$300,000 to hunt a rhino in S. Africa, while Kenya culls wildlife for trophies

When in the late 90s I was working at the Bandhavgarh and Kanha tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh, India, I observed a serious weakness in the park system almost right from the start. Not only was this weakness not conducive to wildlife preservation, it was downright destructive.

This weakness became immediately apparent when I came upon the park system of Nepal, which suffered much less poaching and habitat destruction. The only major difference that I could see was the park entrance fee and how it was handled. The entrance fee of a Nepalese national park was about $20 per person per visit, and the proceeds were split 50/50 between government and villagers. The villagers had a stake in the park and its wildlife, and therefore participate in preserving it to perpetuity. In contrast, the entrance fee of Bandhavgarh and Kanha was only about $2 per visitor per visit, and what meagre revenue this generated went all to the government. The villagers therefore consider the park and its wildlife as something to be opposed and exploited and pillaged, and cut down, and poached. The $2 is extra ridiculous considering that the tourists spend $4000 flying there, and $200 per night at a tourist lodge.

I made the recommendation for the Indian park system to adopt the Nepalese policy, and, finally, 12 years later, whether or not due to my input, the change is being made. As of October 2011, the park entrance fee will be 4000 rupees per vehicle, or about $85, to be shared by about 4 tourists, and, hopefully, it is to be shared with the villagers.

And through it all, tiger hunting is forbidden.


Elephant killed with arrows.

Meanwhile, over in Africa, hunting is on the rise. Hunting of the Big 5 (elephant, lion, rhino, leopard and buffalo) is again in vogue, and is offered in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa.

Here are some typical examples:

• Elephant (30lbs tusks) $ 22,000 - $ 26,000
• Elephant (50lbs tusks) $ 42,000 - $ 46,000
• Elephant (65 - 80lbs tusks) $ 60,000 - $ 70,000
• Elephant (100lbs) POR
• Elephant License Fee: $ 1,500

• Lions: $ 18,000 - $ 45,000
• Lions License Fee: $ 1,000

• White Rhino - Trophy Hunting: $ 55,000 - $ 150,000
• White Rhino - Green Hunt: $ 8,000
• White Rhino License Fee: $ 1,000
• Black Rhino - Trophy Hunting: $ 250,000 - $ 350,000
• Black Rhino - Green Hunt: $ 20,000
• Black Rhino License Fee: $ 1,000

• Leopard Trophy: $ 10,000 to $12,000
• Leopard Pre Baiting: $ 2,500
• Leopard License Fee: $ 1,000

At the same time, Rhino poaching reached epidemic levels, this year alone totaling over 700, which to me also means that legalized hunting does not deter poaching.

Note that Kenya is not among these countries. In fact, hunting has been banned in Kenya since 1977. Unfortunately, human encroachment has skyrocketed. In just one of the many areas adjacent to the Masai Mara Reserve, the number of Masaai villages increased from 44 in 1950 to 368 in 2003, while the number of huts increased from 44 to 2,735, which led to increased human-wildlife conflict. This is exacerbated by Kenya's policy being similar to that of the old Indian system, where wildlife belongs to the state and the villagers have no stake and do not benefit from ecotourism. The resulting hostility combined with the ivory black market led to wide-spread elephant poaching, cutting the elephant population from 150,000 to less than 6,000.

This opens the door to trophy hunters and hunting guide-outfitters to clamor for elephant hunting, claiming that hunting is the best means towards elephant protection, since the revenue from hunting could and would be applied to wildlife conservation. Like the standard pro-hunting argument, this is patently idiotic, though probably intentionally so to suit the equally idiotic I-don't-know-and-I-don't-care sector of the public, who would not check to see the truth.

The truth is that filthy rich American trophy hunters pay $250,000-$350,000 for a Black rhino hunt - to the hunting guide-outfitter which is also American. Only the $1,000 license fee goes to the host government. Some conservation revenue.

Hunting is certainly not the way for Kenya to go, and Kenya may already know it. But due to the human-wildlife conflict, Kenya is now talking about culling "excess" wildlife, and have their remains sold as trophies. How very perverse!

Read about this in: http://www.africanconservation.org/200903231416/conservation-news-section/kenya-new-law-to-allow-killing-of-wildlife.html

My dear friend Raabia Hawa, of Kenya, also a director of the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition, is asking for our help. Please friend her and offer you whatever help you can.

And please join the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition to ban hunting worldwide, however long it may take. One thing for sure. The soon the more of us fight it, the sooner it will meet its inevitable demise.


Rhino killed with arrows



Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com (AM's 3rd-book-in-the-making)
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.ARConference.org

Kenya culls wildlife for trophies, WTF!!

When in the late 90s I was working at the Bandhavgarh and Kanha tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh, India, I observed a serious weakness in the park system almost right from the start. Not only was this weakness not conducive to wildlife preservation, it was downright destructive.

This weakness became immediately apparent when I came upon the park system of Nepal, which suffered much less poaching and habitat destruction. The only major difference that I could see was the park entrance fee and how it was handled. The entrance fee of a Nepalese national park was about $20 per person per visit, and the proceeds were split 50/50 between government and villagers. The villagers had a stake in the park and its wildlife, and therefore participate in preserving it to perpetuity. In contrast, the entrance fee of Bandhavgarh and Kanha was only about $2 per visitor per visit, and what meagre revenue this generated went all to the government. The villagers therefore consider the park and its wildlife as something to be opposed and exploited and pillaged, and cut down, and poached. The $2 is extra ridiculous considering that the tourists spend $4000 flying there, and $200 per night at a tourist lodge.

I made the recommendation for the Indian park system to adopt the Nepalese policy, and, finally, 12 years later, whether or not due to my input, the change is being made. As of October 2011, the park entrance fee will be 4000 rupees per vehicle, or about $85, to be shared by about 4 tourists, and, hopefully, it is to be shared with the villagers.

And through it all, tiger hunting is forbidden.


Elephant killed with arrows.

Meanwhile, over in Africa, hunting is on the rise. Hunting of the Big 5 (elephant, lion, rhino, leopard and buffalo) is again in vogue, and is offered in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa.

Here are some typical examples:

• Elephant (30lbs tusks) $ 22,000 - $ 26,000
• Elephant (50lbs tusks) $ 42,000 - $ 46,000
• Elephant (65 - 80lbs tusks) $ 60,000 - $ 70,000
• Elephant (100lbs) POR
• Elephant License Fee: $ 1,500

• Lions: $ 18,000 - $ 45,000
• Lions License Fee: $ 1,000

• White Rhino - Trophy Hunting: $ 55,000 - $ 150,000
• White Rhino - Green Hunt: $ 8,000
• White Rhino License Fee: $ 1,000
• Black Rhino - Trophy Hunting: $ 250,000 - $ 350,000
• Black Rhino - Green Hunt: $ 20,000
• Black Rhino License Fee: $ 1,000

• Leopard Trophy: $ 10,000 to $12,000
• Leopard Pre Baiting: $ 2,500
• Leopard License Fee: $ 1,000

At the same time, Rhino poaching reached epidemic levels, this year alone totaling over 700, which to me also means that legalized hunting does not deter poaching.

Note that Kenya is not among these countries. In fact, hunting has been banned in Kenya since 1977. Unfortunately, human encroachment has skyrocketed. In just one of the many areas adjacent to the Masai Mara Reserve, the number of Masaai villages increased from 44 in 1950 to 368 in 2003, while the number of huts increased from 44 to 2,735, which led to increased human-wildlife conflict. This is exacerbated by Kenya's policy being similar to that of the old Indian system, where wildlife belongs to the state and the villagers have no stake and do not benefit from ecotourism. The resulting hostility combined with the ivory black market led to wide-spread elephant poaching, cutting the elephant population from 150,000 to less than 6,000.

This opens the door to trophy hunters and hunting guide-outfitters to clamor for elephant hunting, claiming that hunting is the best means towards elephant protection, since the revenue from hunting could and would be applied to wildlife conservation. Like the standard pro-hunting argument, this is patently idiotic, though probably intentionally so to suit the equally idiotic I-don't-know-and-I-don't-care sector of the public, who would not check to see the truth.

The truth is that filthy rich American trophy hunters pay $250,000-$350,000 for a Black rhino hunt - to the hunting guide-outfitter which is also American. Only the $1,000 license fee goes to the host government. Some conservation revenue.

Hunting is certainly not the way for Kenya to go, and Kenya may already know it. But due to the human-wildlife conflict, Kenya is now talking about culling "excess" wildlife, and have their remains sold as trophies. How very perverse!

Read about this in: http://www.africanconservation.org/200903231416/conservation-news-section/kenya-new-law-to-allow-killing-of-wildlife.html

Please join the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition to ban hunting worldwide, however long it may take. One thing for sure. The soon the more of us fight it, the sooner it will meet its inevitable demise.


Rhino killed with arrows



Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com (AM's 3rd-book-in-the-making)
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.ARConference.org

The FLOOD / DROUGHT Paradox?

The FLOOD/DROUGHT Paradox?




I've been asked to explain the apparent paradox of the planet seemingly getting drier, but also wetter.

The fact of the matter is that it cannot be more natural.

First, consider the fact that warmer air can "hold" more moisture than cooler air before saturation, or reaching the Dew Point. For example, air at 20C can hold 300% more moisture than air at 0C.

As a result of a warmer atmosphere today than a few decades ago, there is indeed a 5% increase in the absolute amount of water in the atmosphere now than then.





However, if the warmer air can hold, say, 15% more moisture before saturation than before, then, even given the 5% absolute increase in the atmospheric water content, the Relative Humidity would have declined by about 10%. Note from the following graph that the blue line, representing the relative humidity at an altitude of 6 miles, shows a decline of over 20% from 1950-2007.





Therefore, in the tropics and lower temperates, precipitation will likewise decline, thus causing droughts in these regions.

On the other hand, in the northern latitudes, where the air is still relatively cool, a local cold spot or cold front, or in the case of a hurricane, will dump 5% more precipitation than before, due to the 5% absolute increase in the atmosphere water content, thus causing floods.


Q.E.D.


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com (AM's 3rd-book-in-the-making)
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.ARConference.org

Planetary INTEGRATIVE TRANSCENDENCE - the only viable future path for Earth

Planetary
INTEGRATIVE TRANSCENDENCE
the only viable future path for Earth

by Anthony Marr


Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Syria... and now, Hail Anna Hazare! India. These are the vanguards of a global people's uprising poised to sweep the world.

I make this prediction due to the fact that mere "rising food prices" have deposed the long tolerated Mubarak. This is just Step #1.

Step #2 will be "food shortage".

Step #3 will be "food outrage"

Step #4 will be "Famine".

All these are predicted for planet Earth in the coming decades to various degrees around the world.

And what do the people rise up against? So far, it's been corrupt and oppressive governments, the corruption and oppression of which have gone off scale. But let's face it. All governments are corrupt and oppressive, and differ only by means and extent. The people has a certain background capacity, sometimes forced by government, to tolerate the corruption and the oppression. But it is a revolt waiting to happen. All it will take is a trigger: food prices, fuel prices, energy shortage or outrage, unemployment, inflation, empty shelves, natural disaster... to push the tolerance off limit. And these triggers are all waiting to be pulled, and who will pull them but Mother Nature herself - by means of climate change and the resulting millennium drought, which will in turn precipitate food shortage, etc., etc. Since severe climate change appears inevitable at this point, these uprisings will over the coming years envelops the world and sets it on political fire.

Now, two questions arise:

1. What will happen to the national governments around the world? Will they just fall like dominoes, leaving anarchy and chaos behind? And if they fall, how much blood will be shed? And when some fall, will they start WW3 to take the whole world down with them? Can the current forms of governments, as is, survive through this global political upheaval? If not, and faced with "change or die", what must they change into?

2. Will the global uprising have a direction, a goal, an aim, a vision? Will it be just "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"? Will it be destruction without construction? And if they are to construct, as they must, what must it be? What will it end up being? If there is a new political structure, what will it look like? Can it see humanity through the hard times to come, when the current old boys at the U.N. assuredly cannot? If so, how?

My answers below are based on the [ OMNISCIENTIFIC COSMOLOGY ], of which I conceived during my 2-month solo camping in Africa more than 30 years ago, and which I published in 2003 in the form of a 454-page book titled [OMNI-SCIENCE and the Human Destiny ] (available at www.Amazon.com) .

And as does the Omniscientific Cosmology, let's start from the beginning, in this case if not the Big Bang, then the origin, evolution and INTEGRATIVE TRANSCENDENCE of life and civilization on Earth.

About 3 billion years ago, on the early planet Earth, the molecules in the Primordial Soup integrated into Molecular Societies, which transcended into the first single-cell Cellular Organisms. Thus, from non-life, Integrative Transcendence gave rise to life.

About 700 million years ago, the cellular organisms (e.g. amoebae) integrated into Cellular Societies (e.g. corals), which transcended into the first multicellular Metazoan Organisms (e.g. fish). Thus, from the Cellular Level of Life, Integrative Transcendence gave rise to the Metazoan Level of Life.

About 120 million years ago, the Social Metazoan Organisms (e.g. bees, lions) integrated into Animal Societies (bee hives, lion prides), which transcended into the first human-based Citian (city) Organism. Thus, from the Metazoan Level of Life, Integrative Transcendence gave rise to the Citian Level of Life.

About 6,000 years ago, the Citian Organisms integrated into multi-city Communities, which transcended into the first National Organisms (e.g. ancient Greece, ancient Egypt). Thus, from animal societies and tribal cultures, Integrative Transcendence gave rise to civilization.

In 2012, according to the ancient Mayans, the world will end, wiping out life and society on all levels, and, according to modern science, it just might begin to. How? The former includes anything from solar flare to galactic alignment to the Rapture to alien invasion, while the latter includes only one thing - the Methane Time-Bomb.

The Methane Time-Bomb is a "slow bomb", one that will take decades to spend, but once detonated, it would be all but unstoppable. It would be like releasing an evil genie from a bottle; you cannot stuff him back in, or like opening a Pandora's box, all hell will break lose.

The evil genie is of course Methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas released in copious quantities by the cattle industry, and threatening to be released in enormous quantities once the Arctic Ocean warms up enough to melt the permafrost in the subArctic, which currently serve as a super-store-house of solid-state Methane Hydrate by the trillions of tons. Once the Arctic becomes ice-free in the summer, perhaps as early as the summer of 2013, gaseous methane will be released in the billions of tons.

Methane is 23 times as potent a GHG as CO2, and when released in enormous quantities, it will surpass the CO2, and generate its own "positive feedback loop", in which more methane will warm up the atmosphere faster, thus melting the permafrost faster, thus releasing even more methane, and so on. Once this feedback loop takes hold, the Methane Time Bomb can be said to be detonated.

If the Methane Time Bomb blows on this planet, it will warm the planet by some 15 degrees Celsius, which will kill off some 85% of all life on Earth within a couple of centuries, including most if not all of the advanced Metazoan organisms, be they mammals, avions, reptiles, amphibians, of fish, on land or in the sea, plus the major invertebrates, including ALL the corals, plus even the phytoplankton, the foundation of the oceanic food pyramid. This we cannot allow to happen.

The current policies of ALL the nations without a single exception will lead straight to the detonation of the Methane Time Bomb. This, we MUST STOP, but how?

Along two parallel tracks:

Track 1: Halt the use of combustion technology immediately or soon, and of course replace it with a broad coalition of green technologies including solar, wind, geothermal, wave and tidal, and, Thorium-based (instead of Uranium-based) fission nuclear energy, and fusion nuclear energy if feasible, but NOT including ethanol, a fuel more destructive (of tropical rainforests) than the fossil fuels. The ultimate development of this track is a global electrical SUPERGRID drawing power from all green sources worldwide and equitably distributing the electricity to all nations.

Track 2: Even if we stopped burning the fossil fuels yesterday, the Earth will continue to heat up due to the CO2 already in the atmosphere, for centuries to come. And sooner or later, it will release the Methane genie, though we might have bought us a little time. The ultimate and long term solution is to lower the atmospheric CO2 concentration back down from the current 390ppm to less than 350ppm - no mean task, in fact a mammoth undertaking.

Bear also in mind that the atmospheric carbon concentration increases by 1 ppm every year, meaning that it will be 400ppm come 2020, and that the longer we do nothing, the worse the problem will get, and the more expensive the solution will be. We are talking about major GEO-ENGINEERING here, to recool the planet. The technology is called Atmosphere Carbon Capture and Sequestration (ACCS).

Both Track 1 and Track 2 require enormous funding input beyond the capacity of any single nation, nor would corporations be interested given the lack of immediate profit potential. On the other hand, the nations in the world spends some $1.5 trillion per year in military expenditure. If the nations could learn to trust each other in non-aggression, they could collectively liberate $1 trillion for building the global Supergrid, and the global ACCS.

The military of any nation need fear no lay off, since soldiers can be trained into an Earth Defense Force; and no military manufacturers need fear financial loss, since they can be converted into Supergrid and ACCS manufactureres.

Back to the Omniscientific Cosmology, the Earth is now at the point of having produced the National Organisms, but the National Organisms have not yet integratively transcended into the single, one-and-only, PLANETARY ORGANISM named EARTH.

It is also evident that every time the planet produces a higher level of life, the new organisms of that higher level would have undergone a quantum leap in power. Compare the power of an advanced Cellular organism like an amoeba to that of an advance Metazoan organism, like a human, and the quantum leap becomes more than obvious. If and when the nations integratively transcend into the Planetary Organism Earth, Earth will have undergone yet a higher quantum leap in power, with which she can then heal herself.


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com (AM's 3rd-book-in-the-making)
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.ARConference.org

Planetary INTEGRATIVE TRANSCENDENCE - the only viable future path for Earth

Veteran Indian social activist Anna Hazare raises his fist in front of a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi at Ramlila grounds in New Delhi Friday. A vast and jubilant crowd cheered as Gandhian activist Hazare walked out of jail in New Delhi on Friday to carry on a hunger strike in public, the latest act in a drama of popular fury over corruption that has put India's government in a bind.



Planetary
INTEGRATIVE TRANSCENDENCE
the only viable future path for Earth

by Anthony Marr


Hail, Anna Hazare!

Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Syria... and now, India. These are the vanguards of a global people's uprising poised to sweep the world.

I make this prediction due to the fact that mere "rising food prices" have deposed the long tolerated Mubarak. This is just Step #1.

Step #2 will be "food shortage".

Step #3 will be "food outrage"

Step #4 will be "Famine".

All these are predicted for planet Earth in the coming decades to various degrees around the world.

And what do the people rise up against? So far, it's been corrupt and oppressive governments, the corruption and oppression of which have gone off scale. But let's face it. All governments are corrupt and oppressive, and differ only by means and extent. The people has a certain background capacity, sometimes forced by government, to tolerate the corruption and the oppression. But it is a revolt waiting to happen. All it will take is a trigger: food prices, fuel prices, energy shortage or outrage, unemployment, inflation, empty shelves, natural disaster... to push the tolerance off limit. And these triggers are all waiting to be pulled, and who will pull them but Mother Nature herself - by means of climate change and the resulting millennium drought, which will in turn precipitate food shortage, etc., etc. Since severe climate change appears inevitable at this point, these uprisings will over the coming years envelops the world and sets it on political fire.

Now, two questions arise:

1. What will happen to the national governments around the world? Will they just fall like dominoes, leaving anarchy and chaos behind? And if they fall, how much blood will be shed? And when some fall, will they start WW3 to take the whole world down with them? Can the current forms of governments, as is, survive through this global political upheaval? If not, and faced with "change or die", what must they change into?

2. Will the global uprising have a direction, a goal, an aim, a vision? Will it be just "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"? Will it be destruction without construction? And if they are to construct, as they must, what must it be? What will it end up being? If there is a new political structure, what will it look like? Can it see humanity through the hard times to come, when the current old boys at the U.N. assuredly cannot? If so, how?

My answers below are based on the [ OMNISCIENTIFIC COSMOLOGY ], of which I conceived during my 2-month solo camping in Africa more than 30 years ago, and which I published in 2003 in the form of a 454-page book titled [OMNI-SCIENCE and the Human Destiny ] (available at www.Amazon.com) .

And as does the Omniscientific Cosmology, let's start from the beginning, in this case if not the Big Bang, then the origin, evolution and INTEGRATIVE TRANSCENDENCE of life and civilization on Earth.

About 3 billion years ago, on the early planet Earth, the molecules in the Primordial Soup integrated into Molecular Societies, which transcended into the first single-cell Cellular Organisms. Thus, from non-life, Integrative Transcendence gave rise to life.

About 700 million years ago, the cellular organisms (e.g. amoebae) integrated into Cellular Societies (e.g. corals), which transcended into the first multicellular Metazoan Organisms (e.g. fish). Thus, from the Cellular Level of Life, Integrative Transcendence gave rise to the Metazoan Level of Life.

About 120 million years ago, the Social Metazoan Organisms (e.g. bees, lions) integrated into Animal Societies (bee hives, lion prides), which transcended into the first human-based Citian (city) Organism. Thus, from the Metazoan Level of Life, Integrative Transcendence gave rise to the Citian Level of Life.

About 6,000 years ago, the Citian Organisms integrated into multi-city Communities, which transcended into the first National Organisms (e.g. ancient Greece, ancient Egypt). Thus, from animal societies and tribal cultures, Integrative Transcendence gave rise to civilization.

In 2012, according to the ancient Mayans, the world will end, wiping out life and society on all levels, and, according to modern science, it just might begin to. How? The former includes anything from solar flare to galactic alignment to the Rapture to alien invasion, while the latter includes only one thing - the Methane Time-Bomb.

The Methane Time-Bomb is a "slow bomb", one that will take decades to spend, but once detonated, it would be all but unstoppable. It would be like releasing an evil genie from a bottle; you cannot stuff him back in, or like opening a Pandora's box, all hell will break lose.

The evil genie is of course Methane (CH4), a potent greenhouse gas released in copious quantities by the cattle industry, and threatening to be released in enormous quantities once the Arctic Ocean warms up enough to melt the permafrost in the subArctic, which currently serve as a super-store-house of solid-state Methane Hydrate by the trillions of tons. Once the Arctic becomes ice-free in the summer, perhaps as early as the summer of 2013, gaseous methane will be released in the billions of tons.

Methane is 23 times as potent a GHG as CO2, and when released in enormous quantities, it will surpass the CO2, and generate its own "positive feedback loop", in which more methane will warm up the atmosphere faster, thus melting the permafrost faster, thus releasing even more methane, and so on. Once this feedback loop takes hold, the Methane Time Bomb can be said to be detonated.

If the Methane Time Bomb blows on this planet, it will warm the planet by some 15 degrees Celsius, which will kill off some 85% of all life on Earth within a couple of centuries, including most if not all of the advanced Metazoan organisms, be they mammals, avions, reptiles, amphibians, of fish, on land or in the sea, plus the major invertebrates, including ALL the corals, plus even the phytoplankton, the foundation of the oceanic food pyramid. This we cannot allow to happen.

The current policies of ALL the nations without a single exception will lead straight to the detonation of the Methane Time Bomb. This, we MUST STOP, but how?

Along two parallel tracks:

Track 1: Halt the use of combustion technology immediately or soon, and of course replace it with a broad coalition of green technologies including solar, wind, geothermal, wave and tidal, and, Thorium-based (instead of Uranium-based) fission nuclear energy, and fusion nuclear energy if feasible, but NOT including ethanol, a fuel more destructive (of tropical rainforests) than the fossil fuels. The ultimate development of this track is a global electrical SUPERGRID drawing power from all green sources worldwide and equitably distributing the electricity to all nations.

Track 2: Even if we stopped burning the fossil fuels yesterday, the Earth will continue to heat up due to the CO2 already in the atmosphere, for centuries to come. And sooner or later, it will release the Methane genie, though we might have bought us a little time. The ultimate and long term solution is to lower the atmospheric CO2 concentration back down from the current 390ppm to less than 350ppm - no mean task, in fact a mammoth undertaking.

Bear also in mind that the atmospheric carbon concentration increases by 1 ppm every year, meaning that it will be 400ppm come 2020, and that the longer we do nothing, the worse the problem will get, and the more expensive the solution will be. We are talking about major GEO-ENGINEERING here, to recool the planet. The technology is called Atmosphere Carbon Capture and Sequestration (ACCS).

Both Track 1 and Track 2 require enormous funding input beyond the capacity of any single nation, nor would corporations be interested given the lack of immediate profit potential. On the other hand, the nations in the world spends some $1.5 trillion per year in military expenditure. If the nations could learn to trust each other in non-aggression, they could collectively liberate $1 trillion for building the global Supergrid, and the global ACCS.

The military of any nation need fear no lay off, since soldiers can be trained into an Earth Defense Force; and no military manufacturers need fear financial loss, since they can be converted into Supergrid and ACCS manufactureres.

Back to the Omniscientific Cosmology, the Earth is now at the point of having produced the National Organisms, but the National Organisms have not yet integratively transcended into the single, one-and-only, PLANETARY ORGANISM named EARTH.

It is also evident that every time the planet produces a higher level of life, the new organisms of that higher level would have undergone a quantum leap in power. Compare the power of an advanced Cellular organism like an amoeba to that of an advance Metazoan organism, like a human, and the quantum leap becomes more than obvious. If and when the nations integratively transcend into the Planetary Organism Earth, Earth will have undergone yet a higher quantum leap in power, with which she can then heal herself.


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com (AM's 3rd-book-in-the-making)
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.ARConference.org


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NEW DELHI — Indian activist Anna Hazare's populist anti-corruption campaign faced its first major test Saturday as it sought to sustain the momentum that has left the government floundering in its wake.

In frenzied scenes on Friday hundreds of thousands turned out to see Hazare parade through Delhi and launch a two-week public hunger strike.

Several thousand of his supporters still thronged the open-air protest venue Saturday morning, despite heavy monsoon rains lashing it overnight and forcing many to take cover elsewhere.

The 74-year-old activist was "resting" out of sight in the morning, but organizers said he would take to the stage later in the day.

With Monday a national holiday, campaign organizers said they were optimistic that the long weekend would bring large crowds in support of Hazare's fight to force the government to draft stronger anti-corruption laws.

Speaking to reporters late Friday, Hazare made it clear that he did not feel bound to an agreement with the authorities to end his fast after 15 days.

The focus of the protest is a piece of anti-graft legislation known as the "Lokpal Bill." Hazare insists the current draft is toothless, and is demanding the government adopt and pass his own, more aggressive version of the bill.

"I have made the decision of my life. If the bill is not passed . . . then I will continue my fast till my last breath," he said.

Hazare's hero is Mahatma Gandhi — a huge portrait of India's independence icon fills the backdrop of the covered stage where his fast is being held — and he threatened a Gandhi-style campaign of civil disobedience unless the government relented.

"If by August 30 the bill is not passed then people will be asked to fill jails across the country," he said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, blindsided by the national outpouring of public support for Hazare, now has little option but to see how the protest plays out.

So far there has been no official reaction to the ecstatic events of Friday when Hazare walked out of Delhi's Tihar jail and embarked on his triumphal procession through the capital on an open-top truck.

Singh chaired a meeting Friday of senior ministers from his ruling Congress Party, but no statement was issued.

Hazare's campaign has tapped into a deep reservoir of discontent — especially among India's burgeoning middle-class — with a culture that requires bribes to secure everything from birth certificates to business permits.

"I think the business world is turning against the official culture," said Somnath Mitra, an IBM managing consultant who came to the protest site on Saturday.

Mitra recalled being forced to make substantial cash payments — for which he received no receipts — when registering two properties last year.

"It was effectively a bribe to get my work done," he said.

The government has struggled to have its voice heard amid the clamour surrounding Hazare's anti-graft drive — in part because its anti-corruption credentials have been damaged by a series of multi-billion-dollar scandals involving senior officials.

Singh has criticized the campaign's hunger-strike tactics as "totally misconceived" and an attempt to blackmail parliament into re-drafting legislation.
© Copyright (c) AFP

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Indian+anti+graft+hunger+striker+faces+test/5281460/story.html#ixzz1VdDfJbLX

Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com (AM's 3rd-book-in-the-making)
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.ARConference.org
206-259-9679

If I were a pig, I would rather die like that than live like this

Line up all the pigs killed in the U.S. per year single file along a highway, and the pig line will stretch from L.A. to New York 35 times.

If I were unfortunate enough to be born as a pig, I would rather die by arrow than to live in a crate, while dreaming of a sip of Cappuccino.

A photo-essay:



Piglets in a factory farm.


Piglets in the wild.


Sow in gestation crate in a factory farm.


Sow in the wild.


Pigs in factory farms 2.


Pigs in the wild 2.


Pigs in factory farms 3.


Pigs in the wild 3.


Pigs in factory farms 4.


Pigs in the wild 4.


Pigs in factory farms 5.


Pigs in the wild 5.


Pigs in factory farms 6.


Pigs in the wild 6.


Pigs in factory farms 7.


Pigs in the wild 7.


Pigs in the wild 8.


Pigs in the wild 9.


Pigs in the wild 10.


Pigs in the wild 11.


Pigs in the wild 12.


Pigs in the wild 13.


Pigs in the wild 14.


Pigs in the wild 15.


Pigs in the wild 16.


Pigs in the wild 17.


The very lucky very few 2.


The very luck very few 3.



Video by Catherine Garneau, Tia Terrel and Anthony Marr.

Catherine Garneau Co-VP of the Global Anti-Hunting Coalition:
"A truckload of pigs destined for slaughter pulled over at a truckstop in Maryland...full of bruised, cut, scraped and overcrowded pigs. I'm sure they never expected two animal rights activists, me and Anthony Marr, to be at the truckstop at that time. We were able to get up to the truck for photos when the driver went inside to eat.These photos exemplify the abusive and horrendous conditions that animals endure in transport within the 'factory farm system'."


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com (AM's 3rd-book-in-the-making)
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.ARConference.org