales' location and activities that the whales were involved in. "We want to try and take that back to the context where they're produced, such as hunting or social situations."

Scientific American has previously run "citizen science" projects to track dragonfly swarms, the Gulf oil spill and a "great sunflower project", recording their observations of the natural world. Mariette DiChristina, the editor in chief, said: "One doesn't need a science degree to be a citizen scientist. All you need is a curiosity about the world around you and an interest in observing, measuring and reporting what you hear and see."

Up in Smoke - Rainforest Awareness

2011-12-01T14:19:00.000Z

True Stories More4 trailer - Up in Smoke from Adam Wakeling on Vimeo.

Tar Sands Action

2011-12-01T14:07:00.000Z

I’m writing this from the lawn in front of the White House. In front of me there’s a sprawling rally underway, with speakers ranging from indigenous elders to the great Canadian writer Naomi Klein. In back of me, another 243 courageous people are being hauled away to jail -- it’s the last day of Phase 1 of the tar sands campaign, and 1,252 North Americans have been arrested, the biggest civil disobedience action this century on this continent.

But we’ve been just as cheered by the help that has poured in from around the world -- today, activists in front of the White House held a banner with a huge number on it: 618,428. That's how many people around the world signed on to the "Stop the Tar Sands" mega-petition to President Obama. – Bill McKibben, September 2011

The world together with the oil companies are so greedy for oil, that they will do anything to get it. Including deep sea drilling, where oil spills can pollute the oceans and endanger wildlife. As recently has happened in the Gulf of Mexico (BP) and the North Sea (Shell). Including extracting oil from the tar sands in Northern Alberta, Canada, which requires a huge input of energy and creates unmanageable levels of pollution. To link this huge new source of energy with the market, a pipeline has been proposed from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico – the Keystone XL pipeline.

The exploitation of the tar sands demonstrates the lack of commitment by the Canadian and US governments to addressing climate change at the expense of restricting oil supplies and corporate profit. If you want to find out more about why this is an environmental disaster, read “Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent” by Andrew Nikiforuk. The action in front of the White House was organsied by 350.org: www.tarsandsaction.org and http://act.350.org/sign/tar-sands http://act.350.org/sign/tar-sands

Why 350? Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. 350.org was founded by author Bill McKibben, who wrote one of the first books on global warming for the general public.

In 2007, with a group of friends, Bill ran a campaign in 2007 called http://www.stepitup2007.org/ Step It Up which organized over 2,000 rallies at iconic places in all 50 Sates of the USA. These included such creative actions as skiers descending a melting glacier to divers hosting an underwater action. The call to action was to cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050. http://stepitup2007.org

On 10/10/10 they hosted a Global Work Party, with over 7000 climate solutions projects in communities around the world. On 24th September 2011, they organised Moving Planet as an international day of action: www.moving-planet.org

350.org is coordinated by an international team of organizers, including author Bill McKibben and young climate leaders from around the world. www.350.org

Lets Do it - Let’s clean up the world!

2011-12-01T13:59:00.000Z

It all started in Estonia…

Right now there are 100 million tons of illegal garbage lying around the world. And every day, we add more. It’s time to wake up and turn things around. That’s the reason for World Cleanup 2012.  Since the Cleanup movement strted in Estonia, 2 million people in 16 different countries have participated in cleanup actions.

From 24th March 2012 until 25th September 2012, a series of cleanups will sweep the globe, touching all continents and bringing together millions of people who will be cleaning up their towns and cities.

Right at this moment we are seeking you! We are inviting people, organizations and movements in different countries to be part of this wonderful initiative. All you have to do is to make a decision to engage your community for one day in 2012.

Check the countries section to see if someone has already started a Cleanup initiative in your country. If not, then be the one who gets things going. The website has advice on how to start a cleanup. Each cleanup and each person cleaning will make our planet cleaner.

Join the World Cleanup initiative and organize a cleanup day in your home country in 2012: www.letsdoitworld.org

Report garbage in your own town on the World Cleanup map: www.letsdoitworld.org/wastemap

With each garbage spot on the mapped, with each park, street, city and country that is cleaned, a message will be sent: the cleanliness, health and wellbeing of ourselves, of our countries and of this planet is in our own hands. Let’s do it!

Ecocide

2011-12-01T13:55:00.000Z

“Once upon a time people did grievous harm to the environment without fully understanding the consequences of their actions. That defence is no longer available, and that sure knowledge we now have entails equally sure moral obligations. In this context, the idea of establishing the crime of ‘Ecocide’ is both timely and compelling.” Jonathon Porritt, former Chair Sustainable Development Commission

Polly Higgins, a UK barrister, has proposed that Ecocide, the environmental equivalent of genocide, becomes the 5th International Crime Against Peace alongside Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, Crimes of Aggression and War Crimes. Under the proposed new law, Heads of States and Directors of Corporations will be required to take individual and personal responsibility for their actions.

On September 30th 2011, London’s Supreme Court became the venue for a Mock Ecocide Trial. Real-life barristers led the prosecution and defence on behalf of a fictional Mr X, CEO of a major corporation. Before the case was heard, legal argument was put as to whether Ecocide and the Earth Right to Life should be applied to the charges against Mr X, who was played by an actor. He had been charged with a number of ecocides: Deforestation of the Amazon; Arctic drilling; Shale gas extraction in Nigeria; A major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico; Bauxite mining of the Niyamgiri mountain; Tar sands extraction in Canada; Deep sea mining of the Central and Eastern Manus Basin.  

The trial was organised by Simon Hamilton and Fiona Hayes of the Hamilton Group: www.thehamiltongroup.org.uk

A Fall From Freedom - The Untold Story Behind The Captive Whale And Dolphin Industry

2011-11-30T00:36:00.000Z

A Fall From Freedom from OdyseeTV on Vimeo.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

By viewing A Fall From Freedom, and by going to this page, it is clear that you are already involved in this issue. To initiate effective change, your voice must be heard.

First, there are a variety of organizations working diligently not only to end the Japanese dolphin drive fishery, which provides so many animals to marine parks worldwide, but to end the commercial display of whales and dolphins altogether. Seek out these organizations, support their work, and get involved. It may not sound like much, but real change for the good can only come about when an informed citizenry stands up, expresses their opinion, and sees through the propaganda of the corporate public relations machine.

Actions You Can Take

• Do not attend any marine park or aquarium that displays whales or dolphins.

• Tell your friends not to attend these facilities as well and explain why.

• Find and support the non-profit organizations that have been educating the public about captive whales and dolphins, and that have been working to end the Japanese dolphin drive fishery.

• Share A Fall From Freedom with friends, neighbors, family, and co-workers, and start discussions about the issues.

• Write letters and send emails expressing your opinion to marine parks in your country that display whales or dolphins. All of these facilities are directly or indirectly involved in the death of thousands of dolphins through the Japanese drive fishery. If they do not take animals directly from the drive fishery, by way of displaying these animals they are justifying and condoning it.

Letters should be written to your Congressperson, your Senators, or your government representative expressing your opposition to the importation of any whale or dolphin into your country.

NOTE: When the issue of dolphins dying by the thousands in the nets of purse seine tuna boats came to the attention of citizens worldwide, public outrage directed toward this practice all but ended it. A billion dollar industry, with its high-paid lobbyists and its corporate public relations machine, was forced by public opinion to accept and can only dolphin-safe tuna.

Only through public concern and action can the issues presented in A Fall From Freedom be dealt with effectively and responsibly.

St Andrews scientists ask if whales have 'dialects'

2011-11-29T17:00:00.001Z

Prof Peter Tyack, University of St Andrews commented, "Killer whales are thought to learn their calls from their group.”

Members of the public are being asked by scientists at the University of St Andrews to help them investigate the way whales communicate.

So-called "citizen scientists" from across the world are being urged to listen to and help classify sounds made by the mammals.

The St Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit is part of the Whale Project - a global effort to categorise whale calls.

It aims to establish whether calls vary between different groups of whales.

The Whale Project website site displays calls from both killer whales and pilot whales.

"Citizen scientists" who log on are presented with a whale call and shown where it was recorded on a map of the world's oceans and seas.

Distinctive dialect
After listening to the whale call, members of the public are then asked to listen to a number of potential matching calls from the project's database.

If a match is found the results are stored.

Prof Peter Tyack of the University of St Andrews said: "By asking hundreds of people to make similar judgements, we will learn how reliable the categories are, and they get the fun of hearing these amazing sounds."

"Only a few researchers have categorised whale calls."

Scientists hope to address a number of questions about whale communication.

Biologists studying killer whales have reported that each group of whales has its own distinctive dialect of calls, with related groups having dialects that are more similar.

The Whale Project asks "citizen scientists" to test these results by making their own judgements of similarity between calls.

Much less is known about the calls of pilot whales than of killer whales.

Researchers from St Andrews and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts want to know the size of the pilot whales' call repertoire and whether call repertoires vary between groups, as in killer whales.

"Most mammals have a fixed species-specific repertoire of calls, but killer whales are thought to learn their calls from their group," said Prof Tyack.

The Whale Project is co-sponsored by science magazine, Scientific American.

Those interested in taking part should go to the Scientific American website to set up a login and password.

Migrating whale numbers hit 50-year high 15 NOVEMBER 2011, ASIA
Seismic bangs 'block' whale calls 23 SEPTEMBER 2009, SCI/TECH
Experts observe whale hunt noise 04 FEBRUARY 2010, SCOTLAND

Vietnam loses fight to save its rare Javan rhinos after last animal believed poached for horn

2011-10-25T17:49:00.001+01:00

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam has lost its fight to save its rare Javan rhinoceros population after poachers apparently killed the country’s last animal for its horn, pushing one of the world’s most endangered species closer to extinction, a conservation group said Tuesday.

Vietnam’s Cat Tien National Park has had no sightings, footprints or dung from live rhinos since the last known animal living there was found dead last April, shot through the leg with its horn chopped off, the WWF said. Genetic analysis of rhino feces had confirmed in 2004 that at least two rhinos were living in the park, raising hopes that Vietnam’s population might survive.

Only 40 to 60 Javan rhinos now remain in Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia. They are the last known living members of the species, with none in captivity.

Vietnam’s Javan rhino population had been shrinking for decades as land conversion and a rising local population threatened the animal’s habitat, but poaching and a lack of effective park management and patrols hastened the decline, said Christy Williams, coordinator of WWF’s Asian Elephant and Rhino Program.

“It appears that protection is not being given a high priority by the Vietnamese government,” he said.

Park director Tran Van Thanh said that while some of his rangers failed to fulfill their duties, it is impossible for them to stop all of the estimated 100,000 people living near the park from hunting exotic animals when the average farmer there earns around 150,000 dong ($7.50) per day.

“We’re not trying to avoid our responsibility in the death of the rhinos, but we’ve done our best to protect them,” Thanh said.

Demand for rhino horn has surged in recent years among Vietnamese and Chinese who believe it can cure an array of ailments. Horns can now fetch up to $50,000 per pound (about $100,000 per kilogram), the WWF report said Tuesday. A small amount of ground-up powder can bring hundreds of dollars on the black market. Global demand has also increased in the last four to five years as some people have begun to consider rhino horn a remedy for cancer, Williams said.

WWF, along with the International Rhino Foundation, confirmed that the last rhino had died in Vietnam by collecting and analyzing its feces. Twenty-two of the rhino’s dung piles were found in Cat Tien from October 2009 to February 5, 2010, but no dung piles or fresh rhino footprints were seen in the subsequent nine weeks, the 44-page report said.

Before 1988, the Javan rhino was believed to be extinct from mainland Asia. A small population was then discovered in Vietnam’s park, and for the past 20 years, a number of wildlife conservationists have worked closely with the government to try to prevent the species from dying out in Vietnam.

But the rhino’s habitat has been cut in half since 1988 to about 74,000 acres (30,000 hectares) today.

South Africa is a prime source country for rhino horns. According to the South African government, a record 333 rhinos were poached in 2010 — a nearly threefold increase from 2009.

In September, Vietnamese officials traveled to South Africa to address the problem, three years after Hanoi recalled a diplomat from its embassy there after she was caught on tape receiving illegal rhino horns. Ha Cong Tuan, an environmental affairs official, called on Vietnamese medical researchers to study what he called the “rumor” that rhino horn cures cancer and then publicize their findings.

The WWF report said Vietnam is on the verge of an “extinction crisis” with several other species — including the saola and the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey — threatened by deforestation, widespread poaching and a “largely uncontrolled” illegal wildlife trade.

Cat Tien was established in 1998 as a composite of three existing protected areas. From 1998 to 2004 WWF invested $6.3 million in the park, with up to $600,000 earmarked for rhino conservation work.

In Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, 100 grams (about 7 ounces) of crushed rhino horn retail for about 43 million dong ($2,150), with the average prescription costing 200,000 dong ($10), a rhino horn vendor in the city’s bustling old quarter said Monday, requesting anonymity because the practice is illegal here.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

More info at http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Rhinoceros

Read BBC News Report at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15430787

What should be the top environmental priority for the next 40 years?

2011-10-21T13:09:00.000+01:00

Experts speakers argue their cases ahead of an Earthwatch debate in London this week

Mission Critical is a debate hosted by Earthwatch to decide on the most important environmental priority for the next 40 years. Photograph: Ho/Reuters

Education and population – Sir Crispin Tickell

Our society faces a rich complex of problems. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution some 250 years ago, our animal species has changed the character of the Earth's land surface, seas and atmosphere: hence the increasing use among geologists of the term Anthropocene to follow the Holocene epoch.

Of all the interconnected problems we face, perhaps the most serious is the proliferation of our own species. Our numbers rose from around one million 12,000 years ago to around one billion 250 years ago. Since then there has been an extraordinary acceleration from 2 billion in 1930 to 6 billion at the end of the century and now approaching 7 billion.

In seeking to cope with this problem, the role of education, and in particularly that of women, is critical. Where women have achieved broadly equal status with men, when there is provision for their old age, when they can use contraceptive devices, and most important when they are educated as full citizens, human fertility has dropped: in many industrial countries below replacement rate and elsewhere by a substantial margin. At the same time people are living longer, itself creating problems, and the introduction of new technologies risks increasing unemployment. More than half our species now lives in cities, well described recently as nests for a super-organism out of control. We have now to confront these problems in all their scope and complexity.

The oceans- Jo Royle

With every breath we take and drop of water we drink we are connected to the ocean. Seventy two percent of our planet is ocean. The ocean drives global weather systems, absorbs the heat generated from our addiction to burning fossil fuels and provides the main source of protein for over a quarter of the world's population.

We live on a blue planet. The ocean breathes for the planet, with most photosynthesis occurring on the sea surface more than anywhere else. The health of future generations is dependent on the health of our ocean. However, silently and out of sight, the deep blue is suffering from our take-take relationship. We are getting dangerously close to the sea reaching its capacity to act as the planet's largest carbon sink. Depletion of the oceans fisheries, toxic contamination of the sea by industrial runoff and plastic pollution and acidification pose great threats to the health of the world's population.

The oceans are clearly of critical importance in providing energy, food and economical security and drinking water. The blue planet teaches us about love, beauty, respect, sensuality and mystery. The ocean fuels our curiosity, imagination, well being and gives us a sense of clarity, meaning and purpose – the liquid planet is the greatest teacher. Would we get the same feeling of peace looking across a lifeless ocean?

Water - Daniel Yeo

We can all relate to water - and any traveller can tell you about bad water and poor sanitation, including the English Commonwealth Games team and even in developed countries. Having the runs may make for a few embarrassing anecdotes, but it's no joke that diarrhoea is the biggest killer of children in sub-Saharan Africa. Preventable diarrhoea associated with dirty water and poor sanitation kills more children than Aids, malaria and TB combined.

And it's not just kids - water is fundamentally a gender issue. Women and girls bear the biggest burden - walking long distances in rural areas, queuing in line for hours in urban slums.

Poor water, sanitation and hygiene undermines maternal and child health and nutrition.

Education - 443m school days are lost to water related diseases. Girls are more likely to stay in schools with separate female toilets.

These failings in human development put a cost on the economy, through lost lives, school days, work days and burden on health systems. The World Health Organisation estimates that every $1 invested in water generates $8 in wider economic benefits.

And that's just water for drinking and health - water is also an economic resource - vital for food (70% of globally available freshwater is used for agriculture) - and livelihoods. It is a critical ingredient for industry - almost every manufacturing process needs water. Finally, it's intertwined with energy – and not just through hydropower. Thermal power stations need water for cooling and for the steam needed to turn turbines.

Without water we have nothing.

Energy – Mike Mason

What makes humans different from the animals is that we are the only species to harness energy from things we don't eat.

Using external energy is fundamental to being a human. And using more energy has through all history been the key to getting a better quality of life - more food, better transport, warmer (or cooler) homes and offices.

Our success as a species has led to runaway numbers of people, and runaway per capita use of energy. Multiply the two together and you hit the buffers.

Energy is the most difficult problem to deal with simply because it is the only one on the table that is intrinsic to the very concept of humanity.

Climate change driven by our urge to burn things is an existential threat - albeit a slow burning one. Thus solving the energy crisis is clearly critical to us as humans as much as energy use is critical. The race therefore is on - between our evolutionary heritage that will surely destroy us if left unconfined, and our ability to innovate our way out of the old ways, and into a new energy paradigm that is sustainable without asking us to go back to the cave - because that is the one outcome we can guarantee no population will willingly accept.

Food security - Prof Tim Lang

The food challenge ahead is awesome. After a 20th century which celebrated the "success" of producing more food than ever in history, we now know human activity has undermined what has been done. A fearsome new complex of difficulties must be resolved: an oil-reliant food system (fertilisers, machines, transport); an environment under stress (climate change, water and soil); biodiversity loss (the plants and life on which we rely); land use competition (food vs fuel vs biodiversity vs ecosystems support).

Our voracious consumption is part of the problem. We eat feast-day food everyday, yet to eat like the US or UK requires multiple planets.

The now dominant analysis is that we need to feed 9 billion people by 2050 (up from nearly 7bn today) on less land in a time of ecosystem stress. New technical fixes, technologies, management, controls are urged on politicians. 70% more food is needed by 2050, they cry! Fund another heave to raise production, they say, downplaying how half of all grains grown on the planet are fed to animals.

Our system is hugely wasteful. Some 30-40% of what is bought fit to eat is thrown away. Our way of eating panders to an "eat what you like" consumerist culture. Actually there is plenty of food to go around today.

We need to think not just about whether there is food but what sort of diets, too. Simply, the future requires sustainable diets fed by sustainable food supply chains. We currently have neither.

The audience voted for Education to be the most important priority for the next 40 years.

---- Book the Whale of a Time Workshop for your school, community or youth event ----

Cheap boat for sale!

2011-10-14T01:04:00.000+01:00

Click on image to view boat posting.

Sign Petition for the Rights of Mother Earth!

2011-10-11T01:50:00.000+01:00

In partnership with the Global Alliance for Rights of Nature, Global Exchange has launched a global grassroots letter and signature campaign in support of Rights of Nature. Their vision is to engage 1,000,000 people in signing petitions or writing a letter to their President or head of state. They intend to have a delegation of young people deliver the letters to EarthSummit2012/Rio+20.

Please sign Rights For Mother Earth petition

Remembrance for Lost Species - November 12th 2011

2011-10-11T01:15:00.000+01:00

Remembrance for Lost Species: lest we forget. Three species are lost to eternity every hour.

Extinction is studied by scientists. Culturally, however, we risk forgetting the beauty and distinct life of extinct species and our historic relationship with past life forms. Feral Theatre's Funeral for Lost Species considers the social significance of extinction, and commemorates it as a social tragedy. It’s a collaborative project combining visual art, performance and ritual to explore responses to the loss of species, and the places and cultures
associated with them. It opens a creative bridge between scientific analysis, political concern, and cultural and ecological bereavement.

Commemoration and ritual are activities that endow violence and death with social meaning through the engagement of participants. Feral Theatre invites you to hold a remembrance event for lost species on November 12th 2011. We hope diverse events will take place in many different places. Each event that happens will be unique and particular to the people involved. Remembrance events might take any form - a theatre piece or a ceremony, or something playful like a puppet show, celebratory like a wake, or intimate like a meal, planting a seed, or simply lighting a candle. It's up to you how you choose to remember and celebrate lost species.

We ask that you tell us about your event, then document it and share this with us to post online. We hope this will become an ongoing yearly remembrance day. Remembrance for Lost Species shines a light onto the ways the historic processes of domination and consumption have contributed to Earth’s current ecological predicament. Find out more about the project and Feral Theatre at www.feraltheatre.co.uk

A Funeral for Lost Species from Blue Raincloud on Vimeo.

Remembrance Events already planned:
Funeral for the Great Auk, Brighton beach, 4pm
Funeral for the Great Auk, coast of West Wales, 4pm
Funeral for the Great Auk, Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow, 4pm
Funeral for the Great Auk, Bergen, Norway

New Zealand oil spill: conservationists warn of wildlife 'tragedy'

2011-10-11T00:22:00.000+01:00

Oil spill off the east coast of New Zealand threatens local penguins, whales, seals and seabirds

Wildlife is threatened by an oil slick off New Zealand's east coast Link to this video
Conservationists have warned of an impending wildlife "tragedy" caused by an oil spill off the east coast of New Zealand, with populations of penguins, whales, seals and seabirds set to be hardest hit.

A severe weather warning for the Bay of Plenty area on Monday/yesterday has heightened fears that the stricken cargo vessel Rena, which is carrying 1,700 tonnes of fuel oil and 200 tonnes of diesel, will start to break up, with grim consequences for the local marine wildlife.

The fallout from the incident, which saw Rena run aground on a reef last Wednesday, is already being felt, with seven little blue penguins and two cormorants recovered and treated today at a centre in Tauranga.

However, this number is expected to rise to more than 200 in the coming days, with warnings that an escalation of the situation would have dire consequences for several species.

WWF New Zealand said it hoped the incident would not prove a "tragedy" for the region's marine wildlife, which includes bottlenose dolphins, orcas and beaked whales. Large baleen whales also migrate through the affected area.

Of particular concern is the New Zealand dotterel, an endangered shorebird.

"There's only 1,200 dotterels left due to coastal developments, so the last thing they need is their feeding ground contaminated," said Bob Zuur, marine advocate at WWF New Zealand.

"Little blue penguins are also very vulnerable as they swim through the oil. Fairy terns frequent the estuary and many northern hemisphere birds, such as godwits, that have migrated south for spring, are also under threat."

"New Zealand is known as the seabird capital of the world. We have about 85 different seabirds that breed here. It's breeding season now, so there are many birds, such as petrels, that are diving into the water to find food for their chicks.

"The oil makes it difficult for them to fly and there's a real risk they will ingest the oil when they preen, or pass it into their chicks.

"Should the vessel break up, we risk an international-scale incident. It's a huge amount of oil. I sincerely hope the it doesn't break up as the storm bears down on it."

It's estimated that up to 50 tonnes of oil has already been jettisoned into the sea. Radio New Zealand has reported that four of the 1,300 containers aboard Rena carry ferro-silicon, a hazardous substance which is flammable if it comes into contact with water.

More than 300 Defence Force personnel have been deployed to tackle the spill, along with specialists from Australia, the UK and the Netherlands.

The exclusion zone around the Rena has been extended to 2.8km today, with teams set to resume pumping oil off the damaged vessel. So far, just 10 tonnes of oil has been removed.

Humans, as well as marine wildlife, are also in danger from the spill, according to Maritime New Zealand.

The government agency has urged people not to touch the oil, which has started to wash up on the tourist-friendly Mount Maunganui beach, despite the efforts of volunteers to begin the clean-up operation.

Read more...

Summer 2011: Arctic sea ice near record lows

2011-10-11T00:18:00.000+01:00

The summer sea ice melt season has ended in the Arctic. Arctic sea ice extent reached its low for the year, the second lowest in the satellite record, on September 9. The minimum extent was only slightly above 2007, the record low year, even though weather conditions this year were not as conducive to ice loss as in 2007. Both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea Route were open for a period during September.

Figure 1. Arctic sea ice extent for September 2011 was 4.61 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles). The magenta line shows the 1979 to 2000 median extent for that month. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole.

Overview of conditions
Average ice extent for September 2011 was 4.61 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles), 2.43 million square kilometers (938,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average. This was 310,000 square kilometers (120,000 square miles) above the average for September 2007, the lowest monthly extent in the satellite record. Ice extent was below the 1979 to 2000 average everywhere except in the East Greenland Sea, where conditions were near average.
As in recent years, northern shipping routes opened up this summer. The Northern Sea Route opened by mid August and still appeared to be open as of the end of September. The southern "Amundsen Route" of the Northwest Passage, through the straits of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, opened for the fifth year in a row. Overall, sea ice in the wider and deeper northern route through Parry Channel reached a record low, according to Stephen Howell of Environment Canada, based on Canadian Ice Service analysis. Parry Channel had a narrow strip of ice that blocked a short section of the channel, but it did appear to open briefly in early September.
For additional numbers for previous years, see Table 1.

Figure 2. The graph above shows daily Arctic sea ice extent as of October 1, 2011, along with daily ice extents for the previous three lowest years for the minimum ice extent. Light blue indicates 2011, dashed green shows 2007, dark blue shows 2010, purple shows 2008, and dark gray shows the 1979 to 2000 average. The gray area around the average line shows the two standard deviation range of the data. Sea Ice Index data.

Conditions in context
While the melt season in 2011 got off to a slow start, the ice loss pace quickened during June. Ice retreated quite rapidly in the Kara and Barents seas, with rates more than double the average rate. Rapid ice loss continued during the first half of July but then slowed considerably as a series of low pressure systems moved over the central Arctic Ocean. By the end of July, ice extent was slightly above that seen in 2007.
Ice extent stayed above 2007 for the remainder of the melt season, reaching its minimum of 4.33 million square kilometers (1.67 million square miles) on September 9, 2011. Since the minimum, a rapid freeze-up has begun. On October 1, the five-day average extent rose above 5 million square kilometers (1.93 million square miles).

Figure 3. Monthly September ice extent for 1979 to 2011 shows a decline of 12.0% per decade.

September 2011 compared to past years
Ice extent for September 2011 was the second lowest in the satellite record for the month. The last five years (2007 to 2011) have had the five lowest September extents in the satellite record. The linear rate of decline is now -84,700 square kilometers (-32,700 square miles) per year, or -12% per decade relative to the 1979 to 2000 average. In contrast to 2007, when a "perfect storm" of atmospheric and ocean conditions contributed to summer ice loss, this year's conditions were less extreme. From the beginning of the melt season in March, to the minimum extent on September 9, the Arctic Ocean lost 10.3 million square kilometers (4.0 million square miles) of sea ice. It was the fifth year in a row with more than 10 million square kilometers of ice extent change from maximum to minimum. In comparison, the average seasonal ice loss during the 1980s was 9.0 million square kilometers (3.5 million square miles)

Figure 4. Ice motion charts for August 2011 show different movement patterns for this summer compared to 2007. The arrows show the direction of ice motion, with larger arrows indicating stronger motion. In 2007, northward ice motion helped push the ice together and flush it out of the Arctic.

Atmospheric conditions
In 2007, a persistent dipole anomaly weather pattern, with unusually high pressure over the Beaufort Sea and unusually low pressure over the Kara Sea, helped contribute to the record ice loss. This pattern resulted in strong southerly winds from the Bering Strait region across the North Pole, which brought warmer winds and ocean waters northward to melt the ice edge and push the ice northward. In addition, especially strong high pressure over the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas in June 2007 resulted in less than average cloudiness, allowing more sunlight to reach the ice.
The Arctic saw a similar weather pattern this summer, but not as strong and persistent as in 2007. The location of the high and low pressure centers was also shifted, so that the winds blew east to west instead of toward the north as in 2007. This shift is reflected in the movement of the sea ice, particularly during August.
Patterns of air temperatures (measured at the 925 millibar level or about 1,000 meters or 3,000 feet above the surface) were also quite different this year compared to 2007. In summer 2007, temperatures in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas were 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) above average. This year, temperatures in that region were near average, but north of Greenland and in the Canadian Archipelago, conditions were even warmer than in 2007. These high temperatures likely played a role in the opening of the Northwest Passage.

Figure 5. Sea surface temperatures this year were generally lower than in 2007, although some areas of the ocean surface still had higher than average temperatures.

Sea surface temperatures
Ocean sea surface temperatures (SSTs), based on National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data provided by Michael Steele and Wendy Ermold of the University of Washington Polar Science Center, indicate above normal temperatures on the surface of the Arctic Ocean. However, the temperatures anomalies were not as extreme as in 2007 and were comparable to those recorded for 2009 and 2010. These lower temperatures may be the result of less solar heating of the exposed ocean surface or less transport of warm waters from the south. In 2007, ice retreated early from the shores of Alaska and Siberia, allowing the ocean mixed layer to heat up and enhance melting of the ice from below. In contrast, ice was slower to retreat in this region in summer 2011, and less bottom melt was observed.

Figure 6. Data on ice age show that coverage of the oldest, thickest ice types (ice four years or older) has declined over the past 28 years.

Ice remains younger, thinner
Why did ice extent fall to a near record low without the sort of extreme weather conditions seen in 2007? One explanation is that the ice cover is thinner than it used to be; the melt season starts with more first-year ice (ice that formed the previous autumn and winter) and less of the generally thicker multi-year ice (ice that has survived at least one summer season). First- and second-year ice made up 80% of the ice cover in the Arctic Basin in March 2011, compared to 55% on average from 1980 to 2000. Over the past few summers, more first-year ice has survived than in 2007, replenishing the younger multi-year ice categories (2- to 3-year-old ice). This multi-year ice appears to have played a key role in preserving the tongue of ice extending from near the North Pole toward the East Siberian Sea. However, the oldest, thickest ice (five or more years old) has continued to decline, particularly in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Continued loss of the oldest, thickest ice has prevented any significant recovery of the summer minimum extent. In essence, what was once a refuge for older ice has become a graveyard.

Ozone layer hole over Arctic in sudden expansion

2011-10-10T23:08:00.000+01:00

This chart shows the levels of ozone above the Arctic on 19 March 2010 (left) and 2011 (right), the latter showing about a 50% drop. Photograph: OMI/Aura/NASA

Arctic and Antarctic holes of similar size for first time, say scientists, due to combination of wind patterns and intense cold

• Datablog: The size of the hole in the ozone layer
• Antarctica may heat up dramatically as ozone hole repairs, warn scientists

A huge hole that appeared in the Earth's protective ozone layer above the Arctic in 2011 was the largest recorded in the northern hemisphere, though the sudden appearance of the hole was not due to man-made causes, scientists said in a report on Monday.

The ozone layer high in the stratosphere acts like a giant shield against the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation, which can cause skin cancer and cataracts. Since the 1980s, scientists have charted the size of the ozone hole every summer above the Antarctic.

Some years, the holes have been so large that they covered the entire continent and stretched to parts of South America.

During extreme events, up to 70% of the ozone layer can be destroyed, before it recovers months later. The hole above the Arctic was always much smaller – until March this year, when a combination of powerful wind patterns and intense cold temperatures high up in the atmosphere created the right conditions for already-present, ozone-eating chlorine chemicals to damage the layer.

The findings, reported on Monday in the journal Nature, show that the hole had opened over northern Russia, parts of Greenland, and Norway, meaning people in these areas were likely to have been exposed to high levels of UV radiation.

"The chemical ozone destruction over the Arctic in early 2011 was, for the first time in the observational record, comparable to that in the Antarctic ozone hole," say the scientists, led by Gloria Manney of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The scientists say man-made chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) destroy ozone in the stratosphere, after sunlight breaks up the complex chemicals into simpler forms that react with ozone. While some of the chemicals are covered by a UN treaty that aims to stop their use, it will be decades before they are fully phased out of production.

Normally, atmospheric conditions high above the Arctic do not trigger a large-scale plunge in ozone levels. But during the 2010/11 winter, a high-altitude wind pattern called the polar vortex was unusually strong, leading to very cold conditions in the stratosphere that also lasted for several months. This created the right conditions for the ozone-destroying forms of chlorine to slash ozone levels over a long period.

The report's authors said there was a risk that the spread of the Arctic hole could become an annual event.

Read more...

The Rights of Mother Nature

2011-10-07T13:09:00.000+01:00

This is a live blog of a panel convened by the Graduate Center’s Center for Place, Culture, and Politics in honor of Earth Day 2011. It also happens to be the first year anniversary of the World People’s Conference on the Rights of Mother Nature in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shannon Biggs: Nature is a system governing our well being. Yet our culture treats nature as human property, like a slave. When we talk about what it means to recognize rights for nature, a good place to start is to look at the BP oil spill and ask what would have been different if Nature had rights. What would be different today? The only people who can sue BP today are those with a property claim. What if nature could sue BP to be made whole again? We know that there are thousands of miles of dispersant lying beneath the surface. Things would look very different.

Cormac Cullinan: I came to this work from a practical angle. I was encountering difficulties generating legislation, and this made me realize that there was an underlying problem. At this time I was fortunate enough to encounter Thomas Berry, who showed to me that our legal systems facilitate the exploitation of Earth. I was shocked, because I’d practiced as an environmental lawyer for many years. I felt that I was part of the solution. But he was right. What we call environmental law really isn’t working. In the last three decades, we’ve seen an unprecedented increase in the amount of environmental legislation. We’ve forgotten that we’re part of the natural order. The idea that there’s a system of order out there, Nature, is not something that’s simply not considered. I came to this through trying to find practical ways to deal with what we’re facing.

As someone brought up in South Africa, it was always clear to me that the law was a product of those in power. But in this case we can see that our legal systems have entrenched an exploitative environment between our legal systems and Nature, so we shouldn’t be surprised by the outcome. We’ve defined our system by Rights, but unless we can include Nature in this circle, we cannot include the natural world. So we need to expand the Earth community to include such rights.

Vandana Shiva: Forty years ago I got involved in the Chipko Movement, which strove to challenge exploitation of forests. Today, for the majority of people around the world, the notion that nature has rights is not strange. The opposite is probably strange. The idea that seeds can be treated as property by Monsanto is bizarre. All they do is put toxins into seeds.

Some years ago, I got involved in the TRIPS agreement controversy. All of this made me realize that for most cultures, humans are just one part of the Earth community. But the scientific revolution changed things so that we saw the Earth as inert. What corporate power has done is to make corporations into the only things that count. We need to work to rebalance things. Natural rights are not opposite to human rights. Human rights are a subset of natural rights, because we’re a part of nature. An example is the legal battle I was involved in over limestone mining, which was going to destroy drinking water. Today we’re involved in struggle over dams on the Ganges. Our slogans are to allow the Ganges to flow freely.

Yesterday at the UN, Cormac reminded us that apartheid means “separation.” Today, we have to overcome our sense of separation from nature. This is a forced separation, something against our will. This is something that affects everyday people, who are being displaced through landgrabs in places like Africa. The real thing we need to do is to build the Earth democracy that we’re a part of. The corporations have such a stranglehold on power now. We need Nature to rescue us from the corporate dictatorship.

Maude Barlow: Modern humans, not tribal peoples, tend to see Nature as a resource for our pleasure. This has led to great damage and a crisis of huge proportions. By 2030, demand for water is going to outstrip supply by 40%. Right now we’re in a massive sixth wave of species extinction. But all of our governments, with few exceptions – Bolivia among them – are still out there promoting free trade and the rights of corporations. The environmental movement is left just negotiating with governments to lower the amounts of pollution. But it’s coming at it in such a debilitating way. And even the so-called green economy, the way our elites go about it, is a market solution to the crisis. The idea is that you just replace bad technology with good ecology, and you don’t have to replace any of the current paradigms: growth, development, etc. The only way to “save” nature is to bring it into the market. So ideas about the Rights of Nature seek to shift this paradigm. Our whole mindset is based on human law; what would it be like to shift our mindset so that other species have the right to exist. Does this mean that insect rights are equivalent to human ones? No, but it does mean that we shouldn’t drive species to extinction. We’re hoping that the Declaration of the Rights of Nature will one day take its place with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as one of the founding documents. Every now and then, the human race takes an evolutionary step forward.

Pablo Solon: Last year, we managed to pass, in the UN, a declaration of the human right to water. About 60 years after theDeclaration of Human Rights, we finally got recognition that water was a human right. This 29 of July, we’re going to celebrate the one year anniversary of this event. But we’re also going to celebrate the Rights of Water. If we don’t respect the rights of water, we cannot respect the rights of humans to water. There are vital cycles in nature, and when we don’t respect these rights, we break the system and lose our place in it.

What exactly is nature? A thing, a bunch of resources, or a system? This system, does it have laws and rules? If it does have laws, should the society respect those laws? Are we respecting those rules? This is the key question, from our point of view. We believe that we’re just one part of the Earth system, and we humans, and in particular, the capitalist system, don’t respect these laws. So we’re now facing a situation, as all scientists agree, in which we’ve broken the balance of nature.

How will we restore this balance? We have two proposals on the table:

1) The green economy, which places monetary value on nature, not just on forests, but on environmental services provided by nature. The Rio + 20 conference is intended to approve a series of market mechanisms that have to do with nature. From this perspective, we’re facing a critical situation because nobody owns environmental services; once they’re in the market, balance will be restored. This isn’t something hypothetical. The third round of WTO negotiations is slated to be focused on environmental services. We’re at the beginning of a third round of capitalist accumulation.

2) Our view is based on the Rights of Nature. We have to respect the laws of Nature, or else we will no longer have any place. If we want to have Rights of Nature, we have to fight against capitalism. There is no way to begin a new relationship if we’re trapped in a system that tries to make profit out of everything. Are we going to be able to transform this capitalist system? That’s the key question. We think that the only way for humankind to survive is to develop another system, with another relationship with nature.

David Harvey: We need to remember that there are laws of capital accumulation. A basic law is that of compound growth. Since capitalism took off, the basic trend has been an average of 3% compound growth; this is the minimum with which capitalists feel happy. 3% in Manchester in 1800 is one thing; 3% today is an astonishing prospect. What we’re running into is that we’re at an inflection point in capital’s history at which the growth rate cannot be sustained. In spite of the environmental movement’s vibrancy over last 30 years, things keep getting worse. Christopher Stone’s argument (in “Should Trees Have Standing” in 1972) was the first example of the notion of the Rights of Nature that I came across. But we should remember that we’ve already created fictitious rights for corporations, so why not for nature? Capitalism has always been about more, and even more. Capitalists have no choice; they have to accumulate or die. The system has to grow or die. The system has gotten to the point where it’s prepare to die, and to kill us and everyone else with it. If we’re going to confront the present situation, we have to deal with two key things: 1: the environment (which is treated as an externality); 2: social reproduction (the Republicans want to gut the state and hive off social reproduction to individuals so that capital doesn’t have to bare these costs). One of the answers is to come up with a market solution to social reproduction. We’re told that the answer to global poverty is more capital accumulation, even though this produced poverty in the first place. Carbon trading is a very nice market, but it just makes things worse. One of the things you can’t talk about is what the alternatives to capitalism are going to be. How many people in universities are working on such alternatives? We have to be clear about the politics and the means by which we make change. Nothing is really going to be changed unless there’s a mass social movement to change things. Legal measures before the UN will not do it. What was wonderful about Cochabamba was how many people were there. We’re faced with a huge crisis, but in conventional circles there’s very little original thinking about how to deal with the crisis. In the movement for Rights for Nature, there’s the beginning of this kind of original thought.

Cormac Cullinan: What we’re seeing in the world is a sense that we need to make an evolutionary leap, which starts off as shifting one’s perspective. This is similar to the Copernican shift. Unless we make a jump to seeing ourselves as part of the Earth, and recognize that we’re part of the system, and reshape our governance systems to reflect this reality, then we’ll not make the necessary changes and we’ll face a precipitous decline in human populations and possibly even become extinct as a species. Now, for the first time, we have a global manifesto that can unite all the social movements: the Declaration of the Rights of Nature. What we’re proposing is not some ideology, but a recognition that we must abide by natural laws.

Vandana Shiva: We’ve been sold a bill of goods. We’ve been told that all we need is growth. India has been growing like gangbusters, but we’ve got more hunger than ever. We find that the more we follow the natural laws, the more food we have. The UN has just submitted a report saying that agro-ecology produces enough food to sustain the human population. We don’t need genetically engineered foods, we don’t need toxins. In every sphere, we’ve been sold economic systems and technological systems that impoverish human life because they impoverish human nature. Part of the liberation we need is to recognize that taking less from nature and giving more to her actually empowers us.

Maude Barlow: I think it’s worth exploring some specific examples. One includes the question of whether to put water on the market. Where it’s been done, it leads to terrible consequences. An example is Australia, where they have one source of water: the Murray Darling aquifer. It’s being exploited by large agricultural concerns, and is now dying. In 1993, the conservative government of the time converted the licenses of big corporations to water rights. The idea was that this would lead to more efficiency. But what really happened was that big organizations bought up water rights and pushed small industries out of business. The price of water went up like mad in one decade. The government then couldn’t get water back into the system. My prediction that big investors would move in has come true; hedge funds are buying up water rights and telling Australian farmers what to grow. Compare this to exploitation of groundwater in Vermont. Four years ago, the state government passed a bill saying that water resources were common property. They set up a licensing system saying that if you want to use over a certain amount, you need to pay. In times of shortage, local food production gets preference. So there’s a fundamental distinction in terms of outlook here. What they mean is that Nature has rights. This has fundamental consequences in our lives.

Shannon Biggs: How do we create social movements? We’re all so much in agreement about fundamental principles. But democracy is messy; there’s no one way to move forward. Things can look very different in different places. In the US, Global Exchange has been involved in Mt. Shasta, where communities have been battling water bottling companies. Another issue that this community is fighting is cloud seeding. If you seed clouds in one area, you create droughts in other areas. The idea that we can geo-engineer solutions is folly. The common thread here and in other places such as Pittsburgh, where fracking has destroyed drinking water, is that corporate rights have to be challenged legally. Laws were made to protect and enshrine rights of people and ecosystems. We’ve made such moves in the past: slavery is an example. In Mt. Shasta and in Pittsburgh, laws have been passed to strip corporations of the right to remove water.

Pablo Solon: I agree that the key issue is how to build a social movement that is capable of defeating capitalism. Our humble experience has shown that social movements develop when they are unified and when they win concrete victories. Ten years ago in Bolivia, we were facing multiple defeats. We focused on a specific issue: privatization of water. We defeated the powerful Bechtel corporation. Then we had the strength to challenge the privatization of gas. We had to nationalize our gas. Otherwise, how would we be able to share the revenues of our country with the population? It’s not enough to have a movement that fights for specific goals; the movement has to fight to take over the government. If you don’t gain power, all the victories that you achieve will be lost. So we were able to build a movement that for the first time raised an indigenous person to president. We were able to create a government through which we could develop our own strategies. We don’t speak much about capitalism. We don’t want more and more, as capitalism does. But we want to live better. This means that our growth has to satisfy basic needs, rather than be an example of rampant growth. The problem though is that even if you manage to get power in a particular nation, you can’t solve the whole problem, because government is now global. We have to solve this at the world-wide level, or it won’t be solved. If there isn’t a movement that goes beyond our borders and our continent, and that maybe comes to the key areas of capitalism, like the U.S. and E.U., we won’t survive. So we look for the common thing that unites people around the world. The key thing is that we all live on one planet, and we all face a common problem: our governments and our states are not respecting the laws of nature, and this is one of the main causes of why we are in this situation. So, to build a movement requires having a paradigm that can open a way to a new way of thinking. This is why the Rights of Nature is a key issue to build a movement to change the world.

Read more

Just Do It - STUDENTS TO HOST LARGEST EVER NUMBER OF FREE SIMULTANEOUS PUBLIC FILM SCREENINGS

2011-10-05T13:21:00.000+01:00

Thousands to watch inspiring film by award-winning director at venues across country on 18 October

University and college students across the UK are preparing to host the largest ever simultaneous free public screenings of a film later this month.

The inspiring and entertaining film, Just Do It – a tale of modern-day outlaws will be screened at approximately 100 venues on Tuesday 18 October, creating the largest number of community-led free public film screenings ever carried out on the same day.

Providing a rare insight into the secretive world of environmental activism, award-winning documentary maker Emily James spent more than a year embedded in groups such as Climate Camp, Climate Rush and Plane Stupid documenting their activities. This community of gutsy and inspiring people are filmed taking direct action despite the risk of arrest. Their actions include blockading a factory, scaling coal power stations and gluing themselves to the trading floors of international banks.

Tea-making “domestic extremist” Marina Pepper who featured in the film, described the importance of taking action stating that, “If you think you can do something and you can make a difference through campaigning or through putting your body in the way, then that’s empowering.”

Director of Just Do It Emily James said:
“The strength of this film lies in the passion, courage, and humour of the protagonists. I feel honoured that they allowed me to capture their story, and immensely pleased that this tale of ordinary people taking extraordinary action is now being seen by so many people who can watch it for free.”

The film screenings of Just Do It are being organised by students in universities and colleges and will take place mainly on university campuses and college halls. In addition to providing an opportunity for the general public to watch an entertaining and captivating film, this day of nationwide free screenings is also seen to symbolise the impact of individuals coming together to take action as a community. This concept is in keeping with the creation and development of the film as Just Do It was made possible by crowd funders.

Co-ordinator of the Campus Screenings, Olivia Furber said:
“It’s encouraging to see so many students organising the screening of this film. This film motivates and inspires us all to take even the smallest action to bring about positive change, even if it is supplying fish and chips to protestors, or making a cup of tea. I hope that, from watching this film, audiences feel empowered to make a difference in their community”.

View Emily's Whale of a Time Profile

World Rhino Day, September 22nd

2011-09-22T02:36:00.000+01:00

On World Rhino Day, we’re working to call attention to the plight facing the world’s rhinos. Rhinos in Africa and Asia are facing a battle for survival, with the situation in Africa particularly dire. This year, more than 285 rhinos have been lost to poaching in South Africa alone – experts predict that more than 475 animals will be killed by the end of the year. No more than 27,000 rhinos are left on Earth.

For centuries in Asia, rhino horn has been used to treat fevers and other infections, although studieshave shown that it has no real medicinal value and many traditional Asian medicine practitioners have come out against its use. International trade in rhino horns was banned in 1977 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) after a massive groundswell of poaching threatened to annihilate rhino populations. The demand for horn has peaked again in the past few years after false claims about its cancer-curing ability emerged from Vietnam. Rhino horn is made of keratin, the same protein found in human fingernails and hair.

With black market rhino horn value surpassing that of diamonds and cocaine, rhino poaching is a high-stakes, organized endeavor undertaken by a range of shady characters, from government officials and foreign diplomats to gangs of violent criminals. In addition to China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan, a new market in Vietnam, sparked by the cancer-cure rumors, has emerged with a vengeance. In addition to killing wild rhinos on the hoof, rhino horns are even being stolen from museums. According to Europol, there have been at least 40 thefts or attempted thefts from European museums since January.

Although more than 90% of the world’s rhinos have been decimated by poaching over the last 40 years, black, white, and Indian rhino populations have been increasing over the past decade. After so much effort and funding has been ploughed into rhino protection in Africa, we cannot lose the momentum. We look to each country’s national authorities to hold up their side of our shared commitment to conserve rhinos.

In South Africa, two Vietnamese were recently sentenced to maximum jail terms after they were arrested with 20 rhino horns that had been illegally acquired from legal hunts. In Zimbabwe as well, poaching convictions are more often leading to maximum sentences now. If strict sentences continue to be imposed, there may finally be a chance that the poachers will back away from their all-out assault on rhinos.

African rhino species are not the only ones in trouble. In Indonesia, the Javan rhino is down to no more than 44 animals in one population. Work is underway to lay the foundation for establishing a second population. Ironically, the last Javan rhino is thought to have been poached from Vietnam this year. Sumatran rhinos, which now live only on the island of Sumatra and in the state of Sabah, Malaysia, have had their population cut in half over the past few decades; the species is now down to no more than 200 individuals.

It’s not all gloom and doom though. We know how to bring these species numbers back up. But we have to get poaching and other human-induced losses under control. Along with all of our partners, we hope to call attention to the good, the bad and the hopeful news through World Rhino Day this Thursday. Please help us.

What can you do to celebrate World Rhino Day?

Help educate others about the rhino poaching crisis – forward this email to your friends and co-workers. (You can also visit our website to find more materials to educate yourself and others.)
Make a donation to support anti-poaching efforts.
Check out these ideas for raising awareness and funding for rhino conservation.
Learn about ways to reduce your own impact.
Make posters, buttons, or other materials to display in your home, workplace or school on World Rhino Day. (Visit the World Rhino Day facebook page and Saving Rhinos' website for ideas and downloads.)
And, finally, let us know how you’re celebrating! Please share your photos, ideas and comments on IRF’s facebook page.

Watch this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvYpn84dL14&feature=player_embedded

How can you help the rhino?

How Far Will Dolphins Go to Relate to Humans?

2011-09-21T21:51:00.000+01:00

The Wild Dolphin Project: For 25 years, Denise Herzing has returned to the same place in the Bahamas to study a group of wild dolphins. Next year, she will pioneer a project to communicate with them.

OFF THE BAHAMAS — In a remote patch of turquoise sea, Denise L. Herzing splashes into the water with a pod of 15 Atlantic spotted dolphins. For the next 45 minutes, she engages the curious creatures in a game of keep-away, using a piece of Sargassum seaweed like a dog’s chew toy.

Dr. Herzing is no tourist cavorting with marine mammals. As the world’s leading authority on the species, she has been studying the dolphins for 25 years as part of the Wild Dolphin Project, the longest-running underwater study of its kind.

“I’m kind of an old-school naturalist,” she said. “I really believe in immersing yourself in the environment of the animal.”

Immerse herself she has. Based in Jupiter, Fla., she has tracked three generations of dolphins in this area. She knows every animal by name, along with individual personalities and life histories. She has captured much of their lives on video, which she is using to build a growing database.

And next year Dr. Herzing plans to begin a new phase of her research, something she says has been a lifetime goal: real-time two-way communication, in which dolphins take the initiative to interact with humans.

Up to now, dolphins have shown themselves to be adept at responding to human prompts, with food as a reward for performing a task. “It’s rare that we ask dolphins to seek something from us,” Dr. Herzing said.

But if she is right, the dolphins will seek to communicate with humans, and the reward will be social interaction itself, with dolphins and humans perhaps developing a crude vocabulary for objects and actions.

Other scientists are excited by the project. “ ‘Mind-blowing’ doesn’t do justice to the possibilities out there,” said Adam Pack, a cetacean researcher at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and an occasional collaborator with Dr. Herzing. “You’ve got crystal-clear warm water, no land in sight and an interest by this community of dolphins of engaging with humans.”

How far will dolphins go to engage?

Read more

The Cove: Help Save Japan's Dolphins

2011-09-15T01:24:00.000+01:00

Target: President Obama, Vice President Biden and Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki

Sponsored by: TakePart.com/TheCove and SaveJapanDolphins.org
In The Cove, a team of activists and filmmakers infiltrate a heavily-guarded cove in Taiji, Japan. In this remote village they witness and document activities deliberately being hidden from the public: More than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises are being slaughtered each year and their meat, containing toxic levels of mercury, is being sold as food in Japan, often times labeled as whale meat.

The majority of the world is not aware this is happening. The Taiji cove is blocked off from the public. Cameras are not allowed inside and the media does not cover the story. It's critical that we get the word out in Japan. Once the Japanese people know we believe they will demand change.

Send a letter to President Obama, Vice President Biden and Japanese Ambassador to the United States Ichiro Fujisaki urging them to address this issue. Everyone who signs the letter will be able to have their name displayed in a widget that will be posted on top social networks, web sites and blogs in Japan. ...

Sign petition here

Peru leads the way for Latin America's indigenous communities

2011-09-15T00:06:00.000+01:00

Posted by Mattia Cabitza Monday 12 September 2011 14.23 BST guardian.co.uk

A new law recognising the land ownership rights of Peru's native inhabitants sets an important regional precedent

In February, after a legal battle lasting nearly two decades, little-known indigenous communities in Ecuador's Amazon region won a multi-billion dollar landmark ruling against the oil giant Chevron. The company was accused of polluting a large part of the Amazon basin by dumping billions of litres of chemical-laden materials, which campaigners said destroyed crops, killed livestock and increased cancer rates among the local population.

The oil firm is appealing the ruling, so the indigenous population and other residents affected by the years of environmental damage may never see a cent from Chevron for the clean-up of their lands. Yet, whatever the outcome, it is rare for indigenous people in Latin America to be awarded compensation for damage to their ancestral lands. From northern Mexico to the southern tip of Chile, it's more usual for commercial interests to get their own way when it comes to development projects affecting indigenous people or their territories.

In Brazil, for instance, the construction of the Belo Monte dam, which will flood a huge area, is going ahead even though it will force the displacement of indigenous Amazon tribes, threatening their very survival. In Guatemala, gold extraction at the Marlin mine continues despite an international ruling calling for the suspension of mining operations, and regardless of the fact that the resulting pollution is detrimental to the health of the surrounding indigenous Maya communities.

Against the wider backdrop of a struggle that pits the ancestral owners of untapped natural resources against greedy governments and corporations, Peru's new law on the right of indigenous people to prior consultation may set a regional precedent in avoiding lengthy legal battles and, more importantly, in the prevention and reduction of social conflicts.

Getting to the law has not been easy. In June 2009, more than 30 police officers and indigenous protesters were killed in Bagua, in the Peruvian Amazon, after months of demonstrations over the sale of rainforest for oil and mining exploitation turned violent. The deadly clashes in Bagua prompted the Peruvian congress to grant indigenous people the right to prior consultation on legislation or infrastructure projects that would affect them or their territories. But it wasn't until Ollanta Humala became president two years later that the bill finally became law.

The bill was signed on Tuesday in the town of Imacita, in Bagua province itself. Afterwards, Humala dismissed the reasoning behind his predecessor's veto. Alan García had argued that foreign investment in indigenous land was needed for Peru's economic growth; the mining sector represented some 60% of the country's exports last year. Instead, Humala told state TV that the new legislation would "strengthen investment" because the government would be able to use consultations to reduce the risk of social conflicts that drive investors away.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights praised Peru for finally complying with its international obligations and catching up with the rest of the region. But for Carla García Zendejas, from the Washington-based Due Process of Law Foundation, Peru's new law goes further in its regional accomplishment. "It marks an important moment for Latin America," she says. "The hope is that other countries will follow [in Peru's footsteps]."

All Latin American countries with considerable indigenous populations are signatories of International Labour Organisation Convention 169, which recognises tribal people's land ownership rights and envisages the right to prior consultation. But Peru is "the first [nation] to fully implement the language of the ILO convention," continues García Zendejas, who believes this is an important precedent as "some countries think it's not necessary [to have a law] because they have signed international treaties". It's the absence of mandatory national legislation that makes politicians believe they can "still push forward development projects without consultation", in disregard of their countries' international obligations, says García Zendejas.

The need for Peruvian-style legislation has most recently become evident in neighbouring Bolivia, where the language used in its constitution in recognition of the right to prior consultation is vague and subject to interpretation. Indigenous people believe that being consulted implies having the right to veto. But the Bolivian government argues consultations are not binding, and has pushed ahead with the construction of a controversial highway without seeking the approval of locals. As a result, indigenous people from the lowlands have been marching since mid-August in protest at the government plan, saying their constitutional right is not being respected.

Peru does now have a law with more precise language than Bolivia, but the legislation follows the argument of the Bolivian government nevertheless; it gives the state, and not indigenous people, the right to make the final decision if a dispute arises. It may have succeeded in greatly reducing the likelihood of another Bagua. But the law does not eliminate the risk of social conflicts altogether: the government and indigenous people could clash again if they find themselves unable to compromise after having carried out consultations in good faith. Like his Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales, Humala may come to realise that adopting a consultative approach to government is not necessarily easier. Across the continent, meanwhile, indigenous people, governments and corporations alike will be watching how Peru fares.

Shell: Take Your Toxic Drilling Elsewhere!

2011-09-14T14:41:00.000+01:00

The oil industry is at it again. Oil giant Shell is planning to conduct coalbed methane drilling in a beautiful and remote area of British Columbia called the Sacred Headwaters. If completed, Shell will construct a network of gas wells that would underlie a large portion of the Headwaters.

Coalbed methane developments have grave impacts for the environment. Methane drilling can contaminate groundwater and disturb natural ecosystems — like the one at the Sacred Headwaters that's home to salmon, caribou, and wolves. And not only is it home to precious animal life, the Sacred Headwaters was declared one of British Columbia's most endangered rivers.

The Sacred Headwaters are home to countless species of invaluable plants and animals. We can't allow big oil conglomerates like Shell to operate in areas that should only be preserved.

Write to Shell executives imploring them to take their toxic drilling elsewhere.

Sign here

36 hours to end ocean clear-cuts

2011-09-14T12:58:00.001+01:00

Our oceans are being systematically destroyed, and we have 36 hours to raise the alarm. The seafood industry uses long chains of heavy metal disks to drag nets across the sea floor in search of fish, crushing everything in their path. This bottom-trawling is like clear-cutting a forest to catch a parrot -- and only our outcry can stop it.

In two days, UN policy-makers are meeting to review the impacts of this deadly practice. Pacific island nations are fighting to save the oceans and have appealed to Avaaz members to stand with them. This is our chance to win -- if enough of us speak out now, it will strengthen their hand against big fishing countries, and will embolden serious players like the US and Australia, who have already banned bottom-trawling in their waters, to push for protection everywhere.

Let's build an urgent call to stop the senseless destruction of our oceans -- and delegates will deliver our voices directly to the UN meeting. Sign now on the right and help us reach half a million voices in the next 36 hours:

Sign here

BIG WHALE THANK YOU!

EU court bans honey contaminated by genetically modified crop

2011-09-07T12:19:00.000+01:00

*EU court bans honey contaminated by genetically modified crop*

Beekeepers should be compensated - Greenpeace

*Luxembourg, 6 September 2011 - *The Court of Justice of the European Union
(ECJ) today banned beekeepers from selling honey contaminated by a
genetically modified (GM) crop.

The court ruled that honey from a German beekeeper could not be sold after
being contaminated by pollen from Monsanto‚s MON810 maize, one of only two
GM crops cultivated for commercial purposes in Europe.

*Greenpeace EU agriculture policy adviser Stefanie Hundsdorfer said:* *„The
ECJ ruling highlights how conventional and genetically modified agriculture
cannot co-exist. When a GM crop is grown in open fields, contamination is
impossible to stop. It‚s a scandal there‚s no Europe-wide liability regime
to protect beekeepers or farmers affected by GM crops. Monsanto and the
Bavarian state that grew the crop should be held fully liable for this
genetic pollution and compensate any beekeeper affected.‰*

**

The German beekeeper‚s hives were 500 metres from a test field of MON810 on
Bavarian government land. MON810 is currently authorised for a limited
number of food uses, excluding GM pollen in honey, and the court‚s ruling
upholds the EU‚s zero tolerance rules for unauthorised GM contamination. The
ruling could make it easier for German beekeepers to claim compensation,
something still to be decided by a German court.

In Europe, MON810 is grown mainly in Spain, and to a much lesser extent in
Portugal, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Romania.

AMAZON WATCH » Stop the Belo Monte Monster Dam!

2011-08-23T01:31:00.000+01:00

AMAZON WATCH » Stop the Belo Monte Monster Dam!

timbalada salvador

2011-08-08T18:29:00.000+01:00

Information is Beautiful: Which fish are good to eat?

2011-06-24T21:46:00.000+01:00

Over-exploitation. Destructive fishing techniques. Polluting fish farms. How do you know which fish are fine for your fork?

In an age of over-fishing and crashing marine stocks, it's difficult to keep track of which fish are ethically kosher. Here I've pooled and visualized the latest consensus and data from the Marine Conservation Society (PDF), Greenpeace and the SeaFood Watch.

The Guardian published a guide and information on ocean-fish friendly fish. Read more here

Oceans on brink of catastrophe - report by The Independent

2011-06-23T02:13:00.000+01:00

Marine life facing mass extinction 'within one human generation' / State of seas 'much worse than we thought', says global panel of scientists

By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor

The world's oceans are faced with an unprecedented loss of species comparable to the great mass extinctions of prehistory, a major report suggests today. The seas are degenerating far faster than anyone has predicted, the report says, because of the cumulative impact of a number of severe individual stresses, ranging from climate warming and sea-water acidification, to widespread chemical pollution and gross overfishing.

Read full report here

Just do it - at The Ritzi in Brixton on 15th July

2011-06-23T01:26:00.001+01:00

Exciting news! Just Do It- a tale of modern-day outlaws from acclaimed film maker Emily James, will be opening at the Ritzi in Brixton on July 15th. In the making of Just Do It, Director Emily James spent over a year embedded in activist groups Climate Camp, Climate Rush and Plane Stupid. With unprecedented access, the film gives a fun but earnest glimpse into a community of people who refuse to sit back and allow the destruction of their world. Just Do It introduces a powerful cast of mischievous and inspiring characters who put their bodies in the way. They super-glue themselves to bank trading floors, blockade factories and attack coal power stations en-masse all despite the very real threat of arrest. Putting aside the doom and gloom of many environmental documentaries, Just Do It will leave audiences empowered rather than overwhelmed.

For us on the Just Do It team, this is a film intended to inspire people to take action on climate (along with the rest of our world's social and environmental issues) and we plan to show it to as many people as possible to meet that end.

With much hurrah, Just Do It will be at The Ritzi in Brixton at 8.45pm along with a sure to be rousing Q&A from Director Emily James. You can nab tickets here. Click here to watch the trailer. And please spread the word! If you bring along five people to the screening, we will give you a complimentary ticket.

Vote YES to YOUR Health Rights!

2011-06-17T23:55:00.000+01:00

ARE YOU AWARE that your right to choose to heal yourself and your loved ones with herbs is seriously threatened?

ON THE 30TH APRIL 2011 (YES, it's happening right now) this EU directive comes into place dissallowing certain herbs to be sold in the European Union, including in the UK.

If you haven't heard much about it, then that's because it's been very cunningly brushed under carpets, hidden from public view, but that's changing...

We urge you to watch this short video which will explain why and how many of the herbs you are used to finding in your health food shops will simply vanish from the shelves from the 30th April.

THIS IS REALLY SERIOUS AND WE STRONGLY OPPOSE MANY OF THESE CHANGES...PLEASE DON'T TURN YOUR BACK ON YOUR RIGHTS.

SIGN THE PETITION NOW!

Neurotoxic corn seed treatments kill bees!!!

2011-06-17T01:39:00.002+01:00

read more at http://bee-life.eu/en/article/8/

Austrian / German article at http://www.imkereizentrum.at/

Defra Launches First White Paper on the Natural Environment in Twenty

2011-06-16T12:47:00.000+01:00

A detailed programme of action to improve the quality and increase the value of the natural environment across England.

Defra has published The Natural Choice: Securing the Value of Nature, a White Paper setting out its vision for the natural environment over the next 50 years. The Paper includes a detailed programme of action, which aims to improve the quality of the natural environment across England, halt the decline in habitats and species, and strengthen the connection between people and nature.

Plans in the Paper are directly linked to the groundbreaking research in the National Ecosystem Assessment that showed the strong economic arguments for safeguarding and enhancing the natural environment.

The natural environment will be incorporated into economic planning which will support the growth of the green economy and expand business opportunities. Chapter 3 of the White Paper identifies action to support businesses along the supply chain to understand and manage their global and local environmental impacts.

The White Paper also acts on the recommendations of Making Space for Nature, a report into the state of England’s wildlife sites, led by Professor John Lawton and published in September 2010, which showed that England’s wildlife sites are fragmented and not able to respond to the pressures of climate change and other pressures put on the land. The Government has published its response to the Lawton Review alongside the White Paper.

Key measures in the White Paper, which also takes forward recommendations contained in Making Space for Nature, include:

Reconnecting Nature

New Nature Improvement Areas (NIAs), transforming rural and urban areas and providing bigger, connected sites for wildlife to live in and adapt to climate change. With a £7.5 million fund for 12 initial NIAs to demonstrate just what can be done. Professor Sir John Lawton has agreed to chair the panel to allocate funding.
Biodiversity offsetting – new way for developers to ensure wildlife sites are not lost and make them better by making and improving other sites.
New Local Nature Partnerships to strengthen joined-up action across local agencies and organisations, with a £1 million available this year.
Phasing out peat – working with the horticulture industry to phase out peat use, which will help to protect and restore peatlands, which are valuable carbon sinks, habitats and part of the ecological network. A task force to consider all options to phase out use of peat in the supply chain will be chaired by Dr Alan Knight OBE.
Connecting People and Nature for Better Quality of Life

Green Areas Designation allowing local communities to give protection to areas that are important to them for recreation, the view or their importance for wildlife.
Better urban green spaces for the benefit of cities and towns. Support for parks, gardens, and tree planting which benefit people and nature alike.
More children experiencing nature by learning outdoors, through practical support to schools and reducing red-tape for outdoor learning.
Strengthening local public health activities which connect people with nature for better health.
New environmental volunteering initiative “Muck in 4 Life” to improve places in towns and countryside for people and nature to enjoy.
Capturing and Improving the Value of Nature

Natural Capital Committee – an independent body to report to the Government’s economic affairs committee chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This body will put the value of nature at the heart of the Government’s economic thinking, and advise Government about the best way of securing natural assets for the future.
An annual statement of green accounts for UK Plc – showing where the economy has withdrawn from the value of nature’s bank balance, and where it has invested in it. This will help measure green growth alongside GDP.
A business-led Task Force chaired by Kingfisher Group Chief Executive Officer Ian Cheshire, to expand the UK business opportunities from new products and services which are good for the economy and nature alike.
Caroline Spelman, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said:

“The natural environment matters to us all – not just because it makes us feel good when we stumble across a bluebell wood or spot a pair of goldfinches, but because we are now all able to see the terrible price we would pay if we lost what we have or neglected to care for it. Nature belongs to us all, and we’ve all got a vested interest in protecting it.

“That’s why the true value of nature should be built in to the decisions we make – as individuals, organisations, businesses and governments – so that we become the first generation to leave the environment in a better condition than we found it. This is what ‘The Natural Choice’ will help us all achieve.”

Full details of the White Paper are available here (opens new window).

Source: Defra, 08/06/11

Climate Policies Boost the Economy

2011-05-18T22:25:00.000+01:00

Studies show that strong climate policies boost the economy by
stimulating investment in clean technologies, new infrastructure and
creating green jobs. One report found that a 30 percent emission
reduction target for Europe could increase GDP by more than EUR600
billion by 2020

A study from March 2011,commissioned by the German Ministry for the
Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety and conducted by a
consortium of researchers from six leading universities and institutes
from across Europe found that a target of 30 % domestic emission
reductions by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels), if accompanied with
adequate and consistent policies, could: Boost European investments from
18 % to up to 22 % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), create up to 6
million additional jobs, by 2020 increase European GDP by 620 billion
Euros ($847.4 billion), or by 6 percent above business as usual trends,
improve energy security, save fuel costs, help European industry to
maintain and enhance its competitiveness. For more information go to
http://www.newgrowthpath.eu

Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth.

2011-05-15T14:57:00.000+01:00

On April 20, 2011 the UN General Assembly hosted an Interactive Panel Debate on sustainable development in harmony with nature including the Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth. The webcast of the complete is included at "Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth"

Preamble

We, the peoples and nations of Earth:

considering that we are all part of Mother Earth, an indivisible, living community of interrelated and interdependent beings with a common destiny;

gratefully acknowledging that Mother Earth is the source of life, nourishment and learning and provides everything we need to live well;recognizing that the capitalist system and all forms of depredation, exploitation, abuse and contamination have caused great destruction, degradation and disruption of Mother Earth, putting life as we know it today at risk through phenomena such as climate change;

convinced that in an interdependent living community it is not possible to recognize the rights of only human beings without causing an imbalance within Mother Earth;

affirming that to guarantee human rights it is necessary to recognize and defend the rights of Mother Earth and all beings in her and that there are existing cultures, practices and laws that do so;

conscious of the urgency of taking decisive, collective action to transform structures and systems that cause climate change and other threats to Mother Earth;

proclaim this Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth, and call on the General Assembly of the United Nation to adopt it, as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations of the world, and to the end that every individual and institution takes responsibility for promoting through teaching, education, and consciousness raising, respect for the rights recognized in this Declaration and ensure through prompt and progressive measures and mechanisms, national and international, their universal and effective recognition and observance among all peoples and States in the world.

Article 1. Mother Earth

1. Mother Earth is a living being.

2. Mother Earth is a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains and reproduces all beings.

3. Each being is defined by its relationships as an integral part of Mother Earth.

4. The inherent rights of Mother Earth are inalienable in that they arise from the same source as existence.

5. Mother Earth and all beings are entitled to all the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration without distinction of any kind, such as may be made between organic and inorganic beings, species, origin, use to human beings, or any other status.

6. Just as human beings have human rights, all other beings also have rights which are specific to their species or kind and appropriate for their role and function within the communities within which they exist.

7. The rights of each being are limited by the rights of other beings and any conflict between their rights must be resolved in a way that maintains the integrity, balance and health of Mother Earth.

Article 2. Inherent Rights of Mother Earth

1. Mother Earth and all beings of which she is composed have the following inherent rights:

a) the right to life and to exist;

b) the right to be respected;

c) the right to regenerate its bio-capacity and to continue its vital cycles and processes free from human disruptions;

d) the right to maintain its identity and integrity as a distinct, self-regulating and interrelated being;

e) the right to water as a source of life;

f) the right to clean air;

g) the right to integral health;

h) the right to be free from contamination, pollution and toxic or radioactive waste;

i) the right to not have its genetic structure modified or disrupted in a manner that threatens it integrity or vital and healthy functioning;

j) the right to full and prompt restoration the violation of the rights recognized in this Declaration caused by human activities;

2. Each being has the right to a place and to play its role in Mother Earth for her harmonious functioning.

3. Every being has the right to wellbeing and to live free from torture or cruel treatment by human beings.

Article 3. Obligations of human beings to Mother Earth

1. Every human being is responsible for respecting and living in harmony with Mother Earth.

2. Human beings, all States, and all public and private institutions must:

a) act in accordance with the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;

b) recognize and promote the full implementation and enforcement of the rights and obligations recognized in this Declaration;

c) promote and participate in learning, analysis, interpretation and communication about how to live in harmony with Mother Earth in accordance with this Declaration;

d) ensure that the pursuit of human wellbeing contributes to the wellbeing of Mother Earth, now and in the future;

e) establish and apply effective norms and laws for the defence, protection and conservation of the rights of Mother Earth;

f) respect, protect, conserve and where necessary, restore the integrity, of the vital ecological cycles, processes and balances of Mother Earth;

g) guarantee that the damages caused by human violations of the inherent rights recognized in this Declaration are rectified and that those responsible are held accountable for restoring the integrity and health of Mother Earth;

h) empower human beings and institutions to defend the rights of Mother Earth and of all beings;

i) establish precautionary and restrictive measures to prevent human activities from causing species extinction, the destruction of ecosystems or the disruption of ecological cycles;

j) guarantee peace and eliminate nuclear, chemical and biological weapons;

k) promote and support practices of respect for Mother Earth and all beings, in accordance with their own cultures, traditions and customs;

l) promote economic systems that are in harmony with Mother Earth and in accordance with the rights recognized in this Declaration.

Article 4. Definitions

1. The term “being” includes ecosystems, natural communities, species and all other natural entities which exist as part of Mother Earth.

2. Nothing in this Declaration restricts the recognition of other inherent rights of all beings or specified beings.

motherearthrights.org

therightsofnature.org

Save the natural herbs of Europe! - Please sign petition!

2011-04-27T17:18:00.000+01:00

Save natural remedies in Europe. Keep your freedom of choice. The European Union has approved under THMPD Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, which will come into force on the 30th of April 2011, to stop our right to use alternative medicine as free choice.

The aim is to secure billions of Euros of profits for the pharmaceutical industry for years to come by obliging patients to use their drugs instead of alternative natural medicine. Plants that have been used by herbalists for thousands of years would need approval which would be very costly ranging around £100,000 per herb and obviously totally impossible to afford by the individual herbalists, ensuring the monopoly of the market for big pharmaceutical corporations.

Please watch the video and sign the petition at http://www.savenaturalhealth.eu

Thank you!

"Songs of the Humpback Whale." (1970)

2011-04-13T23:22:00.000+01:00

The use of underwater microphones called hydrophones showed that not only can whales communicate, but they do so with beauty and complexity. Frank Watlington and Roger Payne, among others, made these unique recordings. The haunting sounds on "Songs of the Humpback Whale," along with Payne’s liner notes for CRM Records, helped turn the tide of U.S. public opinion against whaling. In addition to the album’s aesthetic and political significance, it can also be considered historically valuable: whales change their songs over time so these recordings document a cetacean performance practice of a time gone by.

Image Caption: Humpback whale; Image Credit: Photo by Peter Tyack, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution under National Marine Fisheries Service permit #184, issued to Roger Payne, Ocean Alliance.

Green The Film

2011-04-13T04:28:00.003+01:00

Watch "Green The Film" here

Deforestation

(To the best of my knowledge the information below is true, please report any errors)

Indonesia has one of the world’s worst deforestation rates, averaging at around 2 million hectares a year. In 1950 the forest cover of Indonesia was about 160 million hectares, today less than 48 million hectares are left.

Massive deforestation of Indonesia began in the 1970s with the expansion of the timber industry. Then came the pulp and paper industry followed by the palm oil industry. Today, the major driving force behind Indonesian deforestation comes from the international demand for palm oil to make biofuels. An October 2009 report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that: “95 per cent of the increased production of palm oil in Malaysia and Indonesia was driven by the growing demand for biodiesel”, and that “two-thirds of the current expansion of palm oil cultivation in Indonesia is based on the conversion of rainforests”.

This demand comes essentially from India, Europe and China who are all promoting palm oil biodiesel as tomorrow’s best renewable “green”energy to combat climate change. But reports show that converting forests into oil palm plantations for biofuel actually worsens climate change. Palm oil bio-diesel is not really about combating climate change, it is just about making money.

Stop consuming products made of Indonesian deforestation

Stop investing your money in companies and banks involved in deforestation of Indonesia

Donate to reliable NGOs and individuals who are presently protecting the forest and saving the orangutans on the field.

Avoid having a car which runs on bio-diesel.

Avoid consuming paper as much as possible.

Avoid consuming products with palm oil.

Avoid consuming all tropical hardwoods.

Green The Film

Living Jungle

Patrick Blanc, Vertical Garden interview in Paris

2011-04-04T23:26:00.000+01:00

ORIGINAL Elephant Painting

2011-04-04T23:15:00.000+01:00

Willie Smits: Saving Rainforests

2011-04-02T20:24:00.000+01:00

Endangered animals - orangutans face extinction in Borneo due to defores...

2011-04-02T19:57:00.000+01:00

We can Re-Forest the world

2010-12-15T02:10:00.003Z

The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second-best time is now. – African Proverb The problem: 39 million sq km of our planet is degraded, due to intensive agriculture, overgrazing and desertification.

Permaculture reforestation involves planting pioneer trees and covering the soil with mulch, and this will bring moisture back into the ground. And only then can a vast diversity of indigenous species be planted, returning biodiversity and fertility to the area.

WeForest plants many types of indigenous trees, including 10% agro-forestry seedlings around its new forests these directly and quickly benefit the local population. The 90% balance consists of true reforestation seedlings designed to restore the natural environment of the region.

Sustainable forestry, which plays a vital role in ensuring the stability of our planet. Trees support ecosystems, maintain the integrity of our soil and habitats, and provide food, employment, and shelter for local people.

Trees make clouds. Clouds cool the earth. Clouds reflect sunshine back into space, thus cooling the earth. Planting 20 million km2 of forests would create enough clouds to halt global warming in its tracks.

WeForest was founded by entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Liao and is a non-profit in both Switzerland and Belgium. It supports projects across the world. "We don't care who plants the trees as long as they are planted in a sustainable way." www.weforest.org

Radio Senate debated the risks of dams in Chapada dos

2010-11-06T14:17:00.004Z

Radio Senate debated the risks of dams in Chapada dos

Senate Radio - The construction of 22 dams threatens the Chapada dos, Goias, classified by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as world natural heritage. The warning was made by researchers from the fauna and flora, which are against the construction of power plants in the belief that many animal and plant species may be destroyed. Moreover, they argue, the main economic activity in the region - ecotourism - is also in danger.
They discussed the matter as a board member of Environmental Defense Alto Paraiso de Goias and the National Environment Council - CONAMA, Alvaro De Angelis, a professor of Forestry at UNB, Reuber Brandão, the coordinator of implementation Centers for Advanced Studies in the Cerrado Chapada dos UnB, Nina Paula Laranjeira, and environmentalist Peter Midkiff. (Photo: Pedro Barbosa)

Days left to stop mass extinction

2010-10-26T11:02:00.001+01:00

Dear Friends of the Whale,

Many whales are among the 1/3rd of all life on the planet that is being driven to extinction. World governments are meeting this week to consider a bold plan to protect 20% of the world's oceans and lands by 2020. We have 4 days left, and a global public outcry could tip the balance. Click to sign the petition for the 20/20 plan and forward this email:

There are only 300 northern right whales left, and 99% of blue whales have been wiped out. These majestic giants are endangered species, and their case is being played out across the world, time and again. In fact, one third of all life forms on the planet are on the brink of extinction.

The natural world is being crushed by human activity, waste and exploitation. But there is a plan to save it -- a global agreement to create, fund and enforce protected areas covering 20% of our lands and seas by 2020. And right now, 193 governments are meeting in Japan to address this crisis.

We have just 4 days left in this crucial meeting. Experts say that politicians are hesitant to adopt such an ambitious goal, but that a global public outcry could tip the balance, making leaders feel the eyes of the world upon them. Click to sign the urgent 20/20 petition, and forward this email widely -- the message will be delivered directly to the meeting in Japan:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_end_of_whales/?vl

Ironically, 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. By now, our governments were supposed to have "achieved a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss." They have failed, consistently caving to industry when given a choice between narrow profit and protecting species. Our animals, plants, oceans, forests, soils, and rivers are choking under immense burdens from over-exploitation and other pressures.

Humans are the primary cause of this destruction. But we can turn it around -- we've saved species from extinction before. The causes of biodiversity decline are vast, and stopping them is going to require a move away from empty piecemeal promises with no clarity on who will pay, to a bold plan with strict enforcement and serious funding. The 20/20 plan is precisely that: governments will be forced to execute strict programmes to ensure that 20% of our earth is protected by the 2020 deadline, and massively scale up funding.

It has to be now. All over the world the picture is beginning to look bleaker -- there are only 3,200 tigers left in the wild, our oceans are running out of fish, and we're losing unique food sources to large mono-plantations. Nature is resilient, but we have to give it a safe place to bounce back. That's why this meeting is key -- it's a watershed moment to accelerate action based on clear commitments that protect nature's capital.

If our governments feel overwhelming public pressure right now to be courageous, we can jolt them to commit to the 20/20 plan at this meeting. But it's going to take every one of us to get that message to echo around the convention in Japan. Sign this urgent petition below, then forward it widely:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_end_of_whales/?vl

Already this year Avaaz, members have played a critical role in protecting elephants, defending the whale-hunting ban, and securing the world's largest Marine Protected Area in the Chagos Islands. Our community has shown that we can set ambitious goals -- and win. This campaign is the next stage in the essential battle to create the world that most of us everywhere want -- where natural resources and species are valued, and our living planet is protected for future generations.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/the_end_of_whales/?vl

With hope,

Alice, Iain, Emma, Ricken, Paula, Benjamin, Mia, David, Graziela, Ben, and the rest of the Avaaz team

Sources:

The Times: "Third of all animals and plants face extinction"
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7120676.ece

The Guardian: "Public awareness of the biodiversity crisis is virtually non-existent"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/sep/16/public-awareness-biodiversity-crisis

Sydney Morning Herald: "UN calls for immediate action to save life on earth"
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/un-calls-for-immediate-action-to-save-life-on-earth-20101018-16qnv.html

IUCN: "Why is biodiversity in crisis?"
http://www.iucn.org/iyb/about/biodiversity_crisis/

More on the Convention of Biodiversity meeting
http://www.cbd.int/cop10/

Herbal and mineral supplements to be saved!

2010-10-26T11:00:00.001+01:00

The EU has passed a directive that comes into full-force in April 2011: that all herbal and mineral supplements are to be banned, all teaching of alternative healing methods will be banned, and homeopathic colleges dissolved.....etc. As of this summer it is now forbidden to sell books about using plants and minerals.
Please help circulate this email, 35 million signatures are needed!!http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/joininghandsinhealth/

Earthwatch - An environmental mascot for Britain

2010-10-25T12:24:00.001+01:00

The Bumblebee came out on top in the run up of the vote on an environmental mascot for Britain.

It was close to the oak, followed by the coral, thrush and bluebell.

ACEA Eco Art Contest

2010-10-22T20:25:00.001+01:00

Pure Water Vision

Contemporary Art Contest

To draw attention to the deep connections between water, man, the environment and the important relationship to the sustainable development of the planet.

Photography, digital art, video, painting, sculpture, installations, performance art.

Check it out here

Operation Bee - Please sign petition!!!

2010-10-18T19:44:00.009+01:00

For over 130 million years, bees have played an extremely significant role in our lives. But lately, they have been dying at staggering rates.

Since 2006, nearly one third of the entire Western Honey Bee population (Apis melifera) vanished each year in the United States. It is the worst sudden bee die-off recorded in history, approximately 60% of reported deaths showed symptoms of a condition called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). At most, normal bee losses account for 17% of the total bee population, but these numbers are shocking.

Here in Canada, from the winters of 2005/06 to 2007/08, bee declines jumped from 29% to 35% of the total national number of commercialized honey bees. In addition, these die-offs were reported in thirteen other countries including France, Poland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Even native wild bees across the world are dying at rapid rates. In effect, bee health is an alarming concern as entire bee species are at risk of extinction.

If bees continue to disappear at this rate, it is estimated by 2035 that there will be no more honey bees.

The duke Edinburgh once said, "Miners use canaries to warn them of deadly gases. It might not be a bad idea if we took the same warning from the dead birds in our countryside."

Irene Schleining, Director of Whale of a Time says, It might not be a bad idea if we took the same warning from the dead bees in our countryside."

Act Now! Sign this petition at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/operationbee

Whale of a Time

Sign Petition to Stop Whaling - to be presented to IWC

Towards a New Paradigm of Non-Captive Research on Cetacean Cognition

Monsanto Guilty: Paul Francois, French Farmer, Poisoned By Biotech Giant’s Chemicals

Declaration of Cetaceans Rights

Whales and dolphins 'should have legal rights'

Occupy for Nature’s Right

Man Builds Fairy Tale Home for $4700

Occupy for Nature's Right

Shipping causes 'chronic stress' to whales

Navy Training Blasts Marine Mammals with Harmful Sonar

Industry figures confirm GM food is a commercial flop in Europe

Survival of the Beautiful by David Rothenberg

Support Aboriginal rights in the NT

Toxic chemicals to pollute Europeans for another generation (Greenpeace EU pressdesk)

10 Reasons I love Monsanto.

Imker in Grosser Sorge

Pesticide exposure in honey bees results in increased levels of the gut pathogen Nosema

Dolphins have no part in this dispute with Iran | Peter Singer

Louie Schwartzberg: The hidden beauty of pollination

Sorgloser Umgand mit Gentechnologie und Pestizide bei Monsanto

Interview with Shannon Biggs and Maude Barlow for The Rights of Nature

Whale Mail - Blessed Christmas & a Whale of a 2012!

System Change - Shannon Biggs

15th December: Silent Protest Held in Support of Communities of Limpopo

*Durban climate talks ending: Polluters won, people lost*

Gift a Tree to the Rainmakers! | Sponsume

Spectacular Time Lapse Dam "Removal" Video ... The best solution for Belo Monte! ;)

Scientists ask public to help decode whale song

Up in Smoke - Rainforest Awareness

Tar Sands Action

Lets Do it - Let’s clean up the world!

Ecocide

A Fall From Freedom - The Untold Story Behind The Captive Whale And Dolphin Industry

St Andrews scientists ask if whales have 'dialects'

Vietnam loses fight to save its rare Javan rhinos after last animal believed poached for horn

What should be the top environmental priority for the next 40 years?

Cheap boat for sale!

Sign Petition for the Rights of Mother Earth!

Remembrance for Lost Species - November 12th 2011

New Zealand oil spill: conservationists warn of wildlife 'tragedy'

Summer 2011: Arctic sea ice near record lows

Ozone layer hole over Arctic in sudden expansion

The Rights of Mother Nature

Just Do It - STUDENTS TO HOST LARGEST EVER NUMBER OF FREE SIMULTANEOUS PUBLIC FILM SCREENINGS

World Rhino Day, September 22nd

How Far Will Dolphins Go to Relate to Humans?

The Cove: Help Save Japan's Dolphins

Peru leads the way for Latin America's indigenous communities

Shell: Take Your Toxic Drilling Elsewhere!

36 hours to end ocean clear-cuts

EU court bans honey contaminated by genetically modified crop

AMAZON WATCH » Stop the Belo Monte Monster Dam!

timbalada salvador

Information is Beautiful: Which fish are good to eat?

Oceans on brink of catastrophe - report by The Independent

Just do it - at The Ritzi in Brixton on 15th July

Vote YES to YOUR Health Rights!

Neurotoxic corn seed treatments kill bees!!!

Defra Launches First White Paper on the Natural Environment in Twenty

Climate Policies Boost the Economy

Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth.

Save the natural herbs of Europe! - Please sign petition!

"Songs of the Humpback Whale." (1970)

Green The Film

(To the best of my knowledge the information below is true, please report any errors)

Patrick Blanc, Vertical Garden interview in Paris

ORIGINAL Elephant Painting

Willie Smits: Saving Rainforests

Endangered animals - orangutans face extinction in Borneo due to defores...

We can Re-Forest the world

Radio Senate debated the risks of dams in Chapada dos

Days left to stop mass extinction

Herbal and mineral supplements to be saved!

Earthwatch - An environmental mascot for Britain

ACEA Eco Art Contest

Operation Bee - Please sign petition!!!

Durban climate talks ending: Polluters won, people lost