13.7 Billion Years

Instead of This, Try This, #21

2012-01-30T00:01:00.008-05:00

[January is Replacement Month on 13.7 Billion Years. Out with the old. In with the new. Twenty-two ways to be a more ethical and healthier consumer.]

Instead of this, try this, because of this.

ACTION ALERTS

Tell Indonesia: Stop killing orangutans for palm oil (Change.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #20

2012-01-27T00:01:00.005-05:00

Join the 2.3 million people around the globe who have signed the International Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #19

2012-01-26T00:01:00.005-05:00

Ask Starbucks to sell fair trade coffee (Change.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #18

2012-01-25T00:01:00.004-05:00

Download the 2012 Sustainable Seafood Suide (Monterey Bay Aquarium)
Ask Congress to protect the bluefin tuna (Oceana)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #17

2012-01-24T00:01:00.006-05:00

Say YES to accurate labeling of GMO foods (National Health Federation)
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PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #16

2012-01-23T00:01:00.007-05:00

Tell Kmart: Don't sell rainforest destruction (Greenpeace)
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PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #15

2012-01-20T00:01:00.004-05:00

Tell Costco to see ethical gold (Change.org)
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PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #14

2012-01-19T00:01:00.004-05:00

Say NO to skinning dogs alive in China (Care2)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #13

2012-01-18T00:01:00.004-05:00

Take the Dairy Free Diet Challenge
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #12

2012-01-17T00:01:00.003-05:00

Get a vegan starter kit from Oprah
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #11

2012-01-16T00:01:00.003-05:00

Get a vegan starter kit from Oprah
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #10

2012-01-13T00:01:00.007-05:00

Tell the Senate the bikes have a right to the road, say no to the mandatory sidepath law (League of American Bicyclists)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #9

2012-01-12T00:01:00.010-05:00

Get a Vegan Starter Kit from Oprah
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #8

2012-01-11T00:01:00.003-05:00

Join the 2012 Canadian Seafood Boycott to Save Seals (Humane Society of the United States)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #7

2012-01-10T00:01:00.004-05:00

Tell Unilever: Replace palm oil with native fats and help stop rainforest deforestation and human rights crimes (Rettet Regenwald)
Tell palm oil industry: Orangutans are no pests (Rettet Regenwald)
Check out a palm oil product list
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #6

2012-01-09T00:01:00.010-05:00

Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #5

2012-01-06T00:01:00.008-05:00

Save a life, take the pledge to adopt your next pet (Humane Society of the United States)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #4

2012-01-05T00:01:00.004-05:00

Tell Hershey to go fair trade (Green America)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #3

2012-01-04T00:01:00.011-05:00

[January is Replacement Month on 13.7 Billion Years. Out with the old. In with the new. Twenty-two ways to be a more ethical and healthier consumer.]

Instead of this, try this and you'll be less a part of this.

ACTION ALERTS

Get a Vegan Starter Kit from Oprah
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #2

2012-01-03T00:01:00.009-05:00

[January is Replacement Month on 13.7 Billion Years. Out with the old. In with the new. Twenty-two ways to be a more ethical and healthier consumer.]

Instead of this, which contains this, try this, because of this. And this.

ACTION ALERTS

Take action to stop the spread of Triclosan (Beyond Pesticides)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Instead of This, Try This, #1

2012-01-02T00:01:00.020-05:00

[January is Replacement Month on 13.7 Billion Years. Out with the old. In with the new. Twenty-two ways to be a more ethical consumer.]

Instead of this, try this, because of this. And this. And this.

ACTION ALERTS

Take the 21 Day Resusable Challenge
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Victory Month: Celebrating positive change through grassroots action
Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

We Are Stardust

2011-12-30T00:01:00.011-05:00

Approaching the end of another journey around our creator

[The following is adapted from a post originally published on December 31, 2010.]

For the vast majority of humans around the world who will be celebrating the end of another year, the dawn of a new one is a major marker in time, a signpost, a reminder that we are inexorably moving out of the past and into the future.

Indeed, there are few, if any, moments when nearly the entire human population is cognizant of such a shared sociocultural event as the Gregorian calendar-based New Year's Eve.

The ancient Romans also recognized January 1 as the first day of the new year ever since Julius Caesar established the big event in 46 BC. He dedicated the day to Janus (hence the name of the month, January), the god of doors, beginnings, endings and time. Janus had two faces—one looking at the past, the other looking to the future.

Even the Chinese, in their vast numbers—and who won't be celebrating their new year until January 23—are quite aware of the significance of January 1. It is, after all, the first day of the year on the internationally accepted civil calendar.

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION

But amidst the flurry of anticipation, preparation, celebration and the habitual tendency of humans to use such a portentous moment as an opportunity for intense self-reflection (e.g., "What I Didn't Accomplish Last Year"), self-adjustment (e.g., "This Is the Year I Will Quit Smoking") and self-congratulation (e.g., "My Top 10 Albums of the Year"), it is easy to forget why we have marked our history thusly every 365 days. It is simply the amount of time it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.

In regard to this solitary fact, we are the only species who cares a feather or a fig. The 365-day journey is real. The portent...well, not so much.

A prominence erupting from the Sun's surface in October 2003, observed with the international Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). A scale-sized image of the Earth was added to the bottom right section of the image to illustrate size comparison. (source: Nustar. credit: JPL/NASA and ESA.)

Unless something really unpredictable happens, Homo sapiens will survive yet another revolution around our parent star onboard spaceship Earth, just as our species has done for the past 200,000 or so years. But Earth has made this 365-day-long journey much longer than we have been around—about 4.6 billion times.

IN THE BEGINNING

At the dawn of the universe, some 13.7 billion years ago, there was just hydrogen and helium. Then around 4.6 billion years ago, a small section of a giant molecular cloud in a corner of the Milky Way galaxy experienced a gravitational collapse. The mass collected in the center, creating the Sun, one in a cluster of many stars that stretched up to 20 light-years across.

The remaining debris formed the protoplanetary disk, and soon after (a few to a hundred million years, a timeframe that constitutes "soon" in cosmological terms), through accretion, the Earth was born, along with the other planets, moons and the asteroids that now make up the asteroid belt. It was a chaotic time of collisions.

A meteorite found in Antarctica called GRA 06129 may have come from a large body that was blasted apart in a collision early in the solar system (image: NASA)

LOOKING AT AND LISTENING TO THE SUN

Douglas Gough, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge, says that understanding the immense power at the core of the Sun, where the nuclear reactions are so violent that new particles are born, "helps us to understand the basic physics of elementary matter." In other words, our Sun, like all other stars, is a creator. "To understand the universe," Gough says, "we need to study the stars." But there's only one star that gave birth to and sustains life on Earth.

The Sun photographed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). (credit: NASA/SDO (AIA))

Seeing the core of the Sun—where all the creation happens—is currently technologically impossible. But scientists have been listening to the Sun's interior by recording the sounds that it makes. Every six minutes or so, the Sun "breathes" in and out, an activity that causes a complex pattern of ripples on the surface—a key to the fire that rages in its belly.

Sound wave of solar sounds generated from 40 days of Michelson Doppler Imager data (Stanford University)

Alexander G. Kosovichev, a senior research scientist at the W.W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory at Stanford University, studies the sounds made by the Sun. The recordings he analyzes were taken by the Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI), a device onboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft that measures underlying magnetic fields and gas flow patterns on the solar surface.

THE CREATOR

If we must worship a god, we could do much worse than picking the Sun as the object of our devotion. Ultimately, it is the reason we are here and continue to be here. No matter our different races and religions, nationalities and political affiliations, cultures and beliefs, there are just a few fundamental elements from which all of us—and indeed, all things in our solar system—are made, and they came from within the violent thermonuclear cauldron deep within the core of the Sun.

In his 1770 epistle "Épître à l'Auteur du Livre des Trois Imposteurs" ("Letter to the Author of the Three Impostors"), the French philosopher Voltaire wrote, "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer." ("If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.") And invent him we did. Over and over and over again.

Ra-Horakhty is a combined deity of Horus and Ra, and is usually depicted as a falcon-headed man wearing a sun disk on his head. By themselves, Ra and Horus sometimes share similar iconography. Based on New Kingdom tomb paintings. (Wikipedia).

Indeed, we have invented so many names for the "creator" that it's difficult to keep track of them all. Atum. Unkulunkulu. Coatlicue. El. Vishvakarman. Ra-Horakhty. Pangu. Demiurge. Brahma. Waheguru. Allah. God. But in our particular post-Big Bang universe, there is only one kind of creator, a star. And there are many of them. As American astronomer Carl Sagan famously said, "A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars—billions upon billions of stars." The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates that there are somewhere on the order of 10²² to 10²⁴ stars in the known Universe.

If, as Wikipedia attests, religion is "a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of life and the universe," then the world's astrophysicists could make a strong case that their line of work constitutes a big chunk of that set—at least the "cause" and "nature" parts. As far as the "purpose" part goes, well...perhaps the monks could chime in on that.

In the 2005 documentary film about him, American astronomer John Dobson (who also happens to be a Vedantic monk of the Ramakrishna Order) suggests that physicists and Vedantics are really searching for the same thing. As he notes, "There are only three ingredients in this universe: hydrogen, helium and the dust of exploded stars." Scientists and philosophers are living in the same reality, so if science and philosophy are to find agreement on the nature of being and existence, agreeing on this basic fact is sine qua non.

This New Year's Eve, take a look into the night sky. You won't be able to see the Sun, for it will be shining on the other side of the Earth, but perhaps you'll be able to see a different star. Much more distant than ours, to be sure, but in its own lifetime, no less influential to the celestial bodies that may be drawn to it by the lure of its gravitational pull.

So go ahead, worship the Sun. After all, you are stardust.

[December was Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. Posts this month considered various victories that were made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you. And good luck on your next journey around the Sun.]

[top image: sundial jbelluch]

Victory Month | Small Wins for Polar Bears, But Their Plight to Survive Continues

2011-12-28T00:01:00.010-05:00

"[This] decision squarely places the fate of the polar bear back in the hands of the Obama administration. Rather than continue to defend an ill-conceived Bush-era rule, the Obama administration should take this opportunity to carefully craft a new rule that meaningfully addresses greenhouse gas emissions, the primary threat to the polar bear.” -- Brendan Cummings, Center for Biological Diversity

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

In October, thanks to concerned citizens who supported a coordinated campaign by Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace, a federal judge struck down a Bush administration rule that exempted greenhouse gas emissions from regulation under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA), forcing the government to undertake a full environmental analysis of the polar bear's dire situation.

US District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the Interior Department violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it issued a special rule that excluded greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants and other major polluters from federal regulation if they occurred outside the polar bear range. This rule was a just a ploy to allow the dirty fossil fuel industries to keep destroying the environment—and critical polar bear habitat—in the name of profit. Obviously, the Earth's average surface temperature will rise—and melt the polar ice caps—no matter where greenhouse gases are emitted.

"Just this summer, Arctic sea ice reached its second lowest level on record, making polar bear protections more important than ever," said Jason Rylander, senior attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. "Only by acknowledging and accounting for the dramatic effects of climate change can this administration give this Arctic icon a realistic chance of survival."

Defenders of Wildlife also scored another victory for polar bears when a federal ban on the importation of trophy-hunted polar bear parts into the United States was upheld.

While these wins have been critical in the fight to save polar bears and their habitat, these iconic animals are still facing grave dangers on a daily basis and are struggling so hard to survive against the changes brought to their habitat by anthropogenic climate change.

ACTION ALERTS

Sign the Save the Polar Bear Petition and tell President Obama to rein in global warming and save the endangered polar bear (Center for Biological Diversity)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: Center for Biological Diversity

Victory Month | Congressional Extinction Rider Defeated

2011-12-27T00:01:00.008-05:00

"While the Interior appropriations bill contains numerous anti-environmental provisions, it’s very encouraging that, even in this extremely polarized political environment, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are still willing to stand up for core American values like saving imperiled wildlife from extinction." -- Rodger Schlickeisen, president, Defenders for Wildlife

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Thanks in part to the concerned citizens who signed the Defenders of Wildlife petition and supported their campaign to protect the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the so-called "Extinction Rider" was defeated in Congress.

The rider was a provision in an amendment to the Interior appropriations bill (H.R. 2584) that would have increased the extinction risk for endangered species by blocking protections for adding new species under the ESA.

In June, the U.S. House of Representatives approved (224-202) an amendment to the bill introduced by Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and co-sponsored by Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) and Rep. Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii) that preserves critical protections for America’s threatened wildlife.

"This is a tremendous victory for our nation’s imperiled wildlife and a testament to strong, bipartisan support for upholding the Endangered Species Act—one of our nation's most successful and forward-thinking environmental laws," said Defenders of Wildlife president Rodger Schlickeisen.

"Nearly 40 years ago, our nation made a commitment in the form of the Endangered Species Act to preserve the entire web of life for the benefit of our children and grandchildren...For years, Big Oil, mining, logging, and development interests have been trying to do away with protections for our most imperiled plants and animals....But the majority of House members showed today that they will not tolerate such reckless efforts to dismantle America's safety net for protecting endangered species."

ACTION ALERTS

Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: Bald eagle chicks (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in nest on Kodiak Island (credit: US Fish & Wildlife Service, Wikimedia Commons

Victory Month | Millions of Animals a Year Saved from Use in Medical Training

2011-12-26T00:01:00.027-05:00

"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." -- Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Every year, millions of animals—monkeys, pigs, cats, rats, mice, frogs, rabbits, ferrets and many other species—suffer greatly and are needlessly killed in classrooms. However, there are proven and effective non-animal methods for teaching, recommended by a growing number of ethical physicians, such as those involved with the non-profit animal welfare group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).

More and more colleges, universities and medical centers have abandoned the use of animals in their classrooms and training programs. And thanks to concerned citizens like you who got involved by signing petitions and supporting animal welfare campaigns this year, 2011 saw several key victories.

In September, thanks to signatories of PCRM petitions, Indiana University announced that it halted the use of cats in its pediatrics residency program and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (UHUHS) School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, the military medical school for the United States, agreed to stop using pigs in its Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training courses.

In October, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) met with Army officials at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and confirmed that they have agreed to replace the use of live monkeys in chemical casualty management courses with non-animal training methods.

Also in October, Carolinas Medical Center announced that it has stopped using animals in its training courses, including the use of ferrets for endotracheal intubation training, ending a long PCRM campaign.

"Pharmaceutical manufacturers have incorporated non-animal methods in several early steps in the drug development process. In other areas, technical or regulatory barriers present continuing challenges," according to PCRM. But "[i]n some areas, such as medical education, the shift to non-animal methods has been rapid."

Last month, thanks to supporters of PETA India's campaign to end the use of animals in universities, the University Grants Commission (UCG), the governing body for Indian universities, officially recommended that all colleges and universities replace animal experimentation and dissection with modern non-animal methods.

"Animals used for dissection may be captured from their natural habitats or may come from 'biological supply' companies, which not only breed animals but also purchase them from slaughterhouses, pet stores, animal shelters, and dealers who sell lost or stolen companion animals," writes Michelle Sherrow of PETA. "Animals are killed by gassing or drowning and are then injected with formaldehyde, sometimes without first being checked to make sure that they are dead."

"According to Dr. BK Sharma, associate professor and head of the Department of Zoology at the RL Saharia Government PG College in Jaipur, by using computer simulations, interactive CD-ROMs, films, charts, and lifelike models, it is estimated that Indian universities will save 19 million animals every year."

Thanks to your participation in these and other campaigns in 2011, the lives of millions of animals around the globe will be spared. For the human race, these are important steps toward the ethical treatment of our fellow Earthlings. As the U.S. Army and a growing list of universities and medical centers around the world have shown, it is not necessary to use animals in medical training. But there is still much more to be done. Please keep the momentum going strong in 2012 and sign the petitions below. Thank you.

ACTION ALERTS

Stop the unnecessary suffering of dogs and tell Wayne State University to halt inhumane dog experiments (PCRM)
Sign a letter urging your federal Representative and Senators to cosponsor the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (H.R.1513/S.810), which seeks to end invasive research on chimpanzees and release those who are now in labs to the comfort, safety and peace of a sanctuary (HSUS)
Tell St. Louis Children's Hospital to follow in the footsteps of the University of Michigan and end the hospital's use of animals for intubation training (PETA)
Let Army medical leaders know that you appreciate the U.S. Army's agreement to end the use of live vervet monkeys in chemical casualty management training, and that the transition should happen immediately (PCRM)
Visit CutOutDissection.com to learn how PETA can help you get dissection alternatives implemented in schools near you
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: A female vervet monkey with her baby (credit: Charlesjsharp, Wikimedia Commons)

Victory Month | Land Saved from Fracking in Ohio

2011-12-26T00:01:00.017-05:00

"Right now in Washington, money rules. Sooner or later Big Oil will ram Keystone, and fracking, and a thousand other bad ideas down our throats unless we manage to change the system." -- Bill McKibben, founder, 350.org

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

In another big win for issue-engaged, petition-signing citizens taking part in grassroots advocacy, a big chunk of public land in Ohio has been spared from hydrofracking.

"Fracking opponents in southern Ohio won a victory...when the United States Forest Service (USFS) withdrew more than 3,000 acres of public lands from a federal oil and gas lease sale," writes Mike Ludwig of Truthout.

"The USFS announced that it needed more time to review the potential effects of fracking after receiving petitions and letters from local leaders who used the old-fashioned method of collecting signatures to catch the attention of government officials."

According to a Common Cause report, "A faction of the natural gas industry has invested more than $747 million as part of a 10-year lobbying and political spending campaign to persuade federal authorities to ignore the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or 'fracking,' a rapidly expanding but poorly regulated method of tapping gas reserves."

(To put that figure into context, the 2011 United States aid commitment to help the people affected by the East Africa drought totals $650 million. Humanitarian agencies have requested $2.48 billion, but as of August, have secured less than half that amount.)

Thank you for taking part in this broad civil action against a dangerous method of gathering fossil fuel, supported by an industry armed with powerful lobbyists on Capitol Hill determined to keep America addicted to dirty sources of energy.

ACTION ALERTS

Tell Congress to support the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act, which would close oil and gas industry loopholes in the Safe Drinking Water Act and require disclosure of chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing (Earthjustice)
Tell the U.S. Department of Energy not to issue a report on fracking without waiting for the environmental study being conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, especially when the Department’s report is written by industry insiders (Food & Water Watch)
Support ActionAid's efforts to help the 10 million people suffering from the East Africa drought (ActionAid)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: Anti-fracking rally outside the Manhattan office of New York governor Andrew Cuomo, June 25, 2011 (credit: Owen Crowley, Flickr Creative Commons)

Victory Month | Threatened Bluefin Tuna Get Some Help

2011-12-23T00:01:00.004-05:00

"It's abundantly clear to me that overfishing is pushing our oceans towards an irreversible collapse." -- Ted Danson

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Fears about overfishing will continue for some time, especially as the human population continues to swell, but bluefin tuna conservationists scored a major victory at the 22nd meeting of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), held last month in Istanbul.

At the meeting, governments agreed to implement an electronic catch documentation system for bluefin, which will help maintain healthier fish stocks.

Fetching up to $100 a pound, bluefin is a coveted fish whose populations have plummeted since the mid-1990s due to overfishing -- and the explosion of the global sushi industry.

According to the Pew Environment Report "Mind the Gap: An Analysis of the Gap Between Mediterranean Bluefin Quotas and International Trade Figures," 141 percent more bluefin tuna was sold worldwide last year than is permitted by ICCAT quotas.

"This change is long overdue," writes Lee Crockett of the Pew. "Putting the squeeze on illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is critical to conserving threatened species."

That doesn't mean you should go hog-wild eating bluefin tuna. It will take some time for this system to be implemented and currently, the fish is in serious decline. Eating less or none of it now will help their populations recover from the voracious human appetite.

Danson, a board member of the marine conservation group Oceana, said that bluefins "need a generational breather to prevent total collapse."

ACTION ALERTS

Take the Pledge to Avoid Bluefin Tuna (Center for Biological Diversity)
Join Ted Danson and tell Congress to fight overfishing and prevent an empty ocean (Oceana)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Tune into Big Cat Week on NatGeo (NatGeo)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: Keith Ellenbogen, Oceana

Victory Month | Obama Protects Clean Air

2011-12-22T00:01:00.006-05:00

"These historic new health standards will save lives." -- Gene Karpinski, president, League of Conservation Voters

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Yesterday, the Obama administration set America's first-ever regulations on mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants, helping safeguard Americans—in particular children and pregnant women—from an array of health risks, including heart attacks, asthma, chronic bronchitis and premature death. The public pressure on Obama to enact these regulations was strong: More than 900,000 Americans submitted comments to the EPA (including 50,000 Earthjustice supporters and 10,000 NRDC supporters)—the most comments ever submitted regarding an EPA rule.

"I am glad to be here to mark the finalization of a clean air rule that has been 20 years in the making, and is now ready to start improving our health, protecting our children, and cleaning up our air," Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lisa Jackson said at an event at the Children's National Medical Center in Washington. "Under the Clean Air Act these standards will require American power plants to put in place proven and widely available pollution control technologies to cut harmful emissions of mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases. In and of itself, this is a great victory for public health, especially for the health of our children."

"Until now there have been no federal standards that require power plants to limit their emissions of toxic air pollutants like mercury, arsenic and metals—despite the availability of proven control technologies, and the more than 20 years since the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments passed," according to the EPA.

At a time when many environmentalists have given up on President Obama's commitment to a greener America—a failure to push through cap-and-trade climate change legislation, abandoning a move by the EPA to strengthen standards to reduce smog pollution, allowing BP to continue deep-sea drilling in the Gulf and potential approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline are among the reasons of their exasperation with the White House—this news was roundly praised.

"The significance of these new standards cannot be understated," said League of Conservation Voters president Gene Karpinski in an email. "The negative health impacts of toxic air pollution are well-known and documented—and the EPA is estimating that these new standards will save thousands of lives, prevent up to 120,000 cases of childhood asthma and avert 11,000 cases of acute childhood bronchitis every year starting in 2015."

Power plants are the biggest emitters of mercury (50 percent), acid gases (over 75 percent) and many toxic metals (20-60 percent), according to the EPA.

But the fight for clean air is far from over: The coal- and oil-fired power plant industry will be contesting the new rules.

"President Obama has stood up against intense pressure from polluters who launched a last minute blitz to get him to broadly delay the implementation of these protections," said Earthjustice president Trip Van Noppen in an email. "In the new year, these polluters will turn their attention back to the courts and to Capitol Hill, where they will ask Congress to block these protections from being implemented."

ACTION ALERTS

Tell St. Louis Children's Hospital to follow in the footsteps of the University of Michigan and end the hospital's use of animals for intubation training (PETA)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Tune into Big Cat Week on NatGeo (NatGeo)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: EPA

Victory Month | Sharks Get Help Around the World

2011-12-21T00:01:00.018-05:00

Sharks have been swimming the Earth's oceans unchallenged for 420 million years. Then humans arrived. And the Chinese developed a taste for shark fin soup. In 2011, sharks got some much needed help

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Sharks scored several wins around the world in 2011, thanks in part to public pressure. Here are some key victories.

European Commission Moves to End Shark Finning

In November, in a move to support better shark conservation, the European Commission proposed closing loopholes in the European Union shark finning ban. Shark finning is a cruel practice in which the fins of live sharks are cut off and their finless bodies are deposited back in the water, where they sink to the bottom and die a slow and horrible death, often eaten alive by other fish. The fins are used to supply the market for shark fin soup, a traditional Chinese recipe. Over 73 million sharks are killed in this horrific fashion every year around the world -- just for soup.

"Since the early 1990s, finning has been banned by approximately 30 countries, with the EU ban occurring in 2003," according to the Pew Environment Group. "Most international fisheries bodies banned finning in 2004 and 2005. The current EU regulation, however, cannot ensure that finning is not continuing undetected and unpunished. EU Member States, for example, can grant special fishing permits that allow fishermen to remove shark fins at sea and bring bodies and fins to separate ports."

If the Commission proposal is adopted by the European Parliament and Council of Fisheries Ministers from the EU’s 27 member states, special fishing permits would not be allowed, ensuring that "all sharks taken by EU vessels or in EU waters are landed with their fins naturally attached to their bodies."

Stop Shark Finning has compiled a list of restaurants around the world that sell shark fin soup and has urged the public to boycott these establishments.

Florida Protects Sharks

Beginning in January, it will be illegal to kill tiger sharks and three species of hammerheads (scalloped, smooth and great hammerheads) in Florida's waters. If any of these species are accidentally caught, they must be released immediately. This is a huge victory for these sharks, as the waters off the Florida coast are an important habitat.

"Tiger sharks have declined drastically in recent decades—up to 97% in US Atlantic waters," writes Rebecca Greenberg of the conservation group Oceana. "And these three species of hammerhead sharks have declined about 70% in northwest Atlantic waters. Sharks are often caught for their fins that eventually end up in shark fin soup."

California Makes Shark Finning Illegal

In October, California governor Jerry Brown signed AB376 into law, making the possession, sale and trade of shark fins illegal in the state beginning in 2013. This is a huge victory for sharks, especially considering the many Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco that sell shark fin soup.

"The practice of cutting the fins off of living sharks and dumping them back in the ocean is not only cruel, but it harms the health of our oceans," said Governor Brown. "Researchers estimate that some shark populations have declined by more than 90 percent, portending grave threats to our environment and commercial fishing. In the interest of future generations, I have signed this bill."

No Shark Cull in Western Australia

Following a spate of shark attacks, officials in Western Australia considered a shark cull. But thanks to the more than 18,000 people who signed a Care2 petition and the advocacy of Care2 member and marine neuroecologist Ryan Kempster, founder of the conservation group Support Our Sharks, the government rejected the cull option and instead invested more than $13 million in research, helicopter surveillance patrols, swimmer education and a shark response unit.

"This is a fantastic outcome for public safety and shark conservation in WA," said Kempster, in a Care2 announcement. "The shark mitigation measures outlined by WA Fisheries Minister Moore set a benchmark for other Australian states and will place WA as a national leader in beach protection and shark conservation."

There's No Such Thing As a Shark Attack

Western Australia's logical response demonstrates an awareness that when we go into shark territory, we are uninvited guests there. The comedian Gilbert Arenas put it best:

"We’re humans. We live on land. Sharks live in water. So if you're swimming in the water and a shark bites you, that's called trespassing. That is not a shark attack. A shark attack is if you're chilling at home, sitting on your couch, and a shark comes in and bites you; now that's a shark attack. Now, if you're chilling in the water, that is called invasion of space. So I have never heard of a shark attack."

ACTION ALERTS

Avoid these restaurants and any restaurants that sell shark fin soup, and tell them why you're not supporting their business (Stop Shark Finning Boycott)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Tune into Big Cat Week on NatGeo (NatGeo)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: hammerhead shark (credit: National Geographic, Wikimedia Commons)

Victory Month | Russia Bans Harp Seal Skins

2011-12-20T00:01:00.014-05:00

"The door to one of the largest markets for seal products has now been slammed shut." -- Sheryl Fink, Seal Team Director, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

In a major victory for seals and animal activists, Russia has banned the import and export of seal skins, essentially shutting down 90 percent of Canada's export market.

"It’s the biggest victory in the campaign to end commercial sealing since the European Union (EU) banned non-Inuit seal products," said Sheryl Fink, Seal Team Director, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), in a blog post.

She says that this trade ban is "a significant victory that should be celebrated by all concerned with animal welfare and wildlife conservation...With the Russian market closed to harp seal fur products, and a long-promised deal to export seal meat to China at risk due to concerns over food security, the future looks bleaker than ever for the dying Canadian sealing industry. The time has come to acknowledge that the world does not want, nor need, cruel seal products. It is time to stop commercial seal hunting once and for all."

Fink also notes, "In 2009, the same year that the EU banned non-Inuit seal products, Russia ended its own hunt for harp seals in the White Sea and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called it a 'bloody industry' and something that 'should have been banned years ago.'"

It is called a "seal hunt," but there's not much hunting going on when killer humans simply run around clubbing defenseless baby seals, most no older than 12 weeks.

"This year, they've authorized sealers to slaughter 468,200 seals, an increase of 80,000 from 2010," said Rebecca Aldworth, Executive Director of Humane Society International/Canada, who travelled to Canada's east coast with HSI's Protect Seals team in April to document the killing of these helpless, newly-born pups. "Rather than protecting this vulnerable population, the Canadian government is encouraging the commercial slaughter of them."

This cruel and inhumane practice does very little for the economy of Canada and puts a black mark on the nation's image in the global community. Actress, comedienne and TV host Ellen DeGeneres has made a personal plea on her website to end the hunt, saying, "Seal hunting is one of the most atrocious and inhumane acts against animals allowed by any government."

In 2009, the EU voted to ban products made from Canada's seal slaughter and the United States Senate passed a resolution introduced by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) urging the Government of Canada to end the commercial seal hunt. Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Mexico and Panama have either banned seal products or have made moves to do so.

Even the majority of Canadians are expressing their distaste for the hunt. A recent poll found that 72% of Canadians support regulations banning the hunting of seal pups and 81% would not be upset if the commercial seal hunt were to end altogether. The hunt represents a very small portion of the nation's $1.3 trillion GDP. It is a leftover from a dark past, and must be stopped. But Canadian lawmakers insist on keeping this horrible legacy.

There is however one Canadian senator who is taking a stand: Mac Harb. "Canada’s commercial seal hunt is a dying industry based primarily on demand for fur for luxury items," writes Senator Harb on his Web site. "But markets for seal fur are disappearing and sealers’ earnings have plummeted." Each sealer earns about $1,000 minus expenses for participating in the hunt. Harb has introduced a bill to end the hunt.

"IFAW supporters have worked so hard to help us close down the markets for seal products around the world," said IFAW President Fred O'Regan in an email about the Russian ban. "And this news will inspire us to work even harder so that together we WILL finally see an end to Canada's commercial harp seal hunt."

ACTION ALERTS

Avoid Canadian seafood, sign the Canadian Seafood Boycott Pledge to save seals (HSUS)
Stop Namibian seal slaughter. Seal culling is a tragic practice outlawed in most of the world. Namibia is the only country in the southern hemisphere that still tolerates it, even though the repeated clubbing to death, torture, or harassment of any animal, including seals, appears to be technically illegal. Sign this petition to urge Ombudsman John Walters to place a moratorium on seal slaughter until this issue is resolved. (Care2)
Support IFAW's efforts to end seal hunts (IFAW)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Tune into Big Cat Week on NatGeo (NatGeo)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: IFAW

Victory Month | Caracas Bans Bullfighting

2011-12-19T00:01:00.012-05:00

"It sickens me to know that in this day and age, people are still paying money to see an animal suffering in such a horrific way." -- actor Ricky Gervais in an anti-bullfighting film he made for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA).

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Caracas has banned bullfighting, becoming the first city in Venezuela to officially outlaw the cruel bloodsport.

Some people call it a "sport." But as PETA UK notes, "For the bull, bullfighting is no 'competition.' It is simply slaughter for human entertainment." According to Humane Society International (HSI), approximately 250,000 bulls are killed in bullfights every year.

The decision was handed down by the Venezuelan Supreme Court, annulling the 1988 Ordinance on Bullfights, which contradicts a newer federal law that affords protection to all species.

"As anyone who has ever seen a bullfight will know, la corrida involves a huge amount of suffering not only to bulls but to horses as well," according to the UK-based animal welfare group League Against Cruel Sports. "All of this cruelty can only serve to have a negative impact on society."

Though Caracas hasn't hosted a bullfight in 14 years and declared itself an anti-bullfighting city in 2009, animal welfare advocates see this move as a significant step in spreading the anti-bullfighting movement across the country.

While the global anti-bullfighting movement has been growing and attendance at bullfights have been dwindling (72 percent of Spaniards have no interest in it), there are still factions of rabid supporters. In October, a group of ninety-five activists were brutally attacked by a mob of pro-bullfighting thugs as they staged a peaceful sit-in at a bullring in Rodilhan, France.

For now, anti-bullfighting activists can notch one victory in Venezuela. But the battle to save all bulls from this horrific fate continues.

ACTION ALERTS

Sign a petition to ban bullfighting in Spain (PETA UK)
Sign a petition telling the Council of Pamplona you are against the San Fermin "Running of the Bulls," which ends in a bullfight (Care2)
Want to help bulls even more? Take these steps to stop bullfighting (Humane Society International)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Tune into Big Cat Week on NatGeo (NatGeo)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: Care2

Victory Month | NIH Curtails Chimp Research

2011-12-16T00:01:00.013-05:00

"The NIH has funded a lot of research that's just been deemed unnecessary. Even though they have stopped short of the ban, it's a welcome first step." -- Jarrod Bailey, science director, New England Anti-Vivisection Society[1]

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Yesterday was a landmark day for chimpanzees, our closest genetic relatives. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), the public agency of the U.S. government responsible for biomedical and health-related research, announced that it would cut its use of chimpanzees in medical research, putting a moratorium on new chimpanzee research grants after an independent scientific panel deemed the apes are not necessary for most biomedical research.

"I think it was a very thoughtful set of recommendations from a distinguished group of experts who spent many months taking in input from lots of different perspectives," said NIH Director Francis Collins. "I found their recommendations very compelling and scientifically rigorous." Collins said that because of their close genetic relationship to humans, chimps deserve "special consideration and respect."[2][3]

While the 190-page report didn't recommend an outright ban on chimpanzee research (Hepatitis C, for example, only infects humans and chimps), the decision was hailed as an advancement by both animal welfare advocates and scientists.

"Science is evolving," said committee member Warner Greene, the director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology at the University of California, San Francisco. "We have alternative ways of testing drugs."[4]

There are between 900-1,000 chimps currently incarcerated in research labs across the United States, many of them having spent decades behind bars, suffering dart-gun knockouts, biopsies and repeated infections.

The panel set a high bar for chimp research moving forward, saying they should only be used in biomedical research if there is "no other suitable model available," if the research "cannot be performed ethically on human subjects" and if not using chimps would "significantly slow or prevent" important advances.

In September, 38 research chimpanzees infected with HIV were released to the Gut Aiderbichl Animal Sanctuary, near Salzburg, Austria. The majority of them were kidnapped from Africa as babies and sent to research facilities in Europe. It was the first time they saw the sun or felt grass for 30 years. It was also the first time they were able to really touch each other, having been separated by bars or bulletproof glass. Watch a video of their release here.

The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (H.R.1513/S.810)—a bill that would phase out invasive research on chimpanzees in laboratories in the U.S., retire the more than 500 government-owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries, end breeding of chimpanzees for invasive research and save taxpayers approximately $30 million every year—is currently making its way through Congress.

"This report was the result of months of work by PCRM and our supporters to prevent the Alamogordo chimpanzees from being moved into a research facility, where they would be subjected to painful experimentation," said Elizabeth Kucinich, director of Public and Government Affairs at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), which has been collecting signatures from American citizens to stop chimp research, in an email.

"The conclusions reached by the committee take us many steps closer to ending invasive research on great apes and is a very positive addition to the increasing institutional support this action is receiving...Now more than ever, it is crucial that we pass the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act."

ACTION ALERTS

Sign a letter urging your federal Representative and Senators to cosponsor the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (H.R.1513/S.810) (HSUS)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

NOTES

[1] http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/MED-CHIMPS_6826308/MED-CHIMPS_6826308/
[2] Ibid.
[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/science/chimps-in-medical-research.html

[4] Ibid., 1.

image: UC Davis

ABOUT 13.7 BILLION YEARS

On March 9, 2008, The New York Times reported on research that has provided the most precise age of the universe to date: 13.73 billion years -- give or take 120 million years. Five days later, 13.7 Billion Years was launched to explore planet Earth...in context.

Victory Month | Fur Banned in West Hollywood, California

2011-12-15T00:01:00.002-05:00

Every year, more than 50 million animals are violently killed (gassed, electrocuted or having their necks broken) for the fashion industry. West Hollywood, California, will have none of it

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Last month, West Hollywood became the first American city to ban the sale of fur products, thanks in part to the thousands of compassionate and concerned individuals who signed a Care2 petition urging Mayor John Duran and members of the city council to modify an existing ordinance that would make the city fur-free.

On November 8, West Hollywood city council members voted 3-1 in favor of the ban, which begins in September of 2012.

“We have pledged to be a place that is free of cruelty to animals and we can no longer support the barbaric fur trade by selling the products of that cruelty in our city," said council member John D'Amico.

West Hollywood is a bastion of animal welfare, having been declared a "cruelty free zone for animals" over two decades ago when cosmetic testing and steel leg-hold traps were banned in 1989. Last year, the city banned the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores. West Hollywood is also the first American city to ban the declawing of cats and also one of the so-called "guardian cities" where pets are not called pets, but rather "animal companions."

It is ironic, considering the city's strong sense of animal welfare, that it is home to the Fur Information Council of America (FICA), a fur lobbying group. But as the 6th-century BC Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu once advised, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

ACTION ALERTS

Sign the pledge to be fur-free (PETA)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: fox (credit: Kris *V*, Flickr Creative Commons)

Victory Month | State Department Orders New Review of Keystone XL Pipeline

2011-12-14T00:01:00.020-05:00

"Should Congress impose an arbitrary deadline for the permit decision, its actions would not only compromise the process, it would prohibit the Department from acting consistently with National Environmental Policy Act requirements by not allowing sufficient time for the development of this information. In the absence of properly completing the process, the Department would be unable to make a determination to issue a permit for this project." -- U.S. State Department, December 12, 2011

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Thanks in part to the thousands of citizens who signed petitions, contacted their elected representatives, shared their concerns with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and joined public protests, the U.S. State Department will conduct a new review of the controversial proposed Keystone XL pipeline project, which would carry synthetic crude oil and diluted bitumen from the oil sands in Alberta, Canada, almost 2,000 miles to the Gulf Coast of Texas.

UNDERMINING GREEN INVESTMENT

While proponents of the pipeline say that it would create tens of thousands of jobs, opponents have voiced concerns about potential spills and damage to the environment and species habitat. In a 2010 report, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) said that "the Keystone XL Pipeline undermines the U.S. commitment to a clean energy economy." Certainly, a case can be made that approving the pipeline would undermine President Obama's call for green investment.

In a their final Keystone XL environmental impact statement (EIS), the State Department said that "decision-makers and the public would benefit from additional public review," and prepared a supplemental draft EIS that includes "additional information on groundwater, potential spill impacts, alternatives to the proposed Project, Environmental Justice considerations, crude oil composition, potential refinery emissions, and greenhouse gas (GHG) and climate change considerations." The review process could take until early 2013.

CAPITALIST MYOPIA: MISSING THE FOREST FOR THE TREES

Perhaps the public processes that helped instigate this new review will help prevent the Keystone XL pipeline—and indeed any new project that involves fossil fuel and new threats to the environment—from being influenced by capitalist myopia, a condition in which otherwise logical people miss the forest for the trees, choosing short-term financial gain while ignoring the destructive effects those actions may cause. It is a condition in which context is neglected and decisions are made in a vacuum.

"[A]t the very moment that we seem to have become serious about reducing our use of petroleum," writes Curtis White in his 2009 book Barbaric Heart: Faith, Money, and the Crisis of Nature, "here comes coal from the ravaged mountaintops of West Virginia and tar sands from Canada, the dirtiest and most destructive energy sources of them all." It defies logic. In the case of mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia, the industry—which has destroyed hundreds of mountaintops—accounts just 1.2 percent of jobs and a mere 2.6 percent of the state's total revenue. That is a case of capitalist myopia par excellence.

IRREVERSIBLE EFFECTS

In his essay "Silence Is Deadly," released in June, James Hansen, the head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the first scientists to issue warnings about global warming, notes that the impacts of the Keystone XL project include "irreversible effects on biodiversity, the natural environment, reduced water quality, destruction of [the] fragile pristine Boreal Forest and associated wetlands, aquatic and watershed mismanagement, habitat fragmentation, habitat loss, disruption to life cycles of endemic wildlife particularly bird and Caribou migration, fish deformities and negative impacts on the human health in downstream communities."

Are these impacts worth the jobs that would be created by the pipeline? That's really the ultimate question, and one we should actually be asking our children and grandchildren. But why should job creation be pitted against being good stewards of the environment? "The challenges that we face are interrelated," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, "So, if we are smart about it, if we spot and utilize the interconnections among these problems, solutions to each problem can be solutions to all." We shouldn't have to choose between crises. Indeed, the idea that they are separate could lead to not solving any of them.

RETHINKING OUR OIL ADDICTION

For the moment, Keystone opponents can notch one victory. But the fight is far from over. In yet another case of political brinksmanship on Capitol Hill, House Republicans said that they plan to include Keystone XL approval in the payroll tax cut bill. But on Monday, the State Department warned that any plan to fast-track the decision would violate environmental laws and force the department to withhold approval.

"I know that revisiting the flawed review process will result in the right answer: America does not need to deepen our oil addiction with this tar sands pipeline," wrote NRDC president Frances Beinecke in the Huffington Post. "As we await that final decision, we have succeeded in closing the spigot on more than a half million barrels of the dirtiest oil on the planet every day." One key battle won. The war against dirty fuel continues.

ACTION ALERTS

Take the pledge to stop Keystone XL (Tar Sands Action)
Tell Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to reject the Keystone XL pipeline (NRDC)
Take the pledge to end mountaintop removal mining (ILoveMountains.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

Victory Month | Whale Meat Pulled from Shelves at Iceland Airport

2011-12-13T00:01:00.011-05:00

Anti-whaling conservationists score a victory with the help of the British Foreign Office

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Last month, Keflavik Airport in Iceland took illegally obtained whale meat off their store shelves just hours after the UK Foreign Office issued a travel warning saying that British travelers who brought whale meat back home faced possible imprisonment and up to GBP 5,000 in fines. That action followed red flags raised by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) and the Animal Welfare Institute to the signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which makes EU importation of whale meat illegal.

In 1986, commercial whaling was banned by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which has more than 70 member countries, including the UK. However, Norway, Iceland and Japan have objected to the ban and continue to kill whales.

According to the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA):

Norway currently (2008) allows 1,052 minke whales to be hunted commercially for meat each year. Norway has killed over 8,100 whales since the whaling ban began
Japan currently (2008) kills 1,415 great whales from six species each year, for ‘scientific research’. The IWC has condemned this as unnecessary and called on Japan to stop their hunts in over 20 separate Resolutions
Iceland killed 200 minke whales between 2003 and 2007 for ‘scientific’ purposes

The decision to pull whale meat from the shelves in Keflavik so soon after the UK issued the travel advisory makes it clear that the growing global anti-whaling sentiment is being taken seriously by a whaling nation.

"We ask people who are thinking of going to Iceland to resist the temptation to give the meat a try despite what you may be told by local whale hunters," said a WDCS spokesperson, according to The Guardian. "The fact is that only a small percentage of Icelandic people eat the meat these days. The whales suffer a long and slow death, they are not suitable as a species for human harvesting and, contrary to myth, they are not responsible for reducing local fish stocks."

This victory was possible in part to the growing number of signatories to the WDCS Stop Whaling Campaign E-protest letter condemning the purchase of whale meat from Iceland.

Hopefully with an increased awareness of whales, Norway, Iceland and Japan will realize that the vast majority of people around the world would rather watch than eat them—and also the fact that whales are worth much more alive than dead, economically-, environmentally- and ethically-speaking. Ultimately, the smart krone, króna and yen will transform harpoons into binoculars, whaling vessels into tourist boats and whalers into tour guides, and whale meat can stay firmly where it belongs: on the bodies of living whales, free to swim the Earth's waters without fear of slaughter.

ACTION ALERTS

Due TODAY 12/13: Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Sign the WDCS Stop Whaling Campaign E-protest letter (WDCS)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Tune into Big Cat Week on NatGeo (NatGeo)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: whale killed by Japanese whalers (Sea Forever)

Victory Month | Genetically Pure Bison Saved from Slaughter

2011-12-12T00:01:00.016-05:00

"These are the most genetically important bison in the United States and should not be killed needlessly." -- Jonathan Proctor, Defenders of Wildlife

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Yellowstone National Park is the only place in the lower 48 states that has supported a continuous population of wild American bison since prehistoric times.

Outside the boundaries of this remarkable protected ecosystem, however, life for America's wild bison (also known as buffalo) can be very different. If they wander off the park, they risk being killed by ranchers and government officials, many of whom say that cattle can pick up a transmittable disease called brucellosis from wild bison, even though there have been no documented cases of this ever happening.

“Because of an unsubstantiated fear that bison will transmit a disease called brucellosis to domestic cattle, bison face a grim fate," according to Defenders of Wildlife. "Harassed back into the park where food is scarce; shot on sight; or shipped off to slaughter.”

Essentially, Americans' taste for cow flesh (and for many, a fear of science) has not only taken away land from the nation's wild bison, but has also led to their unnecessary slaughter. In March of 2008, 1,195 wild bison were killed. It was a record number. As The New York Times noted at the time, "This was not the Yellowstone National Park that tourists see."

This flashpoint—which pits conservationists and animal welfare advocates against the nation's powerful meat industry—clearly shows the connection between eating industrially-produced meat and destroying America's heritage wildlife.

It is a sad and unfortunate tradeoff in which no species wins: not the bison, not the cows and certainly not the many humans who develop a host of medical problems from the consumption of red meat, such as obesity, heart disease, type II diabetes, hypertension, arthritis and also oesophageal, lung, pancreatic and endometrial cancer. The only "winners" perhaps are those in the meat industry, who ultimately profit from humans' taste for meat.

But on December 9, the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission voted to approve a landmark plan to move 68 bison—some of America's last genetically pure wild bison—from a quarantine to the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap Indian Reservations, where they will be safe from potential slaughter.

"[S]upporters like you have sent thousands of messages, attended local hearings and donated vital funds to support our work to protect these American icons," wrote Jonathan Proctor, Rocky Mountain Region representative of the non-profit conservation group Defenders of Wildlife. "And our work has paid off."

A Care2 petition to save the Yellowstone bison collected over 80,000 signatures.

"This is a significant milestone for the restoration of genetically pure bison and a critical step forward for returning these animals, which migrated out of Yellowstone Park, to parts of their historic range across the Great Plains," said Proctor.

Crowfoot, a 19th-century chief of the Siksika First Nation once said, "What is life? It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime."

Thanks in part to those of you who stood up for these iconic animals, more of them will be breathing life this winter season.

ACTION ALERTS

Due 12/13: Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Support the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC), the only organization working 365 days/year to help save America's wild bison (Buffalo Field Campaign)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Tune into Big Cat Week on NatGeo (NatGeo)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: bison mother and calf (credit: fritzmb, Flickr Creative Commons)

Victory Month | Beluga Whales Win, Sarah Palin Loses

2011-12-09T00:01:00.004-05:00

"When the best available science predicts that a recently enacted ban on subsistence hunting will reverse the abrupt depletion of a species, a decade without any noticeable recovery in the species population should raise a concern that the true cause of its decline has not been fully addressed." -- Judge Royce C. Lambeth of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., rejecting an Alaska state lawsuit that claimed that listing beluga whales as endangered will hurt economic development

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

When Sarah Palin was the governor of Alaska, she sparked a lawsuit to strip the endangered beluga whales in Cook Inlet from endangered species protection in an attempt to free up oil and gas development in the region.

But last month, the beluga whales scored a major victory when a federal judge rejected that lawsuit, thanks in part to a Care2 petition that was promoted by 13.7 Billion Years in January of 2009 and signed by over 28,000 people concerned about Palin's irresponsible attack on wildlife.

"The decision means the whale population (which fell from 1,300 in the 1970s to only 300 or 400 today) will keep the federal protection designed to save the animals from extinction," said Kierán Suckling, the executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, in an email.

"The ruling caps more than a decade of work by the Center for Biological Diversity and our supporters to get these magnificent white whales the protection they need."

ACTION ALERTS

Due 12/13: Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Join the almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Tune into Big Cat Week on NatGeo (NatGeo)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas), Marine Mammal Commission/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Victory Month | China Bans Tiger Wine Auction

2011-12-08T00:01:00.009-05:00

"Losing the wild tiger would be unforgivable. We need people power to save it." -- Sir Paul McCartney

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

A hundred years ago, some 100,000 wild tigers roamed across Asia. Today, in large part because of the illegal trade in tiger parts to supply the market for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), only 4,000 remain.

This situation is extremely dire, yet conservationists had a reason to cheer as tigers scored a small victory in China, where the government banned the auction of 400 bottles of tiger wine (which is made from crushed tiger bones) that was planned for last weekend, in part due to the many people around the world who signed a petition started by TigerTime, a campaign of the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation.

The foundation, a wildlife conservation charity based in Surrey, United Kingdom, was started by David Shepherd CBE, an internationally recognized animal advocate who became a wildlife conservationist after witnessing 255 dead zebra at a poisoned waterhole in Tanzania in 1960. Since then, his foundation has given away over GBP 4 million in grants to save critically endangered mammals in their wild habitats throughout Africa and Asia.

"[B]y being a signatory to our Ban The Tiger Trade Petition at www.bantigertrade.com, you helped achieve this small but important victory in the overall campaign to see ALL trade in ANY tiger or Asian big cat body parts from ANY source banned—with a Zero Tolerance Approach," said Vicky Flynn of TigerTime, in an email.

"This is proof that our campaign is making a difference," Flynn said. "The more people that come together on this vital issue, the greater our chance of success...The trade in tiger body parts is a mortal threat to the survival of the wild tiger. We need it stopped."

ACTION ALERTS

Join Sir Paul McCartney and actress Samantha Fox and sign the TigerTime petition urging Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to end all tiger trade within China with a zero-tolerance policy applied to all trade of all parts and derivatives of tiger and other protected Asian big cats, from all sources (TigerTime)
Sign a petition urging China to criminalize and shut down captive tiger farming (ForceChange)
Join almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Tune into Big Cat Week on NatGeo (NatGeo)
Due 12/13: Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

Victory Month | San Bernardino's Anti-Cockfighting Campaign

2011-12-07T00:01:00.006-05:00

Roosters in San Bernardino, California, have a new defender in DA Michael Ramos

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies, making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer, joining a public protest or engaging in other types of activism. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

If all humans acted humanely, animals would never be used for human entertainment. "The animals of the world exist for their own reasons," said American poet, author and activist Alice Walker, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1982 novel The Color Purple. Walker, who is known for her penetrating analyses of race and gender, is acutely aware of how our treatment of animals is connected to our treatment of each other. Animals, she said, "were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men."

This week, that profound sentiment found a new realization when San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos launched a new public awareness campaign against the cruel bloodsport known as cockfighting, in which roosters are forced to fight each other to the death while spectators look on, many of them gambling on the results.

"Breeders often pluck the birds' feathers and hack off the roosters' waddles and/or combs (the flesh at the top of their heads and under their beaks) with shears to prevent other roosters from tearing them off in the ring," according to PETA. "Since roosters do not have sweat glands, losing these body parts deprives them of the ability to cool themselves. Some 'cockers' cut off the birds' spurs, which are the natural bony protrusions on the legs, so that more deadly, artificial weapons can be strapped to their legs...'Losing' birds are often discarded in a barrel or trash can near the game pit, even while they are still alive."

Cockfighting, like other animal fighting bloodsports, has strong connections to gang-related violence and other types of criminal activity. (The San Bernardino Sun, for example, notes a current case in California of two men on trial for the killing of another man over cockfighting gambling debts.) The new campaign features a video produced with the help of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

In a blog post yesterday, Wayne Pacelle, the president and CEO of HSUS, which provided videotape footage of cockfighting to the DA's office, called Ramos "among the best of the law enforcement professionals."

In a landmark 2008 case, for example, Ramos charged employees at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Company with felony and misdemeanor charges for animal cruelty. It was the first time such charges have been brought against American slaughterhouse workers. The HSUS provided Ramos with videotaped evidence gathered during a six-week undercover investigation. The plant was shut down.

"I need the public to understand that my office takes all cases involving animal cruelty very seriously," Ramos said, following the Hallmark/Westland prosecution. "It doesn't matter whether the mistreated animal is a beloved family pet or a cow at a slaughterhouse. Unnecessary cruelty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law."

Thanks to Ramos' efforts, supported by concerned citizens and animal welfare organizations like the Humane Society and PETA, roosters and other animals who suffer in America's largest county may one day have a better future.

ACTION ALERTS

Join almost 2.3 million people around the world who have signed the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Due 12/13: Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: rooster used for cockfighting (credit: San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, source: HSUS)

Victory Month | Saving Menhaden

2011-12-06T00:01:00.007-05:00

"Today’s vote is a welcome step for a fish that hasn’t caught a break since Dwight Eisenhower was president." -- Peter Baker, Director of Northeast Fisheries, Pew Environment Group, November 9, 2011

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies or making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

The Atlantic menhaden is often called "the most important fish in the sea." A small, silver colored forage fish, the menhaden (also known as mossbunker or pogy) is a critical part of the natural food chain. "[H]aving too few menhaden in the water could result in disastrous impacts on the fish and wildlife that eat them,” says Peter Baker, Director of Northeast Fisheries, Pew Environment Group.[1]

Last month, after an intensive two-month campaign led by the Pew, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the interstate agency that governs the menhaden fishery, voted 14-3 to establish new fishery management benchmarks for the fish in an effort to increase its population by four times, following concerns of its decline in the Chesapeake Bay and the support of 46,804 concerned people who signed the Pew petition to save the menhaden.

It is not known exactly why the decline has occurred. Some possibilities include overfishing, increased natural predation and climate change.

"More and more, we see that menhaden, herring, and other so-called forage fish—the species that the larger, better-known fish eat—are an irreplaceable link in the ocean food chain,” said Baker, who hailed the ASMFC's decision as "a watershed moment."

ACTION ALERTS

Sign a petition to end overfishing (Ocean Conservancy)
Due 12/13: Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

NOTES

[1] http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=85899366294

image: Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus) from the Chesapeake Bay (credit: Brian.gratwicke, Wikimedia Commons)

Victory Month | Peruvian Gold Mine Construction Halted

2011-12-05T00:01:00.015-05:00

"Weak, outdated and lacking in credibility." -- Jose De Echave, Peru's deputy environment minister who resigned on November 28, on the official environmental impact studies on the Conga gold mine project[1]

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies or making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Today, Peruvian president Ollanta Humala declared a 60-day state of emergency to quell violent protests over the past two weeks during which at least 10 people were injured over the construction of a massive open-cast gold mining project in the High Andes, just days after protesters succeeded in halting the construction of the mine...at least for now.

On one side of the fight is the Denver-based mining giant Newmont, the majority owner of the $4.8-billion Conga project. On the other side are the residents and several elected officials of Cajamarca, a region in Peru's northern highlands that borders Ecuador and includes part of the Amazon rainforest.

Considering that the project—an extension of the Newmont-operated Yanacocha, the biggest gold mine in Latin America—is the nation's biggest investment, the work stoppage will likely be temporary, but it is no small victory for both the indigenous people and environmentalists, who assert that the mine will cause pollution and destroy water supplies, including groundwater to irrigate farms. The project involves emptying four lakes and moving the water to man-made reservoirs.

Perhaps the protests, and the thousands of people around the world who have signed petitions against the mine, will—if not prevent the mine's existence—at least get strict and enforceable environmental regulations on its operation and the treatment of its workers. Newmont says their mine will create thousands of jobs. It's a familiar refrain: jobs vs. the environment. But at the rate that humans are destroying the environment, at some point, these jobs will be gone and so will the landscape upon which so many people and species depend. In this case, for gold.

"One gold ring produces over 20 tons of waste during production," writes Nilton Deza, a Cajamarcan-based activist in a Change.org petition urging the retailer Macy's -- one of the biggest gold sellers in the United States -- to sign the so-called Golden Rules of Responsible Gold. "Gold mining threatens clean water, and the communities that depend on it," Deza says.

"Adding insult to injury, gold mining too often occurs under terrible conditions, including the use of child labor and forced labor."

"Most consumers don't know where the gold in their products comes from, or how it is mined," according to the environmental group Earthworks. "Gold mining is a dirty industry: it can displace communities, contaminate drinking water, hurt workers, and destroy pristine environments."

While the Conga project remains at the center of a pitched conflict, the protesters in Cajamarca and their supporters around the globe have succeeded for now: According to BBC News, Newmont has "promised to resume dialogue with local residents and the government in an effort to reach a compromise."

In any case, coming to the negotiating table is one of the remaining actions that the protesters have left in their arsenal. Today's state of emergency restricts the right to assembly and permits warrantless arrests. In the final analysis, no mining can happen without some level of environmental degradation and the loss of habitat for countless species, begging the question: Just how important is that piece of gold jewelry in the window?

ACTION ALERTS

Sign the "No Dirty Gold" pledge (Earthworks)
Tell Macy's to sign the Golden Rules for Responsible Gold (Change.org)
Due 12/13: Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

NOTES

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15956429

image: Yanacocha mine leach pad (credit: Ernesto Cabellos/Guarango Cine y Video; source: No Dirty Gold)

Victory Month | Australian Abattoir Shut Down

2011-12-02T00:01:00.008-05:00

"Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight." — Albert Schweitzer

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, making donations, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies or making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

Every year, the average American consumes 64 pounds of cow flesh, 49 pounds pig flesh, 84 pounds of chicken flesh and 18 pounds of turkey flesh. Every year, vegetarians spare the lives of over 50 animals.

Over a lifetime, a single vegetarian spares the lives of thousands of animals.

The following is from an email from Lyn White, Investigator and Campaign Director, Animals Australia, dated November 28, 2011.

Only eight months ago I stood in Indonesian slaughterhouses filming the harrowing abuse dealt out nightly to Australian cattle. The unforgettable stories of individual animals I captured on camera united a nation against animal cruelty. Last night ABC's Four Corners was awarded the Gold Walkley for bringing these stories to light.

Sadly, having witnessed animals slaughtered in nine different countries I know that animal abuse in abattoirs is not confined to Indonesia — it occurs in every country around the world, including our own. And every day, extraordinary stories of other individual animals unfold — but they are rarely if ever known.

Last week, 'Kate' — a fellow investigator — openly filmed the final moments of a group of young pigs in an abattoir in the Gippsland in Victoria. Though Australia's abattoir system is highly regulated, there is no guarantee that animals are protected from cruelty. In just 90 minutes, 'Kate' captured enough film to have this abattoir shut down indefinitely following formal complaints laid by Animals Australia.

Whilst watching this footage I reflected that for the first 38 years of my life I ate animals — completely unaware of the existence of factory farms, and ignorant of what animals experienced in slaughterhouses. Becoming informed was life-changing. No-one had reminded me that eating animals was a choice.

If there is a message that resounds from the animals' stories in this film, it is that we have a choice. That regulations and standards didn't protect these animals from cruelty — and that even if they had — that they would still have been afraid, that they still would have suffered.

The story of their final moments is so seldom known or told — yet it desperately needs it to be, because we live on, and we still have choices to make...

They need us to make informed and compassionate ones.

For the animals,

Lyn White
Investigator & Campaign Director
Animals Australia

ACTION ALERTS

Start a more compassionate diet -- take the pledge to take pigs off your plate (Animals Australia)
Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and make October your month to see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
Due 12/13: Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Tell Skechers: Don't support cruel greyhound dog racing (Care2/Change.org)
Tell BCBG to stop selling fur (Care2)
Tell Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to end China's illegal tiger trade (TigerTime)
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image: Mercy for Animals

Victory Month | Rand Paul's Dirty Air Assault Thwarted

2011-12-01T00:01:00.009-05:00

Americans can breathe a little easier

[December is Victory Month on 13.7 Billion Years. As the year comes to a close, each post will review a big or small victory that was made possible in 2011 in part by the actions taken by you through signing petitions, sending letters to your elected representatives, asking companies to change their policies or making a statement at the cash register as an ethical consumer. By taking a moment to get involved, you have helped to make a difference. Thank you.]

In November, the U.S. Senate voted down (56-41) last-minute legislation introduced by Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that attempted to eliminate the EPA's Cross State Air Pollution Rule and prevent the agency from cleaning the nation's air. Paul's effort to allow midwestern power plants more freedom to pollute (what opponents called the "Dirty Air Act") was part of an ongoing Republican-led crusade to limit the powers of the EPA, which many in the GOP view as a job-killer.

In fact, the real killer is pollution from power plants. In March, the American Lung Association (ALA) released a report that found that "particle pollution from power plants is estimated to kill approximately 13,000 people a year."

"This is a huge victory for life-saving clean air protections that keep our kids and communities safe—and a direct repudiation of the radical and lavishly funded polluter assault on our right to breathe clean air that won't kill us or make us sick," said Sam Parry, EDF's director of Online Membership and Activism, in an email. "These dirty air assaults have one fatal flaw in common—they promote the bizarre notion that more toxic air pollution will magically grow our economy. Over many years of clean air protections, we know the opposite to be true."

"The Congressional Review Act repeal...would have exposed more than 240 million Americans to harmful and lethal air pollution and would have caused 13,000 to 34,000 deaths each year," according to Earthjustice.

Even some of Paul's own party members voted against his proposal. "New Hampshire is a downwind state...and I think it's very important that we're not the tailpipe for out-of-state power plants," said Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), according to the Huffington Post. "It's essentially pollution coming into New Hampshire."

A good number of concerned citizens took action and contacted their senators, urging them to oppose Rand's legislation. "Our Online Action Network did more than its share to help beat this back," said Parry. "In just [a] few weeks, 100,000 of you sent emails to your Senators—a truly inspiring display of grassroots power that made sure our collective voices were heard. Thank you to everyone who took action on this important issue."

ACTION ALERTS

Due 12/13: Tell U.S. Fish & Wildlife to not grant a permit requested by NiSource, the operator of a 15,000 mile pipeline in 14 states, seeking to legally kill endangered species anywhere along the route of their pipeline for the next 50 years (Endangered Species Coalition)
Tell Skechers: Don't support cruel greyhound dog racing (Care2/Change.org)
Take the pledge to prevent cruelty to pigs (Animals Australia)
Tell BCBG to stop selling fur (Care2)
Tell Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to end China's illegal tiger trade (TigerTime)
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion
Deep Space: Staring at the stars
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future

image:papadont, Flickr Creative Commons

Of Rice and Men | Indonesia

2011-11-30T00:00:00.003-05:00

Nasi goreng (fried rice) is Indonesia's national dish. It was also voted the world's 2nd most delicious food in a CNN poll

[Last month, the series 21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes considered the many benefits of moving from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. As October 31 marked the day the world's human population reached a staggering 7 billion, thinking about feeding all those people is a higher priority than ever before. One of the solutions to global food security is also one of the reasons that humans have demonstrated such intense fecundity: rice. As rice can sustain more people than any other grain per acre, the technological advances and territorial expansion of rice farming have been closely linked to human population growth. This month, the series Of Rice and Men takes a tour around the globe, looking at a different rice variety from a different region and—continuing last month's daily recipe idea—a vegan recipe for a rice-based dish. This grain of humble origins has the power to feed the world; considering the skyrocketing human population, we're going to need a lot more of it. Get your rice cooker ready.]

Producing 64 million metric tonnes of rice each year, Indonesia is the world's third biggest rice producer, following China (197 MMT) and India (131 MMT). Rice has been a part of the landscape since ancient times. Wild rice grew on the island of Sulawesi as early as 3000 BCE. By the 8th century, rice was cultivated on the central island of Java, as evidenced by stone inscriptions depicting the king levying taxes on rice.

Central to the Indonesian diet and culture, rice provides over half the daily calorie intake for the nation's people. In 1985, the nation became rice self-sufficient.

While it is usually eaten plain, along with protein and vegetables, there are also several distinct preparations, such as as nasi uduk (steamed rice cooked in coconut milk, originally from Jakarta), nasi kuning ("yellow rice," steamed rice cooked with coconut milk and turmeric), ketupat (rice packed in woven palm leaf pouches and boiled; also common in Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines), lontong (compressed rice wrapped inside a banana leaf, steamed and cut into small cakes), rengginang (deep fried rice crackers), arak beras (rice wine) and of course, Indonesia's national dish, nasi goreng (literally, "fried rice").

Recipe: Nasi goreng. A 2011 CNN International online poll listed nasi goreng as the world's 2nd most delicious food. Indonesia's national dish is stir-fried rice spiced with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), shallot, garlic, tamarind and chilli and often accompanied with a protein source, such as egg, chicken and prawns. For a healthy and cruelty-free vegan version, use tofu.

ACTION ALERTS

Donate rice for free (Freerice.com)
Tell Skechers: Don't support cruel greyhound dog racing (Care2/Change.org)
Aussie abattoir shut down for cruelty to pigs; click to help save more from cruelty (Animals Australia)
Tell BCBG to stop selling fur (Care2)
Fairfax: Demand justice for a family dog killed before her time (Care2)
Tell Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to end China's illegal tiger trade (TigerTime)
Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Consumer Reports finds arsenic and lead in fruit juices. Consumer Reports found that 10 percent of apple and grape juice samples had arsenic levels exceeding federal drinking-water standards and 25 percent had lead levels higher than the limit for bottled water. Most of the arsenic was inorganic, which is a human carcinogen. The organization is calling for government standards to limit consumers’ exposure to these toxics (Consumer Reports)
Canada kept detection of salmon virus secret. A decade before this fall's salmon-virus scare, a Canadian government researcher said she found a similar virus in more than 100 wild fish from Alaska to Vancouver Island. But Canadian officials never told the public or scientists in the United States about those tests (Seattle Times, Washington)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Protests in Peru halt Newmont gold mine project. The US company Newmont which plans to build a huge open-cast gold mine in northern Peru says it is halting construction after days of protests (BBC)

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition (November 2011)
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals (October 2011)
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)

image: Javanese women planting rice near Prambanan, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. (Gunkarta Gunawan Kartapranata, Wikimedia Commons)

Of Rice and Men | Portugal

2011-11-29T00:01:00.009-05:00

Say hello to the European Union's biggest consumer of rice

[Last month, the series 21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes considered the many benefits of moving from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. As October 31 marked the day the world's human population reached a staggering 7 billion, thinking about feeding all those people is a higher priority than ever before. One of the solutions to global food security is also one of the reasons that humans have demonstrated such intense fecundity: rice. As rice can sustain more people than any other grain per acre, the technological advances and territorial expansion of rice farming have been closely linked to human population growth. This month, the series Of Rice and Men takes a tour around the globe, looking at a different rice variety from a different region and—continuing last month's daily recipe idea—a vegan recipe for a rice-based dish. This grain of humble origins has the power to feed the world; considering the skyrocketing human population, we're going to need a lot more of it. Get your rice cooker ready.]

Rice was first introduced to the Portuguese diet during the Moorish Invasion in the 8th century AD. The mountainous landscape of the Upper Douro region (pictured) is perfect for creating rice terraces. Additionally, the combination of Mediterranean and Altantic climate provides an ideal growing season that is characterized by warm and dry weather.

Though rice cultivation was largely abandoned after the country's liberation in the 13th century, rice resurged a major crop in the 18th century and became a protected crop following World War I. Today, Portugal is the leading consumer of rice in the European Union. In 2002, Portugal consumed 17.7 kg of rice per capita, more than three times the EU average of 5.1 kg.[1]

The majority of rice grown in Portugal is short grain, which is excellent for rice pudding or arroz de marisco (seafood rice), as it retains much liquid and gets fluffy when cooked. But there is also a different type of Portuguese rice called arroz agulha (needle rice), which is longer and finer than most other varieties and is prized for making dry, non-sticky rice.

Recipe: Emeril's Portuguese Rice

ACTION ALERTS

Due TODAY 11/29: Tell Obama to grant wilderness protection to the Drakes Estero, a national ecological treasure in California (Care 2/NRDC)
Donate rice for free (Freerice.com)
Tell Skechers: Don't support cruel greyhound dog racing (Care2/Change.org)
Aussie abattoir shut down for cruelty to pigs; click to help save more from cruelty (Animals Australia)
Tell BCBG to stop selling fur (Care2)
Fairfax: Demand justice for a family dog killed before her time (Care2)
Tell Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to end China's illegal tiger trade (TigerTime)
Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Climate change boosts a lethal disease. For 17 years, the Hendra virus smoldered in its host bat population, only rarely crossing to humans. Then it exploded, likely triggered by heavy rains and floods in Australia earlier this year. And that has public health doctors nervous about climate change (Daily Climate)
Alberta worked with industry on fracking PR strategy. The Alberta government met privately with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers to discuss a joint public relations campaign designed to counter "misinformation" about the controversial shale-gas fracking industry in the province. It appears they didn’t want the public to know (CBC Edmonton, Alberta)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Australian abattoir shut down for cruelty to pigs (Animals Australia)
Every year, the average American consumes 64 pounds of cow flesh, 49 pounds pig flesh, 84 pounds of chicken flesh and 18 pounds of turkey flesh. Every year, vegetarians spare the lives of over 50 animals. Over a lifetime, a single vegetarian spares the lives of thousands of animals (13.7 Billion Years)
Ringling to pay largest fine in circus history for violations of Animal Welfare Act (PETA)
Reducing food waste during the holiday season (Worldwatch Institute)

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition (November 2011)
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals (October 2011)
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)

NOTES

[1] http://www.scielo.oces.mctes.pt/pdf/egg/v14n1/v14n1a06.pdf

image: Rice terraces in the Upper Douro region, Carrazeda de Ansiães, Bragança, Portugal (Bernt Rostad, Flickr Creative Commons)

Of Rice and Men | The Banaue Rice Terraces of the Philippines

2011-11-28T00:01:00.008-05:00

Considered the "Eighth Wonder of the World," the Banaue rice terraces are an ancient marvel

[Last month, the series 21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes considered the many benefits of moving from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. As October 31 marked the day the world's human population reached a staggering 7 billion, thinking about feeding all those people is a higher priority than ever before. One of the solutions to global food security is also one of the reasons that humans have demonstrated such intense fecundity: rice. As rice can sustain more people than any other grain per acre, the technological advances and territorial expansion of rice farming have been closely linked to human population growth. This month, the series Of Rice and Men takes a tour around the globe, looking at a different rice variety from a different region and—continuing last month's daily recipe idea—a vegan recipe for a rice-based dish. This grain of humble origins has the power to feed the world; considering the skyrocketing human population, we're going to need a lot more of it. Get your rice cooker ready.]

Carved some 2,000 years ago primarily by hand into the mountains of the Ifugao province in the northern Philippines, the Banaue rice terraces get water from an ancient irrigation system originating in the rainforest above them. It is a marvel of ancient technology and agriculture. For Filipinos, they are known as the "Eighth Wonder of the World."

Maintained by the native Ifugao people, the terraces have come to symbolize the centrality of rice to their culture and to Filipino culture in general. Elaborate feasts and agricultural rites mark important days in the farming cycle, from the planting to cultivation to consumption of this prestige crop. The Ifugao province is the origination of tapuy, or bayah, a Filipino rice wine that is now produced around the country.

Today, the terraces are producing tinawon, a rice that has widespread demand due to the highly fragrant pandan plant scent, the same scent of basmati or jasmine rice. Produced once a year, the prized tinawon rice is exported around the world. Montana, for example, imports between 3-3.5 tons of it each year.

"We have strengthened our Rice Terraces Farmers Cooperative to be able to provide the supply for the rapidly increasing demand for the organically produced indigenous rice variety," said Ifugao Governor Eugene Balitang. "We have a good market for the 'tinawon rice' but we must be able to consistently meet the demand...We have to make available the tinawon rice even in our souvenir shops because foreign and local tourists look for it when they are in the province visiting our rice terraces. It is the first commodity that they look for."[1]

Recipe: Palitaw (Filipino Sweet Rice Cakes)

ACTION ALERTS

Due TOMORROW 11/29: Tell Obama to grant wilderness protection to the Drakes Estero, a national ecological treasure in California (Care 2/NRDC)
Donate rice for free (Freerice.com)
Take the Animals Australia pledge to take animals off your plate (Animals Australia)
Tell Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to end China's illegal tiger trade (TigerTime)
Tell Congress’ Super-Committee to Cut Funds for BLM Wild Horse Roundups & Removals (@FreeWildHorses)
Say NO to the BLM's Proposal Wild Horse Roundup in the Stone Cabin, Nevada HMA (@FreeWildHorses)
NiSource, a gas pipeline company, is pressuring US Fish & Wildlife Service to issue a permit that would allow killing endangered species anywhere along a mile-wide, 15,000-mile-long pipeline corridor for the next 50 years. Say NO to this request (Earthjustice)
Tell your senators not to weaken Clean Water Act protections for America's most vulnerable waters (NRDC)
Say YES to moving three elephants—Iringa, Toka and Thika—from Toronto Zoo to PAWS Elephant Sanctuary (Care2)
Tell Airlines: Stop transporting non-human primates for invasive research (BUAV)
Tell BCBG to stand by the original commitment and go fur-free (IDA)
Despite a ban, India's biggest oil company, Indian Oil, is allowing bullocks to be used to transport their oil. Say NO to this continuing cruelty (PETA India)
Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PART OF THE PROBLEM

The crisis in the Horn of Africa is the most severe food security emergency in the world today (FAO)
Atrazine in water tied to menstrual irregularities, low hormones (Environmental Health News)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Last week, an animal welfare investigator openly filmed the final moments of a group of young pigs in an abattoir in the Gippsland in Victoria. Though Australia's abattoir system is highly regulated, there is no guarantee that animals are protected from cruelty. In just 90 minutes, the investigaor captured enough film to have this abattoir shut down indefinitely following formal complaints laid by Animals Australia. "Whilst watching this footage I reflected that for the first 38 years of my life I ate animals — completely unaware of the existence of factory farms, and ignorant of what animals experienced in slaughterhouses. Becoming informed was life-changing." -- Lyn White, Investigator and Campaign Director, Animals Australia
Endangered Species Act protection sought for Emperor penguins (Center for Biological Diversity)

PAST SERIES

Of Rice and Men: Cooking the world's most important grain for human nutrition (November 2011)
21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals (October 2011)
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)

NOTES

[1] "Ifugao farmers gain toehold on global rice market," Manila Standard Today, 22 Nov. 2011. Web. http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNation.htm?f=2011/november/22/nation5.isx&d=2011/november/22

image: Banaue rice terraces, Philippines (McCouch S: Diversifying Selection in Plant Breeding, Wikimedia Commons)

Of Rice and Men | Louisiana

2011-11-23T00:01:00.013-05:00

America's oldest rice mill turns 100 next year

[Last month, the series 21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes considered the many benefits of moving from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. As October 31 marked the day the world's human population reached a staggering 7 billion, thinking about feeding all those people is a higher priority than ever before. One of the solutions to global food security is also one of the reasons that humans have demonstrated such intense fecundity: rice. As rice can sustain more people than any other grain per acre, the technological advances and territorial expansion of rice farming have been closely linked to human population growth. This month, the series Of Rice and Men takes a tour around the globe, looking at a different rice variety from a different region and—continuing last month's daily recipe idea—a vegan recipe for a rice-based dish. This grain of humble origins has the power to feed the world; considering the skyrocketing human population, we're going to need a lot more of it. Get your rice cooker ready.]

Louisiana is known for its gumbo, Cajun hot sauce and sugar cane, but of all the states, it has a claim to having the most rice history: America's oldest rice mill, Conrad—which celebrates its 100th anniversary in February 2012—is located there, in New Iberia, whose name gives away its European history. Settled in 1779 by 500 colonists from Málaga, Spain, it was named Nueva Iberia in honor of the Iberian Peninsula. It was also settled by the French, who called it Nouvelle Ibérie.

With almost 13.8 percent of America's rice fields, Louisiana is the third-largest rice-producing state, after California (19.3 percent) and Arkansas (a whopping 48.2 percent). Mississippi, Missouri and Texas round out the top-six rice-growing states.

What makes the United States unique among rice-growing nations, according to the USA Rice Federation, is the ability to grow all types of rice—short-grain, long-grain, aromatic and speciality varieties.[1]

The Federation also notes the conservation elements of rice-growing. "All of the major rice- producing areas of the United States serve as important habitats for waterfowl activity during winter months. In fact, rice-growing areas provide surrogate habitats for hundreds of wildlife species that rely on wetland conditions for survival, some of which are or could be threatened if not for the environments provided by flooded rice fields."

Recipe: Louisiana Pecan Rice. With pecans, Cajun spices and hot sauce, this rice dish perfectly assimilates the traditional flavors of the Bayou. For a vegan version, use vegetable broth and a butter substitute or olive oil.

ACTION ALERTS

Donate rice for free (Freerice.com)
Tell Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to end China's illegal tiger trade (TigerTime)
Due 11/29: Tell Obama to grant wilderness protection to the Drakes Estero, a national ecological treasure in California (Care 2/NRDC)
Tell Congress’ Super-Committee to Cut Funds for BLM Wild Horse Roundups & Removals (@FreeWildHorses)
Say NO to the BLM's Proposal Wild Horse Roundup in the Stone Cabin, Nevada HMA (@FreeWildHorses)
NiSource, a gas pipeline company, is pressuring US Fish & Wildlife Service to issue a permit that would allow killing endangered species anywhere along a mile-wide, 15,000-mile-long pipeline corridor for the next 50 years. Say NO to this request (Earthjustice)
Tell your senators not to weaken Clean Water Act protections for America's most vulnerable waters (NRDC)
Say YES to moving three elephants—Iringa, Toka and Thika—from Toronto Zoo to PAWS Elephant Sanctuary (Care2)
Tell Airlines: Stop transporting non-human primates for invasive research (BUAV)
Tell BCBG to stand by the original commitment and go fur-free (IDA)
Despite a ban, India's biggest oil company, Indian Oil, is allowing bullocks to be used to transport their oil. Say NO to this continuing cruelty (PETA India)
Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PART OF THE PROBLEM

China breaks 2010 promise: Tigers are still killed for profit (TigerTime)
BPA lurks in canned soups and drinks. A new study has found that people who ate one serving of canned food daily over the course of five days had significantly elevated levels—more than a tenfold increase—of bisphenol-A, or BPA, an endocrine disruptor that lines most food and drink cans (New York Times)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Fish and rice flourish together in paddies (SciDevNet)
Fur Free Friday is November 25 (FurKills.org)

PAST SERIES

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals (October 2011)
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

NOTES
[1] http://www.usarice.com/doclib/188/219/3674.PDF

image: Louisiana's rice fields are a haven for water birds (dermoidhome, Flickr Creative Commons)

Of Rice and Men | Nepal

2011-11-22T00:01:00.002-05:00

Lentil curry, rice and vegetables, my body, my government

[Last month, the series 21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes considered the many benefits of moving from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. As October 31 marked the day the world's human population reached a staggering 7 billion, thinking about feeding all those people is a higher priority than ever before. One of the solutions to global food security is also one of the reasons that humans have demonstrated such intense fecundity: rice. As rice can sustain more people than any other grain per acre, the technological advances and territorial expansion of rice farming have been closely linked to human population growth. This month, the series Of Rice and Men takes a tour around the globe, looking at a different rice variety from a different region and—continuing last month's daily recipe idea—a vegan recipe for a rice-based dish. This grain of humble origins has the power to feed the world; considering the skyrocketing human population, we're going to need a lot more of it. Get your rice cooker ready.]

Comprising almost a fifth of agricultural GDP and providing over half of the total calorie intake of the Nepali people, rice is easily Nepal's most important crop, boasting 55 different varieties, grown at various elevations and micro-environment ranging from tropical plains to the high mountain elevation in Chhumchure, Jumla, 3,050 meters above sea level.[1]

Rice is so important to the national identity, that even soldiers have a saying "Daal bhaat tarkaari, jio mero sarkaari," which is Nepali for "lentil curry, rice and vegetables, my body, my government."[2]

Recipe: Vegetable Pulao (Nepali Fried Rice). With green chilies, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, green peas, onion and tomato, this spicy vegan dish is a popular Nepali recipe that is often served during celebratory dinners.

ACTION ALERTS

Donate rice for free (Freerice.com)
Due 11/29: Tell Obama to grant wilderness protection to the Drakes Estero, a national ecological treasure in California (Care 2/NRDC)
Tell Congress’ Super-Committee to Cut Funds for BLM Wild Horse Roundups & Removals (@FreeWildHorses)
Say NO to the BLM's Proposal Wild Horse Roundup in the Stone Cabin, Nevada HMA (@FreeWildHorses)
NiSource, a gas pipeline company, is pressuring US Fish & Wildlife Service to issue a permit that would allow killing endangered species anywhere along a mile-wide, 15,000-mile-long pipeline corridor for the next 50 years. Say NO to this request (Earthjustice)
Tell your senators not to weaken Clean Water Act protections for America's most vulnerable waters (NRDC)
Say YES to moving three elephants—Iringa, Toka and Thika—from Toronto Zoo to PAWS Elephant Sanctuary (Care2)
Tell Airlines: Stop transporting non-human primates for invasive research (BUAV)
Tell BCBG to stand by the original commitment and go fur-free (IDA)
Despite a ban, India's biggest oil company, Indian Oil, is allowing bullocks to be used to transport their oil. Say NO to this continuing cruelty (PETA India)
Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Zimbabwe: Hwange elephant deaths linked to poor park maintenance (SW Radio Africa)
Video: Huge levels of food waste in Europe (FoodWasteTV, YouTube)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Victory: New protections to save "the most important fish in the sea" (Pew Trusts)
Pit bulls rescued by Out of the Pits are doing amazing things (Out of the Pits)
Fur Free Friday is November 25 (FurKills.org)

PAST SERIES

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals (October 2011)
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

NOTES

[1] http://www.narc.org.np/publicaton/pdf/varieties_released/VarietiesEng.pdf

[2] http://www.consonantaspirations.com/2010/10/food-sayings.html

image: Nepali women planting rice (Sigismund von Dobschütz, Wikimedia Commons)

Of Rice and Men | Iran's Domsiah

2011-11-21T00:01:00.017-05:00

The basmati-like rice with a black dot on the end

[Last month, the series 21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes considered the many benefits of moving from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. As October 31 marked the day the world's human population reached a staggering 7 billion, thinking about feeding all those people is a higher priority than ever before. One of the solutions to global food security is also one of the reasons that humans have demonstrated such intense fecundity: rice. As rice can sustain more people than any other grain per acre, the technological advances and territorial expansion of rice farming have been closely linked to human population growth. This month, the series Of Rice and Men takes a tour around the globe, looking at a different rice variety from a different region and—continuing last month's daily recipe idea—a vegan recipe for a rice-based dish. This grain of humble origins has the power to feed the world; considering the skyrocketing human population, we're going to need a lot more of it. Get your rice cooker ready.]

The Rain

a poem by Golchin Gilani*

Once again, the rain
With rhythmic melody
With countless pouring diamonds
Hits the roof of my house

The rainy day reminds me of
An old day hike, sweet and pleasant,
In the jungles of Gilan when
I was a ten-year-old kid.

Glad and blissful
Light and frivolous
Restless and energetic
With two childish legs
I would run like a gazelle
I would spring over the springs
I would play away from the house

The lightning like a sharp sword
Would cut apart the clouds
The mad thunder, roaring,
Would punch the clouds

Listen to me my little kid
To the man of tomorrow
The life, either dark or bright,
Is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

*translated from Persian by Hassan H., Easypersian.com

Buttressing the southeast corner of the Caspian Sea is Gilan, a province in northern Iran where farmers grow a rice variety with a distinctive feature that illustrates both sides of life described by the late Iranian poet Golchin Gilani as "either dark or bright." It is called domsiah, a unique grain which has a black spot on one end. Domsiah means "black end" in Persian.

Similar to its relative basmati, domsiah is valued for its strong aroma and fluffy quality. Though not a particularly high-yielding variety and prone to stem borer or blast virus, these qualities have kept the demand for this long-grain high: Over 80 percent of Iran's rice-growing area is dominated by domsiah and similar varieties.[1]

Recipe: Persian Jeweled rice (Javaher Polow). Bursting with pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, barberries, black and golden raisins, orange skins -- and spiced with saffron, cardamom, cumin and crushed rose petals, this decadent preparation of basmati rice is a visually stunning dish that is great for festive occasions and perfectly illustrates the fertile valleys of the Gilan province, known for its rich harvests of fruit, nuts and vegetables. Olives served with walnut paste is a popular dish in a province known for its strong culinary tradition.

ACTION ALERTS

Donate rice for free (Freerice.com)
NiSource, a gas pipeline company, is pressuring US Fish & Wildlife Service to issue a permit that would allow killing endangered species anywhere along a mile-wide, 15,000-mile-long pipeline corridor for the next 50 years. Say NO to this request (Earthjustice)
Tell your senators not to weaken Clean Water Act protections for America's most vulnerable waters (NRDC)
Say YES to moving three elephants—Iringa, Toka and Thika—from Toronto Zoo to PAWS Elephant Sanctuary (Care2)
Due 11/29: Tell Obama to grant wilderness protection to the Drakes Estero, a national ecological treasure in California (Care 2/NRDC)
Tell Airlines: Stop transporting non-human primates for invasive research (BUAV)
Tell BCBG to stand by the original commitment and go fur-free (IDA)
Despite a ban, India's biggest oil company, Indian Oil, is allowing bullocks to be used to transport their oil. Say NO to this continuing cruelty (PETA India)
Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Global warming forcing polar bears south, into Canadian towns (HuffPostGreen)
Vast turtle slaughter in Bangladesh (Wildlife Extra News)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Fur Free Friday is November 25 (FurKills.org)

PAST SERIES

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals (October 2011)
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

NOTES

[1] http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/W8595T/w8595t05.htm

image: Gilan province, Iran (HORIZON, Flickr Creative Commons)

Of Rice and Men | Dominican Republic

2011-11-18T00:01:00.008-05:00

The Caribbean nation's rice self-sufficiency is threatened

[Last month, the series 21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes considered the many benefits of moving from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. As October 31 marked the day the world's human population reached a staggering 7 billion, thinking about feeding all those people is a higher priority than ever before. One of the solutions to global food security is also one of the reasons that humans have demonstrated such intense fecundity: rice. As rice can sustain more people than any other grain per acre, the technological advances and territorial expansion of rice farming have been closely linked to human population growth. This month, the series Of Rice and Men takes a tour around the globe, looking at a different rice variety from a different region and—continuing last month's daily recipe idea—a vegan recipe for a rice-based dish. This grain of humble origins has the power to feed the world; considering the skyrocketing human population, we're going to need a lot more of it. Get your rice cooker ready.]

Rice is a main element of the cuisine of the Dominican Republic, a nation that shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti. It is also a main part of its economy, and as the country found out last year, it is an industry that must be regulated.

In November 2010, the National Rice Commission (Cona) announced that the annual rice harvest would become tightly controlled, following skyrocketing production numbers—450,000 tons to 625,000 tons in just six years—that created a situation where supply outpaces demand.

"We have created a problem which...can lead us to a ridiculous situation of saying that we went broke from the windfall," said Miguel de Moya, president of the Dominican Association of Rice Factories (ADOFA). The new policy bans the planting of low-yield varieties and cropping sprouts from August 1 to November 30.

This year, the sector is dealing with a lack of cash flow due to fewer sales, payment delays and higher production costs. National Rice Producers Federation President Iván Tio said that the nation's rice self-sufficiency is being threatened.[2]

Recipe: Dominican Moro De Habichuelas Negras (Rice and Beans). There are many versions of this humble staple dish. Cubans have their own. So do Puerto Ricans. This version from the Dominican Republic, featuring black beans, tomato paste, green peppers, red onion, garlic, cilantro and parsley, "is a staple dish for Christmas," writes Kitty Kat Cook on Food.com. "We also make the same with red kidney beans. Try to boil your own beans instead of using the canned type. I find it makes a great difference. Just put about 2-3 cups of raw beans in 4-5 cups of water and boil over very low heat for 4-6 hours until the bean can be easily be squeezed between your fingers. Then you can freeze or refrigerate them in its own water. When using them for the rice use the same water they were boiled in, much more flavorful." For a vegetarian/vegan version, use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock. [Cook's note: Making homemade vegetable stock is one of the easiest things to do. Simply boil your vegetable cuttings—any vegetable pieces that would go into the trash or compost bin. Strain the mixture and set aside some in the freezer; you'll always have homemade veggie stock on hand.]

ACTION ALERTS

Due TODAY 11/18: Tell USDA to Protect Colorado's National Forests With Stronger Roadless Rule (Earthjustice)
Donate rice for free (Freerice.com)
NiSource, a gas pipeline company, is pressuring US Fish & Wildlife Service to issue a permit that would allow killing endangered species anywhere along a mile-wide, 15,000-mile-long pipeline corridor for the next 50 years. Say NO to this request (Earthjustice)
Tell your senators not to weaken Clean Water Act protections for America's most vulnerable waters (NRDC)
Say YES to moving three elephants—Iringa, Toka and Thika—from Toronto Zoo to PAWS Elephant Sanctuary (Care2)
Due 11/29: Tell Obama to grant wilderness protection to the Drakes Estero, a national ecological treasure in California (Care 2/NRDC)
Tell Airlines: Stop transporting non-human primates for invasive research (BUAV)
Tell BCBG to stand by the original commitment and go fur-free (IDA)
Despite a ban, India's biggest oil company, Indian Oil, is allowing bullocks to be used to transport their oil. Say NO to this continuing cruelty (PETA India)
Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Namibia: Elephant poaching on the increase (AllAfrica.com)
Activist nun who fought Indian mining companies brutally murdered (Toronto Globe and Mail)
10,000 dead songbirds seized from Romanian truck (Wildlife Extra News)
Vast turtle slaughter in Bangladesh (Wildlife Extra News)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Transformed: Three years from gravel pit to thriving nature reserve (Wildlife Extra News)
Fur Free Friday is November 25 (FurKills.org)

PAST SERIES

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals (October 2011)
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

NOTES

[1] http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/economy/2010/11/2/37489/Dominican-Republic-rice-glut-prompts-strict-crop-rules

[2] http://www.dominicantoday.com/dr/economy/2011/9/6/40824/Money-woes-threaten-Dominican-Republics-rice-harvest-grower-warns

image: rice field, Felipe de Puerto Plata, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic (Antonio A, Flickr Creative Commons)

Of Rice and Men | Growing Rice Down Under

2011-11-17T00:01:00.011-05:00

One of the world's highest yielding rice growing regions is in Australia

[Last month, the series 21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes considered the many benefits of moving from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. As October 31 marked the day the world's human population reached a staggering 7 billion, thinking about feeding all those people is a higher priority than ever before. One of the solutions to global food security is also one of the reasons that humans have demonstrated such intense fecundity: rice. As rice can sustain more people than any other grain per acre, the technological advances and territorial expansion of rice farming have been closely linked to human population growth. This month, the series Of Rice and Men takes a tour around the globe, looking at a different rice variety from a different region and—continuing last month's daily recipe idea—a vegan recipe for a rice-based dish. This grain of humble origins has the power to feed the world; considering the skyrocketing human population, we're going to need a lot more of it. Get your rice cooker ready.]

Though there are over 40,000 different rice varieties, those varieties can be separated into two groups: Japonica, which is grown in temperate zones, and Indica, which is grown in the hot tropics. The former is grown in Australia, where rice researchers have developed strains from varieties that have been grown in similar climates, such as California and the Mediterranean.

And though Australia may not be the first country that comes to mind when in comes to rice farming, the Australian Society of Agronomy notes that "the Riverina region of southeastern Australia is one of the highest yielding rice growing regions in the world."[1] Australia produces 1.1 million tonnes of rice each year, about a tenth of Japan's production level and most of it is grown in southern New South Wales.

In 2003, Australian rice researchers launched a new breed of rice that is designed to reduce water use by 10 percent. Such advancements have helped Australian rice succeed in foreign markets, such as the Middle East, Papua New Guinea and even Japan, which imports Australia's Opus variety, a semi-dwarf short-grain that is similar to Japan's celebrated Koshihikari.

Recipe: Sultana Rice Pilaf.

ACTION ALERTS

Donate rice for free (Freerice.com)
Tell your senators not to weaken Clean Water Act protections for America's most vulnerable waters (NRDC)
Say YES to moving three elephants—Iringa, Toka and Thika—from Toronto Zoo to PAWS Elephant Sanctuary (Care2)
Due 11/18: Tell USDA to Protect Colorado's National Forests With Stronger Roadless Rule (Earthjustice)
Due 11/29: Tell Obama to grant wilderness protection to the Drakes Estero, a national ecological treasure in California (Care 2/NRDC)
Tell Airlines: Stop transporting non-human primates for invasive research (BUAV)
Tell BCBG to stand by the original commitment and go fur-free (IDA)
Despite a ban, India's biggest oil company, Indian Oil, is allowing bullocks to be used to transport their oil. Say NO to this continuing cruelty (PETA India)
Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Four acres of habitat lost every minute in U.S. The U.S. Forest Service says that more than 34 million acres of open space were lost to development between 1982 and 2001, approximately 6,000 acres per day, 4 acres a minute. Of this loss, more than 10 million acres are in forest land. One USFS project estimates that 44 million acres of private forest lands could experience sizeable increases in housing density by 2030. That is wildlife habitat that may never be recovered (Wildlife Land Trust)
With less than 400 North Atlantic right whales left in the wild, these amazing sea creatures are in big trouble. Ship strikes and entanglements in fishing gear have pushed them to the very brink of extinction (Defenders of Wildlife)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

Last week, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission established new fishery management benchmarks for Atlantic menhaden, which is sometimes called “the most important fish in the sea” due to its significance in the diet of larger fish, like bluefish and striped bass. The measure is an effort to increase the population to four times its current size, reducing catch levels approximately 37% by 2013 (Pew Trusts)
Fur Free Friday is November 25 (FurKills.org)

PAST SERIES

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals (October 2011)
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

NOTES

[1] http://www.regional.org.au/au/asa/2003/c/5/farrell.htm

image: rice plant with grains (Damien Boilley, Wikimedia Commons)

Of Rice and Men | Japan's Koshihikari

2011-11-16T00:01:00.006-05:00

It's no secret that the Japanese know their rice. And this is the most expensive rice in Japan

[Last month, the series 21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes considered the many benefits of moving from a meat-based diet to a plant-based one. As October 31 marked the day the world's human population reached a staggering 7 billion, thinking about feeding all those people is a higher priority than ever before. One of the solutions to global food security is also one of the reasons that humans have demonstrated such intense fecundity: rice. As rice can sustain more people than any other grain per acre, the technological advances and territorial expansion of rice farming have been closely linked to human population growth. This month, the series Of Rice and Men takes a tour around the globe, looking at a different rice variety from a different region and—continuing last month's daily recipe idea—a vegan recipe for a rice-based dish. This grain of humble origins has the power to feed the world; considering the skyrocketing human population, we're going to need a lot more of it. Get your rice cooker ready.]

There is a scene in Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film classic Seven Samurai where a poor medieval villager played by Bokuzen Hidari picks up individual grains of rice that have fallen to the floor, each one being so much more valuable after his village endured several raids by bandits.

Two years after that film was made, scientists at the Fukui Prefectural Agricultural Research Facility in the Chubu region on Honshu, Japan's main island, combined two different strains of rice, Nourin No. 1 and Nourin No. 22, and created what would become one of the most popular varieties of rice in the nation: Koshihikari.

Its name means "light of Koshi," honoring the old Koshi Province, which included present-day Fukui. But though it was born in Fukui, it is the Uonuma area of Niigata Prefecture that is known for growing the finest version of Koshihikari; that region's rice is Japan’s most expensive.

And like many of the finest things, Koshihikari is fragile. It is not resistant to blast disease, and when mature, its stem collapses.

Perhaps future strains of Koshihikari could be imbued with more strength and fortitude—qualities that Kurosawa’s weak villagers sought when they hired the hungry warriors after whom his film was named.

Recipe: Vegetarian Hand Rolled Sushi (Temaki).

ACTION ALERTS

Donate rice for free (Freerice.com)
Say YES to moving three elephants—Iringa, Toka and Thika—from Toronto Zoo to PAWS Elephant Sanctuary (Care2)
Due 11/18: Tell USDA to Protect Colorado's National Forests With Stronger Roadless Rule (Earthjustice)
Due 11/29: Tell Obama to grant wilderness protection to the Drakes Estero, a national ecological treasure in California (Care 2/NRDC)
Tell Airlines: Stop transporting non-human primates for invasive research (BUAV)
Tell BCBG to stand by the original commitment and go fur-free (IDA)
Despite a ban, India's biggest oil company, Indian Oil, is allowing bullocks to be used to transport their oil. Say NO to this continuing cruelty (PETA India)
Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)
Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Certain pollutants are linked to birth defects (National Science Foundation)
Kim Kardashian's wedding ring created about 250 tons of mining waste (Earth 911)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

12 car-free city zones (National Geographic)
Fur Free Friday is November 25 (FurKills.org)

PAST SERIES

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes: Eating plants, loving animals (October 2011)
Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: Koshihikari rice (Emran Kassim)