Month: January 2022

Hunting

It’s your land, your money, right? So, why is hunting allowed?

Much of what we consider ‘our’ land is in fact either privately owned or controlled by other bodies.
Many of these landowners still license ‘trail hunting’, despite the recent revelations that trail hunting is ‘a sham and a fiction’ as demonstrated in the Hunting Office webinar exposé, subsequent court case and conviction.

Indeed, trail hunting is so toxic that the National Trust has permanently banned it, despite protestations from the hunting community.

Some of these organisations are partly funded by the public purse, such as The Forestry Commission, some of which has now been re-branded as ‘Forestry England’.
Currently Forestry England have suspended trail hunting licenses pending the outcome of any investigations or appeals, but state that they won’t ban a ‘legal activity’.

“We control trail hunting with permissions and licenses according to an agreement with the Masters of Fox Hounds Association (MFHA).”

What’s going on in here, then?

We wonder how they will continue to issue and monitor licenses in the future now the MFHA and its leadership have been completely discredited.

Surely, with added public pressure, it would be simpler to ban this illegal activity and find more sustainable and cruelty free ways to ‘‘increase the value of woodlands to society and the environment’ as their mission statement suggests.

Hmm…was a trail really laid through the dense undergrowth of this public land?

Other large landowners have adopted a similar temporary position.

United Utilities for example, one of the largest water companies serving over 7 million customers and with one of the largest pay-outs to shareholders in the industry, has a temporary suspension of licenses pending further information.
How happy are you if you are one of their customers?

They claim ‘We also monitor the hunts – our employees attend meets to ensure they are acting in accordance with the license. We will take action if the hunts operate outside the conditions of the license’ – Sabs have never seen any such monitoring!

They state that ‘trail-hunting is currently a legal activity and does not impact water quality, then we do not consider it our role to ban a legal activity.’

Other landowners need to follow the National Trust’s example.

In 2004 – the Hunting Act made it illegal for hunts to chase and kill foxes.
It’s time to challenge these big land owners, make the temporary bans permanent and put an end to the cruelty and lies.
So what can you do?

Contact Forestry England
Chief Executive Mike Seddon at enquiries@forestryengland.uk
0300 067 4000
Twitter – @ForestryEngland

Contact United Utilities
Facebook – United Utilities
0345 6723723
Twitter – @unitedutilities

https://www.huntsabs.org.uk/its-your-land-your-money-right-so-why-is-hunting-allowed/

And I mean…There are no concrete reasons for the annual murder of 600,000 foxes in Germany by hunters.
The fur of the fox has long ceased to be a coveted fur.

Many hunters now justify their actions differently.
In this way, hunting would balance the fox population. So they mean that the fox would reproduce infinitely without the hunt because there is no longer a natural enemy.
Contrary to what hunters often claim, unhunted fox populations by no means get out of hand.

Complex social structures, in which significantly fewer puppies are born with a high population density and low hunting pressure, limit the rate of reproduction.
The renowned biologist and fox researcher Dr. Erik Zimen boldly commented on this phenomenon with the words “birth restrictions instead of mass misery”.

Usually a vixen gives birth to three to five cubs.
However, in areas where foxes are heavily tracked, it can be twice as many.
In this way, losses can be quickly compensated for.

Foxes also play an important role as “health police”: They mainly catch mice – for the benefit of agriculture -, devour carrion and mostly prey on sick or injured animals, thus helping to keep animal populations healthy.

But the fox is not only the “health police” of the fields and meadows, it also contributes to the protection of the forest, as it eats forest voles.

Foxes are not just carnivores, foxes eat everything.
In this respect, foxes cannot exterminate any species.
But from the extinction threatened animal species in nature (lynx, wolf, badger …) for which only the hunters are responsible, nobody speaks.

In Germany the hunters consist of fairly high strata.
Lawyers, doctors, judges, city government officials are hunters.
No wonder if lawsuits against hunters always turn out to be in favor of the hunters.
In Germany there is a saying: “Whoever is rich or a hunter is always right”!

So our opponents in the fight against the hunt are rich, influential people who are under the protection of politics.
Finally, I would like to say something that many may not know:
48% of the German forest is privately owned.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privatwald

For a democratic and otherwise progressive country in terms of animal welfare, I find it an absolute shame.

My best regards to all, Venus

Live Transport

EU- You have to ban animal transports to third countries-an open letter

The animal welfare network KRÄFTE BÜNDELN (https://www.tierschutznetzwerk-kraefte-buendeln.de/), is an amalgamation of over 20 animal welfare and animal rights organizations that are involved in joint publicity projects and use actions for a sustainable approach to nature and for an end to animal exploitation.

For 18 months, the ANIT committee had NGOs and experts paint a gloomy picture of animal suffering on live animal transports (We had already reported about this: https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2021/12/04/anit-committee-vote-an-anti-animal-welfare-work/

The recommendations resulting from the final report are inadequate and unacceptable.

With the attached open letter (see below) we, the animal welfare network, which is a bundle of 20 animal welfare and animal rights organizations, have asked the members of the European Parliament not to be satisfied with the ANIT recommendations but to refuse their consent for the transport of live animals to high-risk countries.

The EU Parliament should now only vote on marginal changes to this exploitative system.
This is why this animal welfare network has written an open letter to the EU Parliament.

I have partially translated the letter, the full one is in the link: https://820805a0-5ad0-4cb2-bc9e-581be8b5ff3c.filesusr.com/ugd/d8e3c6_a1c9ede787cb489a93c6ab864481b751.pdf

The letter

Dear members of the ANIT committee,
Dear Members of the European Parliament,

We, the signatories from the animal welfare network, would like to express our position on the recommendations of the committee of inquiry in connection with the protection of animals during transport (ANIT) to the EU Parliament….

For us and many citizens it is incomprehensible and highly irritating that both the report of the committee of inquiry and the proposals for the recommendations of the EU Parliament are in principle in favor of continuing long-distance animal transports to third countries outside the EU.

For many years, numerous documentaries have attested the unimaginable suffering of the animals through horrific conditions on the routes and through brutal handling of the animals on the daily, often weekly and not infrequently 7,000 kilometers long transports by land and water.

Although recognized experts have reported on it to the ANIT committee in a factual and technically competent manner, the horror of these transports is only inadequately reflected in the report and the suggestions for the recommendations.
There is no clear recommendation to end animal transports in animal welfare high-risk states Report of the ANIT committee, however, in full.
An “embellishment”, i. H. just a slight gradual improvement in cruel animal transports is not a solution.

In this way, an agricultural system is maintained that is in a constant cheap and growth spiral and thus constantly too many animals are produced that are “disposed of” via these transport routes in third countries.

For us it is incomprehensible and technically simply wrong if the only theoretical notion of animal welfare-compliant care on these routes and in is maintained in the target countries and used as an argument.

In fact, these transports are neither feasible nor controllable according to European standards.
Last but not least are the ones that await the animals at the destination environmental, husbandry, handling and almost without exception slaughtering conditions (shafts) without stunning ethically unjustifiable and must lead to the termination of these transports

[…]It is always emphasized that the EU is a “community of values”. This also means protecting the weakest and not exploiting them for particular interests in order to achieve the highest possible profit.
Given what animals suffer on these transports and what they suffer in countries like Egypt, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mongolia, Russia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey , Tunisia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan expected, the term “community of values” is just an empty phrase.

In order to do justice to this concept, we have to grant the animal a dignity as a fellow creature and treat it with respect.

Animals may no longer be viewed and treated as any commodity, often even mistreated.
The German Ethics Council formulates in its opinion: “The described animal ethics criticism corresponds to the observation that, irrespective of the legal admissibility, the industrial breeding, keeping, slaughtering and exploitation of farm animals practiced today does not correspond to the predominant social sense of morality and justice.”

With regard to a further vote in the EU Parliament in January, we urge everyone to take responsibility for a different approach to animals.

The facts are all on the table, the ANIT committee received reports from competent and highly qualified experts for 18 months – there is no lack of knowledge and there is therefore no reasonable reason to continue transporting live animals to third countries.

The only logical and ethically justifiable conclusion is a general ban, both with regard to animals for slaughter and animals that have been rededicated as breeding animals.

It is easy to replace these with meat transports or the use of frozen semen.

Until then, we will continue to advocate a full moratorium at member state level.

With resolute greetings

xxxxxxxxx

And I mean…We fully support this letter! And will immediately report on reactions or developments, if any come.

There is no such thing as a “community of values” with regard to the EU.
Because the EU lacks a very essential element -that is respect for their citizens who have voted and fought with numerous petitions for the abolition of animal cages, animal transports and, last but not least, animal experiments.
Behind this is the arrogant attitude typical of the EU, which will soon cost us many animal lives again.

So far, EU citizens have been treated with ignorance and indifference by this “community of values”.
The actors who determine animal welfare in the EU are the worst agricultural lobbyists and therefore the decisions are directed against the interests of EU citizens and against animal welfare, in every respect.

The EU has a massive democratic deficit.
Something like trust is no longer so easy to establish.
The only solution for the EU is: it has to go

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals, General News

USA: Pigs To The Slaughter – What Man Will Do To Intelligent, Sentient Beings.

With thanks as always to Stacey at ‘Our Compass’ – Stacey | Our Compass (our-compass.org)

WAV Comment:  When you are in your 50’s and have been involved as an activist for a very large part of your life; you get to see and witness a lot of things.  But this has struck me as one of the most barbaric things that I have come across for a while – On April 15, 2020, four weeks after the first American city was locked down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a gruesome experiment was performed. The experimenters filled a trailer, specially fitted with heaters capable of bringing the temperatures inside to lethal levels, with pigs, and turned the heat on. The experimenters wanted to know how long it would take for the pigs to die. The answer, for some of them, was over an hour.

For the animals themselves, it resulted in what the industry deceptively calls ‘euthanasia,’ but that is, in fact, in many cases an excruciatingly slow and torturous death.

Pigs are known as the ‘horizontal man’; really because all their internal organs are located in the same place as the body of a vertical human.  Are pigs less intelligent ? – certainly not after some folk that I have met in my years – so what then is the difference in killing a trailer load of pigs to that of a trailer load of humans ?

But they are just pigs I hear some say; With IQ equal to a Fifth Grader, Are Pigs Smarter Than We Think? | Gaia

Pigs Are Intelligent, Emotional, and Cognitively Complex | Psychology Today

I will not go on – instead, I suggest you read the following and decide for yourself if these abuses of sentient beings; the horizontal man; has been, is now, and will ever acceptable by the so-called civilized society of the humankind. No, it is animal abuse, pure and simple. There are and can never be excuses such as Covid for the suffering of intelligent beings.

Mark

Comment by Stacey:

As long as people consume animals and their secretions, biologically intended for infants of the species making the breastmilk (like cows for calves, not like cows for aging humans with teeth, even human infants cannot drink cow’s milk; get weaned, people, it’s embarrassing and violently abusive), then you don’t care about animals, it’s beyond nauseating to listen to people stumble around their euphemisms desperately searching for ANY word that provides them forgiveness and only landing on, “It’s illegal to be cruel to animals/animals are killed painlessly/when it’s done humanely/…/…/…” An endless rambling litany of preposterous excuses that benefits only the species – humans – that kill non-human animals.

Killing an unwilling being is inherently, violently abusive and cruel, dancing cows in party hats going to school notwithstanding. Taking a life that is not yours to take, is inherently, violently abusive and cruel. Subjecting another being to control, confinement, violation, and deliberate butchering is inherently, violently abusive and cruel.

The thing is, I don’t get paid anything to advocate on behalf of animals. Me asking you to not cause animals harm brings me zero profit. Conversely, humans are so willfully ignorant and complicit, believing the anag charlatans who rely on anthropomorphized English-singing cows to sell you milk you don’t need but that causes the violent death of all the animals including the infants who actually DO need the milk AND their mothers but who are stolen and butchered at a young age because males are unprofitable……you’ll give THOSE PEOPLE money, the ones with the actual “agenda”.

You don’t kill those you care for about, and even if you don’t care about any animals, you still have no right or legitimate reason to kill them.

It’s like, you don’t consume animals violently, fearfully, painfully humanely-butchered because you honestly believe that NOT consuming animals is INhumane.

When did you lose your decency and empathy? SL

Continued on next page.

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Hunting

U.S: 8 wolves were poisoned in Oregon.

Gray wolves are smart, charismatic animals, with massive ranges in the wild and devoted relationships with members of their pack.
But beginning in February of 2021, Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division Troopers began finding the bodies of wolves poisoned – one after another — until their last discovery of a dead female in July.

A gray wolf in Oregon’s northern Wallowa County in February 2017. Officials in Oregon are asking for help locating the person or persons responsible for poisoning an entire wolf pack in the eastern part of the state earlier this year – Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP

A total of 8 of these majestic wild animals were killed, and the killer is still on the loose.

Poisoning wildlife is a serious crime, but like so many violent acts committed against animals, cases with non-human victims tend to receive much less attention.
We cannot allow that to happen in this case!

Ex-president Trump stripped gray wolves of their Endangered Species Act protections, meaning that they are already less protected than they were just a few years ago.
Every single loss of animal life is devastating, especially species whose populations are no longer federally managed or protected.

A number of amazing organizations have stepped up to offer a combined $40,000 reward for anyone who provides information which leads to the conviction of the perpetrator.

It is more important than ever that local police keep putting pressure on this case to find the perpetrator and hold them responsible.
This cannot just be another instance of animal abuse where the criminals are never found.
Non-human victims deserve justice, too!
Sign now to tell the Oregon State Police to dedicate all their efforts towards finding whoever committed such a terrible crime!
Sign now if you agree!

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/de/109/704/292/gray-wolves-in-oregon-were-brutally-poisoned-and-authorities-still-haven%E2%80%99t-found-the-perpetrator/

And I mean: Oregon has only about 170 wolves within its borders, and the murder of eight is a serious loss

Wolves once ranged most of the U.S. but were wiped out in most places by the 1930s under government-sponsored poisoning and trapping campaigns.

Today more than 2,000 wolves occupy six states in the Northern Rockies and Pacific Northwest after animals from Canada were reintroduced in Idaho and Yellowstone National Park starting in 1995.
However, wolves remain absent across most of their historical range.
Hundreds of wolves are now killed annually by hunters and trappers in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.

(We had reported about it: https://worldanimalsvoice.com/2021/05/03/usa-bill-aimed-at-killing-90-of-idahos-wolves-headed-to-governors-desk-major-action-required -now /)

Wolves were also in Germany hunted, exterminated, poisoned, everything you can imagine. They were pretty much trapped out of existence.
The (still) valid legislation prohibits the killing of wolves, the state only speaks of “wolf management”.
A euphemism for being killed by hunters or farmers.

Well… and a few are of the opinion that they don’t have to comply with nonsensical laws – see 64 illegally shot wolves that have been confirmed since 2001 – in 2018 alone eight wolves were found dead with gunshot wounds.

The number of unreported cases is higher, because even entire packs just disappear from the scene.

It is basically the hunters who want to get the wolf free to shoot.
The wild animals is all for the hunter only!
Just not for the wolf, who could eat one deer too much and the hunters would shoot one less.

And then there are the “animal-loving” farmers.
Quite a few farmers defend the shooting of wild animals just to protect their profitable “useful” capital, and preach the wolf danger on alert level 1, because this would only reduce profits, and that’s what the “animal-loving farmers” are about.

98% of the meat that is consumed in Germany comes from factory farming.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, an average of more than two million animals are slaughtered in this country every day.
Per day!
So … not even whole wild animal stocks around the world would be able to do that in a hundred years !!
Wolves do not keep harmful factory farming-they either eat what is there or starve to death.

The knitting pattern of the hunters and farmers is always the same: dissemination of incorrect or incomplete information, coupled with targeted scaremongering.
This is the only way they can justify the illegal executions of these useful and intelligent animals.

My best regards to all, Venus

Farm Animals

Factory farmed animals: Born to suffer until they die

Every year approximately 80 billion land animals are brutally slaughtered for human consumption.
Never in history has the demand for meat been so high, nor have the conditions in which meat is produced been so inhumane.

From battery cages to hormones to routine undercover footage of excessive violence by workers, factory farmed animals live humiliating, painful lives filled with unthinkable amounts of suffering.

Sign now to demand the USDA overhaul animal welfare policies in factory farming!

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/de/953/252/642/factory-farmed-animals-suffer-from-the-moment-they-are-born-until-the-moment-they-die/

A broiler chicken is now four times the size of what it was in the 1950s, and it takes companies only 6 weeks — well under half the time it used to – to grow these poor animals to their slaughter weight.

In addition to added weight leading many chickens to be virtually unable to move, many die excruciatingly painful deaths, with their throats cut while they are conscious.
Some chickens survive even this, only to be dragged through boiling water that defeathers them, still alive.

This conversation is not new.
The horrors of factory farms are well-known and well-documented, and most Americans believe that the conditions in which animals are slaughtered en masse are unethical.

In recent years, concern for factory farming conditions has increased, with research echoing what animal rights organizations have been saying for decades: that animals are sentient, capable of experiencing pain and suffering, and have a right to dignified livelihoods.

Somehow, despite growing awareness and a rise in diets that reduce or altogether eliminate the consumption of animal products, the USDA has still yet to comprehensively reform our factory farming regulation.

Sign now if you agree that fixing the horrors of factory farms is long overdue!
We demand comprehensive animal welfare reform in factory farming now!

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/de/953/252/642/factory-farmed-animals-suffer-from-the-moment-they-are-born-until-the-moment-they-die/

And I mean…Animal population Germany:
26 million pigs
11 million cattle
173 million poultry

In the first 6 months of 2020, 233,000 tons of pork were exported to China, half of the years before.

Factory farming has a huge impact on the environment.
A pig eats and metabolizes 4 times that of a human. Most of these feedstuffs are imported.
Animal rearing is the main reason the rainforest is cleared!
In Europe, too, feed production contributes to the reduction of biodiversity.
Whether methane gas, ammonia or feces, the environmental pollution is enormous, groundwater and surface water are contaminated.

The prevailing opinion is that German products are animal welfare … that is not true!

There are a number of countries with much stricter animal protection (by the way, Germany also works with miserable protection when compared to animal experiments).
It’s nasty typical chauvinist behavior and nasty complacency to always be the best and claim “we have the best animal welfare law.”
IT IS NOT TRUE !

There are of course plenty of misconduct and scandals.
At least for the companies where these were discovered.
But that doesn’t change anything about the overall situation… if we look at organic farm and organic slaughterhouse scandals, Germany comes off very badly

Let’s take batteries and cages.
Both have been banned in Switzerland since 1992!
Germany is not one step ahead.

Battery has been banned since 2013 and has been replaced by cage. With a battery, the chicken has 550 square centimeters ... read that correctly … SQUARE CENTIMETERS!

In the supposedly animal-friendly cage system, there are 780 square centimeters ….. that is an incredible 28×28 cm ….. and that is standard for laying hens in Germany too!

When it comes to fattening, there is no maximum number of animals and 90% of broiler chickens in Germany live in stalls with more than 100,000 animals.

Anyone who babbles about achieved animal welfare in Germany when 90% of the animals are at the worst level should live like this for a month themselves.

My best regards to all, Venus

Environmental, General News, Hunting

Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting (W.R.A.T.H.) – January Protests; Washington D.C., New York, Las Vegas and London. The Protests Coincide with the Safari Club Int’l Annual Conference in Las Vegas (Jan. 19th – 22nd).

Comment: Hi Mark! Hi Venus!

Happy New Year!

I am wondering if your readers know of the anti-trophy hunting protests in Washington D.C., New York, Las Vegas and London. The protests coincide with the Safari Club Int’l annual conference in Las Vegas (Jan. 19th – 22nd).

The Organizer is Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting (W.R.A.T.H.) on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/endtrophyhunting

Details on the London Rally– scheduled Jan. 19th– Noon to 3:00, before Statue of George V, Westminster. Or click this link: https://fb.me/e/3J0sg1VM4

Tamara Bedic, Esq.

Animal Rights Committee, Chair

National Lawyers Guild, NYC

Home

https://www.facebook.com/NLGNYC.Animal.Rights/

Regards Mark

General News

Murder victims unvarnished at #KFC

British woman finds fried chicken head in her meal

The head of a chicken is usually not part of the offer at KFC.

An English woman still finds one in her meal and is shocked. The fast food company apologizes – and justifies itself.

She certainly hadn’t ordered that: when an English woman reached into her fast food order from KFC at the beginning of December, she pulled out a fried chicken head in horror.
Dinner is a mess.
This literally applies to most KFC orders, but when it comes to this find, the customer actually lost her appetite.

Shortly before Christmas the Twitter handle @TakeawayTrauma shared a screenshot of the woman’s review, along with the repelling picture of the chicken head.

The woman had written in her review, “I found a fried chicken head in my hot wing meal, put me off the rest, ugh.”
The photo of her meal clearly shows the head, beak and eyes of the chicken.

The explorer Gabrielle left her rating on a delivery service.
What stands out: Despite her horror at the chicken head, which “spoiled her lust for the rest of the meal”, Gabrielle even gave the order two out of five stars.
This surprises the Twitter community and quickly reaches those responsible.

“We serve real chicken”

The British KFC representative then expressed a detailed apology under the tweet entitled “Probably the kindest two-star rating of all time”.

“We are really surprised and shocked by this photo and have this incident investigated immediately.”However, the company does not want to be ashamed:
“To be clear: We serve real chicken – and we are proud of it.” (!!)
Something like this can and will occur in rare cases despite strict controls.

For Gabrielle, the story seems to have a happy ending after all: The company contacted her and offered her one free KFC food – she agreed. While she is certainly hoping for a headless order, according to her own statement, KFC never wants to cause a “takeaway trauma” again and will soon receive top ratings from her loyal customer again.

Bon appetit then!

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/britin-findet-frittierten-huehnerkopf-im-essen-17701671.html

And I mean… Yes the chicken you eat has a head…. was even alive at some point.

And here the corpse showed his face!

“To be clear: We serve real chicken” –
And what exactly would be a fake?

KFC – we ask for clarification.

My best regards to all, Venus

Environmental, General News

Brasil: It Is Either the Amazon or Bolsonaro. There Is No Space For Both.”

General elections are scheduled to be held in Brazil on 2 October 2022 to elect the President, Vice President, and the National Congress. Elections for state Governors and Vice Governors, State Legislative Assemblies, the Federal District Legislative Chamber and the District Council of Fernando de Noronha will be held at the same time.

Brazil: Will Bolsonaro Win the 2022 Elections? | IE Insights

This article is more than 5 months old

Brazilian academics and activists issue warning amid fresh assault on environmental protections

Amazon rainforest ‘will collapse if Bolsonaro remains president’ | Amazon rainforest | The Guardian

The collapse of the Amazon rainforest is inevitable if Jair Bolsonaro remains president of Brazil, academics and environmental activists have warned amid a fresh government assault on protections for the forest.

Despite evidence that fire, drought and land clearance are pushing the Amazon towards a point of no return, they say the far-right leader is more interested in placating the powerful agribusiness lobby and tapping global markets that reward destructive behaviour.

The onslaught on forest safeguards has picked up pace. On Wednesday the lower house was due to vote on legislation that would reward land grabbers by legalising ownership of property that had been illegally invaded and cleared before 2014.

The previous day, the government shifted responsibility for forest fire satellite monitoring away from the National Institute for Space Research, a scientifically-robust organisation that had carried out the task for decades. Control has been given to the National Institute of Meteorology, which is under the influence of the agriculture ministry and the farming sector.

In the past few months, Congress has also diluted standards for environmental impact assessments and a committee has approved a bill – PL 490 – that has been described as the greatest assault on indigenous rights since the launch of the Brazilian constitution in 1988.

Continue on next page.

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Environmental, General News

Sands of time are slipping away for England’s crumbling coasts amid climate crisis.
Houses left perilously close to the cliff collapse in Mundesley
Houses left perilously close to the cliff collapse in Mundesley. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Sands of time are slipping away for England’s crumbling coasts amid climate crisis | Climate crisis | The Guardian

From a distance, the beach at Winterton-on-sea in Norfolk looks like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, with hundreds of grey bodies lying motionless across the sand. On closer inspection, it becomes clear they are not fallen soldiers but a huge colony of seals taken to the land for pupping season.

It’s an amazing annual sight that draws tourists and nature-lovers from across the country, but another process is taking place that is pushing people back – the growing threat of coastal erosion. Just along from where the armies of grey seals lay with their white pups, there used to stand the Dunes Cafe, a much-loved beach facility with a large and loyal clientele.

A year ago it was demolished to prevent its imminent collapse as a result of land lost to sea and storms. The ground where it stood is, like the cafe itself, no longer there. It’s a story of disappearance taking place all along the eastern coast of England, but particularly in East Anglia, that bulbous protrusion jutting into the North Sea.

That climate change and rising sea levels take their toll on the landscape is an old story, but one with an urgent new twist. “The sea level’s been rising since the last ice age, 20,000 years ago or so,” says Jim Hall, professor of climate and environmental risk at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. “And it’s going faster. We’re probably not seeing its effect very much yet on the coast, though we will in the future.”

Chalets teeter on the edge following tidal surges in Hemsby, Norfolk, in 2013
Chalets teeter on the edge after tidal surges in Hemsby in 2013. Photograph: Nature Photographers Ltd/Alamy

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Environmental, General News

England: We Brought The Pandemic On Ourselves – Jane Goodall Is Interviewed by Plant Based News.

In an exclusive new interview, Dame Jane Goodall sat down with Plant Based News’ own Robbie Lockie to discuss her new book. The renowned ethologist – referring to the study of animals in their natural habitat – delved into the food system, animal suffering, and hope.

Goodall penned the new release, called The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, alongside Douglas Abrams, the internationally bestselling co-author of The Book of Joy. In The Book of Hope, the pair take an intimate look at humankind’s complex relationship with planet Earth. This includes the ways in which humans have wronged the planet, but also, and importantly, the ways in which we can start making amends.

Regards Mark