Petition for Horses, against Cruelty

Liebe TierschutzKollegInnen,                                        

ich lege Euch heute meine Petition vor,

die ich für Pferde erstellt habe.

Bitte, signiert die Petition und gebt

sie weiter.

Ich habe mein ganzes Herz in diese

Petition gelegt, weil ich es nicht

aushalten will, was brutale Tierquäler

- theoretisch und praktisch – unseren

Pferden antun.

Die Täter warten nur darauf, dass wir

müde werden und aufgeben.

Das dürfen wir nicht!

LG Annamaria

https://www.change.org/de/Petitionen/andreas-erler-a-erler-eurogroupforanimals-org-ban-cruelty-to-horses-during-transport-and-in-slaughterhouses

Thank You,  Maria Daines for Your wonderful Song for the video!

eating animals : the consequences

 

Annamaria — please take a day off. You deserve it. Take a day off from worries, from bad hair, traffic jams, and particularly, from annoying TV ads…Speaking of ads — it’s hard not to notice that Meat & Livestock Australia has hijacked Australia Day! Strewth — any visiting tourist would think that Sam Kekovich is the father of Australia and that it’s a local tradition to lob a little lamb on the barbie to prove how Australian you are! Crikey — it’s just a multimillion dollar marketing campaign to sell more lamb! We thought Straya (‘Australia’ for our overseas friends) was all about a fair go for all; about sticking up for the undersheepdog; and above all, about looking out for our mates (four legged mates included of course). Help us take back Australia Day in the true Aussie spirit — a day when EVERYONE deserves a day off… Okay, so we’re ‘taking the piss’ (a bit). But really, MLA’s campaign to urge Aussies to eat more animals should be no laughing matter. Apart from the fact that lambs are so super cute, Australians are facing a rising obesity and heart disease epidemic — conditions linked to the over consumption of animal products. Our planet’s health is suffering too. This month we sweltered through the hottest day on record — all the while our pollies conveniently ignored the fact that farming animals for food is creating more climate-warming greenhouse gasses than all of the world’s planes, trains and automobiles combined. It’s enough to send you bonkers! So this Australia Day, we’re calling on all true-blue Aussies to help animals, our health, and our planet — by throwing some cruelty-free tucker on the barbie. Because being Australian is more than just abbreviating all your words with the letter ‘o’. Bloody oath. It’s about taking a stand. Doing what’s right. And hosting a BBQ that will be the envy of all your neighbours. Click here and we’ll show you how! Whatever you get up to on your day off, we wish you a happy, safe, rip-snorter of a day. Cheers, from your mates at Animals Australia. P.S. We need your help to spread the word that animals deserve a day off too. It’s easy. Tell your folks. Tell your mates. Share this funny video on Facebook and Twitter. Forget John Farnham — this year, YOU’RE the voice!

Related articles

• Is Ten’s viral Kekovich video part of a commercial deal with MLA? (mumbrella.com.au)
• Sam Kekovich gets Lambnesia in this year’s MLA Australia Day campaign (mumbrella.com.au)
• Was Kekovich really treated with a frozen chop? (mumbrella.com.au)
• McDonald’s Indulges Australia’s Ignorance (gawker.com)

KILLING ELEPHANTS WITH ELECTRIFIED POWER LINES

English: topographic map of India (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 In India, Poachers Are Now Killing Elephants With Electrified Power Lines http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/10/09/indian-elephant-poaching?cmpid=tpanimals-eml-2012-10-12-india

Related articles

• The twin threat to Kaziranga rhinos (thehindu.com)
• Poachers caught using anti-tank mines on elephants (wildlifenews.co.uk)
• Tell Indian Government to Increase Protection for Zoo Tigers (forcechange.com)
• India sets up rhino protection force (telegraph.co.uk)
• Poachers Kill Tiger in Indian Zoo (theepochtimes.com)
• Vets try to save Indian rhino attacked by poachers (straitstimes.com)
• Culling or Conservation? (ipsnews.net)
• Elephant Poachers Caught in Chad, Protection Efforts Stepped Up (newswatch.nationalgeographic.com)
• Poachers target rhinos in flood-hit NE India (terradaily.com)

HARRASSMENT in OAXACA, MEXICO over MEGA-WIND-FARM-DEVELOPMENT

by Global Justice Ecology Project | October 9, 2012 · 4:30 pm

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Escalating harassment in Oaxaca, Mexico over mega-wind farm development

Note: Once again we are reminded that however fuzzy the solutions sound (wind power being one of the favorite “solutions” to climate change trotted out again and again), until the root cause of our common problems are addressed: i.e. a neoliberal society ruled by a global elite who care nothing for people or the planet, there can be no real solutions to the crises we collectively face.

–The GJEP Team

8^th October 2012

Declaration against escalating harassment in San Dionisio del Mar, Oaxaca, Mexico 

To All Social and Indigenous Peoples Organizations

To All Those in Solidarity with the Struggle of Indigenous Peoples

To the International and Mexican Media
With this communique, we denounce the escalating violence and harassment against members of the Ikojts community, who are opposing the imposition of the San Dionisio windpark megaproject in Oaxaca, Mexico.

These actions are being undertaken by leaders from the PRI [political party], Jorge Castellanos and Ernesto Juárez, who are using violence and aggressions to ensure that construction on the windpark can get underway.

On the 29^th September a group of 20 people tried to attack members of the community who oppose the project, in the zone of El Faro.  The attack was led by San Dionisio’s municipal agent Pueblo Viejo (who had received a new truck from the little know Municipal President Miguel Castellanos). The community members managed to avoid further confrontation, as our protest has been, and remains, non-violent from our side.

Following this, on the 30^th September, at about 11 pm comrade Isaul Celaya and two other community members returned to their homes after having participated in an assembly, were attacked by a truck being driven by Jorge Castellanos; they were able to survive the attack.

Then, on the 6^th October, during the night, a group of people from PRI marched through the streets of San Dionisio del Mar, and publically threatened several community members, as well as other comrades from the movement, Bettina Cruz Velazquez and Carlos Beas Torres. Furthermore, they affirmed that they would use any means necessary in order to be able to begin work on the wind farm on 9^th October. They also vowed to use force to block the Caravan for Solidarity with the Resistance of the Ikjots People, which is scheduled to entering the zone on the 10^th October.

Faced with this escalation of violence, and faced with the imminence of an attack on our protest site [plantón] which we have set up at the Municipal Palace [Town Hall], we met yesterday and resolved not to leave for Mexico City, where we were planning to  demonstrate in front of the Interamerican Development Bank. However, we will still carry out this action, and we will reissue a call for it in the next few days.

Despite this climate of violence and threats, we confirm that the Solidarity Caravan will still be undertaken as planned. Several national and international media have confirmed their participation, as have social and indigenous organizations and Human Rights Groups from Oaxaca and around the country. Several neighbouring communities, such as the people of Chimalapa and young people from the movement Yosoy132, will also send representatives.

We blame any violence that may occur against us on Jorge Castellanos and Ernesto Juárez, as well as on their sponsoring company, Mareña Renovable.

No to the destruction of our Land!
No to the megaprojects which are killing our People! 

Signed:

Asamblea General de Comuneros de San Dionisio del Mar (General Assembly of Community Members of San Dionisio del Mar)
Asamblea de Pueblos Indígenas del Istmo de Tehuantepec en Defensa de la Tierra y el Territorio (Assembly of Indigenous Peoples of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Defense of the Land and Territory)

Unión de Comunidades Indígenas de la Zona Norte del Istmo (Union of Inigenous Communities in the Northern Zone of the Isthmus)

Red Nacional de Resistencia Civil contra las Altas tarifas Eléctricas (National Network of Civil Resistence Against High Electricity Fees)

Frente del Istmo contra la Imposición (Isthmus Front Against the Imposition)

Maiz-Oaxaca
Radio Huave de San Francisco del Mar.
Frente Regional de Pueblos Indigenas del bajo Mixe-Choapa (Regional Front of Indigenous People in the Mixe-Choapa Region)
Radio Las Voces de los Pueblos (Radio of the Peoples’ Voices)
Radio Totopo

HONEYBEES: Researchers search for viruses to save honeybees

Researchers search for viruses to save honeybees
by Staff Writers
San Francisco CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2012

File image.

In an effort to save the dwindling honeybee population researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas are looking to viruses to help treat one of the most destructive and widespread bee brood diseases in the United States. They report their findings at the 2012 General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

“Our food supply depends on the actions of millions of insects such as the common honeybee. Due to the importance of honeybees a pollinators in the agriculture of the United States and therefore the current and future food supply, honeybee health is of great concern,” says Diane Yost, a researcher on the study.

American Foulbrood Disease (AFD) is the most widespread and destructive brood disease affecting honeybees. It is caused by a bacterial pathogen, Paenibacillus larvae. Young honeybee larvae become infected when they ingest the bacterial spores in their food. Infected larvae normally die after their cells are sealed. The bacteria eventually die as well but not before producing millions of spores.

While there are some chemical treatments that can be used to hold AFD in check they must be continued indefinitely. Once the treatment is suspended the American foulbrood spores germinate successfully again leading to a disease outbreak. Because the spores can survive up to 40 years, many states require diseased hives to be burned completely.

Yost and her colleagues are researching an alternative treatment for AFD. They are focusing on using bacteriophages, viruses that infect and kill specific bacteria, to target the bacteria responsible for AFD and eventually treat the disease.

“If an effective remedy for the disease could be developed, hives that are infected with the pathogen could be treated rather than burned, which is currently the only effective treatment,” says Yost.

The researchers conducted an extensive search for phage from environmental sources including samples from desert and garden soils, beehives, flowers, compost and cosmetics containing beeswax.

Nearly 100 samples were tested for the presence of phages. A total of 31 phages were isolated and each were subsequently tested against 8 different strains of the AFD pathogen. The researchers identified 3 phages that had activity against all 8 strains of the bacteria.

“These results demonstrate that bacteriophages capable of infecting P. larvae are present in the natural environment, and these phages may represent the first step in developing a potential treatment for AFD,” says Yost.

Related articles

• Researchers search for viruses to save honeybees (eurekalert.org)
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Green Grabs: The dark side of the green economy

United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Photo credit: United Nations Photo)

Green grabs: The dark side of the green economy
by Staff Writers
London, UK (SPX) Jun 21, 2012

If sustainable development is genuinely to be pursued at Rio+20 and beyond, we need to recapture nature from the market’s grasp, nurturing and legitimising more interconnected human-ecological relationships and understandings, along with tried-and-tested forms of local ecosystem stewardship based on them.

‘Green grabbing’ – the rapidly-growing appropriation of land and resources in the name of ‘green ‘ biofuels, carbon offsetting schemes, conservation effortsand eco-tourism initiatives – is forcing people from their homelands and increasing poverty, new research has found.

Ecosystems being ‘asset-stripped’ for profit is likely to cause dispossession and further poverty amongst already-poor land and resource users, according to a set of 17 new research case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, published in a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

“Green grabs are the dark side of the green economy,” said Professor Melissa Leach, director of the ESRC STEPS Centre. “If market-based mechanisms are to contribute to sustainable development and the building of economies that are not only green but also fair, then fostering an agenda focused on distribution, equity and justice in green market arrangements is vital.”

This means including meaningful local engagement and consultation based on transparency, accountability and free, prior informed consent. Yet green markets cannot do it all. In the rush to repair a damaged nature through trading and offset schemes, the political-economic structures that caused the damage in the first place must not be neglected.

Responsibility for tackling unsustainable practices in wealthy industrialised settings should not be offloaded by financialising ecosystems in other parts of the world.

And if sustainable development is genuinely to be pursued at Rio+20 and beyond, we need to recapture nature from the market’s grasp, nurturing and legitimising more interconnected human-ecologicalrelationships and understandings, along with tried-and-tested forms of local ecosystem stewardship based on them.

Examples of green grabs include: in Guatemala, conservation agencies, ecotourism companies and the military are ‘protecting’ the Guatemalan Maya Biosphere Reserve as a ‘Maya-themed vacationland’, violently excluding local people.

In Eastern and Southern Africa, businesses are revaluing soil systems and farming practicesfor ‘biochar’, dispossessing farmers and pastoralists from land and resources important for their livelihoods.

Meanwhile evidence is mounting that some Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD and REDD+) schemes are dispossessing local forest users of vital resource access.

Related Links

Related articles

• Rio+20: Indigenous Peoples Denounce Green Economy and REDD+ as Privatization of Nature (climate-connections.org)
• Rio+20 to make new bid to tackle environment woes – Hindustan Times (hindustantimes.com)
• Rio+20: Strong policies, public-private partnerships key to transformation of lives (ghanabusinessnews.com)
• Green grabs: The dark side of the green economy (junkscience.com)
• Green grabs: The dark side of the green economy (eurekalert.org)

Offshore Earthquake of February 2012: One of the Largest Recorded in the State

 

Image via Wikipedia

US: Oregon’s Offshore Earthquake of February 2012: One of the Largest Recorded in the State

Jennifer Young
Decoded Science
2012-02-15 09:56:00    I read this article here: sott@sott.net
The Earth moved for many over this Valentine’s Day, but not due to romance – a magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck around 250 km off the west coast of Oregon on February 14, 2012. The Valentine’s Day quake is notable not only for its size (it is one of the largest ever to have occurred in the state or off its coast) but also in terms of the complex tectonic setting in which it occurred.

The Oregon Earthquake of February 2012

The Oregon earthquake occurred on an ocean ridge, at a divergent boundary – where new crust is created by upward movement of hot and buoyant rock from the earth’s interior – between two of the large slabs of crust (tectonic plates) which make up the surface of the earth. Preliminary information from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) shows that the quake occurred at a depth of 10km on the fracture zone associated with the Juan de Fuca Ridge, which marks the western boundary of the Juan de Fuca microplate.