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Make That Change!

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, U.C. Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and East Bay Regional Parks District General Manager Robert Doyle have received federal funding for an environmentally catastrophic plan to destroy Eucalyptus, Monterey Pine, Monterey Cypress, and Acacia forests on the public lands and parks of the East Bay.

Starting in August, over 100,000 trees and as many as 400,000 in the East Bay hills will be clear cut and thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals made by Monsanto and Dow will be dumped on their stumps.

Costing nearly $6 million, this plan will radically transform the character and appearance of the hills while causing great animal suffering, including the decimation of habitat vital to several endangered species.
The environment in which they live eliminated, these animals and multitudes of others will be displaced or forced to live in toxic waste dumps filled with chemicals that will poison them and their food and water supply.

Human residents, visitors and their pets in the region will likewise be exposed to hazardous chemicals, while the idyllic setting upon which the property values of Oakland homeowners depend will be seriously degraded.

According to FEMA, the federal agency funding this proposal, the goal is to eliminate forests so that the land can be transformed into “grassland with islands of shrubs.”

In total 105 forests in various locations throughout the East Bay will be eliminated on the public lands overseen by the city of Oakland and UC Berkeley, and within the East Bay Regional Parks District for a total of over 2,000 acres. Slated for eradication are the vast forests above the Caldecott Tunnel and Caldecott Field (53 acres), North Hills/Skyline (68 acres), and at Strawberry and Claremont Canyons (112 acres).

Also slated for eradication are the forests within and around the following East Bay Regional Parks:

Anthony Chabot (200 acres)
Claremont Canyon Preserve (152 acres)
Huckleberry Botanic (18 acres)
Lake Chabot (5 acres)
Leona Canyon (5 acres)
Miller/Knox Shoreline (22 acres)
Redwood (151 acres)
Sibley (166 acres)
Sobrante Ridge (4 acres)
Tilden (325 acres)
Wildcat Canyon (112 acres)

A statement released by FEMA admits that the plan will cause,

“unavoidable adverse impacts… to vegetation, wildlife and habitats, protected species, soils, water quality, aesthetics, community character, human health and safety, recreation, and noise.”

When this plan is completed, gone will be the beloved, shaded hiking trails of the East Bay, made so idyllic by the soaring, century old trees planted by Oakland’s earliest residents.
Instead, visitors to the East Bay hills will find empty, sun-scorched paths lined by caution tape warning visitors to avoid the chemical soaked tree stumps that serve as grave markers to forests and beauty that are no more.

Commuters traveling East through the Caldecott tunnel will no longer behold the spectacular forests that blanket the hills above the southern bore, but instead an empty, blighted hillside rendered a tragic and heart-wrenching eyesore.
Weekend visitors to Tilden Park in Berkeley will discover that the trees which lined their paths and under which they picnicked are gone.

Just as alarming, the people and animals of the East Bay will be repeatedly exposed—twice a year, every year for a decade and perhaps in perpetuity—to hazardous herbicides, including Dow Chemical’s Garlon Ultra 4 and Monsanto’s Glyphosate.
These herbicides have been found to cause DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells and increase the risk of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, to cause severe birth defects when tested on poor animals including rats born with their brains outside their skulls, to harm birds and aquatic species and to damage the kidneys, liver and the blood of dogs, the latter being an issue of particular concern to the legions of dog walkers which regularly visit our public parks.
These herbicides not only contaminate ground water and persist in the environment for many years, but, ironically, alter the soil by killing fungi essential to the health of oak trees, one of the species of trees proponents of the plan will not be clear-cutting, thereby imperiling even those few trees that will be left behind.

When FEMA was debating whether or not to fund this proposal, over 13,000 public comments were submitted, 90% of which expressed opposition.

Despite this overwhelming display of public sentiment against the plan, FEMA, Mayor Schaaf, Chancellor Dirks and EBRPD General Manager Doyle have chosen to ignore the will of the people and forge ahead with their plan to destroy the public lands we entrusted them to care for on our behalf.
Not since the Firestorm tragedy of 1991 have the East Bay hills and their historical heritage been under a similarly devastating threat but for one, crucial difference: this time, the danger to the well being of residents and the scars upon the landscape will be deliberately inflicted by our public officials.

Unless we stop them, August 2015 will not only usher in the end of summer, but the end of East Bay forests.

Click here for what you can do.

http://www.saveeastbayhills.org/the-clear-cutting-plan.html
 
:clapping: Amazing MIST !! Thank you so much for sharing this amazing inventive idea with us !
This is so awesome truly genius at work here ! This person must have been inspired by Michael I know it !

I would not be surprised if they were a Michael Jackson Fan in their heart !

:heart:
 
Pope Francis's Call to Action

Pope Francis officially released his call to action, ‘Laudato Si.’ a 192-page climate change encyclical, on June 18th. The pope focused on the morality of climate change and the necessity of protecting the world’s poor, who are disproportionately affected by this manmade disaster.

Unlike previous encyclicals, this one is directed at people of all religions, not just Catholics. The document reiterates the importance of people of all races and religions working together to protect this beautiful Earth we all share. It is also the first encyclical that addresses environmental damage.

Crucial lifestyle changes are needed to protect our planet. The “throw-away culture” victimizes the poor and creates an abundance of unnecessary waste. Pope Francis calls on people to live simpler lives instead of striving for a life of consumption. There are many small things we can all do to help our Earth like taking public transportation, carpooling, planting trees, turning off unnecessary lights, recycling, and boycotting harmful products.

The pope called access to clean drinking water “a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival.” Those who are powerful and wealthy are disregarding their actions and violating the Earth. Instead they need to use their resources to help those in need. In fact, a global authority of cooperating governments can help tackle climate change. Developed countries, who are mostly responsible for the environmental damage through the “export of solid waste and toxic liquids to developing countries, and by the pollution produced by companies which operate in less developed countries in ways they could never do at home,” have a responsibility to help developing countries, as they are bearing the brunt of their actions.

The pope argued that our dependence on technology is not useful unless it is coupled with values and conscience to enhance the Earth, not destroy it. The widespread use of renewable energies should be implemented, as our reliance on fossil fuels is contributing to climate change.

Other topics of the encyclical include urban planning and the need for better living situations for the poor, agricultural conglomerates that are pushing family farmers off of their land, conservation, and biodiversity,

The release of this breakthrough encyclical comes in advance of the Pope’s participation in the Climate Week and the UN General Assembly in September, as well as the upcoming COP21 talks in Paris in December.

- See more at: http://www.earthday.org/blog/2015/06/18/pope-franciss-call-action#sthash.99T3tvwJ.dpuf
 
Nepal chooses kindness — ENDING the world's largest animal sacrifice event
In a glorious tribute to the power of compassion, the Gadhimai slaughter festival will now be a 'momentous celebration of life.'

LAST UPDATED: 30 JULY 2015

For centuries the Gadhimai festival in Nepal has seen temple grounds awash with the blood of animals slaughtered in the name of 'tradition'.

This sacrifice has occurred every five years for the last 300 years.

And it stopped — today.

The Gadhimai Temple Trust hereby declares our formal decision to end animal sacrifice. With your help, we can ensure Gadhimai 2019 is free from bloodshed. Moreover, we can ensure Gadhimai 2019 is a momentous celebration of life ... For every life taken, our heart is heavy. The time has come to transform an old tradition.
Hundreds of thousands of water buffalo, goats, chickens and other animals will now be saved from a brutal death by bludgeoning or decapitation.

This achievement is no small feat. We take our hats off to the extraordinary efforts of the Humane Society International/India, Animal Welfare Network Nepal, and countless animal protection groups and individuals around the world who have helped inspire this victory of kindess over cruelty. The hard work is not over yet — with the big task still ahead of educating devotees of this significant change in the years leading up to the next festival.

And, of course, greatest credit must go to the members of The Gadhimai Temple Trust itself, who recognised that the power to change the trajectory of our common humanity is in our hands.

The incredible news exploded on social media, where a long running campaign has been waged on behalf of the victims of the festival. It is yet another signpost that the pathway our species is paving for itself is slowly but surely bending towards a more compassionate future, championed by caring people in every country of the world.

That is to say, we are getting kinder.

Worldwide, never before has there been such a rate of positive change — in public policy; in commerce; in public awareness and advocacy. And never before have the animals of this world needed it so much. We have, after all, inherited an age where the majority of animals in human ‘care' are valued not as living, thinking beings, but as commodities — spending their entire lives confined in factory farms. Nothing short of a profound global shift in thought is needed to awaken our shared responsibility toward our fellow species and break this global cycle of suffering.

Could the previously un-thought of Gadhimai 'celebration of life' festival be a sign that a kinder world is possible?

Some of the most entrenched cruelty in this world has long been defended in the name of 'tradition'. The Festival of Sacrifice is responsible for untold suffering of cattle, sheep and goats — millions of whom have been sold for profit through Australia's live export trade; closer to home, in the name of Christmas, highly intelligent pigs and turkeys not only experience the terror of slaughter, but entire lifetimes of suffering in factory farms; and sporting events such as bull fights and rodeos still present cruelty as 'entertainment'…

When kind people seek to transform cruel traditions, they don't risk losing their identity. They strengthen it by demonstrating that culture cannot be measured by the repetition of practices frozen in time by values of the past. For this, the tradition of the Gadhimai festival will become all the stronger.

It takes compassion and courage to rise above cruelty and recognise that the ways of doing things we inherit from the past do not define us; to recognise that those we share this world with also share our desire to avoid suffering. Whether in our temples, or in our homes, we can all choose to live without killing.

The roots of cruelty are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come.
Albert Schweitzer
Compassion is fundamental to all human cultures — and when it shines through, traditions steeped in cruelty can be transformed. On scales grand and small, if we want to live in a kinder world, we all have a role to play.

And if the world's largest animal sacrifice event can be transformed into a 'celebration of life', then there is reason to be infinitely hopeful about the future.

The little boy realise what they wanted to do with his new friend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL0K96NapOQ
 
Tortured for tourists: Chained to the same spot for 20 years. Beaten into submission at secret jungle training camps. The terrible plight of Indian elephants by LIZ JONES
Asian elephants are being chained to tree stumps and beaten with metal sticks at temples in Kerala, southern India
Before arriving at the temples they are forced to spend months at secret 'training' camps where they are tortured
In Mail on Sunday special report, Liz Jones visited one such camp to investigate how the animals are treated
Here, she makes a desperate plea for their release and lays bare the unimaginable cruelty they face every day
By LIZ JONES FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 21:00 GMT, 15 August 2015 | UPDATED: 09:08 GMT, 17 August 2015

At first, I don’t believe they are living, breathing animals.
They seem like statues, or stuffed exhibits in a museum – 57 of them, studded around a patch of scrubby forest. Then one of the elephants, Nandan, a 43-year-old tusker, or male, begins to bellow and struggle against the chains that bind his hind feet to a stump and his front legs to a tree, cutting into his flesh. He cannot lie down. He cannot stretch out his hind legs. He cannot reach the water butt, which is empty anyway.
A temple employee – this is where the Guruvayur Temple in Kerala, southern India, houses its elephants – blows his whistle: it’s a command for the elephant to stand still. I creep closer, pushing past hundreds of families on a day out. I am with Duncan McNair, the London lawyer who founded the non-government organisation Save The Asian Elephants (STAE) in January, and Dr Nameer, a professor and Head of the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Kerala.


Nandan cuts a pathetic figure at the Guruvayur Temple, with his hind feet bound to a stump and his front legs chained to a tree. It means the male elephant cannot lie down, stretch or even reach a nearby water butt

‘How long has he been chained like this?’ I ask Prof Nameer. ‘He has been chained in that spot, never released even for an hour, for 20 years,’ he replies.
We reach the next elephant a few yards away. This is Padmanabhan, who has been at the temple for 35 years. A hind leg hangs at a terrible angle; he wobbles on three legs, all chained.

Prof Nameer tells me his leg was broken deliberately 15 years ago to subdue him. Research fellow Harish Sudhakar tells me later that this elephant too has not moved from his spot in 20 years.
We move on. A 15-year-old elephant, Lakshmi Narayan, is with his mahout or trainer in a fetid pool of shallow water. The mahout, a vicious-faced little thug, has been trying for 30 minutes to get the animal to lie down. Lakshmi can’t, as the chains are too tight. The mahout, with an audience of families, becomes angry, humiliated.
Prof Nameer translates what the mahout says: ‘He will be taught later.’ This means a beating with iron bars. This elephant, by the way, was a gift to the temple from Indian film star Suresh Gopi.

Another elephant, Vinayaka, is on his side, being hosed by his mahouts (most have two). It is a brutal, rough business. A stick is propped against one ear. The elephant’s eye is swivelling, desperate. Prof Nameer tells me: ‘Everyone thinks, “Oh, the mahout and elephant have such a bond.” See that stick? That is propped behind an ear, for washing.
Each morning and evening they are beaten with poles for up to an hour
‘The elephant has learned that if he moves his head, the stick will fall. And if the stick falls, the elephant knows he will enter a “traumatic cycle”. Sudhakar tells me a common practice is to insert a nail above the elephant’s toe. The wound heals over. If the mahout wants total obedience, all he has to do is press that button.’

At the entrance to the temple is Devi. She has been chained to this spot for 35 years. As a female, she is never taken to festivals, so has never, ever moved. Not one inch. Prof Nameer has asked the temple leaders (politicians, businessmen) to allow the animals to be walked for one hour a day; they refused. He has drawn plans to build enclosures, but has received no response. But aren’t festivals at least a nice day out?
He laughs. ‘From October to May, an elephant will take part in 100 to 150 festivals. They will travel 3,720 miles in three months on a flat-bed truck. They are surrounded by thousands of people, noise, firecrackers.’
They are routinely temporarily blinded, to make them wholly dependent on the mahout, and if in ‘musth’ (when males are ready to mate), they are given injections to suppress the hormones. Three elephants died due to these this year.

The second-best-known elephant in Kerala was paraded at Thrissur Pooram, an annual Hindu festival, where 84 elephants take part in elaborate costume. He was in musth, therefore unpredictable, so all of his feet were injured to render him immobile.
The only food given here is dry palm leaves. An elephant in the wild will eat a wide variety of grasses, fruit, leaves and vegetables. In the wild, an elephant will drink 140 to 200 litres of water a day. Here, they are lucky if they get five to ten. It turns out there are vets on call. But an expert from the Centre for Wildlife Studies says: ‘They are not even qualified. They promote bad welfare to earn more money.’

Prof Nameer tried to bring in a Western vet to assess the elephants, but permission was refused. Elephants are now big business. Each is worth £80,000, and can earn anything up to £5,000 an hour for appearing at festivals and weddings.
The next day, I meet Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan, who is researching for his doctorate in elephant behaviour. I ask him about the elephants’ training. These methods, he tells me, ‘have only really been happening for 50 years, as the money-making opportunities increased’. He adds: ‘The training of elephants before that time used positive techniques. The mahouts loved their animals. Now it is very different. I have seen elephants tortured to death. They want to make the maximum money in the shortest time.’
Does this happen to every elephant? ‘Yes. It is not possible to ride them, to use them in noisy festivals, if they have not been broken down. They are very sensitive creatures.’

How is it done? ‘They use a kraal. The process is called pajan.’ The kraal or ‘crushing cage’ is a wooden pen which confines the elephant so that he can’t move or lie down.
Pajan means that, having been isolated, confined, starved, dehydrated and kept awake by noise, each morning and evening the elephant is beaten with poles, for up to an hour. For six months.
I don’t believe him. This isn’t possible. Why hasn’t one of those BBC travelogues warned me about this?

I have to see what happens to the elephants for myself. I travel with Duncan McNair to Karnataka, the adjoining state to Kerala. We drive deep into the forest. With us is a conservationist, who cannot be named for fear of reprisals. We stop at a gate with an ominous sign: ‘No members of the public allowed.’ I soon find out why.
My guide, after hours of negotiation, gets us inside, where there are 30 captured wild elephants, including babies. I am the first Westerner to set foot inside this camp. I see a magnificent tusker, but he is so thin, his head is a skull; they are fed straw and rice. Children of the mahouts who live on site in huts start to throw rocks at him, and the giant, hobbled by chains, retreats, trembling.

The conservationist tells me the elephant has post-traumatic stress disorder. ‘He is 40. He was captured, trained, and chained in a temple for ten years. He went berserk, killed a pilgrim, and so he was sent back here to be corrected. He was tied to a tree for eight weeks.’
The mahouts, tribal people who have been living and working with elephants for generations, gather around me. One has a video on his smartphone (they all have smartphones; the government pays their salaries). They howl with laughter as the video shows a wild elephant being captured by dozens of men – using elephants to corner it. This elephant is due here the next day. I go to see his fate, walking past elephants, all chained, many with only one eye (blinding is common).
I walk past baby elephants, so inquisitive, and see one get beaten with an ankush – a stick with a metal hook on the end; all the baby was doing was coming to say hello.
And then I see it. The kraal. It has two rooms, each containing a teenage male in a space so small he cannot move. These are ‘rogues’, each accused of killing five men. A woman in a sari is hovering, and asks for my name and phone number. It turns out she is in charge of the 60 mahouts here. I ask how long the two males have been in the kraal.
‘Six months,’ she replies. They have no shade, no free access to water. They have been beaten for an hour, twice a day, every day. I look into the eye of the poor creature on the right. He knows what is about to happen to him. A mahout raises his arm, and lands a blow on his head: the hollow sound is the most chilling I’ve ever heard. The elephant squeezes his eyes shut, and tears run down his face

I can't watch any longer, I can’t be party to this. Of all the animal abuse stories I have covered in the past 30 years, this is by far the worst. The conservationist tells me a few of the mahouts do not want to beat the elephants, but believe they have no choice: ‘The mahout has to exert complete dominance over the animal. The older the elephant, the longer it takes.’
Has every elephant you see giving rides in festivals, on safari, been through this process? ‘Yes.’
Back at our hotel, he shows me a video he filmed last year of an elephant in that very kraal, beaten so badly he ends up upside-down, trumpeting in terror.
He then shows me a shopping list sent to this camp from the most respected reserves in India: Corbett Tiger Reserve wants five tuskers; another, Kanha National Park, wants ten elephants. If you are visiting these sites next year, you could well be sitting on the back of the poor creature I saw beaten that day.
It was a visit to the Guruvayur Temple one year ago, and the suffering of the elephants there, that prompted Duncan McNair to form STAE. ‘Captive elephants are hideously treated,’ he says. ‘Used since ancient times for work and war, this is how we repay them. Without raising public awareness, and serious commercial and political engagement now, the Asian elephant is doomed, in our lifetime, and by our hands.’

Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan tells me that the 25,000 wild elephants now left in India (a collapse from more than a million in 1900) are in peril due to new developments announced by the government, which in turn means they will clash even more with farmers, and deemed ‘rogue’ or ‘problem’, which means they can be captured and trained.
There are almost 4,000 captive elephants, 80 per cent of which are in Kerala.
I asked Indian families at the Guruvayur Temple what they thought of the elephants. While some said it was sad, most thought the animals were fine; everyone was laughing. They had each paid to enter the temple, while Hindus from all over the world donate money.

Later that day I meet theologian and elephant expert Venkita Chalam, a man who has received death threats for his views. We discuss whether condemning the way the animals are kept will be perceived as attacking Hinduism (as so many people have told me since I arrived in Kerala, I will be insulting traditions going back thousands of years). He shakes his head.

‘It is the opposite of Hinduism. There were no elephants at that temple before 1969, which is when Hindu families, experiencing hard times due to land reforms, donated their elephants because they could no longer care for them,’ he says.
‘With the oil boom in the 1970s, when lots of Indians became rich, donating a “sacred” elephant became a status symbol.
‘And using elephants in festivals only started in the mid-1970s. This is not ancient, this is new.’

What can we do about this modern-day horror, this daily torturing of the most loved animal to have ever padded upon the planet? And why am I writing about this issue now?
After meetings with STAE, David Cameron, in his 2015 Election manifesto, pledged to help the Asian elephant; he will meet the Indian prime minister in London this autumn.
We have to hold him to this promise. And most importantly, according to Geeta Seshamani of Wildlife SOS, which brought about the end of bear-dancing in India in 2009 and rescued Raju, the 51-year-old elephant blinded by repeated beatings on his head: ‘You can refuse to go on holiday in India with a travel company that promises interaction with elephants.
'The key force is tourism. The government will not end this: in fact, it is about to classify the elephant as vermin. Britain must lead the way.’

I met Raju, as tall as a skyscraper, on Thursday, at the charity’s refuge outside New Delhi. His forgiveness at what mankind has done to him was the most humbling experience I’ve ever had.


STAE, which says it respects India’s religious traditions, has written to more than 200 leading UK travel companies. Some, such as Responsible Travel, have withdrawn from offering any elephant interaction.
But, of course, some luxury safari firms send tourists to Kanha National Park, which ordered elephants from the very camp I visited, offering tourists the chance to ‘see tigers in their natural habitat from the back of an elephant!’, are still luring animal lovers who have no idea of this brutal business. If you have booked one of these holidays, cancel it.

I rode an elephant to Angkor Watt in Cambodia. I had my photo taken with an elephant in Kerala a couple of years ago, the very animal used by Julia Roberts in a movie. I didn’t know I was giving oxygen to the abuse. But I know now. You know now.
When I met Nandan, and Devi, and the two prisoners at the camp in Karnataka, I looked them in the eye. I saw shock, and incomprehension at what they had done to deserve decades of torture. I promised I would help them. The kraal and ankush, like the shoes, teeth and hair at Belsen, should exist only in a museum.
Those two bewildered males are still in that kraal, in pain from arthritis from standing for so long, terrified, depressed. Nandan is there still.
Don’t let him have to endure it for one more day. We have to release the 57 elephants in that temple, and close down the secretive ‘training’ camps: there are 12 in all.
Wildlife SOS has told me it can take them. We have to release them. We have to release them. We have to release them.
Www.STAE.org

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...rrible-plight-Indian-elephants-LIZ-JONES.html

You can see pictures if you click on the link
 
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South Africa’s (Mostly Female) Anti-Poaching Unit Wins Top U.N. Award

Meet some awesome, kick-ass women from South Africa. The country’s Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit, composed of 24 women and two men, has been honored by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) with its highest environmental award: the Champions of the Earth Award.

In announcing the prize, UNEP said that it recognized the “rapid and impressive impact” the unit has made in combatting poaching and the courage required to accomplish this task.

The Mambas patrol the Balule Private Game Reserve, which is part of South Africa’s famous two million-hectare Greater Kruger National Park, for three weeks at a time, walking around 12 miles a day. And here’s why they got that award: since the unit was first created in 2013, the Black Mambas have succeeded in arresting six poachers, reducing snaring by 76 percent, removing 1000 snares, and destroying five poachers’ camps and two bush meat kitchens.

The Reserve is home to an abundance of wildlife, including rhinos as well as leopards, lions, elephants, cheetahs and hippos. With 1215 rhinos killed in 2014, protecting these endangered creatures is vital. This is an increase of over 12,000 per cent since 2004, and means that the rhino has been pushed ever closer to extinction.

Empowering Women And Local Communities

The Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit is fantastic proof of how education and training can both empower women and protect the environment. The members are all from local communities, and they patrol the park unarmed. Craig Spencer, the head warden of Balule, came up with the idea of forming this unit.

From The Guardian:

“In a bid to engage communities outside the park fence, the reserve hired 26 local jobless female high-school graduates, and put them through an intensive tracking and combat training programme. Kitted out in second-hand European military uniforms, paid for by donations, the women were deployed throughout the 40,000 hectare reserve.”

Black mamba snakes are fast, lethally venomous, and when threatened, highly aggressive.

Leitah Mkhabela, one of the Black Mamba rangers, lives up to this reputation: “I am not afraid. I know what I am doing and I know why I am doing it,” she says. “If you see the poachers you tell them not to try, tell them we are here and it is they who are in danger.”

“Animals deserve to live,” she continues. “They have a right to live. Do your part. When demand ends, the killing will end. Say yes to life. Say no to illegal rhino horn and elephant ivory.”

How Anti-Poaching Approaches Have Changed

“Community-led initiatives are crucial to combatting the illegal wildlife trade and the Black Mambas highlight the importance and effectiveness of local knowledge and commitment,” says UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

“Their many successes are a result of their impressive courage and determination to make a difference in their community. The Black Mambas are an inspiration not only locally, but across the world to all those working to eliminate the scourge of the illegal wildlife trade.”

Whilst these kick-ass women are heavily involved in actual anti-poaching operations, their role also extends to educating the communities surrounding the Kruger National park and Balule Nature Reserve.

The Unit believes that poaching “will not be won with guns and bullets, but through the local communities and education.”

The Black Mambas At Work

As The Guardian explains:

“The reserve uses a team of 29 armed guards, 26 unarmed Black Mambas, and an intelligence team that seeks to stop the poachers before they can kill. The Mambas’ main job is to be seen patrolling the fence. They also set up listening posts to hear vehicles, voices and gunshots and patrol the reserve on foot, calling in the armed guards whenever they find something.”

You can learn more about the awesome women of the Black Mamba Unit by clicking here.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/south-a...ng-unit-wins-top-u-n-award.html#ixzz3lSVotsCc
 
Yay, Science: Goat-Killing Plant Becomes Kenyan Energy Source
A toxic plant that used to kill villagers’ livestock becomes a source of energy and revenue.

In a rural farming village in Kenya, a shrub that once poisoned hungry goats and left many of the animals toothless is being converted into an energy source that can light up homes and earn fast cash for residents.

Farmers and their families in Baringo County can make up to $1,000 a year for harvesting and selling the plant known as mathenge, according to Reuters. The plant, once converted into fuel by an electric power station, is bringing power to some village homes for the first time and reducing power outages for others.

Since the program’s installation last August, energy company Cummins Cogeneration Kenya Limited is earning praise from some villagers whose livestock was harmed by the toxic plant.

“This is helping my family recover from the loss we incurred when our goats died after eating mathenge,” Jane Chirchir, a Marigat resident who sells the shrub to Cummins, told Reuters.

The problematic plant was initially introduced to fight another problem—prolonged droughts in the 1970s had brought desertification to parts of northern Kenya. The Kenyan government and United Nations officials promoted certain plants, including the prosopis shrub, which became the most widely planted.

However, the plant proved to have more hazardous effects than benefits after herders claimed their animals had died from eating its pods. In 2006, farmers sued the government, demanding compensation for their losses and the plant’s removal from the land. Four years later, the case was thrown out of court.

Now, about 2,000 farming families earn two Kenyan shillings for every kilo of mathenge collected and given to the electric plant—a payout that’s the equivalent of two U.S. cents. The power plant, located on a 15-acre plot outside of town, converts mathenge into energy by burning bundles of the shrub.

An added benefit of having steady electricity means better medical care for families in Baringo County, where clinics have relied on shoddy generators.

“The energy project is going to be a game changer for the people and the economy of this region,” Robat Rono, a medic at Marigat Health Centre in Rift Valley, told Reuters. “We are even planning to increase our hospital bed capacity if this energy source proves reliable.”
 
Hi,

For 18 years smoke from annual forest and peatland fires have smothered entire cities in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. This year, with the El Niño it is almost unbearable.

This wouldn’t be happening if companies didn’t continue to destroy forests for palm oil plantations, threatening the survival of orangutans and tigers. Help me stop this, join my call for companies and authorities to: reflood peatlands; stop destroying forests; and close the market to companies causing deforestation.

Help Indonesians protect our health and save our forests! Please sign my petition: http://bit.ly/1OGhJYy

Rahmi Carolina
Indonesian student
 
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t4Ul9Kz.jpg

Image Source: Thinkstock

The Blog Article:

Adoption Agencies Are Looking for Volunteers to Cuddle Newborns
By Christine Coppa |​


If you’re looking for a meaningful volunteer gig — better than snuggling goats or puppies — look no further. Did you know adoption agencies are constantly seeking volunteers to hang out with brand new babies, whose birth moms are swaying back and forth on whether or not to put them up for adoption?

The gut-wrenching decision doesn’t always happen when the baby is in utero or right after mom gives birth. Then what?

Enter the interim caregiver. “My job is to make the baby feel safe and loved 24/7,” Susan Singer, an interim caregiver through Spence-Chapin’s NYC program, told ABC News.

A day in the life of an interim caregiver, whose role usually lasts two to four weeks, is as sweet as you might imagine, according to Singer: “I hold them all the time. I talk to them. I sing to them. We play music. And I get so much joy and pleasure. I feel so good when I’m with an infant that I hope that it does … something for them too.” (Sign me up.)

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Image Source: Thinkstock


You read that right. Sweet, innocent babies need your warm arms and soothing voice. The main goal is to make sure the newborns get off to a loving head start.

Before you can buddy up with a baby, there’s — of course — background checks and home visits. Once an interim caregiver is cleared, transportation, diapers, formula, car seats, pediatrician visits, and anything else the baby might need is financially covered.

Also, if you don’t think you can emotionally handle hosting the baby in your home, adoption agencies are always looking for cleared volunteers to visit their nurseries on site to simply rock and hold the babies.

The President of the National Center on Adoption and Permanency, Adam Pertman, said all agencies over the years have certainly needed volunteers. “The need has grown. Volunteers have become more and more essential,” said Pertman.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 159,000 American children were both adopted and waiting to be adopted in 2014 — that’s a lot of love to go around.

Contact: The Cradle if you’d like to learn more about becoming an interim caregiver.
https://www.cradle.org/about-cradle


The Blog Article Source:
http://www.babble.com/parenting/adoption-agencies-are-looking-for-volunteers-to-cuddle-newborns/

Make Them Make That Change !!! TODAY !!

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What I've done so far:
- tutored and mentored students of various ages - that way they were able to achieve more than their school allowed them to
- stood up for misgendering transpeople - I sent complaints to the media and in one case, it led to a resignation of the person that wrote that BS
- given food, money, menstrual pads or diapers to refugees or homeless people - just go around and pay attention to what's going on
- sent money via a fundraising website to a pansexual student disowned by her parents for her sexuality - she's maintaining a high GPA atm
- sent money for a surgery of a wild horse that got sick - she is back in the herd
- brought in a couple of marginalised members of society (women, people of colour, including women of colour) to speak about an issue
- dedicated a few old books to my high school library

You don't always need to do something good through an organisation. You can start with what you have and what is needed in your immediate neighbourhood.
 
[YOUTUBE]gXMZYo9wLf4[/YOUTUBE]
Three hundred South African firefighters arrived in western Canada on Sunday night to help fight the massive wildfire ravaging Alberta's oil sands.


The CBC Blog Article:

South African Firefighters arrive eager to help fight Fort McMurray Wildfire ! ​

By Andrea Ross, Mack Lamoureux, CBC News Posted: May 29, 2016 3:14 PM MT |​

281 have arrived after a nearly 16,000-kilometre journey that began in Johannesburg Sunday morning

The first thing the 281 South African firefighters did when they touched down in Edmonton was sing.

They sang soldier songs — songs of South Africa — while the large crowd gathered there to welcome them cheered.

Khomt Alucie, one of the firefighters who made the journey, said the group has only known each other for a day and singing is how they bond.

"It gives us moral courage, it gives us teamwork," she said. "If we become tired in the fire we sing.

"It's not something you practice, it's in the soul."

A man who worked in Anzac, a town once evacuated by the fire, personally thanked each one as they walked through the arrival gates.

"Welcome to Canada, thank you so much," he said, in his other hand he held a Canadian flag tied to a hockey stick.

Alberta's fire information officer Travis Fairweather said earlier the firefighters represented many regions of South Africa.

"They do that to make sure they maintain even balance so they don't take too many out of one area and leave them too depleted on resources," said Fairweather.

The officers are in Alberta for a standard deployment of 14 days, with the possibility of an extension.

Canada is part of a program with several other countries run by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC).

​CIFFC co-ordinates requests for assistance from provinces that have exceeded their internal firefighting capacity!


The CBC Article Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/fort-mcmurray-fire-south-africa-1.3605976

Make Them Make That Change !!! TODAY !!

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Harry Kunz, the owner of the Eagles Nest wildlife hospital for sick and injured animals on the
Atherton tablelands, Queensland. Photograph: Tess Brosnan

The Blog Article:
Wildlife Sanctuary FREE to Good Owner – As long as you care for the animals !! ​


TRUE ANIMAL LOVERS ONLY NEED APPLY !! Harry Kunz casts nationwide net after a fruitless five-year search for a successor at Eagles Nest wildlife hospital

Having fielded various indecent proposals for his north Queensland wildlife sanctuary over the years, Harry Kunz has now extended a very decent one of his own.

Kunz wants to give away his two-hectare sanctuary and house on the picturesque Atherton tablelands.

The only catch? That the next owners carry on caring for the more than 1,200 injured or orphaned native animals taken in by the sanctuary every year. Queensland tree clearing blamed for dramatic rise in wildlife needing rescue

Kunz is casting a nationwide net for candidates after a fruitless five-year search for a successor at his Eagles Nest wildlife hospital.

Drug dealers have previously urged him to forget the need for philanthropic funding support, promising him $100,000 a year to allow a dope plantation on the remote property instead, he says.

Some who “think I’m a senile old idiot giving his house and property away” eye the house and not the animals, he says, figuring that having a dog or cat qualifies them to care for birds of prey and marsupials. Others see the size of his avian enclosures and propose turning the sanctuary into a zoo.

“I’ve had a few offers but I said no, I want this continuing as a wildlife hospital because that’s what I’ve tried to do for almost 30 years now,” Kunz says. “I don’t want to lose what I created and built up, every shred, with all my money.”

The hospital was inspired by Kunz’s early experiences on his arrival in Sydney in 1982 seeing injured native birds such as galahs and cockatoos put down by Australian vets.

“I got a shock because, where I come from in Austria, a sulphur-crested cockatoo was $3,000 in a pet shop. I didn’t know you could buy them here for $10,” he says.

“For me it was an exotic wonderful bird who had just a broken wing. What’s the big deal? Anybody can fix this.”

Eagles Nest boasts a 78% survival rate for rescued animals.

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Harry Kunz says he has taken in every species imaginable in
north Queensland bar hairy-nosed wombats and crocodiles. Photograph: Tess Brosnan

Kunz says he has taken in every species imaginable in north Queensland bar hairy-nosed wombats and crocodiles. Birds of prey, cassowaries, emus, koalas have all been cared for.

Patients are commonly hit by cars, attacked by domestic dogs or cats, or made sick by indiscriminately used pesticides or poisons.

Occasionally local children show up seeking care for orphaned joeys or wallabies as their fathers, who shot the animals’ parents, sit sheepishly in their utes, Kunz said.

He says the “biggest success I can have” in his local education efforts is to sway visitors away from recreational hunting.

“The worst thing I’ve discovered is that 98% of hunting is done because it’s ‘fun’,” he says. “Some people say, ‘Next year when it grows up I can shoot it’.

Queensland cassowary rehabilitation centre saved

“On the weekend, parties of six or seven people will go to the pub then take their guns and drive out shooting everything – birds, possums, whatever moves, whatever they see.

“I’ve got eagles with gunshot wounds, falcon hawk, cockatoos, you name it.

“There is no bigger, stupider predator than humans.”

Animals that can’t be returned to the wild live on in the sanctuary.

Kunz says it would be best run by a small team of passionate animal lovers, ideally a couple or family.

The haven he has created, in a region of rainforests, hot springs and waterfalls, is regularly described by visitors as a “paradise”, he says.

“Flocks of rainbow lorikeets come down, you have breakfast with the animals, it’s a beautiful place.”

Prospective successors would be invited to train at the sanctuary with Kunz, “for as long as they need”, before he decides on the most suitable to continue his legacy.

He says he can teach everything, from where to obtain free truckloads of bananas or sweet potatoes from supportive farmers, to maintaining the private, government and corporate grants that keep the place running.

“The only thing they need is the love for our environment and wildlife, and common sense.”

This story was amended on 3 October 2016 to correct the surname of the sanctuary’s owner.

The Blog Article Source:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...od-owner-as-long-as-you-care-for-1200-animals

Make Them Make That Change !!! TODAY !! This is absolutely a job for MICHAEL JACKSON FANS worldwide !!

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Latex Balloons are NOT “Biodegradable”

Check out the Backyard Biodegradability Test! – 4 years, 8 months and counting!
http://balloonsblow.org/biodegradability-backyard-test

The balloon industry has set “standards” for themselves claiming that releasing balloons that are hand-tied, so-called, “biodegradable” latex balloons without any attachments of ribbon is environmentally friendly. The balloons pictured below were released to their standards. Some are months old, some are years old. Natural latex may be biodegradable, but after adding chemicals, plasticizers and artificial dyes, how natural could it be? It may degrade after several years, but it’s surely not “biodegradable.”

Ballon Industry Lies

Balloon enthusiasts claim that when a balloon pops, it bursts into many little pieces, and that the pieces land far away from each other.

Another claim is that so-called “biodegradable” latex balloons take the same amount of time to decompose as an oak leaf does. This is very misleading; oak leaves are very durable and can take four years to decompose! That means the balloons have plenty of time to injure or kill. Many animals mistake burst so-called “biodegradable” latex balloons as food, causing intestinal blockage and death. The ribbons or string that is sometimes tied to balloons, whether it is “biodegradable” or not, will last years and can also entangle any animal that comes in contact with it. See Impacts on Wildlife & the Environment.

Most balloon enthusiasts are in the balloon business. They profit from the sale of balloons. They encourage people to disregard everything scientists, wildlife rehabilitators and conservationists are reporting about the impacts balloons have on animals and the environment so they can continue to profit from balloon releases. There are other ways to sell balloons than to encourage balloon releases, but mass balloon releases bring in big profits.

We find many more of these so-called “biodegradable” latex balloons, perhaps because the balloon industry has promoted this false information. Some understand Mylar (plastic foil) balloons are harmful to the environment, but are led to believe latex balloons are environmentally friendly. The above picture proves they are not, also see photo gallery.

Other balloon enthusiasts are often ordinary people that have been releasing balloons for years for a certain purpose. These people may feel attacked when a concerned fellow human explains the impacts of balloons, but that does not mean they can ignore the facts. It’s hard to hear that you were wrong for doing something you believed was acceptable, but after seeing the photos and reading the facts, it is easy to change your ways. See The Ugly Truth.

Balloon pollution is a growing problem and one that needs to be addressed. Balloons Blow was created to inform people about this growing problem and stop it before the damage continues. Nobody wants to be a litterbug, and releasing balloons is simply littering.


The pictures are proof; just take a look through the photo gallery. http://balloonsblow.org/photo-gallery/ This is the non-biased truth, straight from the natural world. Each balloon is photographed exactly as it is found for documentation of its condition and location, before it is collected. Many people from around the world are also adding photos of balloons they have found invading their favorite places. From oceans to lakesides, from deserts to forests; balloons are being found in the most pristine and wild habitats.

Please do not take what you hear or read from balloon enthusiasts to be fact. When they tell you it biodegrades, remember they may break down eventually after many years, but they do not truly “biodegrade.” When they tell you they pop into little pieces, look at the pictures. When they say that it does not impact wildlife, the pictures show the truth that it can kill and injure many different species on land and sea.

Check out what actions you can take on our how to help page. By informing other people, you can help save wildlife. Please inform every one you can, and if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact us.

Everyone can make a difference, every single day.

http://balloonsblow.org/latex-balloons-still-kill/
 
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