Species Extinction

I have recently returned from Sundance on the Crow Creek rez where I have completed my third of a four year commitment to dance and pierce. I was given a new direction and task this year from my Creator. I am to start walking in protest/awareness for the Gulf disaster. I hope to chronicle the journey and upload to You-Tube on a daily basis the teachings and wisdom to be found along the way. My company FAQ Sportswear will donate half of our profits to the cleanup effort. The plan or lack thereof is to walk until the Oil spill clean up is well underway. The thought was to garner national media attention to increase the pressure on BP, the US and all the nations to come together to make this a quick and permanent fix. It is time also for these corporations to quit destroying and despoiling the planet for the sake of profit. I can guarantee the walk will be the adventure of a lifetime and I am sure it will provide quite an insight into human nature and the human condition. I also have a feeling that this could take on Forrest Gumpish proportions. Our Mother is hurting right now and she needs all the help she can get....this has been given to me as my direction and what I need to do next. I am hoping to teach and make people aware of the contents of the 11th Hour Movie. It would be wonderful if the producers and those controlling the movie would help me to disseminate the information. Also, any of the facilitators from the movie are welcome to join me on the walk to lecture and teach. The information contained in the 11th Hour is key to our survival as a species....it needs to be fed to those who are still unaware of it's presence and value. Again, I hope to chronicle along the way to not only get down what needs to be done and said but also to journal the beautiful things left in America, and also to bring to light those things that are less than good for our planet. If nothing else it would be a great weight loss program and a wonderful opportunity to get a tan. Wouldn't it be thrilling to have started the actual million man/woman march and not for anything else other than the health and safety of our planet and ultimately mankind itself. Many hands make light work....or in this case.

I received the below e-mail today from the World Wildlife Fund.

WWF and Leonardo DiCaprio Partner to Double the Number of Wild Tigers by 2022.

Actor and Activist Leonardo DiCaprio has joined forces with World Wildlife Fund to save a species on the brink of extinction. With as few as 3,200 tigers left in the wild, WWF and DiCaprio today kicked off Save Tigers Now. The campaign begins with an expedition to remote tiger habitats in Asia to document the wild tigers first hand and learn what needs to be done to save them from extinction.

After DiCaprio was briefed by the WWF conservationists about the plight of these majestic animals, they decided to partner on a campaign to help raise awareness about the threats to tigers and raise funds for tiger preservation efforts. In honor of the Chinese Year of the Tiger, an ambitious goal of $20 million has been set with the vision of doubling the tiger population by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.

DiCaprio is traveling to Asia with WWF experts to see the threats tigers face first-hand. He will participate in anti-poaching patrols, meet with park guards on the frontlines of protecting tigers from international traffickers, and explore the best ways to protect these amazing creatures. The Save Tigers Now (www.SaveTigersNow.org) website will allow supporters to follow DiCaprio's journey and participate in the effort to save tigers.

"Give tigers enough space and protection and they'll recover," said WWF CEO Carter Roberts. "But public support means everything and changing laws and ending demand for tiger parts means we need to tell their story--in places like the U.S., India and China. Which is why this partnership with Leonardo is so important, he can reach the public, tell this story to our children and engage leaders around the world--to save tigers now."

“Tigers are endangered and critical to some of the world’s most important ecosystems,” said Leonardo DiCaprio. “Key conservation efforts can save the tiger species from extinction, protect some of the planet’s last wild habitats and help sustain the local communities surrounding them. By protecting this iconic species, we can save so much more.”


Tigers need your help. Learn how you can get involved today by visiting SaveTigersNow.org. You'll be able to:

. Read about the latest tiger facts and WWF's efforts to double the tiger population by 2022

. Share information on your social networking pages or by sending an e-card

. View photos and videos of the latest tiger conservation efforts from across Asia

I am Richard ROBINSON an independent eco activist from Erode district a small town in the state of Tamil Nadu INDIA, since my infancy I found myself attached deeply towards nature and species this further led me to learn while I walked, without knowing those scientific facts and terminologies, I started from mimicking to the black bird’s ringing, which I lately studied as Asian Koel (Eudynamys Scolopacea) and the imitation I did was bird Ringing and birding, And along with my friends we started to plant trees, further after years in 2004 and likeminded naturalists we formed a non profit organization named JEEVAKARUNYA TRUST, with a motto to Train and implement youth In Sustainable Development work promoting environmental, ecological and humanitarian values and importance,

 

And now, still learning educating and training the younger generation’s to involve individually and collectively in all eco-development activities and decision makings  I have individually conducted hundreds of seminars and converted them to eco-actions,

24 hour x 7 days Snake Rescues along with a trained team,

Free seminars, slid shows and movie for the all local and surrounded educational institutions,

Conservation based weed removal action for Tribal livelihood development trainings

Clean renewable energy solar lamp implementation to rural and tribal those not accessed with power,

And many innovative initiatives like craft from the plant lantana camera which is considered as a weed destroying native forest and farm lands, GREEN CROSS eco action clubs, and more to bring a change in the un-mind full living of the most populace   even though we find very tuff and hard to move every step without any support, I believe that we can make it, I also swear that what ever happens I am not going to quit my duty towards nature, of conserving the only home at least in this 11 hour... 

 

Michael Jackson's album Off the Wall came out 21 days after my 17th birthday, and at the time thanks to ABBA, I really did think I was a Dancing Queen. (lol) My 8-track of Off the Wall was played and danced to over and over and over again. That album and Michael Jackson have made an ever lasting impression on me. Music, art, and film always have the greatest impact on you when you are open to receiving the message.

Michael Jackson's Earth Song which came out in 1995 was his first single that overtly dealt with the environment and animal welfare. I was not completely surprised when I read this past week how Earth Song was a top five hit in most European countries, and in the UK, it remains Jackson's best-selling single. Sadly, Earth Song was not even released as a single in the United States. I wonder why? Maybe the reason was the US was not open to receiving this message at the time.

Earth Song was accompanied by a lavish music video which had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Jackson and the world's people unite in a spiritual chant Earth Song which summons a force that heals the world. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, war ends and the forests regrow.

The video was filmed in four geographic regions. The first location was the Amazon Rainforest, where a large part was destroyed a week after the video's completion. Natives of the region appeared in the video and were not actors. The second scene was a war zone in Croatia, with residents of the area. The third location was Tanzania, which incorporated scenes of illegal poaching and hunting into the video. No animals were harmed in the making of the Earth Song, as the footage came from documentary archives. However, a poacher killed an elephant within a mile of the shot. The final location was in Warwick, New York, where a safe forest fire was simulated in a corn field.

Michael said this about Earth Song:

"I remember writing Earth Song when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is "Earth Song." And that's what inspired it."

I was happy I came across so many eco-bloggers like Treehugger, Ecorazzie and many others blogging about this song since Michael Jackson's transition last week. I hope this music video gets shown all over the world and especially here in the United States.  Here's wishing that we are now more open to receiving this message and the wonderful gift of music and video from a true genius.

You can view Michael Jackson's Earth Song video HERE.

Suzan Baptiste, as reported by CNN, witnessed the slaughter of the mighty leatherback turtle on her local beach.  Facing physical intimidate and threats, Suzan fought for many years to protect the turtles from poachers who kill the leatherbacks for the eggs and meat.  She prevailed, founding Nature Seekers, a group dedicated to protecting the turtles, and today, the UN recognizes the beaches that Suzan protects as one of the most important breeding grounds for the endangered leatherback turtle.

I wrote a blog back in October 2007 about photographic artist Chris Jordan who began a series of digital photographs that present contemporary American culture by way of inconceivable statistics regarding American consumption. In his photographic series, Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait, each image portrays a specific quantity of consumption: Plastic Bags, 2007 - Depicts 60,000 plastic bags, the number used in the US every five seconds; Plastic Bottles, 2007 - Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes. Jordan portrays these statistics by incorporating them visually in large, intricately detailed photographic prints assembled from thousands of smaller images.

In his new series, Runninng the Numbers II: Portraits of Global Mass Culture (2009) Jordan depicts mass phenomena that occur on a global scale. The first few pieces in this series depict statistics about threats to the world's marine ecosystems.

Gyre (2009) is the first set of images in this new series which represents the Pacific Gyre, or The Great Garbage Patch. The Pacific Gyre is the largest garbage swill floating midway between Hawaii and San Francisco and is roughly the size of Texas containing approximately 3.5 million tons of trash.

The below photographic image Gyre (2009) is composed of 2.4 million pieces of plastic – the estimated number of pounds of plastic that enter the world’s ocean’s every hour.

  

                              Actual image                                                                    Partial zoom

  

                           Zoomed in further                                                                  Viewed up close

Next in the series is a set of images called Shark Teeth, 2009. If you have read the 11th Hour Action blog about how sharks are under a global threat and yet may be a key to our survival then you may appreciate the significance of these images, and the serious consequences to killing sharks.

The below images depicts 270,000 fossilized shark teeth, equal to the estimated number of sharks of all species killed around the world every day for their fins.

  

                         Actual image                                                                                        Partial zoom

  

                              Zoomed in further                                                                            Viewed up close

To fully appreciate these photographic images you should really view them directly from Chris Jordan’s website. There are 11 images from the Gyre series, and 5 from Shark Teeth. Plus there are 5 images that depicts 20,500 tuna, the average number of tuna fished from the world's oceans every fifteen minutes.

American Museum of Natural History
Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A New Energy Future

On Display October 18, 2008 – August 16, 200

If you live in the New York area or are planning a visit to New York City over the next 10 months, you may want to check out a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History on climate change.

Climate Change: The Threat to Life and A New Energy Future, will examine one of the most pressing scientific issues of our time—the massive, human-induced warming of Earth, a phenomenon that could lead to drought, rising sea levels, heavy storms, and other events with potentially dire impacts on the health of society and the natural world. This exhibition will explore the science, history, and impact of climate change, and illuminate ways in which individuals, communities and nations can reduce their carbon footprints.

"Evidence has been accumulating for some time that Earth is warming due to human activity," said Museum President Ellen V. Futter, "but we are only just beginning to come to terms with the breadth of the consequences of this phenomenon, and to learn what we can do to mitigate them. The fact is," Ms. Futter continued, "we do have options; but implementing solutions will require individual, national, and global action. Climate Change will examine both the consequences of global warming and possible solutions to this critical problem."

Climate Change will give visitors a scientific context to help make sense of today's most urgent headlines on global warming. More importantly, the exhibition will inspire visitors to participate in the world-changing discussion on how best to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The central part of the exhibition will explore the effects of climate change on several separate but interrelated areas: Earth's atmosphere, oceans, land, and polar ice sheets. Scientists have documented a dramatic increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the past 150 years—especially CO2 (carbon dioxide)—caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other changes in land use. Climate Change will use realistic dioramas, hands-on activity stations, and dynamic animations to understand the climate's response to the build-up of greenhouse gases and explore the repercussions for today's world and future generations.

One activity allows visitors to investigate raising the sea levels on a dynamic scale, model of Lower Manhattan to graphically illustrate the flooding that would be caused by the melting of ice sheets and warming of oceans. The movements of clouds, ocean currents and seasonal ice that reveal how climate works will be internally projected on digital video globes throughout the exhibition. A ghostly coral reef—a victim of "coral bleaching"—will show how increased CO2 in the oceans and higher water temperatures are killing corals and the communities that they anchor. And a six-foot-tall model that represents one ton of coal will provide a startling visual reminder of each visitor's own carbon footprint: Scientists estimate that every person in the world burns, on average, the equivalent of three tons of coal every year. The exhibition will also explore the options for future energy sources—including coal-burning combined with a CO2 capture and sequestration, solar power, nuclear energy, and wind power.

Climate Change does more than examine a complex and immediate problem—it lays the groundwork for potential solutions, from the personal to the national and global, and shows how these are within our grasp. The exhibition will empower and encourage visitors of all ages to help address the climate change problem by reducing energy consumption in their daily lives, whether by buying energy-efficient appliances, growing their own food, switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, or choosing to walk or take mass transit to get to work or school. Please visit the American Museum of Natural History web site for more information and details.

Source: City Pass

STUDENTS ON ICE is an award-winning organization offering unique learning expeditions to the Antarctic and the Arctic. Their mandate is to provide students from around the world with inspiring educational opportunities at the ends of our earth, and in doing so, help them foster a new understanding and respect for the planet.

Educational Philosophy
Students on Ice believe in providing students with unique educational experiences that will challenge the way in which they perceive the world. Their aim is not to simply provide students with a "trip" to a unique destination but rather to give students an opportunity to have an aesthetic experience in some of the most wild and awe-inspiring ecosystems in the world. They do not want students to just pass through a place with camera in hand, but rather to listen to the land; to 'feel' these natural places and in turn, explore how we as humans feel when immersed in such places. Ultimately, their goal is for students to experience a transformative connection with Nature - a connection that changes the way they understand and act in this world.

Educational Approach
Students on Ice approach to education weaves together elements of experiential, expeditionary, and problem-based learning. In starting with a very 'hands-on' approach, active participation and critical thinking are important elements in the SOI learning process. Through posing questions, experimenting and constructing meaning, the learning becomes personal, relational and exploratory in nature. Their expeditions become symbolic learning journeys from the initial development of ideas, to addressing problems and possible solutions, to final reflections. They recognize that the journey will be unique for each student, as will the manner in which each student effects positive change in his/her individual lives following the expedition.

Educational Theme: Environmental Leadership
Woven into all Students on Ice expeditions is the overarching theme: Environmental Leadership. The world is a global ecosystem in which all natural and human systems are interconnected. Humans are part of nature and bound by the laws of the natural world. However, in today's mechanistic, consumer-oriented world our lifestyles have led to a disconnection with nature. We are often unaware or apathetic to where our most basic needs come from - food, clothing, shelter. Our over consumptive practices have led to resource depletion, atmospheric pollution, diminishing biodiversity, and most commonly discussed in the media, climate change. As a global society, we need to move towards living more sustainably. Today's youth have the opportunity to lead the way.

From an environment perspective, they focus their expeditions' lectures, discussions, and activities on current environmental issues facing the regions they are traveling through. Climate change is a particular focus on all their expeditions.

From a leadership perspective, they will explore how youth are effective agents of change and how their efforts contribute to positive societal action. Youth have an opportunity to establish sustainable livelihoods and make informed ecological-based choices early in their lives. The choices they make have a ripple effect and the action youth takes does make a difference. In developing the leadership component of their expedition's theme they facilitate ongoing group discussions on ways to get involved in youth-based environmental initiatives upon returning home.

Their theme of "Environmental Leadership" weaves itself through their education program in conjunction with their ongoing exploration of the history, culture, general science, and politics of our place of travel.

Source: Students on Ice  

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A 15-year old local Scottsdale, Arizona girl, Alexandra Polasko, spent 2-1/2 weeks this past August on a Students on Ice expedition to the Arctic Circle. Now back at school she and two other students from the expedition are planning to hold a national conference, The American Green Youth Summit, in summer 2010 in Boulder, Colorado, bringing together two students from each state to learn about protecting the environment.

"The summit will be about students reaching out to other students," Polasko said.

Before the expedition, Polasko said she had a passion for the environment but did not feel connected to it. But after seeing polar bears and sea lions losing their homes and not knowing why, she said she saw how humans affect the environment.

"We are not simply passengers on the planet," Polasko said.

Her most dramtic experience came on the trip's fifth day when students in Zodiac boats in a fjord came upon a shelf of ice. They watched as a giant shelf crashed into the water.

"I felt as if the Earth...as if its arm was breaking off or its finger was breaking off...I could see the reduction in the ice; I could see the animals suffering; I could see the impact that was happening firsthand," Polasko said.

Source: Arizona Republic

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I'm so impressed that high school kids today actually want to go on educational expeditions like this to the Arctic Circle and Antarctic, instead of wanting to go to a more "FUN" vacation destination, or just wanting to lay around all summer. Growing up in Chicago my junior class trip was to California. All we cared about was getting a nice tan. Thank goodness these kids are WAKING UP.  

 

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More than 265 teenagers from 44 U.S. states and nine Canadian provinces will meet at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff this week to participate as finalists in North America's largest high-school environmental-education competition, the 2008 Canon Envirothon.

The Canon Envirothon is an annual competition in which winning state/provincial teams compete for recognition and scholarships by demonstrating their knowledge of environmental science and natural resource management. The teams, each consisting of five high school-aged students exercise their critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

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