TWISTS AND TURNS IN THE HUMAN EQUATION: BOTH SIDES OF THE COIN

By Hugo M. G. von Österreich und von Toskana

May 10, 2013

Source: Wirgilio

The human equation (HE) has too many [-], [-], [-], [-] within a large set of [-]s in a world dominated by tonnes of [-]ⁿ, and as a result we live in an ocean of negativity with a few good oases here and there. 

The bad outweighs the good most of the times, otherwise we would not have wars or starving people around (Video 1). There would not be any humans or non human animals suffering and going through hell on planet Earth (Video 2). 

                                           Video 1. Millions of South African starving.

                                                Video 2. Dark side of egg production.

Here is an example of [-] in the HE (Video 3), rhinoceros mutilation:

Source: YouTube
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This footage shows a rhino from an Eastern Cape private game reserve which had its horn hacked off while it was still alive. Vets and wildlife managers tried in vain to save its life but the wounds were too severe and it had to be put down. Help the Wilderness Foundation fight this tragedy by signing the petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fo...

                                                        Video 3. Rhinoceros mutilation.

But we can change the HE. We need more [+]s, and more [+]s, and more [+]s to tip the balance towards the good, and we all know by now how to do that. 

And we must. It is something that cannot wait any longer. Each of us must do some deep soul searching and act afterwards with a little or a lot of [+]s to make this world a very positive place for everyone.

Here is an example of [+] in the HE (Video 4): 

                               Video 4. Amazing Chinese women fighting against dog meat industry.

¿And where are we now? The truth is that we have made a mess out of the only planet we have. That is a fact.  

For instance, marine pollution is a big problem everywhere now. It is an example of [-] in the HE (Video 5):

                                                    Video 5. Marine pollution.

We are now in a ecological cul-de-sac. We must incorporate our HE into Nature´s equation, and obey her laws, otherwise there is no future for humankind.

There are many twists and turns in the human equation which in the end turn out to work against Nature´s grain (Video 6) and is  not [+] in the best interests for everyone on spaceship Earth.

                                               Video 6. The story of stuff.

The human equation is in our hands. Let us give the world the brightest beam of light we have got within ourselves. All of us can shine like bright stars if we choose to do so.

 

References

Klaus V. (2007). Blue Planet in Green Shackles: What is Endangered: Climate or Freedom? Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, USA. 100p.

 

McCarthy D. (2004). Saving the Planet Without Costing the Earth: 500 Simple Steps to a Greener Lifestyle. Fusion Press, London, UK. 238 p.

Miyazaki N., Adeel Z. & Ohwada K. (Eds.) (2005). Mankind and the Oceans. United Nations University Press, United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan. 225 p. 

Sanchez P., Swaminathan M. S., Dobie P. & Yuksel N. (2005). Halving Hunger: It Can Be Done. UN Millenium Project Task Force on Hunger 2005. Earthscan, London, UK. 245 p. 

Steffen W., Sanderson A., Tyson P. D., Jäger J., Matson P. A., More III B., Oldfield F., Richardson K., Schellnhuber H. J., Turner II B. I. & Wasson R. J. (2005). Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure. The IGBP Series. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 336 p.

´t Sas-Rolfes M. (2012). The Rhino Poaching Crisis: A Market Analysis. Rhino Resource Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands. 18 p. 

Woodward J. (2009). Planet Earth: One Million Things. DK Publishing, New York, NY, USA. 130 p.

NOAH´S ARK: HUMANS ARE EARTHPECKERS

By Gundhramns Hammer
May 8, 2013


                          Who is the real woodpecker on Noah´s Ark?

Source: Inútil manual

Take a very good look at the cartoon above. Now tell me who is really doing all of the nasty drilling to Mother Nature?

We are not woodpeckers. It is obvious. 

But we certainly are damn good earthpeckers. We are damaging Spaceship Earth. 

                           MAN´S EARTHPECKERING: TAR SANDS IN ALBERTA, CANADA

And when we are nasty, we are evil.


                                                          CHICKS GROUND UP ALIVE!

And when we are good, we can be almost angels.



                                                 THE ORPHANAGE FOR BABY ELEPHANTS

So, this is our dilemma. 


We already know a lot about the workings of Earth´s ecology to keep it healthy. We can be sensitive and sensible enough not to allow the evil that has practically taken over our world. 

We´d better quit talking nonsense and get busy doing something to tip the balance towards the good side. 

Good for everyone on Noah´s Ark: Spaceship Earth.

Are we not sapiens? Let us give some credit to this.
  

ONKALO: FINLAND´S UNDERGROUND MAZE TO STORE NUCLEAR WASTE

By Gundhramns Hammer

May 8, 2013

Entrance to Onkalo underground nuclear waste repository, Finland. Source: Google imágenes

The alarm clock goes off in the morning. Once... Twice... Thrice...  and finally you mean and mad scream to the top of your lungs fuck off!! but still managed to reach out and push the off button down so hard that you almost smashed the poor thing.

You are so upset and about to blow up because you must get up and go to work. You leave one reality and enter another one, except that in your dreams you can at least twist off the head of your boss.  

Work... A sophisticated way of saying hunting. Or why not call it modern slavery, after all that is what it is.

At the bathroom, behaving like a zombie, you pick up the electric toothbrush, turn it on and start cleaning up your set of teeth that keep the dentist around the corner rich.

You have been doing this for the last 25 years and have never given any thought as to where the power to run your gadget comes from. Besides you could care less where this juice came from.

In a city with a million inhabitants, imagine all of them using electric toothbrushes year round. And to this add up all of the other gadgets that need this type of juice to run, plus the cars, cellular phones, computers.... the list goes on and on and soon it becomes a net within a net of nets. 

Lots of powered wires in the city and one branches off and hooks up into the guts of your house.

If your city is one of those where electricity is generated by nuclear plants, you already or at least should know that they produce tonnes of radioactive waste. 

And what do they do with it? The nuclear waste could end up in Somalia´s coast or somewhere in Africa, trafficked by obscures routes usually in the hands of the mafia. Or it could be used for weapons.

Some nuclear plants take the waste and put it in special containers and hide it in underground facilities, with a few or lots of barrels dump in the ocean here and there.

Do you remember the Chernobyl disaster? How about the recent Fukushima nuclear disaster? Nuclear waste is nasty stuff and last for thousands of years.  

Radioactivity cannot be seen but it surely kills. It is deadly crap!

Now is it worth having electricity from nuclear plants to run our stupid gadgets at home meanwhile we shit all over with radioactivity the environment? 

I tell you we humans are really damned crazy. We are totally insane!!

And you do not believe me, let us watch the following documentary (Video 1) which shows what Finland is doing to put away all of its nuclear waste. Finland is building an underground nuclear waste repository so huge that the Egyptian pyramids could fit in more than 20 times. It is called Onkalo (Finnish, hidden) and is supposed to last 100.000 years! And keep in mind that Onkalo is just one of the many mazes of tunnels that the Finnish Government is planning to build to store this radioactive shit. 

Are we not damned crazy?

Now let us get to it:

  

Source: The Video Project

View original 

The world's nuclear power plants have generated an estimated 300,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste that must be safely stored for 100,000 years or more. Every year, they generate another 12,000 metric tons of high-level waste.

Into Eternity is the first feature documentary to explore the mind-boggling scientific and philosophical questions long-term nuclear waste storage poses. 

Structured as a message to future generations, the film focuses on the Onkalo underground waste repository now under construction in Finland. Onkalo is a gigantic network of tunnels being carved out of bedrock that will start receiving Finland's nuclear waste in 2020. Once the repository is full, in about 100 years, it will be closed and hopefully remain sealed for at least 100,000 years.

Into Eternity takes viewers deep into the Onkalo facility as it is being constructed and asks Onkalo representatives, scientists, theologians and others to address fundamental but challenging questions.

How can our civilization know what the world will be like in 100,000 years? The first modern homo sapiens appeared about that long ago and no human structure has survived more than 5000 years. How can we anticipate climate and geologic changes that far in the future? What will life on our planet be like then? How do we warn distant generations of the deadly waste our civilization left behind? What languages or signs will they understand? How do we prevent them from thinking they have located the pyramids of our time or some other treasures?

With its stark, stylistic approach, Into Eternity not only raises questions about the possibility of long-term nuclear waste storage, but also invites reflection on the limits of science and human knowledge, along with our responsibility to future generations.

                                                        ENGLISH/BULGARIAN SUBTITLES

                                                                 Video 1.  Into Eternity.

References

Hamblin J. D. (2008). Poison the Well: Radioactive Waste in the Oceans at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, USA. 311 p.

Ojovan M. I. & Lee W. E. (2005). An Introduction to Nuclear Waste Immobilisation. Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 315 p.

THE TARKINE: TASMANIA´S PRISTINE FOREST UNDER THREAT

Source: Tarkine National Coalition

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The Tarkine is an expansive wild area in North-West Tasmania, Australia’s island state.

The more than 447,000 hectare region roughly covers the expanse between the Arthur and Pieman rivers – and encompasses a broad array of diverse landscape features and outstanding natural and cultural values. Scientists, environment groups, and Australian politicians have identified and recognised the Tarkine’s unique world heritage values and their need for protection. We need YOUR HELP to ensure that the Tarkine is looked after into the future. To find out about conservation issues in the Tarkine, click here.

To find out more about the Tarkine’s values, please click on the relevant section for more information about what makes the Tarkine such an extraordinary wild place.

 

THREATS

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Whilst there are a number of reserves in the Tarkine that provide the Tarkine with some level of conservation protection – there are still many serious threats to the Tarkine’s natural values and future. Even though the Tarkine has well recognised international significance, less than 5% of the Tarkine is properly protected as a National Park.

Magnificient parts of the Tarkine’s forests are threatened by destructive logging practices, illegal 4wd use is damaging Aboriginal middens and dune systems, and proposals to establish new mines threaten the Tarkine’s long-term future. Read on for more information.

THE TARKINE: A TREASURE

The Tarkine is a priceless treasure. It is home for numerous unique species, amonst which it is the last population of the Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii). This marsupial is at the verge of extinction because of a fatal disease (Devil Facial Tumour Disease, DFTD).

The DFTD has decimated up to 80% of the Tasmanian Devil in the last decade. Thus, it is urgent to save the Tarkine so that this marvelous mammal and other species can have a home and survive to keep enriching Earth´s Biodiversity. 

Here is a sample of the mammal treasures found in the Tarkine:
 

MAMMALS

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There are 24 species of native land mammals found in the Tarkine, more than two thirds of Tasmania’s entire native mammal species – and more than found in other protected areas in Tasmania such as the Upper Henty and the Gordon River. The Tarkine’s native mammal species include the platypus, echidna, six marsupial carnivores, the common wombat, two species of bandicoot, five possums and gliders, three macropods, four species of rat and mice and one bat species.

Tasmania’s three largest predators in order of decreasing size, are the Tasmanian Devil, the Spotted-tailed Quoll, and the Eastern Quoll – and the presence of all of these top predators in the Tarkine is a sign of a healthy ecosystem.

Currently there is an epidemic of viral cancer in populations of Tasmanian Devil, which have decimated populations of Devil across other parts of the state, particularly in Eastern Tasmania. This Devil Facial Tumour Disease has been so devastating that it threatens the entire species’ existence. However, populations of the Tasmanian Devil in the Tarkine continue to be healthy and unaffected by the disease, and the Tarkine is becoming an increasingly vital refuge. Listed as vulnerable nationally, the Spotted-tailed Quoll requires extensive areas of relatively undisturbed wet forest and suitable prey for its survival, and Tasmania is the global stronghold of the Spotted-tailed Quoll, with the wet forests of the Arthur River catchment core habitat. The smaller Eastern Quoll is relatively scarce in the Tarkine. The Tarkine also provides important habitat and is home for a number of other mammals, such as the Swamp Antechinus, Dusky Antechinus, White-footed Dunnart, long-tailed mouse, Ringtail possum, Pigmy Possum, Long-nosed potoroo, and two species of bandicoot.

The Tarkine’s size, naturalness and habitat diversity make it an outstanding refuge with the ability to maintain evolutionary and ecological processes and species diversity. It is an outstanding and fragile storehouse for many of Tasmania’s unique and threatened plants and animals

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO SAVE IT?

Please visit the Tarkine National Coalition. Click HERE 

To defend the Tarkine, please click HERE

 

HOMAGE TO ELEPHANTS

Elephants are crying. They are at their darkest hour. It is indeed very sad!!

If we are not careful and go about pulling out the spokes of the Wheel of Life one by one, sooner or later it will be our turn to fall. 

We all must do a serious soul-searching and change course before we reach this point in order to keep it from happening.

Here is a homage to the abused and fallen elephants:

THE ELEPHANT´S PAIN: VULTURE BEAKS AND HUMAN HANDS

By Hugo M. G. von Österreich und von Toskana
Member of the Union of Concerned Scientists (USA) 
May 1, 2013

Source: Dangerous Creation - for thinkers

                                                                   

Vultures know what to do with the body a dead elephant. These scanvengers play a very important role in the well-being of the natural ecosystems. They are adapted to feeding upon decomposing animal matter and by doing so they get rid of any source of pathogens and disease. In other words, vultures help keep the whole ecosystem clean and fit. 

Furthermore, vultures are links and channels for the energy flux in the food web. They are not only the cleaning crew in nature but also the transformers of matter in the ecosystem. And their ecological services are free of charge.

So dead elephants in vulture beaks are spokes of the wheel of life and keep it spinning along with the other living creatures on this planet (Video 1).

                                              Video 1. Vultures feeding on an elephant carcass.

Enter humans in the picture and what you get is a totally different equation. 

This "wise" primate could very well be the guardian of life on Earth but instead he has become the major agent of nature destruction wherever he pokes his nose into. Humans are generally speaking spokes of the wheel of death.

Thus, elephants in human hands become objects of greediness, business and sport in unnecesary bloodshed (Video 2-3).

                                                 Video 2. Butchering of an elephant by people.

                                                            Video 3. Ivory trade in Africa.

Humans are like maggots on this planet. They eat, disturb and contaminate the natural world and their pollution disrupts life cycles in any ecosystem whereas vultures contribute to the maintenance of the temple of life.

Thank God there are exceptions, people who make elephants living monuments of admiration, for these pachyderms are indeed other nations and as such they do deserve our deepest respect.

Let us not forget that the elephant´s pain is also our pain. 


References

CITES (2012). Elephant Conservation, Illegal Killing and Ivory Trade. Sixty-second Meeting of the Standing Committee, Geneva, Switzerland. SC62 Doc. 46.1 (Rev. 1): 1-29.

Fargeot C (2003). La chasse et le commerce de la venaison en Afrique Centrale. Université de Toulouse, France, Memoire de Recherche. 174 p. 

Grönig K. & Sellar M. (1999). Elephants: A Cultural and Natural History. 1st Edition. Könemann, Cologne, Germany. 482 p.

Martin E. & Stiles D. (2000). The Ivory Markets of Africa. Save the Elephants, Nairobi, Kenya. 86 p.

Moss C. (1992). Echo of the Elephants. The Story of an Elephant Family. William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York, NY, USA. 192 p.

Shepherd C. R. & Nijman V. (2008). Elephant and Ivory Trade in Myanmar. TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. 32 p.

Stiles D. (2011a). Elephant Meat Trade in Central Africa: Summary Report. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. 103 p.

Stiles D. (2011b). Elephant Meat and Ivory Trade in Central Africa. Pachyderm, 50: 26-36.  

Stiles D. (2011c). Le commerce de la Viande d´éléphant en Afrique Centrale. Rapport de synthèse. UICN, Gland, Switzerland. 109 p. 

Sukumar R. (2003). The Living Elephants: Evolutionary Ecology, Behavior, and Conservation. Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, USA. 478 p.

Vigne L. & Martin E. (2002). Myanmar´s ivory trade threatens wild elephants. Gajah, 21: 85-86.