Mother's Day

Mother's Day is another occasion when people are willing to pay exorbitant prices for a bouquet of flowers that wilt in a couple of days. According BBC News, by buying flowers, you could be suppotring practices such as excessive use of pesticides, child labour and discrimination.

Luckily, we have an alternative-- Elephant Poo Paper Roses. Yes, these roses are made from real elephant poo. These flowers will keep your living room looking fresh for as long as you like and you would be supporting conservation efforts of endangered elephants, too.



One may wonder how poo is turned into paper flowers. Elephant poo, which is full of grained fibrous materials from their diet, is collected and dried. Next, the poo is rinsed, leaving only the fibrous material. The fibers are then cleaned and reinforced with natural fibers from banana trees and pineapples. The mixture is then spread thinly and set to dry. The dried product is your final result!

Public Transportation

In Los Angeles, we rely on our car as much as we rely on, say, food. Public transportation is so inconvenient that most people rely on their own cars to get from Point A to Point B. Major cities are widely dispersed, making the travel between them very time-consuming and frustrating for the drivers. Why hasn't Los Angeles invested in a highly efficient and effective public transportion system such as a rail network (subway systems are unattractive due to the frequent occurence of earthquakes)?

Yes, we already have a large bus system in place, but it still does not service sufficient areas for it to be convenient for most commuters. Major bus lines such as the Metro and Big Blue Bus are, to some extent, convenient and reliable, but only if you're traveling within neighboring cities. Even so, many people find it a hassle to obtain change for bus fares because most busses only accept exact change. People are not willing to use the change machine at the laundromat or purchase something at a store just to get change for a bus ride. This problem deters many from utilizing bus services.

A possible solution would be to introduce rechargeable stored value smart cards-- a pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process data and transfer electronic payments in online or offline systems-- such as the Octopus Card, which is widely used in Hong Kong. Such cards are be simple to use, convenient and eliminate the need to carry change just for public transportation. The card can also be used for train fares, payments at convenience stores and certain restaurant establishments. Perhaps it can also be used to pay taxi fares. The investment in card-reading machines would be well-worth the ease and convenience provided to commuters. It would encourage utilization of public transportation and speed up the transaction process.

Investment in public transportation systems ought to be a public priority. It would ease traffic, improve air quality and-- most importantly-- provide a means of reliable and affordable transportation for thousands of residents. With enough spending, bigger budgets, and a visionary leader, Los Angeles can have a network of public transportation that is effective, efficient and caters to the needs of its residents.

Saving the Planet One Bicycle at a Time

Two years ago, Paris introduced the world's largest "bicycle transit system" called Vélib. Vélib seamlessly combines scale and functionality by providing more than 20,000 bikes and 1,451 docking stations within 1,000 feet of each other. In general, bike-share programs have proven to increase public transportation options at a relatively low cost to the city. Any registered user can "borrow" a bike from a station for a small fee and return it to any other station in the system.


In Paris, Vélib has saved the city 10 million kilometers in car trips-- roughly equal to $10 million in savings. With 200,000 Parisians paying the city $50 each for an annual Velib pass, this has yielded an additional $10 million in revenues. Because of the increase in environmentally-friendly bicycling, Paris has seen traffic ease tremendously and experienced improvements in air quality.

Other countries are also beginning to adopt this novel travel concept. Australia has recently launched a three-week trial with 30 bikes being made available from five locations around the city, called Common Bike. In the United States, the District of Columbia launched the Smart Bike Program last year, joining the ranks of Barcelona and Paris. Hopefully we will see such bicycle-sharing programs sprout in all cities in the country. Maybe in order to go forward in terms of bettering the environment, we need go backwards-- to look back to our primary modes of transportation.

The Heat is on (Portfolio)

We have all heard about global warming. We all know that it is happening (except for the writer of "The Great Global Warming Swindle").

In a nutshell, global warming refers to an unnatural and rapid increase in the Earth’s average surface air temperature. There are several greenhouse gases responsible for this warming, carbon dioxide being the most highly concentrated in the atmosphere. Climate change has had a profound effect on the lives of animals over the past years, and now humans are finally beginning to feel it too.

It is natural to feel overwhelmed by the scope of the situation. This problem affects the entire planet. It is easy to continue living our current lifestyle and hope that some scientists somewhere will discover something that will reverse the problem. It is easy to turn the other cheek and wait for more laws to be enacted. But how about we take a look around us and see what changes we can make as individuals that will make a difference.

A recent article on TreeHugger caught my attention. It had a photo of a wild koala bear that crawled into a tub of water on somebody’s balcony in effort to seek relief from temperatures of above 40°C.

Australia is often described as the driest inhabited continent and the most likely to feel the early effects of global warming. Reuters recently reported another deadly bushfire in Australia, which spread through several small towns north of Melbourne and killed over 108 people. Dead animals were strewn across the roads. Although wildfires are a natural event in Australia, the particularly hot weather and drought this year provided optimal conditions for blazes to occur.

As southern Australia heats up and reaches record-breaking temperatures, northern Australia is becoming host to record-breaking floods. Even Britain is experiencing severe climate changes, reaching its coldest in eighteen years. Buses were suspended and traffic was at a standstill. This is what climate change looks like.

Nature is trying to tell us something.

Because of global warming, two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population will disappear by 2050. I was shocked when I read that statement several years ago. With less ice on which to live on, polar bears have gotten skinnier. Some have even drowned because of the long distances between melting ice planes.

I have always had a soft spot for animals and learning about their struggle nudges me to be more environmentally friendly. I hope that the photographs of those animals that I've posted will make some of you go "Aww...", and make some effort to try to help those that can't help themselves. Because of global warming, Arctic sea ice has declined to the lowest levels on record. But more than polar bears and ice caps are at risk. Other species have shown unusual migration and breeding patterns. Adelie penguins in Antartica have dwindled to less than half their numbers within the last thirty years. Butterflies and foxes have moved farther north for the cooler weather. Spruce bark beetles have thrived in Alaska because of the warmth, causing damage to four million acres of spruce trees.

So, what can we do?

The first steps are to reduce, reuse, and recycle. The three R's have been taught to us since grade school, but how many of us actually do it? Taking the extra step to separate your trash is worth every effort. Many of us may have an initial instinct to begin recycling all our trash. But we must bear in mind the order of the three R's. We must first reduce the amount that we consume. Buy products with minimal packaging. Use canvas bags to save paper and plastic bags. Reuse those bags that you absolutely had to take. With a little creativity, nearly everything in your household can be reused. For example, old kitchen utensils can be used as gardening tools and junk mail flyers for art projects and origami. Better yet, eliminate junk mail by removing your name from mailing lists. By recycling only half of your household waste, you can reduce up to 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide annually. There are also websites such as www.neighborrow.com that bring neighbors together so that they can borrow and share just about anything.

Try adding insulation to your home. With the recent rain and cold weather, a little insulation can help to retain heat in the home. This translates to lower heating costs. Just by installing weather stripping or caulking around windows and doors, you can lower your heating costs by one quarter. By setting your thermostat just two degrees higher in summer and two degrees lower in winter, you can help save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide each year.

By using energy efficient products, we will save energy— hence, we save money. In this economy, it seems the wise thing to do. When considering a new car, lean towards one with high mileage and least pollution. It could be a hybrid or a wagon, instead of a fuel-guzzling SUV. A 40-miles-per-gallon car will save an estimated $3,000 in fuel costs over its lifetime, compared with a 20-miles-per-gallon car.
For home appliances, switch to compact florescent light bulbs which offer more natural light for less energy, instead of standard light bulbs. Wash your clothes in cold water instead of hot, and save at least 500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. You can't tell the difference in freshness or cleanliness of your clothes whether it is washed with hot or cold water, anyway.

Such simple adjustments to our lifestyle can have a significant impact on the environment.

The ideal way to reduce global warming would be to eat less meat. According to The Times in 2005, one of the best ways to fight global warming is to adopt a vegetarian diet. A major report by the University of Chicago in 2006 found that adopting a vegan diet has a greater impact in the fight against global warming than switching to a hybrid car does. Raising animals for their flesh, eggs and milk is one of the world’s leading emitters of carbon dioxide. But global warming is caused by more than just carbon dioxide.
Animal agriculture is the leading source of methane and nitrous oxide emissions, which—when combined with carbon dioxide—causes the vast majority of global warming. It takes up to sixteen pounds of grain to produce just one pound of animal flesh. It is inefficient to feed plant foods to farmed animals and consume their flesh rather than eating the plant foods ourselves.

According to the Water Education Foundation, it takes 2,464 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef in California. Compare this with the 25 gallons used to produce one pound of wheat. A recent report from the Food Climate Research Network at the University of Surrey states that the meat and dairy industry accounts for 8 percent of carbon emissions in the United Kingdom, compared with the airline industry which accounts for 2.5 percent.

According to FAOSTAT Agricultural Data, World meat production has quadrupled in the past 50 years and livestock now outnumber people by more than 3 to 1. This means that the livestock population is expanding at a faster rate than the human population!

A 2006 United Nations report found that the meat industry produces more greenhouse gases than all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships in the world combined. In the United States, 70 percent of all grains, 80 percent of all agricultural land, half of all water resources, and one-third of all fossil fuels are used to raise animals for food. Eating one pound of meat emits the same amount of greenhouse gasses as driving an SUV for 40 miles. Eating one kilogram of beef is equivalent to a three-hour car ride with the lights left on at home (Fanelli, 2007).

Reduce your environmental impact by starting with baby steps such as switching from dairy milk to soy milk, or eating one meat-less meal per week. It seems a long shot for everybody to become vegetarian, considering that meat is such a significant part of the American diet, but according to Environmental Defense, if every American replaced just one meal of meat with vegetarian foods per week, the carbon dioxide savings would be equivalent to taking more than a half-million cars off U.S. roads.

Our food and lifestyle choices impacts the environment more than we realize. Let us do something before the Maldives, an archipelago nation in the Indian Ocean, disappears underwater within the next one hundred years, as predicted by scientists if global warming continues at the current rate. It is clichéd, but it has to be said- we really can make a difference.

A New Wave of Extinction (Portfolio)

The Great Dying is by far the most severe in the history of life on earth. It occurred 250 million years ago when the majority of the life on Earth perished in a brief moment of geologic time due to— according to scientists— various natural and unpredictable hazards. Nearly all signs of life were annihilated. An estimated 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species disappeared. Life on our planet almost came to an end. Following this was the K-T extinction, which occurred 65 million years ago. This period ended the reign of dinosaurs and approximately 85 percent of all species. Paleontologists attribute the extinction to meteorite impact or volcanic eruption, or both.

By sampling animal populations, scientists suggest that we may have entered the next wave of extinction, called the Pleistocene-Holocene extinction.

And this time, the cause isn't an errant asteroid or mega-volcanoes. It's us. According to the World Wildlife Fund, humans have altered the Earth’s ecosystems more rapidly and extensively in the past 50 years than any other period in human history. Such changes have already degraded more than half of the ecosystems on which we depend on for everything from food to building materials, and caused the permanent loss of many habitats and species. We are already using nearly 30 percent more natural resources than the Earth can replenish.

Through the increasing human population, human activities such as deforestation, illegal wildlife trade and poaching, we're shaping an Earth that will be biologically impoverished. A 2008 assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that nearly 1 in 4 mammals worldwide were at risk for extinction, including endangered species such as the Sumatran Tiger and Javan Rhinoceros. Even marine diversity is threatened by overfishing and the acidification of oceans. We have turned a blind eye long enough to allow such a dire situation to occur, as humans we must do more— much more— to ensure that our planet will thrive for future generations.

The steady rise in human population is crowding out other species by sheer number. The current world population of 6.7 billion is expected to balloon to 9 billion by 2050. Sustained growth in India over the next 20 years is expected to lead to reduced poverty and the emergence of a half-a-billion-strong middle-class. This would increase India’s consumption by four fold, making it the fifth largest consumer market in the world by 2025. This number of people cannot help but leave a sizable footprint on the landscape. The people would want new and better homes and land would have to be cleared to make room for those homes, leaving less and less space for wildlife.

The rapid rate of deforestation is destroying the habitats of countless numbers of species. Tropical forests are home to the greatest concentration of biodiversity on the planet. From 1990 to 2005, the world lost 172 million acres of forest— much of it in South American countries like Brazil, where deforestation has accelerated as land is cleared for pastures, infrastructure improvements, commercial agriculture, and logging. About 15 percent of the Amazon’s total area has been cleared sine 1970, excluding areas degraded by fires and selective logging.

The trade in endangered wild animals—as pets, performers, food, medicine, and more— is a new and growing menace to wildlife. Total wildlife trade is believed to be the second largest direct threat to many species, after habitat loss. This has become so severe that conservationists have coined the term empty-forest syndrome to describe habitats that remain in-tact but have been stripped of the animals that had once lived there. Southeast Asian countries such as Bangkok and Guangzhou have long been hubs of illegal wildlife trade. The live markets there sell anything from live primates and turtles to tiger claws and their various body parts. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the international trade of wildlife species is worth an estimated US$20 billion. The high demand and value of animal parts make killing even more profitable. According to the Nepali Times, each kilogram of rhinoceros horn can fetch up to US$10,000 while one bowl of tiger penis soup can command over US$300.

Increasing and unsustainable rates of poaching— the illegal hunting, killing, or capturing of animals—have caused species such as the African elephant dwindle by 8 percent each year. If this trend continues, the African elephant would be extinct by 2020. In the Congo Basin in Central Africa, three-fifths of all large mammals are being hunted at unsustainable rates. Commercial bushmeat hunters use more efficient killing machines such as shotguns and snares, rather than traditional spears and nets, to bring lucrative bushmeat to growing markets in African villages and cities. The loss of wildlife threatens the livelihoods and food security of indigenous and rural populations that depend on wildlife as a staple or supplement to their diet. In the Congo Basin alone, bushmeat is hunted at more than six times the maximum sustainable rate each year, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Many species that have lived before are now extinct. Evolution demands extinction. So why should the loss of a few species among millions matter to us? Are species such as the Holdrige’s toad, Yangtze River Dolphin and the golden toad—all of which have disappeared within recent years—really that important?

The answer is “yes”. Like every other form of life, we are animals dependent on this planet, too. The more diverse the animals in an ecosystem, the healthier and more productive it is— which is good for us. A recent study by the World Wildlife Fund estimates the economic value of the Amazon rain forest's ecosystem services to be up to US$100 per hectare. Moreover, there could be animals and organisms of medicinal value that have yet to be discovered. For example, the herb meadowseed was originally used in aspirin, and the Chinese use porcupine extracts as an effective cure for dengue fever.

Extinction is forever. It cannot be reversed. Forests burned can grow back and polluted air and water can be cleaned—but extinction is permanent. It is not just a few species that are at risk of extinction— we are talking about hundreds of thousands to millions of species that could possibly disappear. Many of these species have not even been discovered yet. We could doom ourselves to what naturalist E.O. Wilson calls the Eremozoic Era— the Age of Loneliness. Fortunately, there are methods that address this issue of extinction.

Environmental groups around the world are coming up with new ways to protect threatened wildlife. In conservation hot spots like Madagascar and Brazil, conservationists are working with locals to ensure that the protection of endangered species are linked with the welfare of people who live close to them. Avoided deforestation provides an incentive for environmental protection by putting a value on the carbon that is contained in the trees of a forest. Countries can then trade in these carbon credits, provided that those trees are not cut or burned. This could potentially mean billions of dollars for developing countries. In 1997, the American nonprofit the Nature Conservancy, American utility companies such as American Electric Power and PacifiCorp, and oil major BP Amoco paid Bolivia US$10.8 million for the credits represented by all the carbon in the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park.

Global warming forces animals to migrate to escape changing climates, and sometimes these animals wander right into areas of degraded land. To connect fragmented habitats caused by the effects of climate change, conservation corridors are designed to allow natural movement for wildlife. In India, a corridor 37 miles long and 6 miles wide connects important tiger habitats in the Eastern Himalaya and the Western Ghats mountain ranges.

Ecotourism is another method that provides support for conservationism. According to the International Ecotourism Society, ecotourism is responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the natural wellbeing of local people. It minimizes impact on the environment while building environmental awareness and providing financial benefits both for conservation and the local people. When it was discovered that tourism has become a major threat in Bolivia’s Eduardo Avaroa Reserve, the Nature Conservancy along with the Bolivian National Park System implemented a park entrance fee concept. This program has generated over US$500,000 in new funds,which were used to address tourism-related threats. It is estimated that the national protected areas system could generate more than US$3 million per year in new income for conservation.

According to Times Magazine, in the United States, a newly signed omnibus bill will protect some 2 million acres of wilderness⎯ the most significant conservation effort in more than a decade. The Sequioia and Kings Canyon National Parks Wilderness and Wild Monongahela Wilderness are some of the areas affected by the bill. The legislation also protects 1,000 miles of scenic rivers and provides more federal protection to aread under the Bureau of Land Management.

It is uncertain that these efforts will prevent the next wave of extinction, but it's worth a try.

In a world where billions of people are starving and where the global economic crisis has people struggling to make ends meet, it's easy not to be concerned about Earth's diminishing biodiversity. But this planet is all we have. All that sustains wildlife— the clean water, unblemished land and lush forests— ultimately sustains us as well. We were the cause of the animals' plights, but we are also the solution.

The current efforts discussed are just the tip of the iceberg. There is much, much more that needs to be done. New laws and regulations need to be enacted and enforced. But most of all, people's mindsets must change— they must realize that their actions today would significantly impact the livelihood of this planet in future. We must save this planet not only for ourselves and the animals, but for our children and their children. As the indigenous proverb goes— We don’t inherit the planet from our parents; we borrow it from our children.

A New Wave of Extinction

Scientists called it the Permian–Triassic extinction or third extinction, and others called it the Great Dying. This remarkable event, dubbed 'The Mother of Mass Extinctions,' is by far the most severe in the history of life on earth. It occurred roughly 250 million years ago when, somehow, most of the life on Earth perished in a brief moment of geologic time. During that time, nearly all signs of life were annihilated: trees, plants, lizards, proto-mammals, insects, fish, mollusks, and microbes. An estimated 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species disappeared. Life on our planet almost came to an end. Scientists blame it on severe volcanism, a nearby supernova, environmental changes caused by the formation of a super-continent, the devastating impact of a large asteroid, or a combination of these.


The next wave of extinction was the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction, or K-T extinction as it is most widely known, which occurred 65 million years ago. This period ended the reign of dinosaurs and approximately 85 percent of all species. Paleontologists attribute the extinction to meteorite impact or volcanic eruption, or both.


By sampling animal populations, scientists suggest that we may have entered the sixth wave of extinction, called the Pleistocene-Holocene extinction.

And this time, the cause isn't an errant asteroid or mega-volcanoes. It's us.
Through the increasing human population, our thirst for natural resources and, most of all, climate change — which could possibly help exterminate 20 to 30 percent of all species before the end of the century — we're shaping an Earth that will be biologically impoverished. A 2008 assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature found that nearly 1 in 4 mammals worldwide was at risk for extinction, including endangered species such the famous Tasmanian devil (the Looney Tunes character Taz). Overfishing and acidification of the oceans are threatening the diversity of marine species.

Activities such as deforestation, human encroachment, illegal wildlife trade and poaching have caused wildlife species to dwindle significantly.

Brazil is home to one-third of the world’s remaining rainforests, including a majority of the Amazon rainforest. Tropical forests are home to the greatest concentration of biodiversity on the planet, making Brazil the most biodiverse country in the world with more than 56,000 species of plants, 1,700 species of birds, 695 amphibians, 578 mammals, and 651 reptiles. From 1990 to 2005, the world lost 172 million acres of forest- much of it in South American countries like Brazil, where deforestation has accelerated as land is cleared for pastures, infrastructure improvements, commercial agriculture, and logging. About 15 percent of the Amazon’s total area has been cleared sine 1970, excluding areas degraded by fires and selective logging.

The jaguar is one of the animals at risk in Brazil. It is considered near threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Jaguars function as top predators, regulating the populations of their prey and of smaller predators. This fact makes them important to the health of their native ecosystems.


There are 6.7 billion people in the planet. This number is expected to balloon to 9 billion by 2050. Humans are crowding out other species by sheer number. As consumer demands rise in countries such as India, there could leave little room for wildlife. Sustained growth in India is expected to lead to a major transformation over the next 20 years. As a result, there would be reduced poverty and the formation of a half a billion strong middle class would emerge. This would increase India’s consumption by four folds, making it the fifth largest consumer market in the world by 2025. So many people cannot help but leave a broad and deep footprint on the landscape. These people would want new and better homes. Land would have to be cleared to make room for those homes, leaving less and less space for wildlife.

India is home to critically endangered endemic species such as the pygmy hog and Salim Ali’s fruit bat. More than half of the Indian tiger population has vanished over the past five years. Wildlife activists say that it is due to poaching and urbanization.


The buying and selling of endangered wild animals (as pets, performers and more) is a new and growing menace to wildlife. Total wildlife trade is believed to be the second largest direct threat to many species, after habitat loss. This has become so severe that conservationists have coined the term empty-forest syndrome to describe habitats that remain in tact but have been stripped of the animals that had once lived there. Southeast Asian countries such as Bangkok and Guangzhou have long been hubs of illegal wildlife trade. The live markets there sell anything from live primates and turtles to tiger claws and various body parts.

In 2008, the Royal Thai Police seized birds, tortoises and marine products during a raid a Chatuchak market in Bangkok, the country’s largest wildlife market. The seized tortoises included Radiated and Ploughshare tortoises endemic to Madagascar, Ploughshare being one of the world’s most rare tortoise species. Such species are banned from international trade, but somehow increasing numbers are seen for sale in pet markets in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.


From the illegal slaughter of elephants for their ivory to the hunting of apes and gorillas for food, poaching remains a serious threat to some of the world’s most charismatic species. The rising global trade in animal parts, such as tiger penises, have made killing even more profitable. In the Congo Basin in Central Africa, three-fifths of all large mammals are being hunted at unsustainable rates. Commercial bushmeat hunters use more efficient killing machines such as shotguns and snares rather than traditional spears and nets, to bring lucrative bushmeat to growing markets in African villages and cities.

The loss of wildlife threatens the livelihoods and food security of indigenous and rural populations that depend on wildlife as a staple or supplement to their diet. In the Congo Basin alone, more than one million metric tons of bush meat- an amount equal to four million cattle- are harvested from the shrinking forests every year, more than six times the maximum sustainable rate, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society's Elizabeth Bennett.


Many species that have lived before are now extinct. Humans have survived and few of us even feel the impact of its disappearance. Evolution demands extinction. So why should the loss of a few species among millions matter to us? Are species such as the Holdrige’s toad, Yangtze River Dolphin and the golden toad- all of which have disappeared within recent years- really that important?

The answer is ‘yes’. Like every other form of life, we are animals dependent on this planet, too. The more diverse the animals in an ecosystem, the healthier and more productive it is- which is good for us. A recent study by the World Wildlife Fund estimates the economic value of the Amazon rain forest's ecosystem services to be up to $100 per hectare. Moreover, there could be animals and organisms of medicinal value that have yet to be discovered. For example, the herb meadowseed was originally used in aspirin, and the Chinese use porcupine extracts as an effective cure for dengue fever.

Extinction is forever. It cannot be reversed. Forests burned can grow back and polluted air and water can be cleaned- but extinction is permanent. It is not just a few species that are at risk of extinction- we are talking about hundreds of thousands to millions of species that could possibly disappear. Many of these species have not even been discovered yet. We could doom ourselves to what naturalist E.O. Wilson calls the Eremozoic Era — the Age of Loneliness.

Environmental groups around the world are coming up with new ways to protect threatened wildlife. For example, in conservation hot spots like Madagascar and Brazil, conservationists are working with locals to ensure that the protection of endangered species are linked with the welfare of people who live close to them. Conservationists also hope to create protected corridors to provide roaming room for animals that are forced to migrate to escape changing climates. Avoided deforestation provides an incentive for environmental protection by putting a value on the carbon that is contained in the trees of a forest. Countries can then trade in these carbon credits, provided that those trees are not cut or burned. This could potentially mean billions of dollars for developing countries. In 1997, the American nonprofit the Nature Conservancy, American utility companies such as American Electric Power and PacifiCorp, and oil major BP Amoco paid Bolivia $10.8 million for the credits represented by all the carbon in the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park. It is uncertain that these efforts will prevent the sixth wave of extinction, but it's worth a try.

In a world where billions of people are starving and where the global economic crisis has people struggling to make ends meet, it's easy not to be concerned about Earth's diminishing biodiversity. But this planet is all we have. All that sustains wildlife- the clean water, unblemished land and lush forests- ultimately sustains us as well. As Al Gore said in his Nobel prize acceptance speech in October 2007, "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level." We were the cause of the animals' plights, but we are also the solution.

Earth Week

It's Earth Week, so be prepared to hear a lot more about the environment over the next few days. This is a good opportunity to take part in Earth Day activities in your local community such as a park cleanup. Let this week be the start of a year-long effort to reduce your impact on the environment. Start buy buying local and in-season produce. According to the non-profit group Sustainable Table, the typical carrot travels 1,838 miles before it ends up in your kitchen. That’s a lot of food miles, and a tremendous amount of wasted fossil fuels and packaging. Buying regionally produced food is a keystone of sustainability: not only does it save the energy costs associated with shipping bulk produce, it keeps a portion of your grocery money close to where live. So locate your local farmer’s market and add it to your weekly errands. You’ll be supporting local growers while enjoying fresh, seasonal produce.


Make everyday Earth Day!