Food, Inc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0

Forks Over Knives – The Official Movie Website

Forks Over Knives – The Official Movie Website

Klimaat

Stoppen met de vee-industrie helpt flink om de opwarming van de aarde én de honger in de wereld tegen te gaan, zo blijkt uit twee nieuwe rapporten van Compassion in World Farming.

Warm lopen voor Kopenhagen

In december zijn alle ogen gericht op Kopenhagen, waar de klimaatconferentie van de Verenigde Naties wordt gehouden. Wereldleiders vergaderen dan over afspraken om de klimaatverandering en de opwarming van de aarde tegen te gaan. In november vergaderde de wereldvoedselorganisatie FAO in Rome over de honger in de wereld.

Compassion in World Farming is er bij in Kopenhagen, met een belangrijke boodschap: Stoppen met de vee-industrie levert een grote bijdrage aan de oplossing van beide problemen. Dat blijkt uit twee kersverse rapporten die Compassion in World Farming aan beide conferenties presenteert.

De vee-industrie voorbij: Beyond factory farming

Het rapport 'Beyond factory farming' laat zien waarom doorgaan met de grootschalige industriële productie van vlees niet houdbaar is: Rond 2050 zal de wereldbevolking met zo'n 50% gestegen zijn tot 9 miljard mensen. Om al die mensen duurzaam te voeden is meer voedsel nodig, dat efficiënt en schoon geproduceerd moet worden.

Nu al legt de vee-industrie een groot beslag op landbouwgrond in de ontwikkelingslanden, waar veevoer voor het westen wordt geproduceerd. Die grond kan beter gebruikt worden voor het verbouwen van gewassen die door mensen gegeten kunnen worden. Bovendien verbruikt de vee-industrie veel andere grondstoffen, zoals olie en water, die in de komende jaren steeds schaarser zullen worden.

Sinds kort is er ook veel aandacht voor de bijdrage die de vee-industrie levert aan de opwarming van de aarde. 18% daarvan wordt veroorzaakt door de veehouderij, meer dan door transport.

In 'Beyond factory farming' pleiten we daarom voor duurzame alternatieven voor de vee-industrie. Extensieve veehouderij, in plaats van de energieslurpende intensieve vee-industrie, blijft mogelijk, maar het is noodzakelijk over te schakelen op een ander voedingspatroon met minder vlees.

Download het rapport [190 KB] 'Beyond factory farming' (nu nog in het Engels, binnenkort in het Nederlands).

Eten we de aarde op? - Eating the planet

Het is goed mogelijk de opwarming van de aarde te stoppen én een eind te maken aan de vee-industrie, zonder dat iedereen vegetarier moet worden. Dat blijkt uit het rapport 'Eating the planet' dat door onderzoekers van de universiteit van Klagenfirt werd geschreven in opdracht van Compassion in World Farming en Friends of the Earth.

Het onderzoek vergelijkt verschillende modellen van voedselproductie, dieten en landgebruik en concludeert dat er genoeg voedsel kan worden geproduceerd om de groeiende wereldbevolking te voeden met eerlijkere en gezondere dieten, waarbij tegelijkertijd ontbossing en dierenleed worden tegengegaan.
Ook dit rapport pleit voor een fikse reductie van de vleesconsumptie in het westen. Als we drie dagen per week vlees eten is het mogelijk de groeiende wereldbevolking gezond te voeden, over te schakelen op diervriendelijkere veehouderij en de opwarming van de aarde tegen te gaan, aldus de onderzoekers.

Download de samenvatting [1.237 KB] van het rapport 'Eating the planet' (Engelstalig)
Download het hele rapport [2.198 KB] (Engelstalig)

http://www.ciwf.nl/wedoenmeer/klimaat/index.html

Bracing for a century of rising seas

As governments, businesses, and homeowners plan for the future, they should assume that the world’s oceans will rise by at least two meters — roughly seven feet — this century. But far too few agencies or individuals are preparing for the inevitable increase in sea level that will take place as polar ice sheets melt.

The reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are balanced and comprehensive documents summarizing the impact of global warming on the planet. But they are not without imperfections, and one of the most notable was the analysis of future sea level rise contained in the latest report, issued in 2007.

Given the complexities of forecasting how much the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets will contribute to increases in global sea level, the IPCC chose not to include these giant ice masses in their calculations, thus ignoring what is likely to be the most important source of sea level rise in the 21st century. Arguing that too little was understood about ice sheet collapse to construct a mathematical model upon which even a rough estimate could be based, the IPCC came up with sea level predictions using thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of mountain glaciers outside the poles. Its results were predictably conservative — a maximum of a two-foot rise this century — and were even a foot lower than an earlier IPCC report that factored in some melting of Greenland’s ice sheet.

The IPCC’s 2007 sea level calculations — widely recognized by the academic community as a critical flaw in the report — have caused confusion among many in the general public and the media and have created fodder for global warming skeptics. But there should be no confusion about the serious threat posed by rising sea levels, especially as evidence has mounted in the past two years of the accelerated pace of melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets.
The message for the world’s leaders and decision makers is that sea level rise is real and is only going to get worse. Indeed, we make the case in our recent book, The Rising Sea, that governments and coastal managers should assume the inevitability of a seven-foot rise in sea level. This number is not a prediction. But we believe that seven feet is the most prudent, conservative long-term planning guideline for coastal cities and communities, especially for the siting of major infrastructure; a number of academic studies examining recent ice sheet dynamics have suggested that an increase of seven feet or more is not only possible, but likely. Certainly, no one should be expecting less than a three-foot rise in sea level this century.

In the 20th century, sea level rise was primarily due to thermal expansion of ocean water. Contributions of melting mountain glaciers and the large ice sheets were minor components. But most climate scientists now believe that the main drivers of sea level rise in the 21st century will be the melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (a potential of a 16-foot rise if the entire sheet melts) and the Greenland Ice Sheet (a potential rise of 20 feet if the entire ice cap melts). The nature of the melting is non-linear and is difficult to predict.

Seeking to correct the IPCC’s failure to come up with a comprehensive forecast for sea level increase, a number of state panels and government committees have produced sea level rise predictions that include an examination of melting ice sheets. For example, sea level rise panels in Rhode Island and Miami-Dade County have concluded that a minimum of a three- to five-foot sea level rise should be anticipated by 2100. A California report assumes a possible 4.6-foot rise by 2100, while the Dutch assume a 2.5-foot rise by 2050 in the design of their tidal gates.

Given the growing consensus about the major sea level rise on the way in the coming century or two, the continued development of many low-lying coastal areas — including much of the U.S. east coast — is foolhardy and irresponsible.

Who is at risk?

Rising seas will be on the front lines of the battle against changing climate during the next century. Our great concern is that as the infrastructure of major cities in the industrialized world becomes threatened, there will be few resources left to address the dramatic impacts that will be facing the citizens of the developing world.

The ramifications of a major sea level rise are massive. Agriculture will be disrupted, water supplies will be salinized, storms and flood waters will reach ever further inland, and millions of environmental refugees will be created — 15 million people live at or below three feet elevation in Bangladesh, for example. Governments, especially those in the developing world, will be disrupted, creating political instability.

The most vulnerable of all coastal environments are deltas of major rivers, including the Mekong, Irrawaddy, Niger, Ganges-Brahmaputra, Nile, and Mississippi. Here, land subsidence will combine with global sea level rise to create very high rates of what is known as “local, relative sea level rise.” The rising seas will displace the vast majority of people in these delta regions. Adding insult to injury, in many parts of Asia the rice crop will be decimated by rising sea level — a three-foot sea level rise will eliminate half of the rice production in Vietnam — causing a food crisis coincident with the mass migration of people.

The Mississippi Delta is unique because it lies within a country with the financial resources to fight land loss. Nevertheless, we believe multibillion-dollar engineering and restoration efforts designed to preserve communities on the Mississippi Delta are doomed to failure, given the magnitude of relative sea level rise expected. Former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt said in 2008 that it was an “ineluctable fact” that within the lifespan of some people alive today, “the vast majority of that land will be underwater.” He also faulted federal officials for not developing migration plans for area residents and for not having the “honesty and compassion” to tell Louisiana residents the “truth”: Someday, they will have to leave the delta. The city of New Orleans can probably be protected into the next century, but only at great expense and with little guarantee that future storms like hurricane Katrina will not inundate the city again.

Pacific and Indian Ocean atoll nations are already being abandoned because of the direct and indirect effects of sea level rise, such as saltwater intrusion into groundwater. In the Marshall Islands, some crops are being grown in abandoned 55-gallon oil drums because the ground is now too salty for planting. New Zealand is accepting, on a gradual basis, all of the inhabitants of the Tuvalu atolls. Inhabitants of Carteret Atoll have all moved to Papua, New Guinea. The forward-looking government of the Maldives recently held a cabinet meeting underwater to highlight the ultimate fate of their small island nation.

The world’s major coastal cities will undoubtedly receive most of the attention as sea level rise threatens infrastructure. Miami tops the list of most endangered cities in the world, as measured by the value of property that would be threatened by a three-foot rise. This would flood all of Miami Beach and leave downtown Miami sitting as an island of water, disconnected from the rest of Florida. Other threatened U.S. cities include New York/Newark, New Orleans, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Tampa-St Petersburg, and San Francisco. Osaka/Kobe, Tokyo, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Nagoya are among the most threatened major cities outside of North America.

Preserving coastal cities will require huge public expenditures, leaving smaller coastal resort communities to fend for themselves. Manhattan, for example, is likely to beat out Nags Head, North Carolina for federal funds, a fact that recreational beach communities must recognize when planning a response to sea level rise.

Twelve percent of the world’s open ocean shorelines are fronted by barrier islands, and a three-foot sea level rise will spell doom for development on most of them — save for those completely surrounded by massive seawalls.

Impacts in the United States, with a 3,500-mile long barrier island shoreline extending from Montauk Point on Long Island to the Mexican border, will be huge. The only way to preserve the barrier islands themselves will be to abandon them so that they may respond naturally to rising sea level. Yet, most coastal states continue to allow massive, irresponsible development of the low-lying coast.

Ironically, low-elevation Florida is probably the least prepared of all coastal states. Hundreds of miles of high rises line the state’s shoreline, and more are built every year. The state pours subsidies into coastal development through state-run insurance and funding for coastal protection. If a portion of those funds were spent adapting to sea level rise rather than ignoring it, Florida might be ready to meet the challenge of the next century. Let’s hope the state rises to the challenge.

Despite the dire facts, the next century of rising sea level need not be an economic disaster. Thoughtful planning can lead to a measured retreat from vulnerable coastal lowlands. We recommend the following:

Immediately prohibit the construction of high-rise buildings and major infrastructure in areas vulnerable to future sea level rise. Buildings placed in future hazardous zones should be small and movable — or disposable.

Relocation of buildings and infrastructure should be a guiding philosophy. Instead of making major repairs on infrastructure such as bridges, water supply, and sewer and drainage systems, when major maintenance is needed, go the extra mile and place them out of reach of the sea. In our view, no new sewer and water lines should be introduced to zones that will be adversely affected by sea level rise in the next 50 years. Relocation of some beach buildings could be implemented after severe storms or with financial incentives.

Stop government assistance for oceanfront rebuilding. The guarantee of recovery is perhaps the biggest obstacle to a sensible response to sea level rise. The goal in the past has always been to restore conditions to what they were before a storm or flood. In the United States, hurricanes have become urban renewal programs. The replacement houses become larger and larger and even more costly to replace again in the future. Those who invest in vulnerable coastal areas need to assume responsibility for that decision. If you stay, you pay.

Get the Corps off the shore. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, more or less by default, is the government agency in charge of much of the planning and the funding for the nation’s response to sea level rise. It is an agency ill-suited to the job. Part of the problem is that the engineers’ “we can fix it” mentality is the wrong mindset for a sensible approach to responding to changing sea level.

Local governments cannot be expected to take the lead. The problems created by sea level rise are international and national, not local, in scope. Local governments of coastal towns (understandably) follow the self-interests of coastal property owners and developers, so preservation of buildings and maintaining tax base is inevitably a very high priority. In addition, the resources needed to respond to sea level rise will be far beyond those available to local communities.

Responding to long-term sea level rise will pose unprecedented challenges to the international community. Economic and humanitarian disasters can be avoided, but only through wise, forward-looking planning. Tough decisions will need to be made regarding the allocation of resources and response to natural disasters. Let us hope that our political leadership can provide the bold vision and strong leadership that will be required to implement a reasoned response.

by Rob Young and Orrin Pilkey

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010937.html

Light and the Bright Green City

It's become a common slide at conferences: a map of the Earth at night, with the wealthier and denser areas shining brightly. Africa seen at night is largely dark, and this is often the point of the slide: look at how much energy some people have access to, and how little others do (which is true: almost 90% of Africans lack ready access to electricity, according to the World Bank), and, by inference, what gaps in economic prosperity persist.

But these maps don't actually display prosperity, or even energy use: instead, maps of brightness illustrate light pollution and energy waste. The blazing lights our satellites photograph while whizzing above us in their orbits, well, that's light that's serving no useful purpose (unless you want to think of our glowing cities as a form of art meant for distant eyes). Light seen from space is bouncing off illuminated surfaces, or being shone directly from bulbs aimed up. Neither is helping us on the ground see our cities better.

We could, we should, be treating light as precious, and getting clever about illuminating our lives with only the light we need. Using the minimum needed lumens would not only save a fair bit of energy, it would also bring the night sky back to our cities; it's the light bounced back by the atmosphere that hides the stars.

Seen from above, a bright green city would be only a smudge of light.

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010970.html

Climate Change Tipping Points May Arrive Without Warning

Think back to the idyllic days of balancing with your best friend on a see-saw. Remember the rush of launching upwards just as they were heading down? That euphoric feeling of near flight as you crossed the tipping point, rising just a few inches off of your seat? Fun with a capital F.

Part of what made see-saws a blast was that you could anticipate that exhilarating, slightly out-of-control moment, and were ready to hang on for dear life, secure in knowing that the upward motion would eventually stop and you'd head back to earth. Now try to imagine balancing on that see-saw blindfolded. Since you aren't able to anticipate your sudden meteoric rise, you might not be hanging on tight enough when you should. The situation gets quite scary, quite fast. And just to push this fast and loose metaphor a little further, let's say that once you suddenly start flying upwards with no hands, you're launched across the playground, with disastrous results.

Well, a new study indicates that the earth is threatened with a similar potentially catastrophic tipping point as a result of human-induced climate change.

According to Alan Hastings, professor in UC-Davis' Department of Environmental Science and Policy, the planet is increasingly at risk of sudden, unpredictable climate shifts, making it difficult to identify tipping points that could cause irreversible destruction. So, as much as we'd like to look to warning signs about impending problems, the study suggests that we may not be able to predict when they will occur. Hastings explains:

“ "Our new study found, unfortunately, that regime shifts with potentially large consequences can happen without warning — systems can 'tip' precipitously. This means that some effects of global climate change on ecosystems can be seen only once the effects are dramatic. By that point returning the system to a desirable state will be difficult, if not impossible" ”

So much for hanging on to the handle bars. While it's certainly upsetting to think that we could be suddenly caught off-guard by a drastic ecological "regime shift", as Hastings refers to them, I definitely don't think the threat should preclude us from taking precautions to prepare for those shifts. And we should certainly continue to work towards reducing global greenhouse gas emissions in order to lower our risk of reaching such a tipping point. We're no longer on the playground, so it's time we got serious about our actions.

http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/02/11/climate-change-tipping-points-may-arrive-without-warning

ADOPTEER EEN DIER

Het Wereld Natuur Fonds zet zich op veel manieren in voor bedreigde soorten. Allereerst natuurlijk door de bescherming in hun eigen gebied door middel van verschillende veldprojecten. Bijvoorbeeld door trainen en financieren van anti-stropersbrigades. Maar ook door samen met de lokale bevolking te zoeken naar alternatieve, duurzame bronnen van inkomsten.

U kunt bijdragen aan het beschermen van het leefgebied van bedreigde dieren door een dier te adopteren.

Deze adoptie is eenmalig, u zit dus nergens aan vast!
U kunt kiezen uit een luxe adoptie (€35,-) en een standaard adoptie (€20,-)

https://www.wnf.nl/nl/shop_fun/adopteer_een_dier/

Another Grey Seal Slaughter Set for Hay Island

February 8, 2010
by Rebecca Aldworth

Too soon, the misery of Canada’s commercial seal slaughter is starting again. Right now, I am preparing to leave for Nova Scotia, along with the HSI ProtectSeals team, to document the killing of up to 2,220 baby grey seals on Hay Island, off Cape Breton.

Hay Island is part of the Scaterie Island Wilderness Area—a protected provincial nature reserve. Yet the Nova Scotia government, in collusion with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, is allowing commercial fishermen to go into this supposedly protected space, to beat baby seals to death for their fur. The slaughter opened today, and sealers are indicating they may begin killing the pups as early as Wednesday.

Over the past two years, I have been on Hay Island to observe the seal nursery—and to bear witness to the slaughter of these defenseless creatures. I know that as I write this, the pups born on Hay Island are playing and sleeping, and some of the youngest are likely still nursing from their mothers. The only sounds on the island now are the soft trills of the baby seals and the waves lapping onto the beach. The pups lie across the island, and from the beaches, you can see the ocean stretching into infinity. To think that in a few days time, sealers will descend on this peaceful place and turn it into an open air slaughterhouse, is unbearable.

There are times when I can only stand back in amazement at the shortsightedness of the commercial sealing industry and my government. With the Olympics opening on February 12th, the eyes of the world are on Canada. Terrified baby seals crying as they are bludgeoned to death with wooden bats… newborn seals covered in blood… dying seals cut open with box cutters inches away from each other—these are not the images I believe Canadians want the world to have of our country.

But according to my government and the sealers, the slaughter will go on.

This will be my twelfth year observing and filming commercial seal slaughters in Canada. The sheer brutality of the killing I’ve seen on Hay Island has been among the worst things I have ever witnessed. We are in the fight of our lives for the lives of these seals. And we will not stop—not for a second—until we have won.

Rebecca Aldworth is executive director of HSI Canada.

http://www.hsicanada.ca/wildlife/seals/seal_hunt_2010/grey_seals_2810.html

TAKE ACTION

Please take action now to stop this senseless slaughter. Fill out the form to automatically send an email to key decision makers and express your opposition to the slaughter of baby seals on Hay Island:

https://secure.humanesociety.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=4383

Stop the Cruel Grey Seal Slaughter

Tragically, the government of Nova Scotia allows the commercial slaughter of grey seals in the protected Scaterie Island Wilderness Area.

The grey seal kill on Hay Island, part of this protected area, is one of the cruelest seal slaughters HSI has ever documented. Sealers herd seals into groups, then club moulted pups as young as a few weeks of age with wooden bats and cut them open with box cutters just inches away from newborn pups and their mothers.

The Winter Olympic Games will open on February 12th – at the same time as the Canadian and Nova Scotia government are allowing sealers to club baby seals to death in a protected nature reserve. The eyes of the world will be on Canada in the next few weeks, and we need your help now to expose the plight of the baby seals.