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Author Topic: Defending Wildlife  (Read 35496 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #15 on: July 23, 2015, 07:39:29 pm »


The End For Elephants?


Gangsters use poachers to make a killing in the ivory trade. What can stop the bloodshed? By Tristan McConnell



http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/the_end_for_elephants
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #16 on: July 28, 2015, 06:13:46 pm »
Dentist From Minnesota Pays $50,000 to Kill Cecil the African Lion  >:(
   

http://ecowatch.com/2015/07/28/walter-palmer-kills-cecil-the-lion/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #17 on: July 28, 2015, 06:23:25 pm »

Powerful New Film Exposes the Horrors of Captive Lion Hunting

Article at link: http://www.care2.com/causes/powerful-new-film-exposes-the-horrors-of-captive-lion-hunting.html#ixzz3hE9ugN60
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #18 on: August 08, 2015, 05:46:52 pm »


Photo @coryrichards Lioness and cub sharing a quick Okavango shower. Shot on assignment for @natgeo with @intotheokavango going source to sand on the Cuito River. The water that becomes the Delta originates in the Angolan highlands and forms a complex web that relies heavily on management by Angola, Namibia, and Botswana. Use of the waters that flood the delta every year sustaining wildlife such as this is key to its longevity as a cohesive ecosystem. @thephotosociety @natgeocreative @eddiebauer #okavango15 posted from the field

​7 Instagram Accounts Every Nature Lover Should Be Following​

Cole Mellino

http://ecowatch.com/2015/08/04/instagram-accounts-nature-lovers/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #19 on: August 22, 2015, 04:19:05 pm »


Humans:   The Worst Predators on the Planet
John R. Platt, TakePart | August 21, 2015 12:22 pm

Watch any nature documentary and you’ll see the same story unfold time and time again: A predator approaches a group of potential prey and ends up taking down a single animal, perhaps the youngest, the weakest or the oldest among them.

Watch human beings doing the same thing and you’ll observe something different: They’ll either take the biggest animal—the strongest and the most charismatic—or they’ll just go ahead and take the entire group.

That fundamental difference in behavior, according to a paper published Thursday in the journal Science, makes humans the worst predators on the planet.

The paper—more than 10 years in the making—surveyed 2,215 predator species around the world. It found that humans kill adult animals at rates up to 14 times higher than any other predator. Not only that, but we also target an abnormally high number of other predators, not just for food but also—as with Cecil the lion—for sport.

“We are a predator of predators,” said the study’s lead author, Chris Darimont, Hakai-Raincoast professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and science director for the Raincoast Conservation Foundation. That position high above everything else on the food chain led the researchers to use the term “super-predator” to describe humans.

Darimont acknowledged that “super-predators” is a catchy term, but he said it has more than one meaning. “We also use ‘super-predator’ because of our enormous dietary breadth. What other predator has thousands of prey species that it preys upon? What other predator impacts entire food webs? None.”

Although land-based hunting by humans affects species all over the world, the researchers found that our greatest impact takes place in the oceans, where fishing vessels can take thousands of pounds of fish from the water at once. Here again, fisheries target the largest adult specimens. “Fishers don’t tend to brag about the small ones,” Darimont said. “Industrial harvesters are after the big ones because they’re in fact more economical to process. You have less waste per fish.”


This focus on adult fish is considered “sustainable” because it supposedly allows smaller, juvenile fish to have greater access to food—and then to grow large enough to also be caught. But Darimont said it has ecological repercussions. It leaves too few fish for other animals to eat and removes nutrients—in the form of dead or digested fish—from the ecosystem. “It’s one of the reasons why there is less biomass in the ocean now than there used to be,” he said, pointing out that many fish species and entire fisheries have become depleted in recent years.

Industrial-scale fishing also results in a large amount of bycatch, or the killing of not just targeted fish but other fish species, as well as sea turtles, marine mammals and birds. “I would hazard to guess that we are the only predator that commonly and at very high rates kills animals we are not intending to kill,” Darimont said. “What a sort of grotesquely sloppy predator we are that can do that.”

Although the timing of the paper is not intentional, Darimont said he is glad it comes so soon after the death of Cecil. “People are becoming increasingly well informed about the scope and implications of hunting large carnivores,” he said. “I think it’s a good time to consider reevaluating what we consider sustainable exploitation.”
http://ecowatch.com/2015/08/21/humans-worst-predators-on-planet/

INTERESTING comment thread...

Carbonicus 

Hmmm. As a waterfowl hunter, I can tell you this story is not accurate. We don't take the "biggest animal" or "the entire group". We try and take only males so as to minimize impact on reproduction. And on a typical fall day in central Saskatchewan, where I go each year, we take 8 birds each and have hundreds come within range and escape unscathed (and wisened for the fall migration through the states, which helps survival rates), and literally tens of thousands pass over our heads.

Mass staging and fall migration of north American waterfowl is a sight all "environmentalists" should behold at least once in your lives. So is the aurora borealis. So is the vastness of the boreal forest - by air and on foot.

What most "environmentalists" actually know about the environment could fit in a Starbucks cup (with room for cream). Shame, too, because that lack of knowledge leads to things like the US wasting well over $100 BILLION taxpayer dollars on "climate policy" since 1999. A fraction of that could clean up all mines abandoned before mining laws (Silverton, CO recently, for example), or many of the 1,200 Superfund NPL sites. I say all this as a 26 yr environmental professional.

And the headline is wrong. We're not the "worst" predator. We're the best (at it).

Nelson Petrie reply to Carbonicus 

Your reasoning is hollow and you sound very arrogant, Mr Carbonicus (which I'm sure is not your real name). Your response to the article shows you are ignorant of the basic reality that is causing thousands of species to be endangered or wiped out. What you are implying is that poaching of elephants, rhinos, lions and other animals is fine because they are killing only one or two and not the whole herd of animals.

What you are implying is that lions should be shot one day and one lion at a time. You are talking about waterfowls? You say you take 8 birds each. How many of you are there in the hunting group?

You haven't mentioned that and assuming that there are but five of you, which means you'll be downing 40 birds at one hunting season. In Saskatchewan, there must be hundreds of similar groups, hence the overall impact on the birds will be just as big. And this number is not big? 40 birds is a huge number.

You haven't counted the birds flying over you. You think there are millions of water fowls like the human population? Carbonicus, you are actually a disaster for our planet. Shoot yourself and not innocent birds and animals.

Agelbert reply to Nelson Petrie
Well said. Let me add that Mr. Carbonicus Homo apex moronicous does a disservice to all predators by claiming he is "best" at predation.

As any biologist familiar with the term "evolutionary dead end" will agree, any animal that causes his prey species (this is NOT limited just to animals) to be depleted by his behavior is a FAILED predator doomed to extinction.

I'm sure you know this and the following but I am stating it for the benefit of other readers who don't. Trophic levels in our biosphere, starting with the phototrophic autotrophs that basically "eat" photons have, at each subsequent level that depends on the one above it, LESS biomass. This means that predator species require a much larger mass of prey for them to be successful predators.

This is because at each trophic level most of the energy stored in the previous level is lost. The most efficient capture of energy occurs with the phototrophs, whose "prey" is solar photons. So, Photosynthetic organisms are the most successful eaters in the biosphere, even though biologists hesitate to call the them the most successful predators (which, technically, they are). Perhaps that is a Darwinian bias at play. Darwin was rather fastidious (and wrong) about placing humans at the top of the food chain. It's the other way around.

Being an allegedly sentient species, we humans should have figured this out by now. We need to promote life on every trophic level above us if we wish to avoid extinction. Instead we worship permanence in a biosphere that requires the recycling of everything for the preservation and expansion of living organisms.

We degrade the biosphere we cannot live without with our polluting industries and then we have the nerve to call ourselves "apex" predators.

We have even corrupted the vocabulary. The word "biodegradable" has a negative connotation, as in "DEgrading". It is testament to our worship of permanence, as if that was a good thing in a biosphere that requires 100% recycling. It's not. The proper word should be "bioRECLAIMABLE" or "bioUPgradable".  But the moronic permanence worshippers among us love tokens of permanence, arrogance and egocentric idiocy like "preserved" (another asenine term) trophies of dead animals.

A successful predator eats to live and stops right there. A lion or a hyena will not bother prey animals grazing right next to them if they are full. THAT is the mark of a successful predator. Carboniicus and his pals kill without need. They, like our destructive and polluting industries, deplete the biosphere that a sentient being is required to preserve, promote and expand.

Carbonicus is more Homo SAP than Homo sapiens.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #20 on: September 05, 2015, 07:04:51 pm »
Care2 Success! Mother Deer With Arrow in Her Face Is Saved 

by Alicia Graef
September 3, 2015
5:30 pm





A mother deer who suffered for more than nine months with a bowhunter’s arrow lodged in her face has finally gotten help, thanks to the efforts of thousands upon thousands of caring people from around the world who signed a Care2 petition launched on her behalf.

The doe, who has been named Grace, was first spotted late last year in Marlboro, New Jersey, bearing an arrow that was presumably intended to end her life. Like many others who aren’t killed by bowhunters, she was callously left to suffer with a tragic injury.

Not only has she miraculously managed to survive, eating and navigating her environment without getting caught on anything, but she also gave birth to a fawn earlier this spring.

Even though wildlife officials had known about her since at least December 2014 the state’s Division of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement that they tried unsuccessfully to help her over the winter and put efforts on hold in May after she became pregnant over concerns intervention could harm her fawn.

Thankfully, her advocates kept the pressure on to help her. After Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) shared a video of Grace earlier this spring, her story took off.

A Care2 petition started on her behalf urging officials to uphold their promise to help her has gathered more than 106,000 signatures   ;D from supporters around the world and has been shared by major news outlets including USA Today, CBS and NBC.

This week their efforts to give Grace a voice paid off when wildlife officials finally located her, tranquilized her and removed the shaft of the arrow. According to a statement, a veterinarian present recommended the arrowhead be left because her wound had healed and removing it could cause further injury.

They said Grace, who is believed to be about three to four years old, was released back into the wild with her fawn and is expected to be fine.  

Grace after the arrow was removed from her nose:

This photo was taken as she recovered from being sedated. Credit: New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife.

“We thank all of the New Jersey residents and people from all over the world who have expressed concern about the deer, as well as local residents who have been very helpful in providing information on her movements throughout the community and even set up bait stations on their properties,” said David Chanda, Director of Fish and Wildlife.

Poh Yeh Holmes, who created the petition to help Grace after seeing SHARK’s video on a friend’s Facebook page, told Care2 she is humbled by the number of signatures that came in and is “over the moon” that help finally came for her.

“If something bad happens to us, we can take ourselves to the doctor but sadly, Grace is not able to. She is not able to ask for help either. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for her to graze on grass or to pick up an acorn, to reach higher up for greenery that she wanted to eat. I thought a petition to help her plight, may help,” she said.

Holmes said Grace’s advocates will now be using the petition to push lawmakers in the area to turn her range in Marlboro into a no-hunting zone to make sure she and the rest of her herd can continue to live in peace.   


If you know of an animal in need in your community or elsewhere who could use some advocacy on their behalf like Grace, you can help them by starting a petition.

http://www.care2.com/causes/care2-success-mother-deer-with-arrow-in-her-face-is-saved.html#ixzz3kuGV5DHS

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #21 on: September 28, 2015, 07:27:52 pm »
China, U.S. Agree to Halt Ivory Trade   

Friday, September 25, 2015
Washington, D.C.


Africa's elephants need the support of China and the United States to end the poaching crisis and ensure their survival.

U.S. President Barack Obama and People’s Republic of China President Xi Jinping have announced a commitment to “take significant and timely steps to halt the domestic commercial trade of ivory” in their respective countries, according to a fact sheet released by the White House at the close of President Xi’s State visit.

The two presidents, acknowledging the importance and urgency of combating wildlife trafficking, have agreed to cooperate in bringing additional training, technical expertise, information sharing and public awareness to the poaching and wildlife trafficking crisis. The announcement comes at a time when as many as 35,000 elephants are poached every year for their tusks to supply the ivory market in China, the United States and other countries.

“We are seeing an important, public commitment from the world’s two largest economies to work together to bring an end to the elephant poaching crisis,” says Dr. Patrick Bergin, African Wildlife Foundation CEO and member of the White House Advisory Council on Wildlife Trafficking. “President Obama and President Xi are sending a clear message that they intend to throw the weight of their countries behind the elephant crisis.”

China and the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong are home to the largest ivory market in the world. An estimated 90 percent of ivory for sale in China and Hong Kong is reportedly illegal, with the legal trade helping to disguise the illicit industry. The legal trade further complicates law enforcement efforts to crack down on the black market. The United States is one of the world’s largest wildlife markets, and until recently domestic ivory trade was legal. The U.S. government has now enacted a near-total ban on the interstate trade and commercial import of ivory, and a number of U.S. states have banned or are working to ban intrastate trade of ivory in their states.

The announcement by Presidents Obama and Xi to deepen their cooperation to combat wildlife trafficking was confirmed in a section of a White House fact sheet released on September 25, shown here:

Wildlife Trafficking-—The United States and China, recognizing the importance and urgency of combating wildlife trafficking, commit to take positive measures to address this global challenge.  The United States and China commit to enact nearly complete bans on ivory import and export, including significant and timely restrictions on the import of ivory as hunting trophies, and to take significant and timely steps to halt the domestic commercial trade of ivory.  The two sides decided to further cooperate in joint training, technical exchanges, information sharing, and public education on combating wildlife trafficking, and enhance international law enforcement cooperation in this field.  The United States and China decided to cooperate with other nations in a comprehensive effort to combat wildlife trafficking.

“If these commitments translate into meaningful cooperation and action by these geopolitical giants on tackling poaching and wildlife trafficking, the future will be bright for Africa’s giants,” says AWF’s Bergin.

https://www.awf.org/news/china-us-agree-halt-ivory-trade




Thailand Destroys 2 Tons of Ivory 

Thursday, August 27, 2015
Nairobi, Kenya



Continuing the building momentum around fighting the illicit wildlife trade, the Royal Thai Government destroyed 2.1 tons of confiscated ivory on August 26.

This follows similar ivory destruction events that have taken place throughout 2015, including in Kenya, Ethiopia, the Republic of the Congo, the United Arab Emirates, China, the United States and Mozambique.

“Increasingly governments around the world are making the very public statement that there is no future to be had in the ivory trade,” said African Wildlife Foundation CEO Dr. Patrick Bergin. “By destroying ivory, the Thai government is sending a message that ivory is only valuable when attached to living elephants, rather than as jewelry, statuettes or other trinkets. We commend the Thai government for taking this strong stance against the illegal ivory trade.”

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Thailand has become one of the largest ivory markets in the world and organized criminal syndicates are reportedly involved in trafficking ivory between Africa and Thailand. The illegal ivory trade is estimated to result in the deaths of between 25,000 and 35,000 African elephants each year.

In addition to governmental efforts to shut down the global wildlife trafficking industry, AWF has implemented a number of initiatives to stop the killing, stop the trafficking and stop the demand associated with the illegal trade. These have included:
Providing financial and technical support to partners in Africa to supplement anti-poaching efforts. Currently AWF support is enhancing protections of 32 populations of elephants, rhinos, large carnivores and great apes on the continent.

Training and deploying detection dogs to key trafficking hubs in Africa. The first class of detection dogs and handlers graduated from AWF’s Conservation Canine Program last month. They will soon be deployed to trafficking hotspots in Mombasa, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Sensitizing the judiciary and criminal investigators in African countries on wildlife trafficking and the available laws to convict known traffickers. Thus far, these judicial workshops have been held throughout Kenya, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and in Kampala, Uganda. Plans are underway to hold similar sensitization trainings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. All reports indicate these trainings have had a visible impact on the sentencing of convicted poachers and traffickers.

Conducting a public awareness campaign in Asia and in Africa to educate the general public about wildlife trafficking. AWF and partners WildAid and Save The Elephants recently posted billboards in the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Airport that reminds locals and tourists not to purchase ivory in Thailand and attempt to take products out of the country. In Africa, Swahili-language billboards have been posted in Tanzania to urge citizens to protect their natural heritage against poaching.

http://www.awf.org/news/thailand-destroys-2-tons-ivory
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #22 on: October 08, 2015, 04:11:19 pm »
The Truth Behind That “Crappy” Cup of Coffee

by Elizabeth Claire Alberts    – October 7, 2015

Civet cats caged and force-fed in large numbers to feed the world’s growing demand for kopi luwak   


I saw my first civet cat on the last day of my holiday in Bali, Indonesia. It was tethered to a wooden tabletop outside of an upscale coffee shop, squinting at the afternoon sun as it struggled to sleep. Tourists swarmed around the animal, poking its fur and snapping photos. It didn’t take much to see that this civet cat was scared, and very stressed.

World Animal ProtectionA caged civet cat at a "Luwak" coffee farm in Sumatra, Indonesia. World Animal Protection carried out an investigation on the practice of civet farming to make coffee in 2011.

When I approached the coffee shop owner to express my disgust at the animal’s treatment, he brushed me off. Then the owner thrust a pamphlet into my hands about “kopi luwak,” the type of coffee he sold inside the shop. “This is how we make our living,” he said, gesturing to the civet cat on the table.

As I came to learn, kopi luwak is a specialty coffee made from beans that have passed through the digestive tracks of civet cats, or “luwaks” in the Indonesian language. Despite it repulsive origins, coffee aficionados claim that kopi luwak has an extraordinary taste resembling chocolate or caramel. This translates to an extraordinary cost: a cup of kopi luwak can sell for $30 to $100 in the United States. But what many people don’t realize is that kopi luwak is produced at an even higher cost to civets.
World Animal ProtectionA caged civet cat at a "Luwak" coffee farm is fed coffee cherries in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Many traders and cafes sell the coffee as sourced in the jungle from the droppings of wild, free-roaming civets. However, undercover investigations by animal rights activists and journalists have shown that in many cases, the animals are held captive in cages where they are force-feed coffee cherries to keep up with the growing demand for kopi luwak.

Civets are shy, nocturnal creatures, which find being held in tiny cages is incredibly stressful. Ashley Fruno of PETA Asia-Pacific explains that video footage has shown caged civet cats exhibiting neurotic behavior, such as spinning, head-bobbing, and pacing. “This shows that the animals are going insane with boredom and depression,” Fruno says. A 2013 BBC investigation even revealed caged luwaks chewing their own legs off.

World Animal ProtectionA caged civet cat at a "Luwak" coffee farm in Sumatra, Indonesia.

In addition to being stressed, civets experience medical problems from the copious amounts of coffee they’re force-fed. Anthony Wild, author of Coffee: a Dark History and founder of the Facebook campaign “Cut the Crap!” has worked out that luwaks ingest the equivalent of 120 double espressos each day to produce kopi luwak. While this caffeine over-consumption is known to contribute to malnutrition and fur loss, Wild believes it’s also responsible for the displays of neurotic behavior. “If you drank that much espresso, you’d be pacing around, chewing your own leg off,” Wild says.

Coffee farmers only started caging these animals in the last 25 years. Prior to the 1990s, kopi luwak was a rare drink produced from the scat of wild civet cats living around coffee plantations. Then in 1991, Wild imported a kilo of kopi luwak into the UK, which he used to generate media coverage. Kopi luwak was an instant hit, going on to be featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, and mentioned by Jack Nicholson in the 1997 film The Bucket List. “It had become a global phenomenon,” Wild says, “and with it came the arrival of caged kopi luwak.”

World Animal Protection / Binsar BakkaraTaking Oro, a coffee Luwak exporter, explains that they only deal with farmers who source wild civet faeces in Indonesia.

The animal cruelty issues of kopi luwak have been well documented, but the environmental consequences of producing this coffee are often overlooked. Captive luwaks usually die within a few years, so farmers poach wild luwaks from the rainforest to keep their operations running. The poaching of wild civets goes largely unchecked, and it could have a huge impact on the natural environment if not curbed, explains Jan Schmidt-Burbach of World Animal Protection.

“Civets are very opportunistic in their food habits, but they mostly eat fruit,” Schmidt-Burbach says. “As a result, civets are prime contributors to the dispersal of seeds such as palm tree seeds, and they contribute to the regeneration of forests.” Schmidt-Burbach also points out that civets prey on mice, snails, scorpions, and other animals considered “pests.” So when civets are taken out of the ecosystem, these pest species proliferate.

Once Wild discovered how civets were being abused to produce this coffee, he felt guilty for playing his part in introducing kopi luwak to the western world. This motivated him to get involved with the BBC investigation, and to initiate the “Cut the Crap!” campaign. According to Wild, both ventures have been successful in raising awareness about kopi luwak, and prompting suppliers to stop selling this cruel coffee.

Wild and World Animal Protection are both campaigning for the introduction of wild-sourced, cage-free kopi luwak. As Wild wrote in an article published in The Guardian, companies like Rarefied have set up coffee plantations near patches of elevated rainforest, where wild luwaks wander onto the farm to feast on coffee cherries. Rarefied employs about 40 local farmers who collect civet scat containing coffee beans, and transport them to a central processing factory. The workers are closely monitored. If they try to sell beans by caged civet cats, they’re banned from the industry. Wild believes these genuine wild kopi luwak plantations have an environmental advantage. “These plantations need to be next to virgin rainforest, so there’s a value in retaining the rainforest. You can’t have a monoculture coffee plantation and expect luwaks to thrive,” he says.
World Animal Protection / Binsar BakkaraSlamet, a coffee farmer dries wild civet faeces containing coffee beans in his house in Aceh Province, Indonesia.

Yet, it appears that the practice of caging civet cats is continuing  :(, and has perhaps even increased, in Indonesia. PETA’s Fruno says that it’s virtually impossible to maintain a profitable business using coffee sourced from wild civets. “This is why farmers are driven to keep civets in cages,” Fruno says. “When there is a demand for an animal product, the reality is that profit will always prevail.” Fruno also explains that many farmers falsely advertise their beans as “wild-sourced” when they actually come from caged civets. “Two Indonesian farmers who cage civets told our investigator that they’d be able to manufacture coffee bearing the “wild-sourced” label,” Fruno says.

As international demand for kopi luwak continues to grow, it may become more difficult for coffee buyers to assess whether or not the kopi luwak they are drinking is genuinely wild-sourced. In 2014, Newsweek reported that 500 tons of kopi luwak were being produced each year, which is a thousand times more than what can be produced from wild harvests. Wild says there’s every reason to believe that number has gone up even more. “The demand is growing worldwide, particularly, and rather ominously, in China,” Wild says. “If the Chinese get excited about something, then it’s a huge market.”

Perhaps a more ethical solution to the kopi luwak problem is finding a way to artificially manufacture the unique taste. A biotechnology company called Afineur has created a cultured coffee that replicates the taste and aroma of kopi luwak. Afineur’s coffee, is still pricey – ranging from $50 to $100 a pound. But there’s a clear benefit: it won’t cost animals’ lives or the environment.

An earlier verison of this report incorrectly stated that Afineur's coffee wasn't on the market yet.


Elizabeth Claire Alberts
 

Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a writer and environmental activist based in Australia. Her website is www.elizabethclairealberts.com

http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/the_truth_behind_that_crappy_cup_of_coffee/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #23 on: October 11, 2015, 01:38:34 am »

 
03/12/2015 03:56 PM            
Top 10 Cities for Wildlife in the US
SustainableBusiness.com News

If you read our daily news, you know we're about green business, but we see it as a way to care for the earth and all its species.


With that in mind, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is honoring 10 cities where people are showing a strong commitment to wildlife. Rankings is based on the percentage of open space; citizen action to create wildlife habitat, and wildlife gardens at schools.



Bat Enthusiast Bridge Visitors in Austin, Texas go Batty over watching the Bats do their thing at dusk.

1. The entire city of Austin, Texas is certified as a Community Wildlife Habitat. There are 2,154 certified wildlife habitats - the most per capita in the US - and the most Schoolyard Habitats (67). It's famous for its Congress Avenue Bridge, home to 1.5 million bats. More than 100,000 people visit the bridge each year to watch the bats emerge at dusk.



2. People that live in Portland, Oregon have the delight of seeing Chinook salmon swim through the heart of the city, where Oregon's two largest spring runs converge, thanks to decades of restoration work. The city is also committed to providing access to natural areas within a half-mile of every citizen.

3. Atlanta, Georgia ranks high across the board, and NWF highlights the success of the Greater Atlanta Pollinator Partnership, started in 2009. The program creates pollinator habitat at landscape scale - around 1.2 million acres in the 25-mile radius around the city. It includes all major metropolitan parks and thousands of individual residences. It includes restoring native plants, rescuing them from construction sites, and controlling invasive species.

4. Baltimore, Maryland has 5700 acres of parkland, including the second-largest urban wilderness in the US, Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park. NWF and the National Aquarium are creating the largest certified Community Wildlife Habitat along the Chesapeake Bay. Certified community rain gardens are filtering runoff, preventing pesticides, fertilizers and other pollutants from entering Chesapeake Bay.

5. Washington DC
is ranked third for parkland as a percent of city area, and bald eagles and osprey are returning to Anacostia River, once among the most polluted rivers in the US. Trash has been removed, invasive species are being controlled, and native wetland plants have been installed, and the river is rebounding.

6. More than 30 municipalities and neighborhoods in the Seattle, Washington
area participate in NWF's NWF's Community Wildlife Habitat program. A "Green Factor" program reduces stormwater runoff and supports the use of native plants and trees.



Sand Hill Crane happy family  ;D       Cooper's Hawk displays spectacular plumage.

7. Albuquerque, New Mexico has more parkland than another other city as a percent of its total area, home to sandhill cranes, Cooper's hawks, black bears, bobcats and many other species.




8. Indianapolis, Indiana
is located on the Mississippi Flyway and ranks second for certified wildlife habitats (932), in this case for migrating birds.


The Barred Owl is quite happy in Charlotte, North Carolina.

9. Charlotte, North Carolina
ranks third for Certified Wildlife Habitats (849) and the city just achieved certification. The City Council's goal is to have half the city covered by trees by 2050. The barred owl population is so strong that the most research study on the species is being done there.


Red Tailed Hawks love New York!  :o



 Those males are such show offs!   ::)       


10. New York City has the most Eco-Schools in America (270), ranks fourth in parkland as a percent of city area (14%), and is home to an incredible 168 species of wildlife and more than five million trees. Home to year-round residents like red-tailed hawks and migrating birds like black-throated blue warblers, it is a surprising urban wildlife haven that extends from Central Park to Brooklyn's Gateway National Recreation Area.



Over several decades, Americans have preserved critical habitats and waterways and have brought bald eagles, grizzly bears, bison, wolves and other species back from the brink of extinction. Bison are returning to western and tribal lands for the first time in a century, says NWF.


Many of those species are under renewed attacks (by you know who ).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3GS2Ftff_k&feature=player_embedded

And now some of our most familiar species, from monarch butterflies   and bees to frogs and bats, are in trouble.  >:(

Learn about NWF's Certified Wildlife Habitat, Schoolyard Habitat and Eco-Schools USA programs - there are 200,000 certified habitats in the US and 84 certified Community Wildlife Habitats with another 50 in the pipeline.  

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26189
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #24 on: October 11, 2015, 01:40:52 am »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSV8pRLkdKI&feature=player_embedded
The USDA WAR on wildlife.  >:(
Quote

USDA Wildlife Services is an agency whose mission is “to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist.” But according to a group of whistleblowers in the new award-winning documentary, Exposed, Wildlife Services has little regard for the welfare of America’s wildlife.

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/new-documentary-exposes-usdas-secret-war-on-animals.html#ixzz3VMjX2Zgd
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #25 on: October 11, 2015, 01:42:05 am »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #27 on: January 07, 2016, 10:17:49 pm »
Here's What the Oregon Occupiers and the GOP Presidential Candidates Agree On

By Robert S. Eshelman

SNIPPET:

Quote
The hatred toward the federal government espoused by the Bundys and Hammonds, said Parenti, is something Republican leaders are eager to mobilize, whether it comes at the expense of public lands — or the atmosphere.

He said the grievances of the Bundys and Hammonds echo those of Charles and David Koch, the libertarian Republican donors that have funded efforts to undermine all sorts of federal environmental protections, most notably the Obama administration's efforts to rein in fossil fuel burning, which is the leading cause of climate change.

"This area in Oregon was declared wilderness 40-some-odd years ago and the Hammond family has had a 40-year grace period, during which they got to use public property at rock-bottom prices," Parenti said.

"Their simultaneous dependence on public largess, while hating the public sector makes them pretty similar to the big business types who run the GOP: the Koch Brothers and their ilk who get federal tax breaks for producing and processing fossil fuels,    while at the same time constantly badmouthing 'big government.'    "

full Article:

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2016/vice-01-06-2016.html



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #28 on: January 10, 2016, 01:59:29 am »
01/07/2016 02:07 PM   

What's Behind the Standoff at Oregon's Wildlife Refuge

SustainableBusiness.com News

In addition to the Keystone Pipeline rearing its ugly head again, we're seeing the right-wing vision of privatizing our public lands move ahead.

The standoff by armed gunmen at a 100-year old wildlife refuge in Oregon follows a vote by the US Senate to return ALL 700 million acres of federal public land to the states - all our national forests, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas and national monuments. Every piece of land would be up for grabs except national parks.

The idea, apparently, is gathering steam.

According to Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK) amendment - which passed the Senate along party lines - states wouldn't buy the land, the federal government would pay to transfer it to them.    From there, states would either manage it (for a profit) or sell it to the highest private sector bidders for oil and gas development, mining and grazing.   
 
In the House, this is a priority for Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) , Chair of the Natural Resources Committee. He wants to spend $50 million of taxpayer money to start the process immediately. Utah passed a law to that effect last year.   


Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

The refuge protects a huge variety of migrating birds because of its wetlands. What if private citizens or corporations decide they would rather drain it?

We would say good-bye to caring for wildlife, habitats and public land in the US if it were up to the Republican party. Instead, we would see mass extraction - fracking, mining, grazing, everywhere - and of course, any animals that get in the way would have to be exterminated.

That's why Republicans allowed the Land and Water Conservation Fund to expire for the first time in 50 years, until Democrats fought to include it in the budget passed in December. Republicans view a fund that purchases and protects lands as a "federal land grab." The rest of us perceive it as protecting nature.   

There are clearly two very different points of view. Last year we saw it through the standoff between Cliven Bundy and the government - which has yet to be resolved. He grazed his cattle on federally protected land for a decade without paying a penny - as if he owned it, which he does not. Even the ridiculously low grazing fees - criticized for decades - aren't low enough for him.

In the case of Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, it was designated under Teddy Roosevelt in 1908 to protect migratory birds from extinction because of the fad at the time - using feathers to make hats. He turned unclaimed government property into the refuge - it was never privately owned, unless you go back to the 1870s, when the Paiute Indians were forced to leave their land.

The underlying question is: should all land and water be open to anyone for any purpose they choose? Or do we have a responsibility to protect areas for nature and for society as a whole?

It's not as if these lands are closed off.  >:( Much of the mining, natural gas, grazing and hunting in the US takes place on public lands, including wildlife refuges. Many of us would like to see that stopped.   

We have seen what happens when states take control - they have killed over 3000 wolves over the past few years for no reason, and now grizzly bears could meet the same fate. The same states - Wyoming, Idaho and Montana - now want open season on grizzly bears - they want them off the Endangered Species List and turned back to state control. Grizzles were hunted close to extinction in the early 1900s and are still in trouble.
Quote

"The cow and sheep industry is heavily subsided across the public lands of Colorado, so much so that the some ranchers are often called "welfare ranchers."
They pay almost nothing to send hundreds of thousands of livestock across our public lands sometimes obliterating the natural landscape as the livestock devour native grasses, pound the soil into dust, and wallow in and destroy streams and rivers.

They also pay almost nothing to have the state and federal government exterminate native American wildlife on our public lands - wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, even eagles - that sometimes prey on calves and lambs. The epitome of this extermination is the "aerial gunner men" hired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fly helicopters over our public lands and kill thousands of wolves and coyotes with shotgun blasts from the sky every year," says journalist Gary Wockner. 

Read our article, President Obama, Stop Leasing Our Federal Lands & Waters.

Read how Teddy Roosevelt created the refuge:
 
Website: www.onearth.org/earthwire/malheur-national-wildlife-refuge-theodore-roosevelt
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26514
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Defending Wildlife
« Reply #29 on: January 10, 2016, 04:39:44 pm »
01/07/2016 02:07 PM   

What's Behind the Standoff at Oregon's Wildlife Refuge

SustainableBusiness.com News

In addition to the Keystone Pipeline rearing its ugly head again, we're seeing the right-wing vision of privatizing our public lands move ahead.

The standoff by armed gunmen at a 100-year old wildlife refuge in Oregon follows a vote by the US Senate to return ALL 700 million acres of federal public land to the states - all our national forests, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas and national monuments. Every piece of land would be up for grabs except national parks.

The idea, apparently, is gathering steam.

According to Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK) amendment - which passed the Senate along party lines - states wouldn't buy the land, the federal government would pay to transfer it to them.    From there, states would either manage it (for a profit) or sell it to the highest private sector bidders for oil and gas development, mining and grazing.   
 
In the House, this is a priority for Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) , Chair of the Natural Resources Committee. He wants to spend $50 million of taxpayer money to start the process immediately. Utah passed a law to that effect last year.   


Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

The refuge protects a huge variety of migrating birds because of its wetlands. What if private citizens or corporations decide they would rather drain it?

We would say good-bye to caring for wildlife, habitats and public land in the US if it were up to the Republican party. Instead, we would see mass extraction - fracking, mining, grazing, everywhere - and of course, any animals that get in the way would have to be exterminated.

That's why Republicans allowed the Land and Water Conservation Fund to expire for the first time in 50 years, until Democrats fought to include it in the budget passed in December. Republicans view a fund that purchases and protects lands as a "federal land grab." The rest of us perceive it as protecting nature.   

There are clearly two very different points of view. Last year we saw it through the standoff between Cliven Bundy and the government - which has yet to be resolved. He grazed his cattle on federally protected land for a decade without paying a penny - as if he owned it, which he does not. Even the ridiculously low grazing fees - criticized for decades - aren't low enough for him.

In the case of Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, it was designated under Teddy Roosevelt in 1908 to protect migratory birds from extinction because of the fad at the time - using feathers to make hats. He turned unclaimed government property into the refuge - it was never privately owned, unless you go back to the 1870s, when the Paiute Indians were forced to leave their land.

The underlying question is: should all land and water be open to anyone for any purpose they choose? Or do we have a responsibility to protect areas for nature and for society as a whole?

It's not as if these lands are closed off.  >:( Much of the mining, natural gas, grazing and hunting in the US takes place on public lands, including wildlife refuges. Many of us would like to see that stopped.   

We have seen what happens when states take control - they have killed over 3000 wolves over the past few years for no reason, and now grizzly bears could meet the same fate. The same states - Wyoming, Idaho and Montana - now want open season on grizzly bears - they want them off the Endangered Species List and turned back to state control. Grizzles were hunted close to extinction in the early 1900s and are still in trouble.
Quote

"The cow and sheep industry is heavily subsided across the public lands of Colorado, so much so that the some ranchers are often called "welfare ranchers."
They pay almost nothing to send hundreds of thousands of livestock across our public lands sometimes obliterating the natural landscape as the livestock devour native grasses, pound the soil into dust, and wallow in and destroy streams and rivers.

They also pay almost nothing to have the state and federal government exterminate native American wildlife on our public lands - wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, bears, even eagles - that sometimes prey on calves and lambs. The epitome of this extermination is the "aerial gunner men" hired by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fly helicopters over our public lands and kill thousands of wolves and coyotes with shotgun blasts from the sky every year," says journalist Gary Wockner. 

Read our article, President Obama, Stop Leasing Our Federal Lands & Waters.

Read how Teddy Roosevelt created the refuge:
 
Website: www.onearth.org/earthwire/malheur-national-wildlife-refuge-theodore-roosevelt
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26514

The ranchers (at least the smaller, non-corporate types) don't support selling of the commons. It isn't in their interest at all. The fact that the land has been public all these years has been a great gift to them. Truthfully, their real sin is that they have been poor stewards of the land, and have overgrazed it ever since they were allowed on it. They have essentially been subsidized all these years, but that was why the whole thing was set up the way it was in the beginning, to make it possible for settlers to live in parts of the west where 160 acre homesteads were too small to support a family.

So I have a hard time seeing this as their motivation. Now, perhaps this is some kind of trumped up scheme by the big money...the ones who have the kind of financing to actually buy big chunks of public land. That I could believe.

The whole stand-off stinks to high heaven, frankly. Most of the militia types out there think it's a false flag operation designed to make it easier for the federal government to justify grabbing their guns.

https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/malheur-another-perspective/

Eddie said,

Quote
Now, perhaps this is some kind of trumped up scheme by the big money...the ones who have the kind of financing to actually buy big chunks of public land. That I could believe.

THAT is what you should DEFINITELY believe because THAT is what this is ALL about (see the toadies Rep. Rob Bishop R-UT, Senator Lisa Murkowski's R-AK, etc. et al of the PRIVATE rich Welfare Queen Vested Interests using the Federal Government to fleece we-the-people:  :evil4:).
Quote

The whole stand-off stinks to high heaven, frankly.

Of course. But the COVER for these types of scams always requires the use of Karl Rove's strategy number 3: Always accuse your opponent of doing what YOU are doing to hide the FACT that YOU are doing it. It's basic Machiavelli. ANYONE that uses this strategy is devoid of a moral compass. Nitzsche's Territorial Imperative REQUIRES that that you LACK a moral compass. And long before the Homestead Act, that has been our "justification" for land grabbing. 

So now the REAL land grabbers ((see: PRIVATE rich Welfare Queen Vested Interests using the Federal Government to fleece we-the-people) behind this are deliberately propagandizing the militia types to look in the wrong direction for the motive. 

Quote
Most of the militia types out there think it's a false flag operation designed to make it easier for the federal government to justify grabbing their guns.

See red herring. See distraction. See Bu ll sh it. See: Cui Bono?   

If this massive land grab BY the rich, biosphere math challenged, private greedballs (who use dumbass ideologues in Oregon and bought and paid for politicians as stalking horses) is not stopped, we will soon see our lands totally overrun by profit over planet exploitation. As the article I posted made clear, we ALREADY have a huge problem with wanton exploitation for fossil fuels, mining and the extermination of wildlife that "gets in the way". The overgrazing by greedy ranchers will be the least of our problems.


The solution to this problem requires that the American public understand who the BURGLAR really is and respond accordingly.


A burglar breaks into a house and finds a parrot inside.
“Kesha sees you,” says the Parrot.
 Burglar covers the bird’s cage with a towel.
“Kesha is not a parrot, Kesha is a rottweiler,” says the Parrot.

 



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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