How To Make A Difference W/Out Getting Burned Out
Category Archives: Activism
Cowspiracy: The Biggest Environmental Disaster Exposed
This is the documentary I’ve been waiting for!!! The biggest reason for deforestation, global warming, water shortages: cows. But even most environmentalists will not talk about this obvious issue.
Tonight’s Los Angeles premiere is sold out, but I am going to the San Diego screening in July.
Click here to find out about upcoming screenings of Cowspiracy.
PLEASE spread the word about this important film!
Day 342 6/12/14: Tell Groupon to Drop SeaWorld & Ringling Brothers
Please sign this petition to ask Groupon to stop offering deals to the circus and to SeaWorld.
We’re all well-versed in the evils of SeaWorld by now, but in case you didn’t know, this is how Ringling Brothers starts training its elephants. (Baseball bats and lit cigarettes are not pictured)
Now for something uplifting: Click here to see Sunder the elephant in his beautiful new home!
Day 336 6/6/14: Sunder the Elephant: Free At Last
It’s always nice to report good news about our animal friends. Back in late March, I wrote about Sunder the elephant who endured years of abuse . Thanks to activists, veterinarians and humane legislators, Sunder is on his way to an elephant sanctuary in India.
Day 334 6/4/14: Deep Sea Gossip
1. The young Florida woman who was attacked by a bull shark had a funny feeling about the dark water.
2. Find out why artists Marina Abramovic, Ed Ruscha and others have placed their art in a sunken vault at the bottom of the sea.
3. Whale hidden in Dutch landscape painting finally free.
4. Can new technology slow extinction?
5. Ever wondered what it’s like to live underwater for 31 days? Sure you have. And soon you’ll know.
Day 341 6/1/14: Two Weird Orca Stories for a Sunday
This first story is about how orcas around the Farallon Islands up by San Francisco keep the local great white population in check. Nature is brutal, and orcas are smart, dispatching our heroes with “stuns” and “karate chops.”
The second piece is about the World Wildlife Fund’s support for SeaWorld. While I recognize that it’s impossible not to be a hypocrite in this world (To cite one example out of many in my life, I oppose industrialized fishing and factory farming and yet participate in by buying food for my cats), some of these ethical conflicts are really glaring and galling. It’s good for SeaWorld’s image to support the WWF, but how can the WWF fight to protect the vanishing habitat of wild animals with money from an organization that keeps whales in swimming pools? If you’re not too burned out, please sign the petition asking the WWF to end its relationship with SeaWorld. 
Day 340 5/31/14: No Limits, No Future
Please sign this petition to ask the European Commission and Regional Fisheries Management to put limits on shark fishing. According to the Shark Trust, three of the world’s top 20 shark fishing nations are European (Spain, France and Portugal). Current laws allow many shark species like short fin mako to be caught in unlimited numbers. Many of these sharks aren’t caught for meat. Trawls, long lining, and gill nets catch huge numbers of sharks as target species and as bycatch. One longliner can deploy up to 200 longlines in one set–lines that contain some 3,000 hooks and stretch for 60 miles. Without placing limits on the numbers of sharks caught, these destructive fishing methods are putting more pressure on animals whose numbers are already falling rapidly. We need to support the adoption of stricter laws for catch limits in Europe to prevent a collapse of Atlantic shark populations.
Thanks for adding your name & sharing this petition!
Day 338 5/29/14: 10 Fascinating Facts about Overpopulation
Tonight I was lucky to attend a talk by Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us and most recently Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?
Here’s a few illuminating things I learned:
1. The world’s most effective form of contraception is the education of women.
2. Every four days we add one million people to the planet.
3. 40% of the non-frozen land on this planet is devoted to feeding one species: humans.
4. Debunking the myth that a decreasing population means a withering economy, Weisman cited Japan as the country that can teach the world how to “shrink and prosper.”
5. Japan is also the world’s largest producer of robots, some of which are designed to fill in gaps in the labor force and care for the country’s elderly population. Some of these robots are able to help elderly people into wheelchairs or into bed, but dealing with bathroom-related issues remains a challenge.
6. Some of these robots resemble giant teddy bears.
7. To provide and disseminate universal contraception care would cost about $8 billion dollars annually, the same amount we spent daily in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
8. In Pakistan, abortion is punishable by death. Every year, 400, 000 women in Pakistan undergo dangerous, illegal abortions.
9. If universal contraception were available, the number of worldwide abortions each year would drop from 40 million to 14 million.
10. While “There’s no condom for consumption,”* lowering the number of people who consume is within our power.
*Weisman attributed this snappy saying to Paul Ehrlich, author of the controversial 1968 book “The Population Bomb.”
Day 332 4/23/14: Ban Shark Killing Drum Lines in South Africa
Let’s not repeat the pointless slaughter of the Australian cull in South Africa.
Please help this petition reach its 5,000 signature goal by signing and sharing!
Day 330 5/21/14: Empty the Tanks: Worldwide Protests for Captive Orcas (& Others)
Sorry for the late sharing, but I just found out about the Empty the Tanks protests happening all over the world this weekend!
I’ll be going returning to SeaWorld San Diego. Click here to find an event at at marine park or zoo near you. Please share with fellow activists, Blackfish fans, and kids who instinctively sense that SeaWorld is a bunch of crap.
Oh, and Taco Bell has severed their relationship with Seaworld. All hail the power of Blackfish!
Shark Dreams 