Earth Hour – 29 March 2014

 

Today, Saturday 29th March 2014, billions of people in over one hundred and fifty countries (that means over seven thousand cities) will turn out the lights. A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) initiative, dating back to 2007, has once again united the world in an effort to bring attention to energy consumption, sustainability and climate change issues.

This remarkable annual global occurrence takes place between 8.30 pm and 9.30 pm (YOUR) local time.  Starting in New Zealand and ending in Tahiti, lights of some of the world’s most iconic monuments, landmarks and skylines will be switched off. Many will also turn off their televisions, computers, Xboxes and PlayStations, and any other power-driven gadgets they have.  

This is undoubtedly the largest ever collaboration to help safeguard the planet, and numbers of participants are growing every year. The hour has, in many places, evolved into something much longer. Environmental projects are taking place, such as tree-planting and litter clearance. Stargazing without the hindrance of bright city lights has become very popular. Candle-lit activities have been arranged, parties are being thrown and acoustic concerts given. In fact, masses of entertaining activities are going on around the globe – and all without the use of power. 

Will you be turning your lights out?

There are some fabulous interactive images here from Earth Hour 2013, where, from image 2, you can click on each image and see the lights fade out.

And a few still shots of some of the places where the lights have been turned off in past years.

Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House, Australia

Makati, The Philippines

The Colosseum, Rome, Italy

Kiev, Ukraine

Hong Kong

Islamabad, Pakistan

The Empire State building, New York

Vienna’s City Hall, Austria

Houses of Parliament, London

Cairo, Egypt

Lights out in South Africa

Earth Hour by Jeremiah Armstrong WWF – Canada

Related articles

• Landmarks set for record Earth Hour
• Vote for your Favourite Sustainable City as Part of Earth Hour!
• An environmental turn-off
• It’s ‘Earth Hour’ Saturday – So It’s ‘Lights Out’ All Over The World!
• Spider-Man Andrew Garfield to send Earth Hour message to PH

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Indonesia: terror and eviction for palm oil

This horrendous story is currently being circulated by Rainforest Rescue. The actions of these palm oil companies are totally unacceptable, and unless something is done soon, the indigenous peoples will have nothing left at all, and the rest of the world can kiss goodbye to the irreplaceable Indonesian rainforests. They cannot, however, stand up to these insatiable corporations alone. They need help – lots of help.

“On the morning of December 11, I heard men rattling my door,” said Basron, a 41-year-old resident of the Pinang Tinggi settlement. He then found himself confronted by an armed troop of soldiers, police officers, staff of the PT Asiatic Persada palm oil company and hired thugs.

“These houses are all slated for eviction and demolition today,” one of the men said. A little later, Basron watched as a bulldozer reduced his hut to splinters. In Jambi Province in Sumatra, a total of 1,500 men descended on the helpless indigenous Suku Anak Dalam and evicted them from their huts. At least 296 houses in four villages were looted and demolished in early December 2013.

For almost three decades, Asiatic Persada has been persecuting the forest dwellers – in 1986, the company started to cut down their rainforest for plantations. Yet the people stood firm – until December 2013.

Vast rainforest areas are being cleared for new palm oil plantations in response to the EU’s agrofuel policy. Palm oil imports from the tropics are soaring to meet growing demand for biodiesel: 2.5 million tons were imported in the first half of 2013 – a 63 percent increase over the same period the previous year.

The most important producer of palm-oil biodiesel is Neste Oil Corporation. The Finnish government maintains a 51% controlling interest in the company, which operates the world’s largest biodiesel refineries in Singapore and Rotterdam, each with an annual capacity of one billion litres.

Environmentalists in Cameroon need your support!

Please call on the EU and the governments of its member countries to stop the mandatory blending of biofuels and abolish imports of tropical vegetable oils.

Start of campaign: Dec 23, 2013

Related articles

• Sustainable palm oil must consider people too
• Palm oil company fined US$30m for clearing 1,000 hectares in Indonesia
• Storebrand Puts Palm Oil on Blacklist With Tobacco
• Save Indonesian Rainforests From Destruction
• Your Supermarket is Selling Rainforest Destruction! Get the Facts On Palm Oil and the US Snack Food Industry.
• Biggest palm oil trader agrees to greater rainforest protection

David Cameron to rip up green regulations

This just about sums up the disgraceful tactics of David Cameron and his cronies.  The British Government has yet again put corporate greed before environmental concerns.

David Cameron to rip up green regulations

Prime minister says plans to scrap or amend more than 3,000 regulations will save businesses £850m a year
David Cameron will on Monday boast of tearing up 80,000 pages of environmental protections and building guidelines as part of a new push to build more houses and cut costs for businesses.
In a speech to small firms, the prime minister will claim that he is leading the first government in decades to have slashed more needless regulation than it introduced.
Among the regulations to be watered down will be protections for hedgerows and rules about how businesses dispose of waste, despite Cameron’s claims to lead the greenest government ever.
Addressing the Federation of Small Businesses conference, Cameron will argue that the new rules will make it “vastly cheaper” for businesses to comply with their environmental obligations.
Read the full article here at The Guardian

Thank You!

I would like to take a quick break from blogging about Endangered Species for a moment and thank two of my fellow bloggers for the new reviews of Mungai and the Goa Constrictor, which I have just discovered on Amazon.

My thanks first go to Peter Schreiner.  I am thrilled with this wonderful review by Peter, whose own website is a huge favourite of mine.  Peter, a staunch Vegan, writes beautiful, if not very sad, poetry about the suffering of animals at the hands of man.  For anyone who has not yet discovered Peter’s blog, Crow’s Head Soup , do have a look.  Peter is quite forthright in his views, and if you are animal lover you will love his work and most certainly agree with the sentiments of his poetry.

For the second fabulous review, my thanks go to Kandy Scaramuzzo, an ardent lover and rescuer of horses.  Kandy’s site can be found here at Kandy Kay Scaramuzzo where you can learn about the incredible Pie, who is now pushing forty and still, with lots of love and care, plodding around the paddocks at home in Texas.

Both reviews can be found here on Amazon

The Chilling Destruction That Affects Us All!

“Take sides! Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Elie Wiesel

It is truly shocking the way man has bludgeoned his way into forests, woodlands and plains, and burned,  pushed or starved the indigenous species out and taken what is rightfully theirs.

Those they have not deprived of food and habitat, they have slaughtered in their multitudes, and used every part of their bodies for supposed medicinal human benefit or food.  Some they have kept for amusement.  Many babies have been stolen from their mothers for the pleasure of heartless, self-serving pet owners and profit-making establishments.

Were these creatures themselves human, these deplorable acts would have been construed as crimes against humanity.  There is something monstrously obscene about trapping an animal in the wild and taking it away from its home.  Rather like kidnapping innocent and defenceless children.  A dreadful crime!

There is something equally repugnant about killing an animal for its offspring, fashion, medicine or the consumption of supposed food delicacies.  An unforgivable transgression!

The rainforests (the homes of innumerable  species) are being destroyed at a truly alarming rate.  The importance of these areas does not need underlining, but the devastation is now so great, the future of this planet looks far from promising.

There has never been a more appropriate time to end this chilling destruction and step up the tracking down and punishing of these irresponsible, ignoble, cold-blooded beings, and the heads of corporations so heavily involved in all of this, before it is all too late. And, with many species, we are already dangerously close to that point. 

We don’t all have to get on a plane and fight these atrocious people and organisations first hand.  We can help by spreading awareness, signing petitions as they arise, and writing to governments and other appropriate authorities.

The animals and their rainforests are going fast.  When they are gone, WE won’t be far behind!

Some articles of interest
Brazil says Amazon deforestation rose 28% in a year
Brazil blames organised crime for rise in deforestation
Forest change mapped by Google Earth
Amazon Destruction: Why is the rainforest being destroyed in Brazil?
TROPICAL RAINFORESTS OF THE WORLD
Deforestation Figures for Selected Countries

13th November 2013 – A Fateful Day for the Rainforests

URGENT

Tomorrow, Wednesday, 13th of November 2013, is of utmost importance for the tropical rainforests. On this day, the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU will meet in Brussels to discuss Europe’s future biofuel policy. European laws stipulate that biofuels made from plant oil are blended with fossil fuels. At present, 1.9 million tons of palm oil are mixed with diesel in the EU every year. 7,000 square kilometers of tropical rainforest have been converted into huge industrial monoculture plantations to produce the palm oil.

Please participate in the campaign by sending a protest email to the UK representation to the EU, Mrs. Shan Morgan:

Dear Minister,
Please abolish the blending of palm oil with diesel in the EU. The plantations needed to produce the palm oil threaten rainforests and the habitat of endangered orangutans.
Palm oil does not belong in fuel tanks!

To: Shan Morgan, UK Representation to the EU
Email: ukrep@fco.gov.uk
Telephone: +32 (0)2 287 8211

Via Rainforest Rescue 12th November, 2013