Stop the Badger Slaughter

What is the problem?
• Rising rates of TB in cattle

Why is it happening?
• Poor farming practices, inadequate testing
• Most TB is spread cattle to cattle

What are farmers doing about it?
• Pressing the Government for badgers to be killed
What’s wrong with this?
• Taxpayers will pay millions for badgers to be killed
• It won’t work!

So what needs to be done?
• The Government should be urged to accept the Independent Scientific Group’s Report. It commissioned this at a cost of £50 million and took 10 years to come to the conclusion that killing badgers:
o Did not significantly reduce TB in cattle
o That the thrust should be the cattle themselves
o The costs would be forty times the benefits
• The Government needs quicker TB testing, more TB testing, particularly before moving cattle, immediate removal of infected cattle and better cattle hygiene.

What can you do to help?
• Write to your MP at House of Commons, Westminster.
Don’t sacrifice badgers
Don’t support the continuance of poor testing and farming practices
Don’t let taxpayers bear the cost
WRITE NOW!

More info about the badgers and how to protect them on The Badger Trust website.
The Badger Trust promotes the conservation and welfare of badgers and the protection of their setts and habitats.

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Prince’s Rainforest Project

“Today I am launching the website for my Rainforests Project. On it are three films, together with the findings of some new research. The films, which The Daily Telegraph is hosting on its website today make use of compelling images from the world’s rainforests, as well as animation, to describe some of the stark facts and implications of tropical deforestation. In a little less than my lifetime, we have lost 50 per cent of the world’s rainforests.

Every year, 32 million acres – an area the size of England – is destroyed or degraded. The message is clear: our world is in grave danger of losing its life-support system. These forests, which straddle the equator in a belt around the world, contain not only some of the richest biodiversity known to science, which is crucial to human health and survival in the future, but are also home to millions of the world’s poorest people, whose livelihoods depend on them.

They also play a crucial role in cooling and cleaning the atmosphere and providing fresh water and rainfall. At a time when shortages of food are being experienced the world over and population continues to rise, this rainfall is more important than ever before. Amazonia’s forests alone, for instance, help to store the largest body of flowing freshwater on the planet, and they release 20 billion tonnes of water vapour into the atmosphere every day.”

Show your support.

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Top Three Seal Hunt Myths

History of IFAW’s Efforts
2006 One million seals killed in just three years
1996 Harp seal quota increased to a quarter million seals thanks to government subsidies that boost the market for seal products. Harp seal quota increased
1987 Between 1983 and 1987, harp seal catches drop to an average of 36,000 a year thanks to the whitecoat pelt bans. Commercial whitecoat hunt banned
1983 Ban on whitecoat pelts
1969 IFAW was established in 1969 with the goal of saving the harp seals from the cruelty of the commercial seal hunt in Canada. IFAW founded

Here are the top three myths told by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) about the commercial seal hunt:

Myth #1: The seal hunt is humane.
Myth #2: The seal hunt is sustainable.
Myth #3: The seal hunt is closely monitored and well managed.

Read the facts and figures here.

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For Patagonia

There’s only eight days left in May and we still need to raise $9,000 in order to reach our goal of raising $20K in May for Patagonia. We not only want to see Patagonia’s ecosystem survive encroachments from enterprises like bottom trawling and salmon farming but also thrive from the creation of Marine Protected Areas that will limit harmful activities.

Please donate now in order to protect and preserve Patagonia >>

Rapid, globally-financed industrial development is currently underway throughout Chilean Patagonia. For example, the growth of salmon farming has dramatically outpaced the environmental regulations needed to prevent pollution. Though scientists in the region have called for protection of particular Patagonian fjords and channels, there are currently very few restrictions on where industrial activities can take place.

Fortunately, we still have time to protect key places for future generations of whales, dolphins, and people. We are performing scientific, economic and social studies in the region and have already earned the support of other NGO’s, local fishermen and politicians. Now, I’m hoping to solidify your support as well.

Join our effort to protect Patagonia and ensure that its beauty and diversity will remain intact in our lifetime and in the future. We only need $9,000 to reach our goal of $20K in May and your donation now will go a long way towards closing that gap.

For the oceans,
Alex Munoz
VP South American Office
Oceana

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Energy: Sources, Technologies & Adoption Impact

The coal energy source in its purest form is simply fossilized carbon, which are formed in excess of 100 million years ago from once living plants. generally these plants die, or otherwise, and are buried underground. Such usually happens in cataclysms and as a result the plant trunks do not rot naturally, instead the trunks get submerged under the ground and are rapidly covered up with of earth. The high intense pressure squeezes the water of the plant sap out of the trunks living only the non-liquid matter.

Intense heat underground then begin the process of vaporizing the volatile materials out of the trunk. After the volatiles, all other materials with low latent heat of vaporization and low temperature, then become gasified and effuse out of the plant remains. Ultimately mostly only the carbon components of the plant matter and some remnants of the volatiles and low-temperature boiling materials remain. The high pressure and high temperature then continues to force a structural change of the carbon matter resulting the material known as coal in this evolution of the earth. […]

Energy Type:
The energy form of coal is chemical and as such obtains through the breakage of chemical bonds. Specifically this is accomplished through a chemical reaction between the carbon – the chemical make-up of coal – and oxygen. The reaction gives off heat energy and is of the class of chemical reactions generally termed exothermic reaction, of a fairly extensive reaction chemistry. During the reaction, one part of carbon combines with two parts of oxygen and forms carbon dioxide.

full story here

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Greenhouse Gas and Global Warming

Things are not always as they seem! Scratch beyond the surface and the truth is always different.

The concentrations of the atmospheric greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor – are undergoing net increases even though the concentration of water vapor is somewhat occasionally tempered as a result of rainfalls. Moreover, any interactivity-impact such as generic atmospheric reactions between the constituents gases, and photolytic reactions between the same gases that may be ignited by lightening, also would not suffer mitigation unless the concentrations of these gases are reduced significantly. In effect, the net impact of the greenhouse gases effect is fully felt by planet Earth.

[…]

Ultimately for society to move forward and get a handle on the issue of global warming and energy shortage price-spikes, other methods must be developed. Besides, the adopted method, must either support the need for centralized corporate level production operations such as is true of Power companies as well as energy distribution requirements, or complement itself with the adoption of hydrogen gas as the means of distribution of the energy.

For what’s in between, read the full analysis.

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Top 5 reasons why cheetahs make good mothers

They like to have big families
Cheetahs can have up to six cubs at once. That’s a big job for any mom to tackle.

They watch out for their kids
Newborn cubs are blind and defenseless for the first six weeks.
Cheetah moms move their brood to different dens every few days to protect them from predators.

They bring home the bacon
Cheetah moms do all the hunting for their cub. And with up to 6 cubs to feed, plus themselves, that’s a lot of antelope meat to
put on the table.

They put their offspring first
Unlike some predators, like lionesses, cheetah moms let their cubs eat first before she digs in.

They’re not afraid to show their love.
Cheetah moms are openly affectionate, purring and licking their cubs often.

TOP FIVE REASONS WHY CHEETAHS MAKE GOOD MOTHER’S DAY PRESENTS

Moms like unique and memorable gifts.
Unlike flowers and chocolate, a donation in your mom’s name to the Cheetah Conservation Fund has lasting benefits.

Moms like to keep things in balance.
Our ecosystem is a fragile and sensitive thing. Losing one species affects the balance of all plant and animal life.

Moms are concerned about future generations.
A donation to save a wild cheetah mom and her cubs is a step toward securing the future of all cheetahs.

Moms appreciate natural beauty.
Cheetahs have an undeniable agility and grace. And we love that eye makeup. Help preserve their beauty.

Moms are the best ones to help other moms.
Even cheetah moms.

next episode to follow, until then DONATE

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